Starting From Less than Scratch

My time in the mountains is serving me well. Next year my main project is one large animation. By large I mean solo project large, so about 5 minutes or less. In the itinerary for this summer is the initiation of that project. I will have free reign, I can do whatever I want. All the animation paper is completely blank, all of the free space on my hard drive is still set to zeros.

So the questions is where to begin.

Any creative project will be formed by everything that comes before that project. I heard an interesting story about Mark Twain. Apparently, he got stuck while writing Tom Sawyer. He felt he was empty. Left the manuscript for a time, and when he returned later, he felt his tank was refilled, and it was easy to proceed.

This summer I feel like it started with a formatting (the computer variant). Everything was done, my ideas were cleaned out, I knew what was important to me, but beyond that I had very little to inspire me.

As the summer has progressed I can tell that my tanks, and reserves of creativity are being refilled. The scenery of the mountains is seeping into my eyes and filling me up.

In my basement apartment in Field, I found a textbook called Freedom of the Hills. It is a book which describes in great detail nearly all aspects of mountaineering. From what to where, how to find you way, how to climb and what to do in case of emergencies. I am slowly plodding my way through the entire thing. Learning about the mountains from this perspective of mountaineering makes them much more complex. A rock face is no longer just a cliff, it becomes something to climb, rappel or something to avoid.

While I do have a little interest in actually doing some mountaineering, I am more intrigued by the prospect of animating it. If your actually going to go out to a mountain, you might as well film the actual thing. But the risks are generally greater than I am willing to take at this point. Seeing if I can imagine the experience, from enough research and thought, feels like an interesting challenge.

I also find that mountaineering is a wonderful topic for animation. It isn't just walks and runs. It is walking up piles of boulders; carrying heavy packs; jumping over chasms; falling down slopes. It has avalanches, search and rescue. It has climbing. Ropes. Rockfalls. It has wind, rain, ice, snow, sun. It has teamwork, leadership. Decision making. Risk. Reward. Failure. Death. Success.

One aspect of Mountaineering that is a little out of line with how I think is the reason. I read the book Into Thin Air, about a failed guided expedition up Mount Everest. I don't find their motivation for wanting to climb Everest compelling. "Because it is there" is an interesting reason, but it doesn't quite convince me.

So I have a setting and a general idea of the topic area. I still need a story, that will come.

What I have also begun is searching for the right medium.

So I started from scratch. I found a rock outside and decided to start there. How could I represent that. I went on the computer and tried to model and texture it. And I realized that at the base level of computer graphics, the one that is popular, that is taught everywhere, just wasn't working for me. I still haven't been able to make a rock in 3d that I am satisfied with.

In another post I will describe my thoughts on the topic.


Kyler

A Title

I like the title of my blog.
It's right, and it always needs to stay.
The added words show the flexibility of language.
Each word is in the thesaurus entry of the next.


Kyler

Warm Welcome

I'd like to welcome Jackie. A longtime member to the club, but she has recently become much more closely affiliated.

Kyler

My Brother's Convocation

This weekend I was able to attend my brother's convocation, he received his Masters of Architecture. And in keeping with the traditions which likely lead to the title of this blog, he won, not one, but the two medals which recognize his achievements.

Congratulations Kris.

Here are some of the prime photos. The rest of the album and can viewed

Kristofer`s Masters of Architecture


Good Luck Big Brother
Though usually you make your own.

Love Kyler

Yoho

Happy Mountain

Pompous Raven

Angry Mountain

Kyler

Stuff

I stole this way of looking at things from a comedian:

Everybody has a big pile of stuff that they like to keep somewhere. It is in their house, in their basement, their office, their closet, their pockets. Lots of people have lots of stuff.

When you travel you take a portion of that stuff with you. You pack your bags and fly your stuff to your hotel room. Suppose you go on a little side trip from your hotel. You pack a night bag of stuff. Now suppose you were to take a little excursion from your side trip.

Now you have stuff
      at home
         at your hotel
           in you night bag
             and finally in your pockets.

Your stuff is spread out over such a vast distance, but you know, usually it will get itself back together. You will collect all your things, following the trail of stuff back to your house.

Right now I am feeling this vast trail of stuff like never before.

I have stuff at my home in Calgary. There is other stuff in my apartment in Montreal. I have another set of stuff with me here in Field BC, a tiny little town in the middle of the mountains. Sometimes I go out for the day and take a bag of my stuff with me, and than leave some of it in a vehicle, and just bring along another subset of my stuff.

My stuff is spread accross the country, and it is going to stay like that for a little over three more months. Doesn't it feel like a feat of magic that somehow all that stuff is going to figure it way back to where I want it to be?


An now to relate to you how I am doing.

I am doing very well. The type of well you only really feel when you don't just win one lottery, but two in a row.

It also makes me feel cautious, because things always seem to come with a catch. Somewhere I missed something in the contract and it is going to get me when I least suspect it.


Good. I finally wrote a blog post.

Kyler

The Car Matador - with Sound

Finally school was finished, and I had free time to finish up the loose ends of this years work. The final loose end, was putting sound to the Car Matador animation. I posted creations photos before, but have been holding off on the animation because it needed to have sound.

It's amazing how fast I can work when I have a deadline, and amazing how slowly I work when I don't.

But finally, the day before I head off to my new job, I present the Car Matador.



I suggest watching in HD 720p.

Enjoy

Kyler