Bible Animations

Hey all!

This week's vlog:

- Audio:
   Voices
   Like I said in the video, the stark reality of a lack of voice actors is kinda a surprise after you start production. Of course, this round, nothing new, but I have considered various means of achieving different voices - even considered using digital voices, but they just don't really act, you know. There are better programs out there that do allow you to get better voices, but unfortunately, my budget does not allow for any new purchases. That means I have two options:

- Impressions
   Worked really well for Esther I might say (added some manipulation in Audacity as well, just to enhance the differences), but I still need some work on this particular area (was almost good enough to convince people, because one guy specifically said he wasn't sure, hahaha - GOD is so wonderful!!). I do sing a lot and a vast array of singers (male and female) so I do get to morph my voice a lot, but the goal is never to sound identical, but just to bend my voice to a similar shape, so it works with the song, but that is different from working on a particular voice. For example, Terry Fator is a brilliant ventriloquist and can not only bend his formant like crazy, he can also sing while doing so (talk about a voice gift!!).

- Voice changers
   A bit of a developing technology atm. I'm not knocking any software in this area at all. Please don't think so. I absolutely luv experimenting with various programs to find which one works the best. I've used a few over the passed year and by far, Melodyne has given the most smooth results, but Rovee has given the most bend to the formant - unfortunately, it is not as smooth. If the two were combined and improved, it would be a phenomenal combination!! I am very thankful for both, but neither got me the results I was looking for. However, they can be used to compliment the bending I can already do, just to add more difference, but that will be up to GOD when I get to such a point.

   Foley
   Quite a fun area for me. I luv the challenge of coming up with unique ways of creating sound effects I wouldn't otherwise have access to. For example, my first real Foley challenge was to make a tennis ball hit sound for my channel trailer. Because I had played tennis casually with my brother, I was very familiar with the sound. GOD led me to Anvil Studio and I used those MIDI instruments to get the initial sound which was revered and equalized to become round. I believe it was a snare drum and a hand clap that was combined. The snare being for the lower end of the sound and the hand clap for the sharp attack and that of course rounded for the "pock" sound instead of a "puck" sound.
   The hard part for this week was the fact that I had to reproduce a sound I had never consciously heard before! Like I mentioned, I did some research by asking people about it, but ultimately, GOD led me what to use and what it would sound like and HE helped me achieve it, when I thought "this is all wrong!! It doesn't sound like bees!" hahaha. HE always knows best!

- Anime background shaders
   I believe it was during this week, or last week, I saw a post on the Blender NPR and Freestyle group, which talked about a water color shader. The thought was not new to me, to use shaders to get that anime-painted look, but the problem was that if you really want to go all out, you may have to manually paint all the textures to fit, but I believe that there has to be a way to deal with the shaders so you don't have to go about it that way, even if you have to pull a few tricks to get the right look, like turning off some shadow casting and that sort of thing. That led to the grass test you saw in the video. I spent about an evening or so with GOD on that and using emission, which blended the grass bottoms with the deeper green on the ground. The grass is just a strand render (no shadows get cast).
   Ideally, getting some sort of water color filter that remains consistent over frames, like this, would be great: