 The Animation at Work 2022 Contest Videos From The Heart is about to enter Reallusions' 2022 Animation At Work Contest with an entry for their Vertical Short catagory. I am uploading the entry to YouTube for my THESEANAGRAMS channel. For those interested in entering the contest uploading to Instagram or TikTok is also an option. If you can sign up for any social media platform and then use an app on your phone to take a picture, edit a picture, and get it uploaded to one of the social media platforms your already half way there to becoming a motion graphic editor or amaeture animator because you are following a process. The ability to follow a process is all your need to get started. but you'll need to get on your desktop, because ... REALLUSION is offering a 30 DAY FREE TRIAL Download to the Cartoon Animator 4 Software. It's a great opportunity to not only try your hand at animation but perhaps even enter a production into one of the catagories. There is time---entries are due August 8th, 2022. Visit the CartoonAnimator4 page at the REALLUSION website and see what waits there for you if your tempted to jump in and give it a try. There is absolutely no cost to you to give animating 'a go'. The trial software will provide a plethora of characters and props for you to use, as well offer you training tutorials that you can easily access right within the software itself. I warn you, its easy to fall in love with animating, doing voice work and having a fun innovative way of telling a story thats been buzzing around in your head. Now, let me tell you a little bit about my entry in this years Animation at Work contest.  I will be using four softwares to bring my production entry to a final MP4 render.
Let's Talk About HOOT! HOOT! began his animated life as a customized GoAnimate character who would tell folks about the truth and wisdom of Anagrams. He is my own character design who eventually was born as animated character in 2010 when he was divinely gifted with movement by the talented Australian Artist, David Arandle. In his very first introduction animation he showed viewers how the letters contained in the title GOANIMATE could also be twisted around to make the word phrase, A GIANT MEGA. GOANIMATE, to date, has become exactly that and is now today called, Vyond. Vyond is a online animation platform that you can join, but for a monthly free. For a few years, HOOT! had a comfortable home there until Arandle once again transformed him into a G2 and G3 character for Reallusions' Crazy Talk Animator 3 platform, which is now Cartoon Animator 4. David Arandle knew the G2 and G3 format would allow for HOOT! to progress as an animator cartoon character. HOOT! IS A GEMINI BY SUN SIGN I first saw HOOT! come alive on May 22, 2010 when I opened an email from Arandle telling me HOOT was now inside the GA platform as flash character. This timing auspiciously placed his Sun at Birth in the sign of Gemini which is the sign of 'the messenger'. Mercury is the planet assigned to rule over Gemini; and like the God HERMES to which Mercury is associated, it's HOOT!s starry destiny to a Messenger. His Gemini Sun forms a 120 angle to the Moon in Libra which of course made him a very popular character in the GA community.  The idea of an owl to deliver the fun of anagrams came to me sometime in 2008. So I drew him up in his tree and then went looking for a way of how to animate him---something I knew nothing about. But willing to learn. The universe than led me to join the GoAnimate community and its there where David Arandle aka The Extrodinary Tourist aka TET felt inclined to take my drawing of HOOT! that I used in his first anagram animation about TEENAGE GIRLS. It was a terrible production. But Arandle, he saw the potential of an Owl telling Anagrams and out of the goodness of his heart brought HOOT! to life. The Universe is really cool that way. So here we are. Entering contests and still sharing THESEANAGRAMS.  As a flash character in GA, Arandle gave HOOT! a side look glance that just immediately melted my heart. I got to say, that I got a little distracted when Crazy Talk 2 and 3 came along for me, because a bunch of other creative ideas and voices in my head wanted to explore the other characters I was finding both in the software and being sold by the Marketplace community partners. So my dear little HOOT! sort got put on the back burner in the CA4 software. But he already had quite a few animations on the GoAnimate platform. One of my personal favorites doesn't tell any anagrams at all. It was to tell a story about how on one fateful day I surripteiously found a yellow canary. It was back in September of 2013. It's there where Michael Shawn Gonzales enters. So now let's talk about his music, "Gypsy Grass". "Gypsy Grass" by Michael Shawn Gonzales Prior to the summer of 2013 I was doing graphic promoting assignments for a local tavern that was offering live music every Saturday night with a concentration in the Blues genre. Which by the way is my favorite genre of music. Something about my own Venus in Scorpio at birth resonates quite equally with the Blues. Anyhoo, It was there that I had the blessing to meet a few world class musians. One of them being Michael Shawn Gonzales who I began following on social media and heard his guitar instrumental "Gypsy Grass". I was so taken by its lilt that I used it to produce an animation with HOOT telling the world about how I, TheseStars, magically found the yellow canary. Almost done with the animation, I sent the video link along to Shawn telling him that when I first listened to "Gypsy Grass" I felt like it was a perfect fit for HOOT! and if he would allow me to use it in my animation. Besides him kindly asking me if he could help with the audio levels to perfect the production, this was Shawns' response.
