Topic: The New Black.

[Quemaqua]

Update - Okay, it's done.  Ish.  Also over at YouTube.

See below for original post and a few posts below for what this is all about.

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I can't figure this motherfucker out.  I've tried virtually everything to get it to do what I want it to do, and it refuses.  To manipulate text in any way confused me for hours in the first place until I figured out you had to turn everything into objects, but now as soon as I get one text block to tween properly, I'll do another, and it fucks up the tween from the previous block.  Three times now on opacity tween has magically turned into some weird fucking deformation tween for no apparent reason whatsoever.  I'm about ready to put my first through my monitor.  Seriously.  I must be the biggest idiot on the planet, but I can't get this thing to work at *all*.

[TheOtherBelmont]

Flash is a weird program, I remember having problems with it when I first used it in one of my classes, sorry I can't remember much to help you out.  I do remember a site called Flashkit.com that had a lot of good tutorials, but its been awhile since I've been there.

[Quemaqua]

The thing that drives me nuts is what I'm doing is obscenely simple.  It's sound and some text that fades in and out.  That should be as fucking simple as you could want, but every tween I do for no apparent reason decides to fuck up other text.  So when I have one line do its thing, it's fine.  But then when I do the second, for some reason part of the first will distort.  The first time it was an entire line.  I somehow redid it and it stopped doing it, but then when I added a third tween between another set of keyframes, for some reason ONE LETTER in the previous tween would deform oddly for no apparent reason.  Always happens after doing the next tween, right when I set it, as though I somehow simultaneously selected the "hey, let's fuck the text up so you can't read it" button at the same time.

This makes no sense to me whatsoever.  The only thing I can figure is it wants a layer for every single text block, but that's just fucking stupid and is going to make tons of clutter for no apparent reason.  But I guess that's the next thing to try.

[iPPi]

That sucks.  I always thought Flash would be fairly easy and intuitive to learn.  Albeit, I've never tried as I'm too busy with other stuff.

[scottws]

Yeah, I hate Flash too.  But not just the program.  I hate the content too.  It just seems to run so unneccessarily slow.

Jennie's two PCs are both P3s and anything Flash is ridiculously choppy.

[Quemaqua]

I'm figuring it out now, but the program must have been built by monkeys.  I can figure out how to do a lot of stuff, but things seem to get fucked up for no reason almost constantly.  It's really slow going.

[Quemaqua]

Well, I hate Flash with a fucking passion now, but I got it more or less done.  Viewing it on the web presents problems with too much showing odd the sides (hence there are some artifacts that shouldn't be there, but they disappear in a second or two) and with the audio not being 100% in sync with the video (God knows why... I played it a billion different ways in the player on my PC to make sure it worked, but sticking it on the web and playing it through FireFox gives me issues)..... but it's basically done.

If you haven't guessed, it's a shitty trailer for my book, which grows nearer to completion daily.  There's still a lot of work to be done, but it's around 3/4 done with about 1/3 edited enough to be publishable.  I'll need another 25K words or so (which is about half of what I did in November), but the plot outline is finished, and I even have ideas for a sequel.  There's a good chance for making it a trilogy, even.  The universe itself has expanded like mad, and I've got at least 12 total ideas for novels, short stories, and comics all set within the same universe.

I think it's some good stuff.  The trailer won't tell you much (or anything at all, really), but it's a bit hard to do for a book, especially when I can't give away hardly anything because of the nature of it.  Even the nature of the world the characters live in is going to end up being something of a surprise.  Anyway... enjoy.  Let me know if it doesn't work properly, and if nobody has Flash plugins and there's a demand for an XviD version, speak up.

I recommend downloading it and viewing it with the Flash player if you've got it (it's nice in fullscreen... download's about 3MB).

EDIT - Also, I don't know if the font's going to work properly.  It should be fancy looking (not Times New Roman, in other words), but I couldn't figure out how to embed the text correctly and don't know if it's even necessary given that I had to convert the text in order to deform it and such.  I'm pretty sure it should work fine... but if it looks fugly, let me know.

