Well, I’m behind. Not that anyone’s noticed, but the deadline for April’s music video, number four, was two weeks ago. What has happened? I’ll blame a virus for one of those weeks. It’s a nasty one. But here’s what else is going on.

This video uses a lot of new techniques I’m working out, specifically ones that work with the Microsoft Kinect. As you may know, Kinect is a videogame camera that follows your movements and sends them to the game software. A lot of people have been hacking the Kinect to do cheap motion capture.

That process is, right now, eluding me. 3D motion capture seems to be pretty easy using the Brekel Suite. I can apply that to all kinds of models. But as you may have noticed, I’m not much of a 3D animator. Also fine if you want to make human-sized human things move.

This is the size and ratio of a Kinect skeleton.

2D is a bit more complicated. I’ve had lots of success with Animata, an open-source Hungarian package that does real-time animation with the Kinect. The only problem is that, once again, all these tools are made by computer people, not cartoonists. Only human-proportioned characters are possible. My attempts to slot in non-human shaped things results in squishes and squeezes that are pretty unattractive.

This bear, for example, has probably got a skeleton that looks like this:

You can see how that totally does not match the standard Kinect skeleton above. So getting Kinect motion capture to work with 2D means only designing characters with human-like – or more correctly – Kinect-skeleton-like physiques.

Fortunately Animata can also be used with Open Sound Control (OSC) messages. That enables me to use music tracks triggering MIDI events to drive characters like this one:

Of course it takes some complicated rigging:

But now I have a duck who seems to play that sax. Driving this is a music composition in Logic sending out MIDI over a server to my Macbook. Why? Because Animata is intel only, and as you may know, I’m still stuck on my ancient G5 PPC machine because Apple has not made a new workstation in two years. So I have to use the G5 to drive Animata on the laptop. Anyway, the laptop receives the MIDI signals, directs them via Osculator (well worth buying) and sends them to Animata.

You can see how this is going. I’ve got some fabulous new techniques and, once developed, they enable me to animate some fairly complicated things quite easily and quickly. The problem is still getting the Kinect to translate the boring human-like movements of a boring human being into the stylized form of a cartoon.

Imagine the nightmare trying to get THIS guy worked out.

This is all a way of saying that though I’ve blown my deadline, I’m still working as hard as I can, I hope to catch up, and you’re going to love this next one.

Up next: “Action Hot Dog” by The Ignorance Team.

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I’m late with the music video project, and there is not yet an entry for April. It was bound to happen. Happy May Day. In lieu of that, and to show that I’m conscious of my deadlines even after I’ve missed one, I offer some entertainment until the show starts.

Last month the lovely Vicki Bennett unveiled her massive “Radio Boredcast” project.

The project gathered over 100 artists together to produce works that were, among other things, incredibly L O N G . . .

My contribution to the event is the 38 minute “Mr. Suggs’s Shiny Beetle Hat.” Here’s what I wrote about it on the Boredcast site:

MSSBH began life as a turgid short story, written in an attempt to prove that a certain brand of screenwriting software was actually crap. It was, and so was the story, which no one would read, regardless of the amount offered. This new presentation, however, is bound to be the smash hit on radio I have always wanted. A little known fact about this piece is that it is entirely composed of birdsong, painstakingly recorded and edited, stretched, squeezed, modified, and modulated to sound like “synthesizers,” “drums” and even “a narrator.” Even more amazing is that it consists only of the songs of common sparrows found outside my window when I am feeling melancholy. Perhaps the most startling, amazing, and downright awesome wicked aspect is that encoded in between the birdsong are secret subliminal instructions which, if all goes according to plan, will mobilize a good quarter of the listening audience (+/- 12% standard deviation) into my zombie apocalypse army. WHICH YOU CANNOT STOP.

I still think it’s true. Would you like to listen to it? the entire Radio Boredcast will eventually be archived on WFMU’s servers, but until then, maybe you’d like to download it here:

Are you interested in a CD copy?

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By popular demand, the lyrics to the A.P.E. video are below. You probably liked it better when you could not understand what they were singing.

SHARE MY FRUIT

I wish I could go back to the very first day
I saw you standing there, you took my breath away
I’m glad you didn’t see me, cuz I looked like a fool,
Watching you there made me start to drool
Driving around in my junglemobile,
I can’t believe that you are for real
Your friends are all sayin’ that I’m not worth much,
But what do they know, they’re all out of touch
Wipe away your tears and open your heart,
Even though you and me are worlds apart
I like your style, I like your smile,
Give me an inch and I’ll take a mile!

(Chorus)
Yeah, I only want to be with you
Yeah, And you could learn to like me too
Wow, I wanna rub myself on you
Yeah, I wanna share my fruit with you

Oh yeah, baby, give me a kiss,
I never thought it could be like this
Don’t hesitate cuz my love won’t wait,
Even though you think that I’m second rate
So hold me close and take me to your side,
You can’t be getting’ picky, gotta swallow your pride
Going out with me couldn’t be so bad,
It’ll irritate your Mom and enrage your Dad!

