frame frame frame framed

Dr. Zork here. And in this apology I will attempt to further enlighten the dim with the animation exploits of the fictional Mr. Akre, who is doing his best or worst at an attempt to make a solo animated feature film.

Last night he animated a chorus and a frame. What a chorus and a frame is I cannot go into now, but I certainly will at an above point in this series. He used his third animation technique for these segments. I think I may have referred to this earlier, or below, as his Photoshop technique.

This animation technique involves actual frame by frame drawing on notecards with a black Sharpie marker pen. He makes his drawings on a light box so he can see the previous frame beneath the one he is currently drawing. He will draw a whole series of cards that show some kind of movement and/or idea and then he will place the cards face down on his computer scanner and scan the images into his computer. He will then use the Photoshop computer program to change them.

By making certain parts of each frame transparent he can line up one frame with the next. He does this with a property of Photoshop called layers which allows you to put one thing atop another, just like this message is on top of the others written before it and future messages will rest atop this one, perhaps even going so far as to smother it with their profound weightiness, which this posting certainly lacks so far, yawn.

Anyway, layers on top of layers gives him a video layer cake. He can make a frame out of the composition with certain layers on and certain layers off. He also adds color at this point. Anyway, I am sure you would understand what he is doing a lot better if you could just watch him, but you have not yet installed that spy camera, have you?

I believe it is now high time for the pome of the day project. Here is the so-named pome of the day for the pome of the day project, brought to you by the pome of the day association, a division of day pomes international.

The other animals
and all the plants
they have the sun
it tells them when
and tells them what
they know it is boss

we think we can
say to hell with the sun
sleep past its alarm
we think we caged it
inside glass
we think we know this
in stories and sight
but what about the
centuries of sun,
our actual fingers -
boy, are we screwed

Written in sincerity and with (fingers),
Dr. Hubert Zork