[PyroMenace]

Heh, that was pretty slick. I didn't recognize the little excerpts to be your voice until halfway through it. I dig. The anticipation will kill me, 2008 is too far away. But I'm sure it will kick ass, take as much time as you need to make it more awesomely good.

[Quemaqua]

Thanks man.  Awesomely good is the order of the day, or I'll eat my hat.

Also, there's now a YouTube version for those so inclined.  It doesn't look as pretty, but it avoids the space monkey rape that is Flash.

[TheOtherBelmont]

Damn man, thats pretty good so far.  My only complaints are some of the opacity fades are a little bit too drawn out, I would make them shorter, and of course some of the artifacts on the sides not disappearing that you mentioned, but that's probably a fairly easy fix.

I didn't know you were so far into your book, that's good to know, can't wait to read it.

[Quemaqua]

Heh, well, nothing is getting fixed at this point.  I've had my fill of this, and I already mixed all the audio and I'm sure as hell not doing that again.  I worked on this from like 1:30 in the afternoon until about 1 in the morning yesterday, so everything is just *done*.  But it's something... and it was never meant to be as elaborate as it got in the first place.  Once I get closer to completion I'll probably do another with more aim at informing about content (will have to find a good way to do that given that I can't give much away) and with music of my own devising (Portishead is amazing, but they might take issue with my use of their tune, heh).

Again, it's something, and that's what counts.  How many books have lousy amateur trailers release before they're even finished?   

[Ghandi]

Very nice trailer. 

I'm definitely interested in the book, although I have no idea what it is about. I had no clue you were writing a book- I knew you were writing stories and stuff but didn't know it was an actual book. Coolness. I expect constant updates now. 

[Quemaqua]

Done and done.  I was actually toying with the idea of a promo chapter release of the first chapter (given that a lot of it is stuff brought over from the original "serial" -- the one the trailer claims the "world" loved so much, haha), but I wasn't sure there would be any interest or if it was even a good idea.  Would people read it then get bored when the actual book came out, not want to reread that chapter and forget all the stuff that happened, etc. etc.  So I've held off on that idea for the time being.

For those with no knowledge of the project, I'll post a couple excerpts I included at the end of the promo release (nothing too spoily, Tet, no worries) and a few larger snips of the first chapter.  It won't tell you much, but it'll give you a little glimpse of the general tone and such.

Horror!

Black.  It's scrawled on my mind like a carving on a tree trunk in the park, a useless sign rendered with diligence at the expense of its canvas.  It may as well have been carved onto my eyes, for I see it everywhere now, whether or not I'm looking for it, and I can't help but wonder if it isn't my own fault; if it isn’t just the blossoming mistake of a sad and lonely man.  There were times when I blamed Rochelle, but like in so many other circumstances she turned up innocent.  Damn her.  I even blamed God for a while, but you can already guess how well that worked out.

Either way I'm stuck with the Black, and it has seeped into the deepest corners of my mind.  Near as I can tell, it isn't terribly interested in leaving.  Depending on the time of day and my level of control, it can be anything from a thick soup through which I'm forced to swim, or a thin vapor that travels the air in my wake like the earthy smoke from a freshly grilled steak.

Sometimes, on days when my hands tremble, it even looks like Igondjo.

 ...

Chicks!

She shrugged.  “I did the bar thing for a while, but Leo wouldn’t give me anything more than tips if he was working at the same time.  And he never stops working, so that was an awful lot of the time.”

“Fuckin’ A,” agreed Charlie.  “And we didn’t split the damn tips when it was me an’ her on same shift either, so you can imagine who came out on top night after night.”

Rochelle smirked cutely.  “Don’t be a sore loser, doll.  The tits get the tips.  You want to compete, grow a pair of these.”  She pointed out the items in question by grabbing them lightly from underneath and giving them a quick bounce.  “I hear the whole transsexual thing has made some medical leaps lately.”  Charlie gave her a poisonous stare, but she pressed her advantage with a mean smile that suggested underlying friendship.  “Next time I come in I’ll bring you the latest Genderless Scientific Weirdo Journal so you can study up and grow yourself some nice big Puerto Rican melons.”

