A bit of fun with Plotagon

Plotagon is an animation app that’s a bit like the SIMS, but you can get quite creative with the storytelling and editing. So here’s a scene using a new skill I just learned:

Jonathon Szabo interviews Peter McAlister, CEO of Innerscape

Enjoy. 🙂

Meeks

Filling in the gaps

This is the third video adapted from Miira, i.e. book 1 of Innerscape.

Chronologically, this video should have come before the Battle of Osaka Castle, but my subconscious has a mind of its own. 🙂

How many more videos I do for book 1 will depend on how well the pre-made backgrounds [in Plotagon] lend themselves to scenes in the book. I’m learning more and more with each video, but Plotagon does have limitations, and scenes that require ‘action’ are almost impossible to do. Still having fun though.

cheers
Meeks

A different kind of storytelling

I’ve always loved animation but never thought I’d be good enough to tell an animated story. Seems I was wrong. 🙂

Oh, and as an aside, I discovered that embedding Vimeo videos is a whole lot easier with Guttenberg than Classic. I’m starting to think that Classic is for words and Guttenberg is for graphics. Hmm…

Meeks

p.s. I’ve turned comments off.

More Plotagon and welcome back Classic!

I can’t tell you how good it feels to see the Classic toolbar, all in one, neat place at the top of the post. It’s like the blinkers have come off!

To celebrate, I’ve made a new Plotagon video starring the lovely Kenneth Wu. I tried for a little humour this time, not sure it worked. Anyway, could you please tell me whether the speech is clear enough or whether I should put in sub-titles?

https://vimeo.com/391850889

In the high resolution version, the speech is fine, but that version comes in at around 35 MB :(. This one is quite a bit less so fingers crossed.

cheers

Meeks

 

 

Uploaded to Vimeo!

‘Take that, Google!’

I did start the account creation process with Google [so I could upload my videos to Youtube], but when I was asked to verify both my email address and my phone, I started to get goosebumps, and not in a good way. This is a small part of Google’s privacy [sic] statement:

It was about this point that my survival instincts kicked in again and I aborted the process, or at least I tried to. I very much fear that my phone number is forever in Google’s possession. Given that it’s an Android phone I’m very glad I have GPS turned off. 😦

Anyway, with Youtube no longer an option, I went looking for alternatives and discovered that WordPress.com allows Vimeo videos! Yay and double yay. 🙂

So here is my rather ambitious Plotagon video entitled ‘Prepare for Induction’:

Go on, you can laugh. I won’t mind. 😀

cheers

Meeks

Playing with Plotagon

Plotagon is a program that allows you to create cartoony animations by using stock ’emotes’. In gaming, these would probably be called ‘run cycles’, except for facial expressions.

Basically, what you do is you add a sequence of these run cycles to a ‘scene’. When you play the scene, the run cycles merge together to create a short animation.

WordPress will only allow me to upload a Plotagon video [mp4 format] if I subscribe, so, here’s a gif that I can upload for free. 🙂

I had to split Innerscape to ‘inner’ and ‘scape’ so the computerised ‘voice’ could say it without mangling the unfamiliar word. And yes, in the video, Miira is talking out loud!

Plotagon provides voices to speak the dialogue, or you can use your own voice. As I don’t have a mic., I’m making do, at least for now. The app. also provides a ton of sound effects and free music, so you can imagine how much fun I had choosing those. 😀

If you want to have a play yourself, go to:

https://www.plotagon.com/

You can download a free, trial version for 7 days. That’s what I was playing with last night. It’s a good way of testing out whether the app. is for you or not, but there’s a whopping big watermark right across the screen that is rather annoying. That’s one of the reasons why I decided to subscribe for a month [cost US $13].

I’m calling this a marketing investment as everything I produce can be saved to either mp4 or gif format, or both. That means whatever I create remains ‘mine’ if I decide to unsubscribe at the end of the month.

If I manage to produce something genuinely worthwhile, I may sign up with Youtube again so I can upload the videos I produce. For some odd reason, WP allows me to place Youtube videos in my posts but not home made ones.

Unfortunately, Youtube is now owned by Google so I can’t create an account without signing up for Google as well.

I’m very ambivalent about Google for security and privacy reasons, but as the blind man said, ‘we shall see’. 🙂

cheers

Meeks

‘The Spark’ video trailer

I’m sitting at my desk, enjoying a morning of perfect autumn weather – clear, sunny but crisp, and with no [great] danger of bushfire. It’s probably a little early to declare that fire season is over for another year, but I really think it may be. 🙂

To celebrate, I’m going to share a video trailer about fire of a different sort – building fire. The video trailer goes with the novel, The Spark, by John Kenny. I wrote a review about The Spark here [I loved it], so it should come as no surprise that I was very impressed with the book trailer as well.

Produced by Kat Brooks, the book trailer uses a software application called Animoto to create a short video clip comprising still images, text, animation, and of course, music.

I think the book trailer works very well and showcases what can be done with a good ‘eye’, some software and a bit of imagination. And now, without further ado, I give you :

Happy Monday

or don’t worry, only five more days to go. 😉

Meeks

Vincent – reblogged from Buried Words and Bushwa

If you watch one video clip this Halloween, make it this one! Vincent – a short animation by Tim Burton and narrated by Vincent Price [who else?].

http://picsandstuff.wordpress.com/2013/10/31/happy-halloween/

My thanks to Metan of Buried Words and Bushwa for unearthing this gem and posting it on her blog!

Super-Secret Friday Night 5-Minute Dance Party [Partir]

I pinched this amazing video clip from Bluebird Blvd [well, I did ask first].

Bluey has this amazing talent for finding unusual, beautiful things. She’s also a master wordsmith when it comes to both poetry and prose, AND she’s a talented photographer. If you haven’t been to her blog before then please watch this video and then go over to her place for more goodies.

p.s. I forgot to mention that Bluey has been Freshly Pressed! Grats Bluebird. 🙂