planning meeting

Hey Robin, this idea is too exciting! Let's try to meet sometime after Thanksgiving to hash out the details: when we want to meet, how often, what we hope to learn, etc.

Megan, i saw the comment space was limited to 500 characters so i am adding something here -- hope it doesn't scare anyone off! - robin

101 Ways to Flip-out a Dalmation, then exactly what Megan suggests.

If you join this group, chances are you already know how limits can help the imagination. Still, it is nice to find out just how far this can be taken. On the first meeting – after introductions – I would like to share my ideas for over 100 ways dalmations might be flipped out in 101 frames. Dalmations are not an ideal subject, for as one art student confessed, they are hard to draw. True, until we have quick-and-easy software allowing objects not only be copied, but simultaneously moved+turned and easily enlarged or shrunk in place spots, or any complex yet distinct patterns are time-consuming. Yet, those damn spots, or what we can do with them, are what makes dalmations a conceptual cornucopia (the late Tiger Tateishi, a Japanese graphic artist did the same with the stripes of the big cat in his name: I will bring a book of his to the meeting). I realize dalmation graphics tend to be infantile and we have too much of such already and that there are other more appealing themes such as imaginary evolution, plants bearing odd fruit and people going from birth to death in 100 frames, etc... But, hey, the pre-existence of the cute dalmation image may serve as a foil to better show the potential of creative hypershort animation by contrast. Before the meeting, anyone who wishes to may list their ideas for flipping-out dalmations just to see how many ideas pop up independently . . . or not. As you can see from my profile photo, I am giving away one flipped-out dalmation: Ice Fishing.

After zipping through the dalmations, I hope to sum up i what I imagine could happen in the future and how we can help to get there – of course, feel free to expand or question any point – in a few minutes. I will post written summaries of my take on the main types of hypershort animation, relationship between specific content and frame number, and details of what is ideal for soft and hardware, etc in the DISCUSSIONS feature of this site. I think we might need to wait until we gain more members to take this much further.

Meanwhile, most of us – especially me – could use help (skill and -ware sharing) to be able to create animation/examples more easily. The trickiest thing will be trying to figure out what is best to do at meetings, one-on-one, pure online networking or alone. Exactly what Megan wrote in a line.