Wait, There's Two Now? What Did You Do THIS Time?
So while I was adding to what is now the first part of this blog post, I ended up running into memory limitations due to how many images I've put in there (similar to what happened with the original version of the Music Video and Album Cover Unit):
I've checked the "ERT" (Estimated Reading Time) to confirm that yes, it is the images and not how long the post is, because certain posts on this blog have longer ERTs than the first part, which clocks in at 50 minutes, while some previous posts that don't contain any images clock in at around the late 70s in terms of pure reading minutes.
So now that all that's been explained, where were we?
You Were Discussing How You Got The HL2 (Half Life 2)/GMod (Garry's Mod) Sounds
Ah yes, thanks for reminding me section header. So as I was saying...:
The reason I'm doing this is so that I can then cut two of the noises and eventually save them all as separate sound files (because Half Life 2 contains multiple instances of each weapon's sound)
You know, it's moments like this I'll be able to look back on this unit and go "well that wasn't so bad," because now I know I have the Stereo Mix option in Audacity (which I though I had to download originally because I didn't bother to look) which unexpectedly ended up being the real hero (yeah, in a shocking turn of events, not only did Dreams not turn out to be the hero of the day like I thought, it literally couldn't have been as the method I would have used ended up requiring a converter that decided not to function)
Asset 6: Construction noises
How'd I Get This?
So for this asset, I've had to scour the net for a little bit in order to find something decent (because I had quite the choice on my hands):
The reason I'm recording these large samples is so that I have a good range to choose from when I create the full sound sequence which will then dictate the order of the images (which I'm only going to use 23 of and even then, I've already numbered the 23 images) when I edit them together in Share-Factory. (because the power of gaming flows through my veins)
Assets 7 and 8: The External Wind and Church Music
How'd I get this?
Hold on a minute while I stream some video gaming:
So in this stream, I decided to try and get every sound asset at once, that way I wouldn't have to come back later on.
The first thing I decided to do was actually remix the Generive theme so that it sounded like it was coming from a church organ. (and thus gain vaguely religious undertones) Last night I realised I could potentially kill 2 birds with one stone by making the church bell noise which I sourced from a fellow Dreamer known as Ramkibainuzuka, (I've actually used things like their anvil before) a part of the music by giving it the role of the bass line and after a little bit of volume balancing, I'd say it does a pretty good job (albeit at the cost of realism, but when has lacking realism ever stopped me before)
As for the wind noises, all I really did was combine multiple wind noises by Media Molecule into one timeline and then did some volume mixing to get the whole thing to sound right. (nothing special there folks)
While I was combining the multiple wind sounds however, I ended up realising "hey wait a minute, instead of getting the birds sounds separately, why don't I just integrate them into the Generive music Easter egg as part of the drumline I'd removed earlier, thus killing three birds (pun not intended I swear) with one stone"
After I'd done all that it was time for me to record the audio as video clips (that way I could transfer them from my PlayStation 4 to the computer), and then it'll be time to record them into audacity as audio (which is what they're intended to be in the first place):
And that's how I captured multiple assets in the same stream, now I can move on to getting that tick tock sound and then from there, we'll finally be getting into the sounds I'll make myself
Asset 9: The Tick Tock Clock Sounds
How'd I get this?
for this sound, I once again decided to be vague about the type of tick tock noises I'd fetch so that I could have a big pool to choose from:
After I found the sound in question, I recorded the whole thing in audacity and then exported it as an MP3 file like I've done with every other sound effect, and music clip and piece of dialogue in this unit thus far for the past day.
Now that I've got all the sound effects I didn't make out of the way, it's time to flex those vocal mussels and stomp some stones dude.
Assets 9, 10, 11 and 12: The Dialogue for Scooby Doo, Shaggy Norvell Rodgers and Sonic The Hedgehog as well as the foley footsteps
Why are you lumping all of these into one?
The reason I'm lumping all of these sounds into one category is because I more or less took the same process for all of them (plus it saves on that oh so important memory I had such a problem with earlier)
Ok So How'd you get these?
Well I'm glad you asked, for you see, unlike the rest of the assets, I actually had to sit down and record them all myself:
The first thing I'd decided to record was the voices for Sonic, Scooby and Shaggy (no, I didn't write a script before hand) because I thought it would be a good opportunity to flex those vocal chords. Needless to say, it did end up taking a few takes to get Sonic and Shaggy's performances down, mainly because I couldn't quite nail their vocal performances on the first try (and for Sonic, I was going for a "Roger Craig Smith" vibe because he's the current voice of the Sonic The Hedgehog)
Afterwards I decided to go record the footsteps in a different room (I know I said I'd do it outside but I decided against it because it was too dark), there I simply stomped the shoes to the rhythm that a person would typically walk.
