Epic jointly-produced JMOV?

[I tried posting this to alt.ascii-art, but my news server seems to
have problems... this is the same thing, if you read the other one]

Anyone interested?

Here's my thoughts:
-One [basically] full-length ASCII motion picture produced using JMOV
-One coordinator/compiler, and anyone can pick a scene to ASCII-fy and
email the finished scene to the compiler
-sig's (and possibly self-portraits?) of contributors scrolled at the
end

What I had in mind was something reminiscant of Simon Jansen's Star
Wars ASCIIMATION (http://www.asciimation.co.nz note-this site worked
for me yesterday, but not tonight, just keep trying).  This is for a
few reasons:
1. Some of the art is already drawn (like some of the characters),
making scene production a bit easier.
2. There is already an established size (67x13) and framespeed (15fps)
that seems to work well for the movie.
3. Mr. Jansen hasn't mentioned getting sued by LucasArts.
4. Star Wars scripts are easy to come by.
5. There are plenty of sequels. ;)

Another thought I had was one of those old silent movies, we could
even try the midi NG's to see if they'll make us a midi of the piano
score!  But, I'm not that current on old silent movies.  (That and I'm
not certain how to get a midi file to play simultaneously with a
jmov... hint, hint, nudge, nudge, say-no-more ;)

The scenes could even be posted in plaintext for the whole NG to
review!  We'd have to set a standard ID frame to start each scene
until the final compilation, though.  But that wouldn't be too
complicated.  This is where having one designated compiler comes in. 
In order to avoid redundancy, a central coordinator would have to keep
track of who is doing which scene.  They would also keep backups and
compile the scenes as they are completed into a final product.

Again, anyone interested?

Cheers,
-Phydeaux

ObASCII
                                       ====
         Help me,                      o o~~
     Obi-Wan Kenobi!                  _\O /_
                          ___        / \ /  \
                         /() \      //| |  |\\
                       _|_____|_   // | |  |//
           ,@         | | === | | //  | |  //
           /=-        |_|  O  |_|('   |===(|
           ||          ||  O  ||      | || |
           ||          ||__*__||      (_)(_)
         --~~---      |~ \___/ ~|     |_||_|
         |     |      /=\ /=\ /=\     |_||_|
_________|_____|______[_]_[_]_[_]____/__][__\______________________
[by Simon Jansen 1999,2000 http://www.asciimation.co.nz]

dwe...@kornet.net (Dan Wesely) wrote in message news:<505...@posting.google.com>...
> [I tried posting this to alt.ascii-art, but my news server seems to
> have problems... this is the same thing, if you read the other one]
> 
> Anyone interested?
> 
> Here's my thoughts:
> -One [basically] full-length ASCII motion picture produced using JMOV
> -One coordinator/compiler, and anyone can pick a scene to ASCII-fy and
> email the finished scene to the compiler
> -sig's (and possibly self-portraits?) of contributors scrolled at the
> end
> 
> What I had in mind was something reminiscant of Simon Jansen's Star
> Wars ASCIIMATION (http://www.asciimation.co.nz note-this site worked
> for me yesterday, but not tonight, just keep trying).  This is for a
> few reasons:
> 1. Some of the art is already drawn (like some of the characters),
> making scene production a bit easier.
> 2. There is already an established size (67x13) and framespeed (15fps)
> that seems to work well for the movie.
> 3. Mr. Jansen hasn't mentioned getting sued by LucasArts.
> 4. Star Wars scripts are easy to come by.
> 5. There are plenty of sequels. ;)
> 
> Another thought I had was one of those old silent movies
<snip>
> 
> Again, anyone interested?
> 
> Cheers,
> -Phydeaux
<snip>

Yes definitely!  Count me in on the asciimation collective!

 a few comments

> 1. Some of the art is already drawn (like some of the characters),
> making scene production a bit easier.

Yes, but I think that if it is a *new* production, we ought to have all
new art, reflecting the contributors' different styles.  And thought Jansen's 
asciimation is ground-breaking, I think that we can build on that effort to go 
even beyond it in terms of quality of the artworks and asciimation rather than
setting it as the limit.

Keen on doing a remake like you suggest, but I'd also be interested in doing 
something new, something original.  Actually writing a screenplay and creating 
something from scratch?

Cheers,
osfameron (hakim)

http://osfameron.perlmonk.org/chickenman/

Dan Wesely wrote:
[...]
> -One [basically] full-length ASCII motion picture produced using JMOV
[...]

Great idea! For technical support you can count on me.

Markus
-- 
 \-/        http://www.jave.de     O_< Get JavE4.0 now!    \-/
J|a|v|E                           /|                      J|a|v|E
 /-\      Ascii-Art for eyeryone  / \    - for free!       /-\

> Anyone interested?

Yeah, sure. But there are also other cool films to ASCIIfy, such as Matrix,
LotR and some others.

Joey

goo...@osfameron.abelgratis.co.uk (hakim) wrote...
> dwe...@kornet.net (Dan Wesely) wrote...
<snip>
> > Anyone interested?
<snip> 
> Yes definitely!  Count me in on the asciimation collective!

