pixels+pitches

Done and Done. Project complete!

2006-04-07T12:55:00.000-07:00

You can now view the entire project @

www.pixelsandpitches.com

I would enjoy any comments/critiques/questions. You can contact me through:
www.thejohnsmith.ca

Here is a breakdown with any running thoughts I had about all of the final scenes:

A. Heartbeats
My first experiment - as previously posted. It was a pretty straight forward attempt at using the X/Y mouse co-ordinates to control Volume and Panning of the background music. The heart beats (coincidently) perfectly fit the rhythm of the hand opening and closing.

B. Space Jumpers

One of the last scenes I compiled - and I think one of the more enjoyable. The idea of tweening the "jumper" so it appears to leap into the foreground really shattered the flat 2-d feel all previous works had. It was a strong step forward that in turn led to the idea of the Interface and "Space Walk" (scene F).

C. Footwork (Day/Night)

Day - relaxing music. The pile of overlapped legs walking resemble a pile of worm-like creatures reaching up into the sky for oxygen (or maybe the Sun?).
Night - bring in the beat; get a bit disoriented, and have fun with the colours.
Each time you stop moving, you have an original digital painting in front of your eyes.

D. Handmond Organ
Developed (quite obviously) out of the Heartbeats scene. This time I though of each hand as a key on a keyboard. By clicking on a hand, you can cycle to the next sound and continue playing along. Each note is pulled randomly - making for a truly unique "song" each time this piece is performed. After completing this piece I started thinking about music boxes, and how winding the key on a box to achieve a consistent speed was similar to the mouse movements required to achieve a consistency with the Handmond Organ. And that led too....

E. Digital Music Box
This was the culmination of my "music box" idea. As the mouse moves, the song is played. With a real music box, once the device is stopped, there is no sound. However, working digitally I had the chance to exploit digital music files. In this rendition, the music continuously skips upon no mouse activity. The result is an interesting tool for closely observing how these small segments of sound build up over time to create something quite astonishing.

F. Space Walk
The last scene I completed. Instead of using single notes for each character, I layered 2 notes for each - adds a lot more depth and eerie ambiance. This is perhaps the most musical "instrument" that was created.

Each scene had an underlying goal of experimentation (both in interaction and creation) & trying to achieve the strong sense of atmosphere using the most minimal elements. In retrospect each scene can by though of as a musical instrument - in terms of interactivity producing or altering sound.

Hope you enjoy!
until next time,
John Smith

PS. Thanks to those who have allowed me to Rotoscope their bods.

Brain's Think Better Later

2006-03-26T23:43:00.000-08:00

Scratch my last spewing.

Preloading solved:

http://www.pixelsandpitches.com/Preload.html

Note this is still just a demo/preview - many things have yet to be tweaked - but you can get the gist of it.

Heck yes, huge relief -- now back to the fun stuff (that time I'm not being sarcastic!

The joy of Preloading external sounds....

2006-03-26T23:18:00.000-08:00

So I've literally spent my enter weekend trying to get a functional preloader - as I discovered my original one wasn't actually loading the external sounds --- crucial!

This is a current test file: http://www.pixelsandpitches.com/Preloader_Template.swf

Just when I thought I had it, things still don't seem to be loading quite properly.

Either way, you can get a sneek peek of what the interface will look like!

Instead of typing here I would rather be typing out some Actionscript.. so back to Flash it is!

('till next time)

2006-02-27T16:53:00.000-08:00

(so I guess I have to get into a better habit of blogging regularly...)

All of my time has been spent behind the scenes, so I figure it's about that time to post some of the material I've been plugging away in Flash on.

I'll try my best to walk through in chronological order here:

Schedule Swapperoo

Perhaps to no surprise I've re-juggled my original schedule. Instead of saving all of the technical details to the last minute, I've decided to tackle them first - and am now thankful I've done so since I ran into lots of un-expected timely problems. I'm going to outline what's completed on the checklist thus far.

Preloader Tests

My first task was to create a pre-loader for my scenes. This is usually the last task, but quickly realized it was pivotal in the delivery of the project (for online audiences). While creating the pre-loader test, (this demo just loads a really large image to demonstrate that it works - the actual final loading time should ultimately be very quick) I realized that I couldn't pre-load external MP3 files simultaneously before starting the animation. This is a problem! By storing my MP3's external to my project, I can upload/tweak/replace any sounds at any time by just uploading those files.

I am faced with the decision of:

1) keeping sounds external, but small in size (under 60k or so), (or changing delivery format, and make either a downloadable program or a DVD)
or
2) keeping them internal and loosing all flexibility for updating and revising.

For now I am going ahead with option 1)... but I'm still not entirely sold...

Either way, my preloader is complete. Checkmark.

Embedding Fonts

My second (not-terribly-exciting) task was figuring out how to embed special fonts into my .swf files. After a bit of tinkering I got it working... and here are the steps necessary:

a) Library Options --> New Font --> Select size and font

b) Place this in your actionscript: mytextbox .embedFonts = true;

c) Select your dynamic text box, and in the Properties panel select the font you just added (should appear in drop-down list). Additionally, you can click the "character" box to select specific cases/letters/numbers/characters you need or don't need. Since embedding fonts slightly increase the .swf's file size, this is one way to keep it under control (and it's worth not having to use system fonts!)

(this is also demonstrated in the pre-loader demo)

Interactivity

So I've decided to use the mouse as primary source of interaction. Here are a few obstacles and demo's that I've been working on.

Step 1: Controlling animation with mouse movement

Here is an example of controlling an animation clip with the movement of the mouse.

Here is another demo (same principle) that uses multiple clips and audio. I like to call it the Handmond Organ.

(Still from animation at top)

Step 2: Controlling Pan and Volume of MP3's with mouse XY co-ordinates

Here is another demo I recently created. I wanted the user to have control over the panning of audio clips by moving the mouse from left to right, and control the volume by moving the mouse up and down. After having to make up some equations (which I strangely enjoyed and felt fulfilled about), I got it working.

Below: a still from the original demo, showing the XY grid and number outputs I used for testing.

All of the above experiments have culminated into this .

I've also been experimenting with movie clips following the mouse/ replacing the mouse etc. Once I get something solidified I'll be sure to post it.

a Note on Sound:
I have about 5 different "sound libraries" now (consisting of 16 notes each), by the end of this project I will easily have double that. So far I have been using digital synths as well as an old Roland synth to make some crazy noise. I am still playing with random notes, but ultimately I may use notes that are more "pleasing" when combined.

Up next: the Rotoscopathon

(Starting to wish I had a tablet...)
John

the beginning

2006-01-01T22:13:00.000-08:00

I have created this blog to document the progress and process behind my Multimedia thesis, entitled "pixels+pitches" .

www.pixelsandpitches.com will be the home for the project's finished content.

In brief, this project is an attempt at an interactive and visually non-linear "music video" - but there shall be lots more information shortly.

John Smith