After I'd recorded all the sounds (and given them all their own distinct names so I didn't forget which ones were which), I then recorded them all into audacity one by one:
Although before we continue, I just want to say I'll be scrapping the random bits of dialogue (as in the ones that AREN'T from Scooby, Shaggy, Sonic or Z) because 1. I don't think making things up for the dialogue as I go a long is going to get me very far, and 2. This project is supposed to be all about this Lockdown, which as you can imagine would be ruined by all the random chatter because it implies the rules are being broken
Reflective Assessment
Well this part ended up being a lot more difficult than I'd anticipated, especially during that initial stretch when the usual video to MP3 method just stopped working for some reason (knowing the nature of how I've been using it and by big mouth tipping the existence of said converter, I get a feeling it's already being taken down), so I decided to try some alternative methods. At first some of those methods seemed promising, but the grand majority of them led right back to the converter and the only one that didn't require the use of said converter (that method being the "Male to Male cable" method I've been using to import audio into Dreams PS4 since Christmas) didn't end up working out.
I'll admit, I was thinking about giving up at that point, but then I decided to try using just Audacity by itself to record the audio via stereo mixing (which I actually discovered I had a day or two ago) and it ended up being the unexpected MVP of the moment (which is odd because usually the MVP spot would be filled by Dreams PS4), and I even have a new way of getting music out of it.
Image Rotation
As you may know from reading the first part, I ended up jumping the gun a little bit when it comes to actually taking pictures, but some of the ones I plan on using ended up sideways (it's probably a phone thing):
So now it's my job to go into Pixlr and fix the images so that they're all horizontal (like they're supposed to be)
Yup, it's that easy. The only bit that's of real inconvenience is that I have to downsize the image first (but even then, it's just an extra click)
You see, when it comes to taking photos (and even making live action movies and TV shows), one obstacle you'll inevitably have to deal with (especially if you're an urban photographer) is that you'll have to censor the license plates of any cars you happen to photograph (which you can do by either blurring it, pixelating it or even putting the classic black bar over it)
Although the image in the screen cap above was already facing the right way, I came here in order to censor any license plates that may have stuck out.
This part was quite easy, as all I had to do (for the most part) was rotate some images 90 degrees and I was good to go (I had to rotate a couple of images 180 degrees as well as censor any clearly visible license plates), I don't really feel like there was much I could have done different in this stage, so now Pixlr can take a rest as Audacity gets tagged back in so that I can do the sound-scape
The Audacity of this sound-scape
Alright, now comes the part where I go ahead and fire up Audacity again in order to edit together the finalised soundscape:
and I'm snipping all the image specific sounds so that they last 10 seconds (the reason I recorded more that 10 seconds was so I could have a good choice of samples later on)
It's quite lucky that Audacity lets you zoom in with surgical precision, as without that function I'd probably accidently cut out a part of the wind sound
although the more sounds that get imported, the harder it becomes to hear individual tracks (especially if you don't plan on doing any kind of audio balancing until after everything's already been placed in), luckily for us, Audacity actually has a useful tool for when such occasions occur, that being the "Solo" button placed to the left of each individual track (at least by default), the reason this button is useful is because it allows you to mute every other track except the one you want to take a closer listen to (which is especially helpful if you're working with quieter audio)
To get this little exchange to work, I first had do import all the dialogue one after the other (that way they would appear relatively close to each other), and then afterwards, I quickly realised I'd have to cut a chunk of Sonic's audio in order for Scooby and Shaggy to be able to interject within the proper window of time so now Sonic just tells Z to "Stop talking" (which is supposed to be ironic given Sonic's usual attitude and tendency to make quippy one liners sometimes)
Afterwards, I just had to do a little bit of jigging around in order to get Scooby, Shaggy and Sonic's audio to line up at that sweet spot. (that way they'd all get their brief cameo)
With that being said however, the fact I ended up using Sonic technically means I've failed half of the actual challenge set by the Tutors because the challenge actually stipulates that I don't use Super Sheep and SONIC (although the only time I technically used anything related to Sonic before now was the during the "Escape From The City" video, and even then SUPER SHEEP was the main character there)
So let me explain, so 60 seconds equals a minute (so far so good), but I then ended up going wrong when I decided to place the "Thinking of you" sample into the 1 minute and 20 second mark, when in actuality 12 times 10 is 120 seconds (which is actually 2 minutes), I didn't realise this error until After I tried to fit the gun noises in there.
so yeah, turns out I'd under shot the length by quite a bit:
luckily for us, the audio now plays out in its entirety, but I still need to make various adjustments before it can be considered finished:
and now the sound can be considered finished... except I'm not actually done yet, as there's still the matter of actually balancing the volume of each sound (we don't want a Sonic Adventure 2 on our hands):
basically, I'm starting with turning the volume of the various sounds up and down (because I want the audience to actually be able to hear the exchange between Sonic, Scooby, Shaggy and Z)
At this point, I'm just experimenting with adding different audio effects (I.E: Echoes, EQ filters and the like)
And I'm officially finished with Audacity (for now), now I can export the whole thing as an audio file and import it and the images into the share-factory in order to edit together this entire gallery.