And so it begins!  Resistance is futile!

>  a few comments
> 
> > 1. Some of the art is already drawn (like some of the characters),
> > making scene production a bit easier.
> 
> Yes, but I think that if it is a *new* production, we ought to have all
> new art, reflecting the contributors' different styles.  And though Jansen's 
> asciimation is ground-breaking, I think that we can build on that effort to go 
> even beyond it in terms of quality of the artworks and asciimation rather than
> setting it as the limit.

I hadn't thought of his artwork as the 'limit', more of a groundwork
to build upon.  If every scene had -completely- new art, there would
be no continuity from one scene to the next.  One way around that, I
suppose, would be to have a diddle session on a few sizes of the
characters prior to work on the scenes.  That way, the scene artist
would have a character that the viewer would recognize later on in the
movie.

> Keen on doing a remake like you suggest, but I'd also be interested in doing 
> something new, something original.  Actually writing a screenplay and creating 
> something from scratch?

I considered that option, too, but we would almost have to have the
plot finished before we started the movie.  Trying to get one
coherent, meaningful plot out of everyone's ideas would be a
monumental task... one I thought would be better waiting until we had
a success on our side to tackle.  Though, a completely original plot
and art to match would be seriously cool!  But how would we go about
it?

-Phydeaux

dwe...@kornet.net (Dan Wesely) wrote in message news:<505...@posting.google.com>...
> goo...@osfameron.abelgratis.co.uk (hakim) wrote...
> > dwe...@kornet.net (Dan Wesely) wrote...
>  <snip>
> > > Anyone interested?
>  <snip> 
> > Yes definitely!  Count me in on the asciimation collective!
> 
> And so it begins!  Resistance is futile!
> 
> >  a few comments
> > 
> > > 1. Some of the art is already drawn (like some of the characters),
> > > making scene production a bit easier.
> > 
> > Yes, but I think that if it is a *new* production, we ought to have all
> > new art, reflecting the contributors' different styles.  <snip>
> 
> I hadn't thought of his artwork as the 'limit', more of a groundwork
> to build upon.  If every scene had -completely- new art, there would
> be no continuity from one scene to the next.  One way around that, I
> suppose, would be to have a diddle session on a few sizes of the
> characters prior to work on the scenes.  That way, the scene artist
> would have a character that the viewer would recognize later on in the
> movie.

Well, the clip gallery feature in JavE would be ideal.  The central coordinator
could keep these up to date (or could we use a versioning system like CVS?)
and we could build up galleries of each character in the various different
scales.

And obviously, animators have the freedom to create new in-between positions, 
or tweak the basic postures: they just have to update the galleries, so that
later animators can keep consistency.

> > Keen on doing a remake like you suggest, but I'd also be interested in doing 
> > something new, something original.  Actually writing a screenplay and 
> > creating something from scratch?
> 
> I considered that option, too, but we would almost have to have the
> plot finished before we started the movie.  Trying to get one
> coherent, meaningful plot out of everyone's ideas would be a
> monumental task... one I thought would be better waiting until we had
> a success on our side to tackle.  Though, a completely original plot
> and art to match would be seriously cool!  But how would we go about
> it?

Well, we could start by brainstorming somewhere (IRC, VK's chat?), seeing 
what characters we've got, what styles people use, and what themes we want to 
explore.

Comic books do a sort of incremental development of characters and plots
with later artists picking up the plot.  Obviously we would have to have
a good idea of a theme and story arc, but I think it would be nice for
the artists to have some control to explore their own thing in their scenes!

cheers!
osfameron (hakim)

http://osfameron.perlmonk.org/chickenman/

"Johannes 'Joey' Roessel" <Joh...@WeB.DE> wrote...
> > Anyone interested?
>
> Yeah, sure. But there are also other cool films to ASCIIfy, such as Matrix,
> LotR and some others.

Ooo... Matrix would be cool... it's got a fairly 'black & white' feel to it (all except the red/blue pills
and the woman in the red dress).  I think that could be good for ASCIIfication.  LotR maybe not so much, as
I recall that relied pretty heavily on colors, as well as how would you do the languages?  Romanize them?
Possible, but it just doesn't seem like it would work too well to me.

Cheers,
-Phydeaux

"Markus Gebhard" <ukg...@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de> wrote...
> Dan Wesely wrote:
> [...]
> > -One [basically] full-length ASCII motion picture produced using JMOV
> [...]
>
> Great idea! For technical support you can count on me.

Sweet!  A leg to stand on!  We'll probably need some of that support, too... though just having JavE
makes it a -lot- easier, believe me.  I made a THX-esque intro with Jansen's Star Wars player, that was
time consuming.  It had the THX logo wiped on, then wiped off, with the last corner turning into an
imperial shuttle that flew towards and just above the 'camera', and all in notepad.  JavE is MUCH
more user-friendly.  Thanks!

