SUCCESS!!!

Ok, so I WAS going to post about how much of a pain iMovie is for not importing my video tracks that I needed to edit, but THEN, I figured out how to do it! I am so unbelievably happy. I thought i'd have to submit raw files for my Type in Motion assessment on Monday. BUT NOW I DON'T HAVE TO!! YAY!

This post just shrunk dramatically in size...

I know, I'll tell you what I was going to write anyways.

So, if you read my recent post about my short animation of Mildred the Spider, you will know of my plans to continue animating and posting my beloved character on THIS CHANNEL.

If you haven't, I will fill you in now, although you're more than welcome to check it out after... or now if you want... i mean, I'm not your mum, I can't tell you what to do...

So, I had this animation assignment for my Photoshop class*. We were supposed to animate something around the theme of "Self Expression" which is code for "We couldn't be f***ed thinking of a stimulating topic, so we'll give you something loose and ambiguous to play with. Good Luck." As a result, I hated everything I came up with that came anywhere near matching the brief. It was only last Thursday (not the one just gone, the one before... the... 20th? Yes. The 20th) that I had an epiphany. With these new skills, to create basic** animations, I would animate one of my most beloved characters. Mildred the Spider.
If you haven't been subbed to my channel (no point now, I've deleted all my videos) or to my collab channel Snailmates (currently on extended hiatus) (not intentional, school just does these things) you will have heard of Mildred. In my very first vlog ever, I told the story of how I met Mildred. Oh, yes. It's true. She is based on a real-life spider.

Anyway, the story goes, she (this huge, massive, ginormous huntsman spider) (i can tell it was a girl, because only girl huntsman spiders grow to this size) snuck into my room whilst I was indulging in some late night YouTube bingeing (spelling?). I was watching the screen when I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. I ignored it at first but then it moved again. I looked and saw A DIRTY GREAT BIG FAT SPIDER. Right there. On my carpet. Thankfully I am not one to be scared off by such a thing, No. Bugs do not phase me***.

So, like the crafty, resourceful girl I am, I crept past, avoiding scaring it anymore (Fact: humans are bigger than spiders. Spiders move quickly when they are scared s**tless. Don't scare them, and they won't scare you. Unless you are a big baby. And I mean that in the most affectionate way) and I ran to the laundry to fetch the broom. Long story short, I managed to coax it onto the broom and I took it out to the garden. Spider stays alive. Bedroom becomes spider-free. Everybody wins.

This was not her first appearance in our house though. No. She'd snuck in once a few weeks before, when she was on the outside of the glass sliding door. Someone opened the door to let the dog/cat in/out, and she must've snuck in then; because next thing you know, she's on the inside of the sliding door. We did manage to get her out then, too. She was more subtle the next time, yet still she was caught out.

I'm not afraid of bugs/beetles/critters of the 6-8 leg variety. But at the same time, I recognise that killing them isn't always the solution. I like to keep them alive. I'm actually quite affectionate, when it comes to bugs, now i think of it. I suppose this is where the whole naming-and-personifying-bugs-and-other-various-critters thing stems from. Hence, Mildred. And Bob the Ladybug. And Cedric the Bee, and Linus the Snail (beloved mascot of the Snailmates) and Evangeline the Caterpillar. The family of bugs seems to grow with each letter sent between me and Sean and Beth, although not atm, since, like i said, hiatus.
I think it was only Cedric and Linus who didn't actually have a real-life counterpart. Or did they? I can't remember...

Anyway, I have been wanting to do stuff with this Mildred character for ages, and now, this assignment in all its glorious ambiguity provided me with the means and reason to do so.

Then, after I successfully finished my 31-second animation (limit was 30 seconds, but then, there were people who submitted 10 second clips when the minimum was 15 seconds. Pretty sure 1 second over is no crime) I attempted to upload to YouTube. No luck. I tried and tried to get iMovie to accept my .mov file, but it kept rejecting :(...

I then semi-successfully uploaded using QuickTime Player, but the first few seconds were obscured... which i had no explanation/fix for. It also cut off the last second or so... which was annoying because that was the part i put the most work into.

After messing around for ages, I discovered how to IMPORT the damn thing into iMovie, and now am able to fix everything. I haven't re-uploaded yet, because I want to make changes, and extend the story a little. It'll probably be about a minute long when I finish up. Then my brother will be composing a track for it... and only then will it be ready... I will be replacing the piece of poop version up now.

EDIT: am replacing it NOW. You can view the better version here

Anyway, it is really late and I've babbled way too much for someone who has to work in the morning. I'll be posting en masse when I finish assessment next friday :D. Including coursework! So you'll be able to see what I've been up to while I've been avoiding the internet.

I seriously miss this. Miss you all.
I'll be back soon.

-Lucy


*sidenote: my commitment to this class has wavered somewhat, with my whacked out sleeping patterns and way too much work to do on account of my amazing procrastination skills.
**and by basic, I mean "make images move across the screen". Nothing fancy schmancy. I mean, we were using Photoshop. Not exactly purpose-built for hardcore pro animation...
***Bar cockroaches which I don't find scary, either. They just gross me out.