Audacious Reflection
This part was actually quite fun, because I actually got to do a little bit of experimentation with the various files I'd stuck in there (I got to do things like add in minor echoes and even alter the sounds to make them sound like they were coming from different places), even if at first I did miscalculate the required length at first (good thing I caught that before it was too late), I was able to rectify it immediately after I found out by simply moving the final audio file so that it ended at the 3:50 second mark.
Another good part is that because I thought to save the project files first, I can always come back to this step if I end up miscalculating the actual length while inserting the images (and I can also alter the sounds themselves, so that's always a plus)
If I were to do something like this again, I'd probably want to calculate what the actual length would need to be and then afterwards, I'd fact check it to make sure my numbers aren't off.
But without further ado, it's time to move on to the editing phase.
Editing Phase
So here we are, the editing phase. I didn't think we'd end up getting here so fast, especially considering the technical issues I was having getting the audio imported in the first place until I discovered I had the "Stereo Mix" feature in Audacity I've known about Stereo Mixing as a concept ever since I saw a Garry's Mod tutorial by Kitty0706 (may he rest in peace)
Now I'm going to need a second as I edit the whole thing together via Share Factory:
Ok, so as it turns out, I was high balling with the "1920 by 1080 max resolution for images" on Share-Factory (meaning I'm going to have to go back to the images and make it so they're lower resolution)
Back to Pixlr
Now that that's been taken care of its time to go...
Back To The Share Factory
Hopefully all that down scaling was worth it
Well I've got some good news and some bad news. The bad news is the Church image still wasn't of a supported resolution. The good news is that I didn't end up needing it in the first place, as the whole thing only required 23 images and I happened to pack a spare one I could use as a replacement (albeit accidently)
Much like with my "Super Nintendo World" experiment, I ended up needing background footage because the imported images were technically just overlays I could throw over the top, except this time, the role of background gameplay went to some footage I accidently captured from Sackboy: A Big Adventure (which explains why you'll randomly see frames from that game in-between images and the end)
Creating this video was simple enough to do (just paste the images on top of some game play where Sackboy's climbing up some rockets while avoiding death by moving walls), although I did run into a bit of a snag where the audio I put in seemed slightly delayed at points, but rectifying it was often as simple as following the wave lengths of the sound and choosing the image durations based on that (luckily it all seemed to work out in the end)
The reason I chose to make a video instead of a power point for this project is because I find doing a video with sound embedded in it to be much easier than creating an entire power point presentation with interactive sound (even if making said power point would have allowed me to use the high resolution images rather than having to down scale everything), and it would allow me to use Audacity to get all the sounds in at once rather than in bite sized chunks.
But now's not a time for dilly dallying, there's still a whole gallery page left to add.
Adding a Gadding Gallery
in this section, I'll be going over how I made the entire gallery (which wasn't too difficult to do), unfortunately I wasn't able to add the gallery AND update this post at the same time, so I had to just take screen shots as I went along.
The reason I added a new page instead of simply expanding on an existing page is because it would allow me have a blank canvas to place everything in (I could always create new links on the home page and in this blog post)
while I was sifting through possible replacements, I ended up going "hey, wait a minute. Why don't I just pick one of the images that DIDN'T make it into the final product. The main reason I only went with 23 images was actually because of the original idea I wanted to do, which would have involved me drawing my newest creation, a cartoon man named Detective Griswold, into the various photos (sort of like the all time classic Who Framed Roger Rabbit), but then I decided to scrap that idea because I didn't think I'd have the time to pull it off (which is funny considering how fast I ended up working)
after I did that it was on to putting the video into the new gallery page
once the video was nice and cosy in it's new home, it was time for me to start adding text, but before we continue, I should mention where I ended up getting inspiration for the approach I ended up taking:
now that everything's been established, on with the show
Until I realised "Alright me, if I don't do something about the colour of the text, nobody's going to be able to read this," so I thought about brightening the text a little bit, but alas, I had no luck on that particular front, so I had to resort to using the highlight tool instead, that way you could read the text while still being able to see most of the background image:
Although I should mention that I did have to debate myself as to whether or not it would be such a good idea to insert Detective Griswold in this way because what if people get the wrong idea and think this'll contain the man himself, but after a while I thought "what the heck, if I'm going to do it I might as well go all the way," so I did.
