/* *************************************************************************** ** *************************************************************************** ** The Non-Sequitur Express ** Published irregularly by Phillip Thorne ** Volume 3, Issue 1: Sunday, 25 February 2001 ** http://nsx.underbase.org/ ** ** "It's like a blind man, in a dark room, looking for a black cat, ** that isn't there!" * ** *************************************************************************** ** ************************************************************************ */ OBSERVATIONS & C: The moon's obvious mysteries, welcome back, new list. ERRATA & O+A+A: Orson Scott Card at CCBC, unannounced TV. CONVENTION REVIEW: Katsucon Workshop: the RETAS Digital Animation System. LINGUISTICS: Adages, aphorisms and maxims. UPCOMING: "Farscape" S3, "Monkeybone". plus Legalese, acknowledgements and opt-in/out instructions. /* *************************************************************************** ** OBSERVATIONS & COGITATIONS ** Is the moon so mysterious? ** Welcome back ** New nsx-l@underbase.org discussion list ** ************************************************************************ */ Earth's moon: the common perception seems to be that prescientific peoples had quaint notions regarding it: that a giant dragon ate it during eclipses, that it was a celestial body and hence perfect, that it was made of green cheese. Where did these people get these supposed notions? Where's this invisible dragon? How exactly do visible patterns on its face not imply invisible imperfections? Why green? Its phases -- it's shadowed like a sphere. Its morning appearance when full -- look, more shading (though subtle); it's due to reflected earthlight, but that's not important. Was there such a paucity of bright directional light sources and spherical objects that no ancient ever noticed the similarity? And sure, the way it's suspended in the sky is a bit weird, and certainly akin to those bright thingies called stars and planets; but clouds and birds hang up there, too. And clouds: did anyone ever realize fog is the same phenomenon? I can hypothesize why not: you never see a "mid-altitude" cloud. They're either high overhead (casting shadows on the landscape, most noticeable in hilly country), or all around you; you never see a city block-sized cumulus perched atop a belltower. Or the nature of air as a fluid, with wind as a flow within it; yes, air is normally entirely transparent/invisible over human-scale distances, but what's a slave-powered palm fan pushing? What's an undertow at the beach but wind in the water? Maybe the necessary questions aren't as obvious as they seem, and maybe the vast majority of humanity was too involved in subsistence agriculture to ask. Ian Stewart's SF novel _Wheelers_ coins the term "extelligence" to describe the accumulated corpus of human sci-tech knowledge (as opposed to artistic culture); what further obvious questions does our extelligence prevent us from asking? *** Yes, this is indeed the first issue of NSX in nearly two months. I removed part of the pressure-for-promptness by porting the regularly-updated TV listings to the website (http://nsx.underbase.org/tv/); and I removed some of the eagerness by developing mouse elbow; and I removed most of the time by timeshifting too many SF TV series. ("Timeshifting" is shorthand for record- and-watch-later, thereby combining two concepts: watching, and skipping commercials. Does anybody record and *not* fast-forward through the ads?) At the request of a single person, I've created a proper discussion mailing list for NSX; if you have time-sensitive tips, sending them *there* will probably result in faster distribution than waiting for the next issue. Subscribe to: nsx-l-subscribe@underbase.org, with a blank subject line. Unlike this list, it's automated; so it's picky, and will say so. *** Today's quote comes from an episode of "The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne" ("The Cardinal's Design"), in which manservant/gadgeteer Passepartout is attempting to comprehend the operation of a time machine designed by the 17cen French statesman Cardinal Richelieu and built by the 19cen French writer Alexandre Dumas, a machine that starts wandering in time, is drawn by the Aztecs, and is then recreated by a young Thomas Alva Edison recruited by a profiteering Yankee Civil War arms maker. IANMTU (I am not making this up). /* *************************************************************************** ** ERRATA & OMISSIONS, ADDENDA & ADMISSIONS ** Orson Scott Card at Chester County Book Company ** Unannounced programming ** ************************************************************************ */ Missed opportunity -- SF novelist Orson Scott Card was at the Chester County Book Company (a very large independent bookstore outside West Chester, Pennsylvania) on fri-12-jan-2001-19:30, speaking and promoting his latest book, _Shadow of the Hegemon_. Among his comments: he intends this be his last book in the "Ender" series; he's not a military writer, and he's done all he can with "kids in space". If there's demand (even without the film adaptation of _Ender's Game_, now in Development Hell), he may license the universe and other kids to other authors. When writing, he charts the plot, and always knows the ending; as a counterexample he cites one book by Dean Koontz, full of intriguing characters, all of whom were discarded mid-novel. Being seduced by your characters is okay; "go ahead, have sex with them; that's as close to Bill Clinton philosophy as I'll get." He enjoys Hatrack, an electronic fan community ostensibly devoted to his books, because much of the conversation isn't about him. There will probably be an Endercon in 2002, probably in Provost Utah (it's cheap), which (like Hatrack) won't be limited to Ender. His name he signs rapidly enough, but personalizing a book takes time; hence, he organized the autograph line to speed the people "who've never read one of my books but got sent here by a nephew", though he promised to persist to the end, even for those who'd brought his entire oeuvre. *** Missed anime -- SFC aired the 1984 Lynch "Dune" film on wed-3-jan-2001-20:00. MoviePlex aired the anime "DNA Sights" on