Cheers,
-Phydeaux

Well, things look grim.  VK's Chat has been down for weeks, a.a-a has been nearly overrun with
trolls (spring break?), and there have been a grand total of five replys to the original posts,
most of which less than enthusiastic.  Looks like we're going to have to hold off on this for a
while.  In the meantime, I think I'll try to work out a couple 'demo' animations to get people's
attention a little better.  So, to the back burner it goes.

Thanks everybody,
-Phydeaux

Phydeaux wrote:
> 
> Well, things look grim.  VK's Chat has been down for weeks, a.a-a has been nearly overrun with
> trolls (spring break?), and there have been a grand total of five replys to the original posts,
> most of which less than enthusiastic.

You are right, for a.a-a it is now not the right time to start a project
there. At least it seems 
things are beginning to get better now.
And on a.a-a.animation there are not so many people. In fact I think 50%
of all the people lurking on this newsgroup have replied to your post
:-)

As for me I can tell that I am already doing some work that will make it
easier to create this animation project. I have made some enhancements
to the JavE movie editor and everybody working on this project can get
the current deveoper version of JavE from me. I have also plans to add
algorithms for animated shifting of scenes: You just have to select the
last frame from scene 1 and the first frame of scene 2 and enter the
number of frames to be created in between using one of the animation
effects. I have not implemented any such effects yet, but if you have an
idea for an effect I will try to work it out.

>  Looks like we're going to have to hold off on this for a
> while.  In the meantime, I think I'll try to work out a couple 'demo' animations to get people's
> attention a little better.  So, to the back burner it goes.

I think demo animations and a web site with project details would be a
great basis to find other artists to join us. Also it would be a good
idea to set up a mailing list for all the people in the project. Artists
could post their ideas, sketches, etc. there, and I would post updates
to the animation tools (for I do not want to make those inofficial
releases public).

What do you think?

Regards,
Markus

"Markus Gebhard" <ukg...@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de> skrev i meddelandet
news:3CA...@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de...
> Phydeaux wrote:
> >
> > Well, things look grim.  VK's Chat has been down for weeks,

Huh? No it hasn't. It was down a single day when the people at her university were doing some work
on a computer. I wonder if this has something to do with the fact that I can't see your posts... :\

-jg

"Markus Gebhard" <ukg...@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de> wrote in message news:3CA...@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de...
> Phydeaux wrote:
> >
> > Well, things look grim.  VK's Chat has been down for weeks, a.a-a has been nearly overrun with
> > trolls (spring break?), and there have been a grand total of five replys to the original posts,
> > most of which less than enthusiastic.
>
> You are right, for a.a-a it is now not the right time to start a project
> there. At least it seems
> things are beginning to get better now.

I did notice that... even Tran is back, which -I think- is a good thing!  In this case, anyway.

> And on a.a-a.animation there are not so many people. In fact I think 50%
> of all the people lurking on this newsgroup have replied to your post
> :-)
>
> As for me I can tell that I am already doing some work that will make it
> easier to create this animation project. I have made some enhancements
> to the JavE movie editor and everybody working on this project can get
> the current deveoper version of JavE from me. I have also plans to add
> algorithms for animated shifting of scenes: You just have to select the
> last frame from scene 1 and the first frame of scene 2 and enter the
> number of frames to be created in between using one of the animation
> effects. I have not implemented any such effects yet, but if you have an
> idea for an effect I will try to work it out.
Ooh, ooh:

fade out/in - I thought about this one a bit, and it might be a bit difficult.  As a start,
   I'd suggest the gradient characters to accomplish it.  You'd almost have to be able to
   designate some characters/areas as fadeable (for lack of better term), and some as not-
   fadeable, this would keep the pic visible and fade everything else.

count-down w/that spinning shutter thing - Just because it'd be cool :)

scrolling text - vertical (credits-like), horizontal (stock-quote style)
 -two speed types: lines/frame or lines/time period (in case the frames have
  different display lengths)

something that will tag the frame for sound? (I know that is still experimental...)

Speaking of tags, maybe somehow to tag a frame to attract attention. To flag
it somehow if it's only half finished.  Like a few frames that will be very
detailed or difficult (rotating objects or such) to draw that you want to
just flag and move on to get the layout of the scene right first.  Just a
thought.

> >  Looks like we're going to have to hold off on this for a
> > while.  In the meantime, I think I'll try to work out a couple 'demo' animations to get people's
> > attention a little better.  So, to the back burner it goes.
>
> I think demo animations and a web site with project details would be a
> great basis to find other artists to join us. Also it would be a good
> idea to set up a mailing list for all the people in the project. Artists
> could post their ideas, sketches, etc. there, and I would post updates
> to the animation tools (for I do not want to make those inofficial
> releases public).

I hadn't thought of setting up a new mailing list... I just figured we could post here.  I
suppose that could get a bit lengthy though, so the mailing list would probably be a good
idea.

> What do you think?

ASCII Rulez!!!

It's like one of those trick candles, just when you think it's out, it just fizzles and
jumps back again, providing HOURS of entertainment!  And reuseable, too!

-Phydeaux