Afterwards, I thought "why don't I also add in some text at the bottom," so I decided to copy and paste the top description and then change the bottom text to add further context to the gallery.
At some point, I ended up getting the bright Idea to use the bottom description to tell the Detective's perspective instead. Originally, it would have been just a random detective, but much like with the top description, I decided to use Griswold instead because I'd already chosen to use his name in the top description.
I think the reason I let myself get so carried away was because in a way, I never really wanted to quit on the original idea of Griswold being some kind of dimension hopping time traveller. Well, at least in this project anyway, as if the unit didn't change to "Lockdown 3.0" he would have originally been looking into the case of a missing child that would have ended in the kid getting abducted by aliens (with the idea being that it would also double as Captain Cartridge's origin story), so when I finally decided to tell his story via text, I went a bit wild.
but other than that slight inconvenience, it was really easy for me to create the actual gallery page, as all I was doing was adding some text and a video to a new page (as all the work of making the actual video was now already done)
Yup, now all I have to do is get some feedback and potentially make changes based on it and then I'll have finished the entire project (go me)
I have an Idea
While I was in bed two nights ago, I ended up realising I worked so fast I could have probably added in the cartoon characters after all (which is funny because I chose not to include Griswold due to potential time constraints), so as a result, I thought "What the heck, I might as well do this at least once." So without further ado, let's get started:
So I'm thinking that now's as good a time as any to use this picture I took
The reason I'm doing this is so that I can then use it as a buffer between the background layer (in this case, real life) and the character (or characters) I wish to draw into the scene:
I'll admit, I don't have a very specific plan for this image. I never normally do whenever I'm cartooning, the only planned elements are who I'll be drawing and sometimes, what they'll be doing.
First I like to draw the head over and over again until I feel like I've finally got the proper size for it:
The reason for this is because technically, I never got to actually finish prototyping the character which means the Foley video where he appears technically uses a temporary design (that's why I haven't put him on the home page with all the other characters yet, so if Griswold ends up looking drastically different the next time I use him, you'll know why), but I just want you to know I might end up changing this
And much like the head, I like to draw and undo over and over again until I feel like I've got the proportions correct
Although sometimes, I will opt to do the arms first (because these next bits are quite inter-changeable, and even then I'll sometimes do a little detailing on the body first), but here I'm choosing the legs because I'll be able to gauge where his foot touches the ground
The reason I do this is because It allows me to save time later when I draw things over said details (I.E: The arms or in this case, Griswold's jacket) because the part I don't end up needing to erase later on can end up looking better than if I'd drawn the arms first and then the little details.
And now that everything's been drawn, the whole thing's looking a bit unclean:
After this point, under normal circumstances I'd move right on to colouring the character in via the fill tool, but these aren't quite normal circumstance:
And in order for me to make this process easier, I like to plan out where I'll add in the shading by drawing extra lines all over the entire drawing to represent either which areas will get darker or lighter colours (depending on if I'm doing a highlight or shadow)
Here, I'm going to steal the colours from the first drawing I did of Griswold (even if it's a prototype)
And then afterwards, I get to remove the lines by drawing over them with either the base colour or the variant. (that way it looks more seamless)
And then I made the shadow transparent so that it was more accurate to real life
But in trying to find where they'd moved it to, I instead discovered the "Highlights and Shadows" tool and played with it until I got some results I thought looked good.
