Animating "Creativity"
Yesterday I wrote a shape poem, "Creativity." I don't use this form very often, but the concept popped into my head in response to a prompt from ellenmillion. What I did was sketch out a static, 2D version of what is really an animated, 3D concept. It is patterned like an atom, with words tightly packed like the parts of a nucleus, and then other words in different fonts filling two energy layers (two words on two ellipses, then eight words on four larger ellipses) like electrons. The challenges are:
* I'm not very good at freehand drawing, so the rough drafts are sloppy.
* I'm not very good at manipulating computer programs, so my ability to animate this is probably insufficient.
* Based on my previous rassling with MS Word, I do not think its "draw" feature is sufficient to make an elegant version of the static, 2D version -- at least not in my hands -- which is why I scribbled the concept sketch on paper.
* I checked PowerPoint. It does some cool animation tricks, one of which is even an ellipse, but not stuff that looks like it would work for animating this poem.
* My ordinary pricing scheme doesn't really apply here. The poem has just a few words. The pattern is what makes it cool. It didn't take very long to imagine, but rendering it in a marketable form will definitely take significant time.
Possible solutions:
* I could try to scrapbook this into a more elegant static, 2D version. I have some stencils of ellipses, and my computer has plenty of fonts so that I could print out the words and stick them on their orbits. A scrapbooked poem can then be photographed or scanned, and uploaded for viewing.
* I could work with someone else who is good at manipulating computer programs or otherwise animating things. (This would get them a byline like "animated by Clever Person" along with mine.) I have seen atoms and other things animated in programs such as Java and Flash, and there are other animation programs, and for all I know there might even be an atom generator with customizable labels. Either a 2D or a 3D animation could work; my concept sketch is sort of in-between those (i.e. some words are upside-down but none are mirror-written). An animated poem could be ... um, put on the web somehow, somewhere, preferably by someone more skilled than myself.
minor_architect has expressed some interest in co-sponsoring this if it can be animated. I don't know if that would appeal to anyone else, or if anyone would be interested in a static, 2D version done with scrapbooking tools.
Thoughts? Other options? Does anyone have skills that might help? Does this sound cool enough to pursue further?
* I'm not very good at freehand drawing, so the rough drafts are sloppy.
* I'm not very good at manipulating computer programs, so my ability to animate this is probably insufficient.
* Based on my previous rassling with MS Word, I do not think its "draw" feature is sufficient to make an elegant version of the static, 2D version -- at least not in my hands -- which is why I scribbled the concept sketch on paper.
* I checked PowerPoint. It does some cool animation tricks, one of which is even an ellipse, but not stuff that looks like it would work for animating this poem.
* My ordinary pricing scheme doesn't really apply here. The poem has just a few words. The pattern is what makes it cool. It didn't take very long to imagine, but rendering it in a marketable form will definitely take significant time.
Possible solutions:
* I could try to scrapbook this into a more elegant static, 2D version. I have some stencils of ellipses, and my computer has plenty of fonts so that I could print out the words and stick them on their orbits. A scrapbooked poem can then be photographed or scanned, and uploaded for viewing.
* I could work with someone else who is good at manipulating computer programs or otherwise animating things. (This would get them a byline like "animated by Clever Person" along with mine.) I have seen atoms and other things animated in programs such as Java and Flash, and there are other animation programs, and for all I know there might even be an atom generator with customizable labels. Either a 2D or a 3D animation could work; my concept sketch is sort of in-between those (i.e. some words are upside-down but none are mirror-written). An animated poem could be ... um, put on the web somehow, somewhere, preferably by someone more skilled than myself.
minor_architect has expressed some interest in co-sponsoring this if it can be animated. I don't know if that would appeal to anyone else, or if anyone would be interested in a static, 2D version done with scrapbooking tools.
Thoughts? Other options? Does anyone have skills that might help? Does this sound cool enough to pursue further?