7 inspiring DDR videos to learn the moves

Exercise can be hard to fit in the daily schedule, or worse it can become a drab routine. What if it could be fun and nourishing to the whole body? I mean literally, entire body. That's what I've found in Dance Dance Revolution. It exercises my body with the jumps and my brain with the requirement to be alert.

I love starting my day with dance and music, and it helps me get over performance anxiety too. No one is watching, and I can do any silly beautiful moves I choose. Unless there is a hidden camera somewhere...then I'd become famous, haha.

To get ideas for the moves and tricks I hunted YouTube for some inspirational videos. Here is a selection of the best 7:





Slow to start, but it's worth it








Just the feet there, useful to learn the moves

Intense love quotes and poetry that stir the heart

Cloths of Heaven
Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
-William Butler Yeats


It's amasing... it's beautiful!... How did you do that?
-Ground Hawk Day movie

Alister Spence Trio and Jon Hassell

Yesterday was a happy day. After a day-trip to Blue Mountains we headed to the Sydney Opera House to enjoy some "new music." I wouldn't call it "new age" as this term has acquired a negative rep in the recent days, so we'll just stick to "new." New, because it's made possible by the developments in technology, endless variations of filters and effects to create the mood.

The opening was performed by Alister Spence Trio and it was a lot of fun to watch the musicians make love to their instruments. Literally. They found very imaginative ways to make sounds, like using sticks to rub on strings and dangling objects over the drums. Here is a video of the melody, recorded earlier.



Then Jon Hassell came out with a very serious face. He played the entire show in one go, almost as one track, and when someone attempted to applaud he waved his hand in a command to stop, lol.

May: Inspirations & Observations

This is the May issue of Inspirations & Observations, my monthly list of 5 things that inspired me, and 5 things that irritated the eye.

Inspirations

1. Life Drawing. I've been taking life drawing lessons at COFA to make animation and design process more hands-on, and I fell in love with drawing the human body in the process. Here are some instructional drawings by A. Loomis:
   
   
   
   
2. Neil Gaiman Sandman series. Totally inspiring, dark and accurate when it comes to portraying human nature. I was especially moved by "A Dream of a Thousand Cats"
   
   
   
   
3. Christopher Hart. I think he is the greatest teacher of comic drawing!
   
   
   
   
4. Cupcakes. I've been baking cupcakes for fun after seeing Cupcakes On Pitt store on my way home
   
   
   
   
5. Knitting - room shoes. Another one of my little projects...still in progress though
   
   
   

Observations

These are the things that didn't sit with me so well this month. It's mostly focused around usability and paying attention to your client's needs (mine in this case).

1. Xbox 360 setup and menu. I have recently purchased the Xbox (mainly to play Guitar Hero) and it felt like I needed a master's degree to set it up.
2. Western knitting pattern notations. It's interesting that I can understand Japanese patterns without speaking a word of Japanese, but when it comes to the American/Australian patterns I am having a really hard time. And I assure you that I can read and write English :)
   
3. Finsbury Paper uses iStock photos to illustration their collateral! And it's using some of the most popular images too. As soon as I received the magazine I felt, "Hm...I've seen these." Of course, a quick search on iStock revealed the answer.
   
4. Paper mail. Please, don't kill the trees for advertising!!! Send me a clever e-mail, and I might just open up my wallet.
5. Digital print shops, in this case Snap Printing. It was one of the most exasperating experiences trying to print 5 pages in the morning, which I needed that afternoon. I refuse to believe that printing has to be so complicated...but who knows, maybe it is. I did learn a lesson though: print the day before, save yourself hours of agony.
   

Previous months

• April: Observations & Inspirations
• March: Observations & Inspirations
  
• February: Observations & Inspirations
• January: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Typography with Flash

This is my research for the Typography assignment to animate text with Flash. From what we've heard, it's a complete pain setting type in Flash because of its way of interpreting vectors. It also doesn't handle kerning well. The discussion in class recommends the following to combat Flash's font problems:

1. Use monospaced fonts, if you can.
   
2. Use pixel fonts ( and make sure to turn off anti-aliasing); this font cannot be scaled.
3. If using anti-aliasing setting, use either "for animation" or "readability", just choose one and use it for the whole document to avoid Flash embedding the font twice.
   

So I've identified these properties as "safe" to manipulate in Flash:

• size
• transparency
• color
• speed of motion
• placing letters and words inside each other
• using color blocks
• diagonals
• and simple motion on a path

The theme for my animation is Victorian Era love. A Count is finally free to be with his eternal love, and he sings to her soul about his all-consuming feelings.

Some Inspirations
Although some of these were done with AfterEffects, there are still transitions and motions that can be observed and learned. Look past the 3D and watch the motion and interactions of shapes.