“Or you could just -- I don’t know -- go fuck yourself,” Charlie suggested helpfully.  “And you could get even richer, because I imagine people would pay to see that.”

“Now Charlie,” I said, joining in with a jab of my own, “that’s no way to talk about a lady when she’s still in the room.”

“Oh, I see how it is,” she said, giggling girlishly.  “Shall I just sod off then?  So the two of you can continue this little sausage-party without my delicate sensibilities getting in your way?”

“I think you may be confused about the meaning of the word ‘delicate’, amiga,” Charlie said, and she scrunched up her nose at him.

“Come on now,” I cooed, “we’re only giving you a hard time.  And you don’t want to run off while I’m buying the booze, do you?”  I took on a pleading tone.  “It wouldn’t be right to just go off and leave me to drink alone with Charlita-to-be, here.”

 ...

More Horror!

The back of my right hand made contact with it, my knuckles singing in pain from the touch of bone.  Thick, black sludge flew at me from the disrupted surface of the puddle in which the thing had been sitting, flying against my shirt and exposed skin.  It smelled like death, but the odor was nothing compared to the feel of it inside my head.  The fluid got its fingers into my mind, conducting its hatred and anguish the way water conducts electricity, sending unholy flashes of raw emotion tearing through my synapses.  I blocked it out with a strangled yelp, intent only on staying sane enough to smash it to bits.

 ...

Science Fiction!

“I’d have to look up the report on the other investigation to tell you what it was about,” he said gruffly, obviously disinclined to do so, “and yes, I think a priest was really there.  What, you think they invented some new thing to forge their way past all that mystical mumbo-jumbo?”  Here he paused to chuckle, pointing to the bluepriest’s stamp and signature on a page of his own document.  “Fat chance, kid.  You don’t fool the priests by beating ‘em at their own game.  None of the rest of us even know how the gizmos they use to verify these seals work, but they can tell a real seal from a fake one even if it’s been laser-duplicated a couple thousand times.”

 ...

Nutbags!

“Junkie, junkie, junkie!” he shouted back to Shu.  “That’s all you ever say!  Don’t even think you gonna’ get by on yellin’ that shit when he shanks you in th’ throat n’ sucks your insides dry!  Mercury’s gonna’ burn!”

 ...

Action!

Terrified and unsure of the best course of action, I decided to run, but I had to stop that fucking scream before I could do anything at all.  It was more than just an impulse, it was a necessity.  I soon found myself almost unconsciously grabbing for a small potted plant that sat on a stand near the door, and before I could second-guess the action, my arm was hurling it.  It shattered with a satisfying crack, the broken ceramic plates clattering against each other on their way to the ground.

[Raisa]

bah.. go drown.

[Quemaqua]

Yes'm.

* Quemaqua drowns self according to the mandate of the Den Mother.

[Cobra951]

Best of luck with your project!  Looks like a ton of effort and dedication, and it would only be right for it to pay off.

I've never messed around with Flash.  All I can say is that it's obscenely inept to produce 2D animation tools for today's PCs which don't work flawlessly and don't perform extremely well with a small percentage of the available power.  (Even video of your typical caliber should be a small load.)  I produced a set of my own in the late 80s for demos we used to make for companies like Compaq.  The basic functions would run at full speed on 286s on up, and even the more demanding stuff only needed a 16MHz 386.  Rules for things to fly all over the screen, with all sorts of modifiers, were straightforward and reliable.  It's just not that hard of a thing to do, once you have the technical building blocks (basically, a DOS version of Window's bitblt with added features).  Cut to the present, and making anything scroll around in 2D should be cake from an artistic and technical standpoint.  I just don't get it.  It's as if they went out of their way to botch up the job as badly as they could get away with.  You should be able to run your demo over 100 times simultaneously without any issues, and creating it exactly as you wanted should have taken about an hour.

[Quemaqua]

Indeed.  Hence the feeling after using it that I have been violated by a gang of monkeys.  I'd really like to find some kind of alternative for the next trailer, but I dunno'.  I'll have to look into it later, I guess.  For now, this one is okay.