I know you think that I’m movin’ too fast,
I know that you’re feelin’ like you’re getting’ harassed
Do I have to say the words – shout it out?
You’re my new religion and I’m quite devout
You’re the half that makes me whole,
I’d like to get to know you when I’m out on parole
Baby your love’s just gotta increase,
Never you mind I’m a big hairy beast!

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One music video every month throughout 2012. All original songs, all original production, all original video.

March Entry: The four hairy beasts that make up the band “A.P.E.” (Apes Playing Electronics) – Mungo, Gorgo, Konga, and Edgar – rock out with this song of love and longing. Yes, the A.P.E.s do try really hard, don’t they? But with such winning lyrics as “I Wanna Rub Myself on You” can stardom, world-wide success, and a children’s TV show be far behind?

I think of the guys in this band (all whom I happened to portray at various times against a green screen) as being a tight knit group from high school who are very earnest, but maybe not so good at what they do. I mean, think about it, their big gimmick is to dress in ape suits. And to write kind-of-love songs that emphasize the “ape” angle, exhorting the poor girl to whom they’ve directed this particular number to share fruit with them, possibly the highest act of kindness you can imagine in the life of an ape. This band does not get them laid. EVER.

But how different is their vision of love from ordinary human behavior? Maybe the apes know something I don’t. The content of most love songs pretty much hits you right in the midbrain; it’s not such lofty stuff. Sharing fruit and rubbing together pretty much sums it up for humans, only under different terms. We like to gussy it up a bit in our epic poetry, but not necessarily in pop song form. When the boys sing “Oh, yeah, baby, give me a kiss” is it that much different from the latest offerings on the Top 40? This one is popular this week:

I need your love
I need your love
I need your lovin’

That’s been on popular radio for quite some time now. In this form and in many forms, throughout the decades, again and again, expressed in these words and those slightly different, unchanging.

The fellows in A.P.E. might be clumsy, but they’re authentic.

Film and Video, Music | 6 Comments »

RADIO BOREDCAST
CURATED AND PROGRAMMED BY VICKI BENNETT (PEOPLE LIKE US)
BROADCASTING ONLINE 1 – 31 MARCH 2012 as part of AV FESTIVAL 12

The Schedule for Radio Boredcast, running from Noon on 1st March 2012 to Midnight 31st March is now up! This online radio station starts transmitting at the above time, but now you can go and have a look now at the full list of shows!

My piece, “Mr. Suggs’s Shiny Beetle Hat,” a 38 minute story in 19 or so parts, is part of the boredcast. Listen in! And if you miss mine, tune in for longer, greater, and more boring work than mine!

HERE’S THE FULL LIST OF PARTICIPANTS!
The full list of participants in Radio Boredcast with new and exclusive recordings and shows are Carl Stone, Pseu Braun & Alex Orlov, Touch, Rob Weisberg, Nicolas Collins, Andrew Lahman, Chris & Cosey, Jonathan Dean and Transmuteo, Cheese Snob Wendy, Kevin Nutt, Tony Coulter, Daniel Menche, Scott Williams, John Wynne, Chris Watson, Jem Finer and Longplayer, Tim Maloney, Ergo Phizmiz, Matmos, Dave Soldier, Charlie and Busy Doing Nothing, Andrew Sharpley, Nancy O Graham, Gwilly Edmondez, Anna Ramos & Roc Jiménez De Cisneros, Doug Horne, Irene Moon, David Suisman, Radio Web MACBA, Mark Gergis and Porest, Jez Riley French, Don Joyce, Carlo Patrao and Zepelim, Dorian Jones, Jason Willett, Zach Layton, Primate Arena with Alex Drool and Eran Sachs, David Toop, Dylan Nyoukis, Jared Blum and GiganteSound, Ed Pinsent, Adrian Philips aka Mr Rotorvator, Axel Stockburger, Craig Dworkin, Felix Kubin, People Like Us, Language Removal Services, Daniela Cascella, John Levack Drever, Joel Eaton, Clay Pigeon, Gudrun Gut, Charles Powne, Carl Abrahamsson, Andreas Bick and Silent Listening, Phantom Circuit, Patti Schmidt aka Wheelie Houdini, Leif Elggren, Ken Freedman, Erik Bünger, Douglas Benford, Christof Migone, BJNilsen, Andy Baio, Adam Thomas aka Preslav Literary School, Caroline Bergvall, Ken’s Last Ever Radio Extravaganza, Tapeworm, Brent Clough and The Night Air, Ilan Volkov, Nat Roe, Steven Ball, X41, The Long Now Foundation, Sharon Gal, Michael Ruby, Jonathan Leidecker, DJ/rupture, Gordon Monahan, Michael Cumella aka MAC, Lloyd Dunn and nula, DDDJJJ666, and Kenneth Goldsmith.

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