Sunday, March 18, 2018

Animation And Music

This year I'd like to do more with Music and Animation. I was going to try and get a Computer Networking Degree, but I was juggling 2 different classes at the same time, plus working overnight at Walmart. I was trying to study and do what I needed to do to pass, but I was overwhelming myself with both and dropped one of the classes. Since I had wasted half of my time on the dropped class, I had spent time that could've been used to pass the other class which I ended up failing. These were online classes that you watch videos, take practice exams, print out study notes, and do practice labs that simulate real life computer servers where you had to troubleshoot or set things up to administrate a network of computers. It's so hard to not think about Music/Art/Animation/GameDev. I've always wanted to do creative work. And while I love computers and learning technology, I don't want to force myself into school/careers I don't enjoy or like that much. And if I ever needed to or wanted to get into Computer Networking/Programming, I learned that I don't really need school for that. I just need to pick up a book, study, and get certified.

I finished my college basics, so perhaps I can take Music and Art related classes instead of Computer courses that I was taking. Since I'm more passionate about Art and Music in this season of my life, I feel like I just need to find ways to use my gifts/talents to make money. So I'm wanting to invest my free time to doing the things I love! And try to make money at it. I can make money blogging (putting up ads/affiliate links). I can create my own T-Shirts/Coffee Mugs and sell them. I can also make and sell my own music. Plus I can also use my Podcast to promote my blog and website (traffic + ads = potential $$$). I bought Moho Studio Pro 12 for Animation. It has alot of new features that I didn't have on Anime Studio Pro 9.5 (which is also Moho, just a different name they used).

At the moment I'm trying to figure out my plans for Music/Art/Animation/GameDev. A YouTuber named Roberto Blake (Content Creator) gave suggestion/tips/advice to Animators, not to focus on long videos to put on YouTube, but to make short clips for InstaGram, and to really push Merch. That's probably what I'll do. I would like to make Animations that are funny, or tell a short story in 30-60 seconds. And use them to gain attention, traffic, and point them to Merch related to the Cartoon/Animation Brands that I create.

I'd also like to do some Short Film. I have a friend who does that. He can help me, or give me tips/suggestions, or both. I'd like to do something short/funny and random like Napoleon Dynamite. Maybe some Parodies. Short Adventures. Stuff like that.

As far as Games: I would like to make a game. It just takes time and also planning on paper first. You need to make a Game Design Document. I have used Adventure Game Studio before to make a short game. I was using one of the Demo games as a template, I would change stuff up and replace images/sprites with my own. It takes a bit of tweaking to figure out how to get code/scripts right. Definitely a puzzle/challenge to program a game. But from the experience I got, I learned there was parts of the Global Script in AGS that I needed to leave alone. Mainly what I did was find the code for certain functions in the game, copy and paste from the help file, paste into room scripts, and change it up some. I watched a YouTube video that revealed that The Adventure Creator for Unity is probably a better option for making Adventure Games than AGS. At least for making it nice and smooth. If you really like the old school feel, AGS might have it's advantages. There's always Pros and Cons to software/apps/game engines and just about anything else that makes one thing more favorable than the other in one sense or another. Right now I don't use Unity, since you have to pay for add ons that make it worthwhile in using. But I do have a book or two for learning Unity. I also have Blender (free program for creating 3D models, animations, and even games). I use Gimp for editing Photos. For awhile I used it to Paint too until I found Krita and other free paint programs that were better for painting than Gimp. I don't have Photoshop or the Adobe Creative Suite at the moment. I have used Flash, Photoshop, and Illustrator in the past (High School Computer Graphics And Animation Class). For music and audio I use Audacity (Free recording/editing software), Reaper (trial... with full functionality. Recording/Editing DAW), LMMS (Free beat making software), Caustic (Mobile Music Studio App, there is a PC version you can look up), Nano Studio (Similar to Caustic... a Mobile Music Studio app, has a PC version), and FL Studio (making beats).

I would also like to give Streaming Games on Twitch a try. I use OBS Studio for broadcasting, I use the same program for making Vlogs for YouTube. One game I like to play is Age Of Empires 2. If anyone wants to play multiplayer with me, shoot me a text or a DM on Social Media like InstaGram or Facebook. My Steam name is BranMan197.