Though I'm heavily considering editing it again today.  I really don't want to, but there's a couple things I'd like to futz with.  I called in sick because I got really drunk last night (it started as having a shot in honor of my father, who is no longer with us, and his birthday, and ended up as the biggest binge I've had in probably a year), so I have some time today... I just don't know about willpower.

[idolminds]

I remember when I tried to make something in flash...more complicated than it really needed to be.

I do remember trying a program called Swish that made a lot of things that should be easy, easy. Like you tell it "I want this text to move from here to here while fading in" and it would do all the background crap for you.

[Quemaqua]

Well, I now have an official Black Preview Disk for people!  Comes complete with menu -- background, magical video buttons, sound, etc. -- and the trailer, plus a seventeen minute interview with me about the project, filled with horrid video clips of random meaningless garbage!  Hooray!

It all sucks, but it made a great test.  I learned a fucking ton, figured out how much I hate most of the programs I'm going to be forced to use, and determined that I *can* actually create my own promotional material.  And that's amazing, because this is the kind of thing I'm going to have to do if I expect any kind of commercial success whatsoever.  But I did it!  I can't believe it, but I managed.  So next time, once I get a real set of quality stuff together, this could actually go somewhere and do something for me.  And it feels amazing to have worked more than two full work days on this stuff and feel like I accomplished something.  My job gives me no satisfaction at all, and even though I had a horrid time for the most part with the experience of getting this shit together, at the end of the day it feels wonderful.  God I wish I could just work on my own stuff for a living.

Anyway, good times.  If anybody wants a copy, I might put up a torrent just for kicks.  Probably not worth watching, but I've never made a torrent before, so it'd be another thing to try out.  How do trackers work?  I realize I've never thought about this.

EDIT - Okay, a torrent is up.  It's not really so much worth downloading, but feel free if you want to give me feedback on the general concept.  My hope is to do a "real" DVD like this at some point in the future.  Download away!

[TheOtherBelmont]

I'm downloading it now, I see that is an .iso file.  Do I have to burn this to a DVD for it to play?  Or can I just watch the .iso file with Alcohol or some other program?

EDIT: Err nevermind, I'm getting an error with the torrent saying its not a valid torrent file(invalid bencoded value(data after valid prefix)).

[Quemaqua]

The wha?  Huh.  I dunno', I made it with uTorrent the way uTorrent said to make one.  Dunno' what's wrong.  Oh well.

[TheOtherBelmont]

I'm using the default BitTorrent client (never had much luck with other torrent clients, even though they have some nicer features) so I don't know if that matters or not.

[Quemaqua]

Doubtful.  You can try again if you want.  I used MakeTorrent this time and uploaded it to Mininova.

Also, yes, it's an ISO you can mount and play or burn to a disk or do whatever you want with.

[TheOtherBelmont]

No error this time but its not making any connections, I'm guessing you're the only one seeding it, I'll leave it alone for a bit and see how it goes. How big is the file anyways?

[Quemaqua]

It's about 600 megs.

Yeah, I'm seeding... though the tracker I used doesn't seem to be happy.  I've never fully understood trackers.  Can you just switch it to another tracker and it'll work, or if you upload it with a bunk tracker is your file fucked?  I stuck http://open.tracker.thepiratebay.org/announce in the properties of my torrent, but I don't assume that helps anybody else.  And uTorrent says my DHT status has one peer... and if I'm understanding anything I've read, that's you.

[TheOtherBelmont]

I am pretty clueless on making torrents and distributing them.  I'm not too sure what's going on, hopefully someone can help us out here, if not I'm sure you can figure something else out.

[Quemaqua]

Only thing I can suggest is to try switching the properties of the torrent to reflect http://open.tracker.thepiratebay.org/announce ... otherwise, I dunno'.  It would seem I should be able to give you the file via DHT, because supposedly uTorrent and the standard BT client both use the same kind of system (Azureus is apparently the odd man out when it comes to trackerless torrents), but I don't understand that stuff very well and apparently it isn't doing the trick.