Now we can add this as the grand finale of the gallery. But before we do, I'd quickly like to go over the importance of actually shading characters in situations like this, because if you don't take the time to shade the characters properly, you'll end up with results like this:
Now let's go put this in the gallery:
Now that that's done, I can sit back and wait for feedback
We Interrupt This Program For (Potentially) The Final Time To Bring You Another Project Management Update
I believe a part of the reason I managed to get here so fast though is because when you break it down, this is a relatively simple task (at least when you compare it to the animation work I've been doing), but then again I had some unexpected trouble even getting the sounds at first due to a faulty converter, which then lead to me discovering that I even had the option to do stereo mixing in the first place. (that's the thing about tasks like this sometimes, you've got to think on your feet whenever things go wrong) But once I figured that out, things more or less went back to normal. (with me either being on track or ahead of the table)
We Now Return To Our Regularly Scheduled Program (With 100% More Feedback)
I've only managed to get a few bits (thus far) of feedback from someone mentioning how they liked the "Griswold's Notes" section, this means that thus, far nothing really needs changing yet. (but I do have the rest of this week so I should receive more as the week rolls on)
Ok, so after a one to one meeting with one of my tutors, I did end up getting a suggestion where I could move the image with Griswold in it next to the video in order to further contextualise the actual video (which is what the text is for but it could be a nice bit of "Show, Don't Tell" if I can get it to work)
I can see what my tutor meant by this picture adding context to the video (because there's now the image to provide context to Griswold's journey), but I can't help but get the strange feeling that people might subconsciously mistake the image as being a second video. (even though there's no play button over the image to indicate such a thing) Considering this, I've decided I'll leave the image at the bottom where it was originally, that way you can think of it as more of a bonus at the end of reading Griswold's notes rather than a means to contextualise the whole gallery. (I think the text would do a good enough job on that front anyway)
I'll continue to get more feedback wherever I can for the time being. (seeing how it's not Sunday yet)
While I was doing some more work, I decided to ask my support worker (Seeing how she'd messaged me earlier), she said she liked how I'd managed to get Griswold in there (much like the first bit of feedback I received), but she also quite liked the sound choices I went with for each picture, as well as the mood I'd set. (which is a good sign in my book)
any further feedback?
Actually yes, as when I shared the image featuring Detective Griswold (even if it ended up being the version without shading by mistake), one of the tutors suggested that I could turn that image into a series (which was actually the original idea I had that got scrapped due to time constraints), to be honest I like that Idea quite a bit because now, I'll essentially be able to do what I'd originally wanted to do, considering at this point I've got almost a week to do this (not to mention it'll give some of the unused images a chance to flourish), so without wasting any more time, let's hop right in.
MORE Cartooning
that's right, we're back at it again:
For the most part, we'll be doing the same process we did last time (I.E: creating a buffer layer first and then making another one to put Griswold in, Ext.), so don't expect as many screen-caps this time around (I'm doing this for the sake of not repeating myself AND to avoid having to create a part 3 [And Knuckles] of this post), I'll only be screen-capping any thing I do that's new and/or wasn't mentioned previously (hence the screen-cap above)
The reason I do this is so that if I ever need to draw a smaller head, I can simply give myself less space to draw a head in general (thus resulting in a smaller head)
so I haven't had to actually had to draw any of my characters wearing a mask (nor did I design Griswold with a small enough nose to compensate for a COVID Mask), so a work around I'm doing is to simply have a big old bulge where his nose should be (but considering the angle I'm drawing him from mixed with the distance being quite far away, I've had to give less detail to the rest of his face)
this might be a bit of a difficult task because I hardly draw characters from angles like this
And I can always draw the arms in later
I'm sure the skirt thing will sort itself out later on
one way to remedy this would be to make the tolerance even higher (which is what I did last time), but I've decided it'll be worth fixing a few minor imperfections in order to prevent the colours from from bleeding through
the Idea with this is that it's a random mask he found on the ground (which isn't very hygienic) in order to blend in as best as he can (for a guy with a gargantuan nose):
A while ago, I ended up realising I never actually did a Mood board (or even a sound map for that matter), so in order to rectify this I have no choice but to create them both retroactively, because it's not like I can just go back in time and remind the younger me to do those things (because that would cause a time paradox)
A Retroactive Mood-board
So for those of you that don't know (or haven't read any of the previous posts), a Mood-board is essentially a series of random images collaged together in order to collect all the sources of inspiration you'll be drawing from for a particular project (so if the project was an animated music video of the song "Escape From The City" from Sonic Adventure 2, you're mood-board would likely consist of a bunch of images from the Sonic series in general):
With that being said, the beauty of these mood-boards is that you can lay them out any which way you like (as long as it's clear where you're drawing inspiration from)
Ok, so since we're doing this retroactively (which isn't what we'd call ideal circumstances to be honest), I'll have to at least try and make it seem like I did this at an earlier time frame (so no using the final images here):
For the next screen-cap, you'll just have to ignore every image that isn't the original Griswold Designs I made before the unit changed (the human with a case file and the dirty bear):
and then after a little bit of work arranging everything, you have yourself one (admittedly minimalistic) mood-board:
The reason this one's so basic is because I'm doing it retroactively, and thus I'm doing it quickly because the faster I get the retroactive planning done, the faster I can get back to adding Griswold to some of the other images (I'll probably do it for two more images and then I'll call it quits), so now that that's been established, it's time to move on to...
