Pushing Snow

Last week I decided to push myself out of my comfort zone. I took a quick break from writing my novel. I decided to enter a contest even though I had only one week to compose a few bars of music, sing and make a decent video. That was serious crunch time! What was I thinking? My comfort zone includes playing a few notes on the keyboard and mixing sounds with my DAW. I never was comfortable with the activity of singing. I decided to do the video in the name of fun. I wished to film my perfomace on a lawn full of fresh snow. I was lucky. It snowed three days in a row. I shoveled so much snow that on filming day I felt light headed from all the shoveling. Okay, maybe I was giddy with the excitment of getting out of my comfort zone and singing infront of the camcorder. I ventured outside. It was 24 F and windy! I wore my downfilled parka, ear muffs, long pants, cashmere sweater and my face was freezing! After one take I ran inside. My senses were numb from the cold. I took a look at the video and I couldn't stop giggling. My pants jiggled so much from the breeze that it looked as if my legs were made of rubber and I could dance!

I won't post the video till the contest is over.

My next post will be about Steampunk artists and how they inspire us to write Scifi, Steampunk or fantasy genre. I will also include writing prompts.

Happy Writing!

Spare Time

In my spare time I like to try new things. I took four photos and stitch them vertically with GIMP software ( free open source). Each photo is 640 x 420 pixels. I took the photos with a low resolution camera ( camera binoculars which I purchased for $ 20 ). I wanted to proove that you don't need an expensive camera to take beautiful photos. I was walking in my neighborhood when I took this picture. Too often I stare at the dry sagebrush and complain how dry and twiggy it looks. The soil is pure clay. When I look at my photo I realize that I live in a beautiful place even though the winter lasts 7 months and there are no trees. It is interesting that I needed a mechanical device, my camera, to tell me about beauty.

In my spare time I also like searching for freebies, contest, tutorials, poetry and beauty.

Pssst....check out my previous blog Aviary's 30 Days of Roc Contest.

Happy Writing and enjoy your spare time!

Aviary's Roc Contest

Woohoo! I am so excited to tell everyone that www.aviary.com is having a contest called the Thirty Days of Roc! Yeah! The prizes include iTunes gift card for the winners. There is NO FEE to enter the contests. Create your music with Roc software, which is an online music making software. Creating music is simple with Roc because you only download the wav or mp3 file which you create. Blue dot means note on.

Every day is a new contest with different instruments. Aviary will be posting their brand new instruments for each day of the contests which lasts a total of 30 days. Okay 6 days past so as of today there are 24 days left to participate. Hurry! Once you compose your song with Roc software you submit your entry at their sister site worth1000.com If you are making your own book trailer this is a good way to explore their 50 new instruments and if you enter each new contest you will build a nice portfolio of your own music.

Yesterday, I tried their Kitchen Sink and Bird instruments. Their approach to percussive instruments is absolute genius. I really enjoyed their Teacup for its crisp sound and the Cutting Board for its soft drum like thump. I found the Swan's voice paints an eerie scene. The owl has a soft breathy voice.

Am I participating? Yes, because it's fun and and will explore sound and music in the process. Here is link to my song "Do the Beet Juice" created with Roc.

http://www.aviary.com/blog/posts/30-days-of-roc-6-birds

http://avry.worth1000.com/contests

Book trailer: Diamond Eyes

You can read the book review at The Fringe Magazine .

This book trailer is a good example of what a book trailer can accomplish through music, graphics, photos and illustrations. It is more than a sum of it's parts for it opens the door with a friendly wave into the protagonist's dark world and compelling obstacles. The music is chromatic which conveys the feeling of mystery. Words define the protagonist: a young blind woman who can solve crimes!

P.S. I would like to know which book trailers have caught your attention.