To really understand how magical this all is, you have to watch the video on HOW THESESTARS FOUND THE YELLOW CANARY. I do all the voice work for 5 characters in this video. Keep in mind I was only three years in on teaching myself how to pull a whole animation together from script writing to voice acting. Animation At Work: WORK IN PROGRESS VIDEOUsing the online tutorials for CA4 I learned and practiced how to make my dream of storytelling about anagrams through a darling little Owlet named HOOT! possible. This WIP is in now way a perfect tutorial, but I do cover how HOOT! came to be and how easy it is to get use to the timeline and how to make text assets appear with motions on the scene. It would be most appreciated if you could take a moment to subscribe to HOOT!'s very own YouTube channel called THESEANAGRAMS and be ready to watch the full length entry into this years Animation at Work contest when I get my production entered. Keep in mind there is a special surprise about what truths my original character HOOT! found hiding inside the word phrase, CARTOON ANIMATOR. And just maybe you'll be encouraged to try your own hand at animation.
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 Photo of April by Photographer Glenn Stott ---Image Design by Videos from the Heart This is the picture that made me want a DSLR camera, ----and to learn how to be a better photographer. The pretty gal in this photo is my niece, April. The photographer who shot the picture of April is Arial Photographer Glenn Stott. This photo, and a thousand more like it came about while my dear friend Glenn was setting up a new studio in his home and needed a subject to test out the studio---so we got April. For this post, I embellished the unedited jpeg copy with some scrap-booking materials just to have some fun and tell people about me, a progressing Photographer and Videos from the Heart. Anyhoo, we spent the day in the Glenn Stott studio with April shooting somewhere near 1200 photos. It was a great day; and my first time in professional photography studio. It was there where I was instantly hooked to this art form. Prior to that, I was just shooting willy-nilly. As you can tell, the camera loves April and when I saw all the images at the end of days' shoot, it was right there I was left wanting my own DSLR camera. Today, I finally shoot RAW with the Canon 70D ----and I purchased two Canon Professional Series Lens from my photographer friend, Glen Stott. I got his ...
Glenn, is upgrading his photography gear and I'm waiting patiently to pick-up his well cared for Canon Mark V calibrated for both those lens to add to my Camera Bag. It's coming soon. Anyway, The photo below came out of a little make shift basement studio and the one of the new lens. Its a shot of one of the two kittens my husband and I rescued from our front bushes. I'm not sure, but it's probably the best portrait photo I've taken to date with the Canon 70D.
I entered the photo of Laylea (pronounced LAY-LEE) in a photography challenge with GURUSHOTS.COM ---their aggregated data tells me this photo got ALL STAR status with 1349 votes in their, Anything Cute Challenge. So I guess its an okay photograph. But one of my favorite responses from people, is when they use my images as their profile pictures---there is no better validation that I'm just might be getting better and better with each shutter movement. The image below is from my Sony Cyber-Shot DCS-70. It's the first image I ever sold. It all happened in Colorado. It's where Photography found me.
Then someone browsing through the rack of matted photos by a variety of the gallerys' artists choose one of my prints to bring up to the counter for purchase. Again, I got validation that people could like my work. Yet, Calling my self a Photographer doesn't come easy. I over heard others refer to me as such with my first digital camera. I don't even have a photo to show you from that camera; and I regret terribly selling it at garage sale. But this first digital was by HP I believe and it came to me at discount with a Dell computer purchase. It also came along with fun software that allowed me to manipulate the photos I took. So I had everything I needed to try an impress someone with my photo creativity.
The Bride and Groom loved the photo so much she took it with her on their honeymoon. Let's face it, I worked quickly and social media accounts wasn't our yet ours. Anyway, while moving through the reception event I had chats with folks who would say, "Oh your the Photographer who put that picture on their table. What a great idea." It was a great idea, as it was going to take weeks before they would see a return of proofs from their hired Photographer. I was only a guest, but people there were referring to me as a, Photographer. Look, at this particular moment in time---its now some 18 years after Photography found me, and I've only been working with my Canon 70D for the last two years. I still have so much to learn about developing RAW images and working the settings on my camera for particular types of photos. I'm taking courses and I'm following and taking advice from talented photographers like Glenn Stott and Peter McKinnon. I'm in such talented company with access to Youtube, that striving to become a better Photographer is happening quickly.
Every reason is good reason for a Photo Slide Show. I use the Cadillac of programs PROSHOW PRODUCER to create my slide shows from Memorials to New Babies. I always try to throw in something unexpected or personal to the project somehow. I'm passionate about working with people and their treasured photos. Mixing photos with Music just makes everyone happy, including me. That is one of the foremost reasons why I wanted a DSLR camera in my camera bag, and a decent software for editing like Affinity Photo. I wanted to be able to deliver quality content if you needed me to photograph your event or product for a video production or for a photo slide show. If you need something a little extra special, please consider me, Videos from the Heart. Below is a production I did highlighting my animated cartoon character HOOT! offering the dates when Blues Guitarist Theodore Alexiou from Greece would be on Tour in New Jersey. The music alone is worth the watch. Music Copyright laws don't allow me to showcase VFTH photo slide show productions but if you visit Videos from the Heart you can see some of the comments from past productions.
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AuthorVideos from the Heart produces Video Slide Shows, Animated Explainer Videos for Business, and has just plain ole fun animating that which becomes of interest and passion as tides turn. |