The Sound Map I Should Have Done Ages Ago While I Was Doing Part 1
Ah yes, the sound map. This particular document allows the producers to plan where and when in a production a particular sound will go:
Although I eventually decided to take the liberty of making the time-table represent every 10 seconds instead of every 5 second (because in my project, the images are on screen for 10 seconds each, so it make things that little bit easier)
For the most part, I can get away with copying an pasting the same sounds due to how those particular sounds will play throughout most of the production, the only other sounds I can't get away with copying and pasting are the ones that only play once (I.E: The game audio, The dialogue, the weapon sounds and that sort of thing) due to how they're specific to certain images:
Aaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnd boom, one complete sound map to retcon right into this post (figured I'd do it as a file this time in order to save up on that oh so important media memory limit)
So How Was Finally Getting That Retroactive Planning Done?
I'll admit, I ended up getting this bit of retroactive planning done sooner than I thought I would, as usually I'd take a little bit more time to do the mood-board in particular, although having said that, I'm sure the fact I was doing these planning documents RETROACTIVELY may have had something to do with how quickly I put them together.
With that being said, I kind of wish I'd remembered to do the sound map and the mood-board while I was still planning this because then I'd be going into much more detail than I ended up with due to how I'd be having to think while doing those documents rather than hastily putting them together after the fact like I did here, but I digress.
Now it's time to get back to adding Griswold to the other pictures.
Back into the Cartoon Fray
Although just to re-iterate, I'm probably only going to do this for two more images (which in this case means this image and the one after that) because I don't want to push my luck too far on this (even if it only takes a few hours per picture)
Oh, and just like the with last image I did, don't expect as many screen-shots as there were with the first image with the only exception being when I'm doing something new and/or different (that way I can save on memory)
On thing you may notice about this portal is the fact I made it a square (which I created using the "square" tool), the reason I chose to make this portal a square was so that I could give the new "Frame" tool a whirl (perhaps it might be useful one day)
the reason I'm drawing a bigger Griswold is because he's a lot closer to the camera, and because he's a lot closer to the camera, I'm able to put a lot more detail into him (thus meaning he'll be more on model)
Let's see what the Hickory Heck I can do with this
Instead I can only put existing images in here, so I've chosen to re-purpose the original Slamination Studios Logo I'd made back in Level 2 because I lack any original (Non-Super Sheep related) 2D backgrounds (quite a disappointment, I know)
it's quite subtle, but I believe erasing the ends of his arm and his leg will drastically improve the effect of Griswold going into the portal (because it makes it look like his arm and leg are fading into the portal
Now all that's left to do is the 4th and final one of these and we'll be good to go
This'll probably be the one with the least screen caps because I'm running out of new things to screen-shot in the first place (although let's face it, I'm still probably going to end up doing a ton of noteworthy stuff regardless)
Now that that's been taken care of, I can finally call this project officially done!
Aren't You Forgetting Something Important?
Oh, right... I almost forgot about the Evaluation Section. We best get right on it
The Research
I feel as if I did an ok job at doing research for this one (given how simple of a task it is to do), although the subject itself (that being Photo Galleries) was a little bit new to me (although the idea is only a bit new considering the fact I'm also doing photography as well as media), so I did end up stealing a lot of my sources from the Microsoft Teams class which I don't usually do under normal circumstances, although since I didn't know too much about the topic of photo galleries and online exhibitions, and by that I mean I knew even less than I did about Music Videos and Album Covers. (because these photo galleries are quite far removed from my usual work)
Having said that however, I kind of wish I searched for more of my own sources because it would have allowed be to stand out a little bit more from the crowd. (and perhaps even find other styles I could take inspiration from) The reason I say this is because usually when I go out and find my own sources, it tends to lead to me being able to lay things out in a more detailed manner.