Book Review: The Evolution of Fashion vs. Dress Design

It's 5 a.m. You wake up and decide to write a historical novel or scifi/ fantasy novel set in a different world. What are your characters going to wear? If you watch Buck Rogers (TV series) and wonder where does princess Ardala get her horn headdress? Where the sisters of Paul Atreide's mom get their steeple hats in the movie "Dune"? What is the source of such fashion?

You can these strange fashions in the ebook "Evolution of Fashion" written by Florence Mary Gardiner in 1897. She writes a delightful book with illustrations, sharp wit and sprinkles it with poetry. You can download this book (many forms including Kindle)from Project Gutenberg for free! The middle ages contains a panorama of extreme fashions which includes steeple and horny hats for women, long pointy shoes. I draw this example of a long shoe that lifts the toes with a long chain that attaches around the calf. Fathom a room full of guests in such attire. Ahhh...It's not time travel, but the next best thing.

"Dress Design" written by Talbot Hughes is available for download (free) at the Gutenberg Project. This author includes beautiful photos of real women wearing historical clothing. The author writes with fashion designers in his mind by including drawings of patterns for clothing. Beauty is the embroidery that flourishes on crisp fabrics that have endured through time. The book covers clothing from 500 A.D. to 1875.

Which one should you download? Both! Both are free. Florence Mary Gardiner gives a more touching account about humanity with bridal and funeral customs in different countries. Both authors despise the chignon hairstyle! Wow! Really? I googled the chignon hairstyle: a roll of hair bunched at the neck....hmm...

Please check out my 25 second animation "Stomp" which features medeval shoe.

Thank you for reading my blog! Hugs and smiles!

P.S.

I am

thrilled

to let my peeps know that blog hop is on! Just follow the links below.

I also had fun visiting Froggarita.

My First Animation with GIMP

feature length: 25 seconds

This is a Raven's Art Shack exclusive peek at Blink.

The simplest form of animation involves the blinking of eyes. You need only two frames, one for closed eyes and one for open eyes. An animated .gif needs a minimum of two layers. I drew the original with red ball point on loose leaf paper. I captured her image with my digital camera and closed her eyes with the smudge tool from GIMP software (open source and free to download). I added the original image as a layer. I select save image as Blink with extension .gif. The window pops up and asks if I want to flatten or save as animation. If I flatten the image it will be a still picture. I select save as animation. I pump up the delay to 368 milliseconds and 410 milliseconds for the second animation. I select to completely replace the frame. Voila I have created my first animated .gif! Yeah!

Making an animated .gif picture is simple with Windows movie maker. Upload the picture to the software. Click and drag the image to the timeline. Each image takes about 5 seconds of timeline. I composed 25 seconds of music using LMMS software (open source and free to download) using about 12 bars of music at 140 bpm.

Why create an animated gif? This kinetic art form is simple and fun to create. In the future I plan to make my own book trailer after I finish writing my first novel.

P.S. Welcom blog hoppers!

Christmas in 3 D

This is my last post of this year 2010. New Year is around the corner.

I plan to post next year interesting links that I find for writers since I am writing my novel and I am researching marketing possibilities. How should a writer promote her or his book. What makes a good author's site, book trailer (as seen on youtube), and many more activities that a future author-preneur may need to include on their do list. I also want to include more art in my Raven's Art Shack.

I made animated photos ( .GIF) but later found out that some websites "flatten" the pictures and thus prevent the animation. I enjoyed making my wiggle grams so I took two wiggle grams and made a video. I had fun making the 28 second video. Making a wiggle gram is simple when you download free software from Stereo Photo Maker

With Stereo Photo Maker software you can make 3 D photos as well as animated photos. Some artists recommend that you shift the camera 2 inches when taking a set of photos. I found this excessive. I think what makes a successful wiggle gram/ 3D picture is the short distance between two photos. You can preview this effect in Windows Gallery by watching one photo and clicking the next button. You will want a slight change in the photos. The sliver of focal shift causes a believable movement that you just turned a corner.

I hope you brought your 3 D glasses. Enjoy mon amies! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!