Music and audio books
Today I did a full day's work on the new Brackenwood movie.. listened to The War of the Worlds - a 7 hr unabridged audio book (not the musical CD) read by Sean Barrett. Damn that's a good story.
I've been listening to audiobooks ever since I left Disney in 2004. I subscribe to audible.com and now have a library of about 100 downloaded books. Anything you get from audible btw, you can put on your iPod, which is perfect for long trips.
No, this isn't an advert for Audible.com.. (even though I have asked them twice to sponsor movies of mine and still have yet to hear from them).
While it is occasionally nice to animate in complete silence (one of the great benefits of working in the wee small hours when the world is asleep), I'm one of those animators who loves some good audio while I'm working, especially during the day when the neighbours just won't shut the fuck up. Whether it's music, a book, learning a language or some recorded lecture on physics, it's one of those things that I'd really miss if I didn't have it... along with my neighbour-cancelling headphones.
While I'm writing, storyboarding, designing characters or sometimes even keying out rough animation poses, it's impossible for me to take in music or an audio book without getting distracted. However, the more automatic processes of animation, cleanup, inbetweening and painting backgrounds is so much easier when I'm listening to something. At the end of each chapter, or at the end of a whole audio book, I look back and there's all this work done. Time really flies.
--- --- --
So anyway it's about 2:30am.. I'll head outside in a min because there are meteor showers supposed to be happening tonight, and all this week on the North-Eastern horizon between 2 and 5am. Apparently we're passing through a particularly dense ribbon of comet-debris and the most activity (between 100-150 shooting stars per hour) is forecast for Saturday night (18th Nov). My bedtime isn't usually until around 3 - 4am anyway, so I've been watching every night this week so far.. starting from 1 - 2 am until my neck gets too sore from looking up, or the mosquitos piss me off (coming into Summer here now).
Last night, to make it easier I tried lying down on the pavers in the back yard to watch the sky, but a spider crawled up on my neck. I didn't know it was a spider until I slapped it and turned on my little torch. Quite a big one he was.. wriggling about with a couple of legs missing, which I then found between my fingers. So I decided not to lie down again.
Not seeing much activity yet though.. about 2 shooting stars each night so far.
Anyway! My first attempt at embedding a YouTube video now :D
BTW, I know this kitten.. he's much older now. His name's Mong.. his fur turned green as he grew older and he stars in my first daily movie here: Animotd #1
I've been listening to audiobooks ever since I left Disney in 2004. I subscribe to audible.com and now have a library of about 100 downloaded books. Anything you get from audible btw, you can put on your iPod, which is perfect for long trips.
No, this isn't an advert for Audible.com.. (even though I have asked them twice to sponsor movies of mine and still have yet to hear from them).
While it is occasionally nice to animate in complete silence (one of the great benefits of working in the wee small hours when the world is asleep), I'm one of those animators who loves some good audio while I'm working, especially during the day when the neighbours just won't shut the fuck up. Whether it's music, a book, learning a language or some recorded lecture on physics, it's one of those things that I'd really miss if I didn't have it... along with my neighbour-cancelling headphones.
While I'm writing, storyboarding, designing characters or sometimes even keying out rough animation poses, it's impossible for me to take in music or an audio book without getting distracted. However, the more automatic processes of animation, cleanup, inbetweening and painting backgrounds is so much easier when I'm listening to something. At the end of each chapter, or at the end of a whole audio book, I look back and there's all this work done. Time really flies.
--- --- --
So anyway it's about 2:30am.. I'll head outside in a min because there are meteor showers supposed to be happening tonight, and all this week on the North-Eastern horizon between 2 and 5am. Apparently we're passing through a particularly dense ribbon of comet-debris and the most activity (between 100-150 shooting stars per hour) is forecast for Saturday night (18th Nov). My bedtime isn't usually until around 3 - 4am anyway, so I've been watching every night this week so far.. starting from 1 - 2 am until my neck gets too sore from looking up, or the mosquitos piss me off (coming into Summer here now).
Last night, to make it easier I tried lying down on the pavers in the back yard to watch the sky, but a spider crawled up on my neck. I didn't know it was a spider until I slapped it and turned on my little torch. Quite a big one he was.. wriggling about with a couple of legs missing, which I then found between my fingers. So I decided not to lie down again.
Not seeing much activity yet though.. about 2 shooting stars each night so far.
Anyway! My first attempt at embedding a YouTube video now :D
BTW, I know this kitten.. he's much older now. His name's Mong.. his fur turned green as he grew older and he stars in my first daily movie here: Animotd #1
Labels: animation, audio, meteor shower, music
posted by chluaid at 11/16/2006 01:49:00 am
8 Comments:
Hahaha!
I LOVE that cat!
Was expecting him to go "Meow" in that deep voice on the first movie all the way through it.
hehe. didn't some of the great animators say that listening to songs while working only distracts you from focusing on timing and such during animating?
Yes they did.. and the occasional snobby 2D animation purist living in the past (and in a soundproof box) will say the same thing ;)
.. but everyone has their preferred way of working.
I did say that the tedium of the more 'automatic' processes (especially cleanup, inbetweening and backgrounds) is made easier with a good audio book... but when I need to concentrate, it's out of the question.
When you work in a studio full of people, the social aspect is a very large part of working life.. so drowning out the chatter is often a necessity. In my case, I developed that habit in the studio, and now working at home, it's either listen to the neighbours, or listen to something else.
Like I said, it is nice to animate in complete silence now and then, but around here that only ever happens between 1 and 5am.
Lol...what is wrong with that cat o_O
Ah'm staying up to watch the meteors on Saturday too...it'd be good if the weather got a little warmer for it...
lmao. What a cool kitten. I can't wait until the day they genetically modify kittens to remain that size forever. they are cuter when they are kittens.
j/k
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I'd love to see that cat in its current-green-state. :)
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