In terms of the research I did into sound, I'd say I'm much more proud of what I did there because I was able to use more of my own sources and even deconstruct the soundscape of the trailer of the new Tom And Jerry Movie thanks to a random YouTube channel I discovered ages ago. (I couldn't have done the deconstruction without their help)
we Interrupt This Program For The Final Project Management Update (For Reals This Time)
This might be the closest I've come to deadline day since The Original Captain Cartridge
The Planning
I'll be the first to admit that this part is where things got a little off the rails, as not only had it turned out I'd taken all the pictures ages before I was realistically supposed to, but while I was already working on the actual gallery, I'd realised I'd forgotten to create a mood board and a sound map (which isn't like me to forget), so while I was working on adding Detective Griswold to a few of the scenes, I had to hastily whip up both a mood board and a sound map (and since I wanted to get right back to adding Griswold at that point, I ended up rushing through both)
That being said however, I did originally want to add Detective Griswold in to every picture I took (because the unit I originally created him for ended up getting switched for this lockdown project), but I felt writing the script would have taken too long so I ended up nixing the whole Idea in favour of a regular photo gallery (and thus I ended up forgetting to do everything except the asset list, although luckily for me I managed to get the story I originally wanted to tell with Griswold via the "Griswold's Notes" section), perhaps if I'd actually took the time to do the planning documents beforehand I'd have a much better product on my hands (although I'm surprised at how far I've come without them)
Taking Pictures
Ok, this part wasn't hard to do as I'd accidently done it in advance. The reason I say this part wasn't that hard was because I managed to take a good 34 photographs on a single walk with my mother (and the unit requirements stated at least 20-30 images, so I ended up being golden), although I only ended up using 23 of the images in the end because of the original plan with Detective Griswold (which ended up getting nixed in favour of just a plain photo gallery with sound), and when you factor in the four extra images I added Griswold into, it means I've actually used 27 of those images in the end (which is four more than I'd originally anticipated), personally I quite like the horizontal images I took way better than the few that were taken vertically (because when things are horizontal, you tend to have an easier time following the rule of thirds, where as with vertical images, it's a lot more difficult because now the thirds are all in different places)
That said, I do kind of wish I'd taken some time to plan out what I'd be taking pictures of (considering how when I go on walks with my mother we usually take the same route most of the time), because then I'd know what to look out for. (although having said that, I do kind of prefer the more improvisational approach I took to taking the pictures as it allowed me to snap random things that seemed vaguely interesting)
Gathering Sound Effects and music
At first I thought this part would boil down to be simply converting a bunch of video files into MP3s with the same online converter I used during the Foley experiment with Detective Griswold and The Night Pig (and thus deal with all the shady internet ads that come with using an online converter to steal audio), but in a strange twist of fate, the converter I planned on using turned out to be broken. (as in the videos would convert but I couldn't download them) It was at that point where I ended up losing all hope in this project, as most of the alternative methods I tried would have lead right back to the broken converter, but it was at that point where Audacity would swoop in to become the hero of the day (which is a spot usually reserved for Dreams on the PS4/5) thanks to the ability to do stereo mixing (which in this case just means recording audio directly from the PC), which ended up becoming the method of choice due to how easy it is to do. (not to mention it's much safer than an online converter as well) Needless to say, this ended up renewing hope that I'd be able to get the project done on time (and considering where we are, I'd say the new method was a rousing success that I'll use in the future)
Just because Dreams didn't end up being the hero however, it doesn't mean the game didn't help me at all, because I ended up using it to create a vaguely religious remix of the theme I did for the Captain Cartridge Remake by replacing the SEGA Mega Drive instruments with instruments that were imported by fellow Dreamers Rambainuzuka and Domino666 (because I'm not very good at composing music yet), as well as allowing me to create the wind ambiance by combining multiple wind sound effects created by Media Molecule (the developers of Dreams PS4/5, LittleBigPlanet one and two as well as Tearaway), but that's not all I used Dreams for, as I'd also decided to steal some audio from one of the early levels of the story mode. (which is known as Art's Dream) Overall, it was great that I got the chance to still use Dreams PS4/5 in some capacity during this project, as it seems to be some kind of lucky charm for me.
In terms of voice acting, I feel like I could have done with a little bit more practice on Sonic and Shaggy's voices because neither of them seemed to sound right when I recorded the voices. As for Scooby Doo, I'd say I nailed the voice. (even though that isn't saying much because he only gets one word in edgewise) The only character whose voice I didn't do was Z from Antz, because for him, I simply stole some audio from the beginning of his own movie because I didn't feel confident that I could nail his voice correctly (because I don't do his voice as often as I do for the other three)
In terms of the Foley sounds (all one of them), I decided to do footstep noises by simply smashing my shoes on the ground in the same rhythm as the average person's walk speed for a little bit (because I could always loop the sound in audacity)
Overall I had fun gathering the various sound effects and music I'd need to complete the sound scape as it allowed me to learn a little bit more about what audacity is actually capable of. (because until that point, I'd only been using it to pitch up songs so that they'd sound more like they would on a UK DVD)
Putting The Soundscape together
Putting the soundscape together was a whole lot easier than I thought it would be (considering what happened the last time I did a sound-scape properly), as this time I actually had the fore sight to stick the final sound in first, and then work from there. The reason this method seemed to help in the long run is because now I knew exactly how long all the other sounds would need to play until we finally reach the last sound byte (thus meaning I wouldn't need to speed everything up afterwards), although I did end up with a slight miscalculation of the length at first, but luckily I was able to spot this error in time to fix it before exporting the final audio. (as who knows how out of whack things would have gotten if I didn't find that error) Once I had the final audio, it was time to move on to doing...
The Image Editing (PIXLR)
This part of the process was relatively easy as for the most part all I had to do was flip some images so that they were aligned correctly, the only reason I'm even noting this part down is because of the fact that on certain images I did have to do a light bit of censorship on the licence plates of random parked cars that got caught in the crossfire (Cindy Censorship would be proud), but even then, this was just a matter of taking the blur tool and blurring out every vaguely visible licence plate. (which is a method often used by TV shows, except they use video editing software to do the trick)
But since I was using the Share-Factory to put the video together, I had to make sure that all the images were of the correct resolution so that I could actually import the images later. I'm going to guess that the supported image resolution for importing images into Share-Factory is at around 720P because when I tried 1080P images, it still rejected them, so I had to go in and make them all under 720P and even then, I still had to cut the church image out of the video because that one was taken vertically. (this is part of why I prefer taking horizontal images over vertical ones)
Putting The Video Together
This part ended up taking two tries to pull off effectively due to the images not being imported correctly the first time, but once I fixed those issues it was smooth sailing for the most part.
I say "for the most part" because I did end up having an issue where the audio would randomly get delayed by a few seconds, but I decided to simply trust the sound waves of the audio I Imported into Share-Factory and the process of placing the images went off without a hitch.
Speaking of placing images, I couldn't just place the images into the timeline without having any background footage because when the images did get ported into the share-factory, they were ported in as overlays (the stickers you can lay over the top of videos) and not just regular images. This was no problem as all I needed to do was have some gameplay as background footage playing underneath and to simply make sure the image covered the screen and vola, one photo gallery made using editing software that's only meant for editing gameplay footage (the game I used for background footage was from the later stages of Sackboy: A Big Adventure), although at some points, you can see a few frames from the game before it switches to the next image but I figured no-one would notice and simply left it as it was (no harm, no fowl)
Getting The Exhibit Together
now that I had the video done, it was time to create the new page on my Wix-site where The video itself will exist. Originally, it was only supposed to be a small page featuring the video itself and a brief description up top, but then I got the Idea to use this part to slip Detective Griswold back in via the text, and from there things got a bit carried away (considering how I eventually turned what was supposed to be another brief description just below the video into the story that was supposed to be in the video to begin with)
Needless to say, I'm quite proud of how the whole thing turned out, mainly because now I was able to get Griswold back into the picture because I'd originally created Griswold for something else entirely (a project revolving round the theme of missing), so I figured if I could feature him in the gallery, it would be like having the literal "missing" project back (pretty funny how the "Missing" unit went missing), but what I'm more proud of is actually being able to draw Detective Griswold into 4 of the images that went unused in the video (because now I was able to get a piece of my original idea for this project back), hey speaking of Griswold, now it's time to move on to...
Drawing Griswold
Now this is my favourite part of the entire project. The reason for this is because I actually got to put Detective Griswold in the real world. (which I wasn't entirely sure I'd get to do within the time frame, so I scrapped it only to find time in the end)
The main challenge that came with doing the character was actually making sure he was shaded correctly, since I was taking inspiration from Who Framed Roger Rabbit, I had to use the direction of the shadows and highlights in order to determine where I'd need to make the character darker and/or brighter respectively. Doing this was a lot easier for me because I've actually tried to do this multiple times before this project would come to be:
Overall, I'm actually quite proud of the results for the 4 images I did of Griswold because unlike with all the ones of Super Sheep, Griswold looks a little bit more real thanks to the "Highlights and Shadows" tool that I'd end up applying after hand drawing all the shadows and highlights. (especially on the first image, probably because I didn't go super overboard with the shadows and highlights themselves)
In Conclusion
In conclusion, I had way more fun doing this project than I thought I would. While things may have started out quite "boring" (mainly for the Photo Gallery part and not the sound part), once I'd gotten in to action, the project ended up getting even better as time moved on because as I pressed forward, I was able to find time to add in things I never thought I'd find the time to add in. (namely, Detective Griswold)
So while I might not want to do things like this regularly (especially if they're themed around topics that'll be dated in about a year), this could be something I do every once in a while whenever I'm not currently making cartoons or games at the moment (especially if cartoon characters are able to get involved in the actual pictures, as it could help me further brush up on my shading skills)
This project also helped me out by forcing me to use the "Stereo Mix" option on audacity, which I'll be using to get audio for projects from now on as it's a much better method than converting the videos into MP3s.
In other words, it was fun doing this in the end, but I can't wait for the Final Major Project next term, which hopefully doesn't get cancelled this time. Although if it does, I can simply use Dreams PS4 to circumvent the cancelation and do the project anyway like I did in level 2. (Thanks Media Molecule)
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