thu-4-jan-20:05 (in their Thursday anime timeslot). TCN aired the anime "Blue Submarine No.6" on fri-5-jan-2001- 16:00 (in their fortnightly "toonami" feature timeslot). I overlooked "DNA Sights" because tv.excite.com had color-coded it as "other" not "animation". It's by Leiji Matsumoto, creator of "Captain Harlock" and "Space Battleship Yamato"/"Starblazers", though (according to the online reviews) the appearance of the _Arcadia_ and _Yamato_ at the film's end (the only part I caught) was a total "huh?" /deus-ex-machina/. Missed MIA-returns -- "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" aired on wtxf-29-fox at s- 7-jan-2001-13:00. "Total Recall 2070" aired on wcau-10-nbc at s-7-jan-2001- 17:00. Missed premiere -- wpsg-57-upn aired the first episode of "Gary & Mike" on fri-12-jan-2001-21:30. It's exec-produced by Will Vinton, inventor of Claymation(tm) (see: the California Raisins, "The Adventures of Mark Twain" (1985)) -- an impressive pedigree; but the UPN promotions are *awfully* lowbrow. He's also responsible for "The PJs", and *that's* certainly not the height of refinement, either. /* *************************************************************************** ** CONVENTION REVIEW ** Katsucon Animation Workshop: The RETAS Digital Animation System ** sat-17-feb-2001-10:00, 2 hours ** ************************************************************************ */ Last weekend I attended the anime convention Katsucon 007, held at the Hyatt Regency in Crystal City, Virginia. (Ie Arlington, across the Potomac from DC, two Metro stops south of the Pentagon.) There were the usual video rooms and panel discussions with industry insiders (watch this space for additional con coverage), but also a track of two-hour workshops on technique: subtitling, voice acting, cel painting, &c. "RETAS! Pro" is one of several "digital animation" software applications now available; it was developed in Japan, starting in 1991, to meet the needs of the cel animation industry. RETAS is pronounced "raytass" or sometimes (due to its Japanese roots) "lettuce", and stands for Revolutionary Engineering Total Animation System. Its suite/pipeline consists of six (largely optional) packages: * PencilMan v1.0 - paperless drawing * QuickChecker - pencil testing * TraceMan v5.2 - scanning, line cleanup and processing * PaintMan v5.2 - painting * CoreRETAS v5.2 - multiplane compositing and rendering * RenderDog v5.2 - network rendering ("Dog"? The name "Renderman" was already taken by Pixar.) RETAS emulates the look-and-feel of the traditional 2D cel animation workflow (sketches, clean sheets, inking, coloring, X-sheets, multiplane camera) so the toolset might surprise immigrants from the 3D world. You can match most of its abilities with Adobe Photoshop, Premiere and AfterEffects, but RETAS really excels in *automating* the process across thousands of cels (or more typically, hundreds of sequences, each with dozens of cels), and splitting the pipeline across workstations. Like those tools, it's a native of the Mac world, but can speak Windows. Sound is outside its purview; that's an artform in itself, reserved for "post"(production), and the RETAS website community board recommends tools like Magpie (shareware for vocal timing) and SoundForge. The compositing process in CoreRETAS combines a static background image with one or more animation elements, which can slide in "2.5" dimensions; elements are individually 2D, but can be stacked in a mutable Z-order (A can travel in front of B, then behind it), and can zoom in and out. Movements are controlled by a standard exposure sheet ("X-sheet"). (If you ever used DeluxePaint III on the Commodore Amiga, c.1992, it's like the movements of animbrushes, but in a spreadsheet.) You can build a RETAS network with Mac or Unix, but with more than eight stations, WinNT or Win2000 are recommended. With two shifts and 20 machines (plus a server and backup server), three would be scanners, a few would have Debabilizer; each would have Photoshop. Machines for tracing can have as little as 64MB RAM, painters more, and compositors 256MB. Output would be to Beta or DDR (digital disk recorder). And the other numbers slipped past me. Presenting were Scott Frazier, a multiyear vet of the anime industry, one of the designers of RETAS, and employee of the US distributor, Trimedia; and four reps from Humoring the Fates, a small FL/Tampa-based indie animation subcontractor and an early US beta tester. (HTF was frankly incensed at Disney Animation's chronic efforts to recruit/absorb every college animation graduate, thereby maintaining its US monopoly/hegemony -- but that's another story.) At Katsucon, "workshop" was usually a codeword for "two-hour panel"; the audience was treated to Quicktime movies by HTF and the walkthroughs of the demo software (since someone had forgotten to bring a laptop with a full copy). We didn't get hands-on with RETAS, but we all got product literature and CD-ROMs with a save-disabled version of RETAS. *** As a tenth-anniversary special, Trimedia has discounted their software 20%. (See www.AnimationSoftware.com.) Through 28-feb, you can purchase PaintMan v5.2 for only $960, or the Basic Studio Bundle (TraceMan+PaintMan+CoreRETAS) for only $4240. Students can get even better deals. Sound expensive? The alternatives (Animation Stand, Animo, CTP, Softimage|Toonz, Speed Razor, USAnimation, &c) are all more so. That's one reason RETAS has a 98% market penetration in Japan; you can buy a studio's worth of seat licenses more easily. The large US studios tend to splice together disparate systems; Disney has its own custom software. References: www.celsys.co.jp - CELSYS Inc., Japanese software developer, 1991. www.trimediaweb.com - Trimedia Inc., US affiliate of CELSYS, 1997. www.retas.com - gallery/community/support site for RETAS. www.AnimationSoftware.com - sales site for RETAS software (Yahoo-based). www.fates.com - Humoring the Fates, US animation house and exponent. www.linker.com - Linker System's Animation Stand v4.1, Mac/Win/SGI, 1989. www.animo.com - Cambridge Animation System's Animo. www.yogurt-tek.com - Yogurt Technology's Archer scan/paint/compose. www.creatoon.com - Androma's CreaToon v1.2 simulates paper cut-outs. www.cratersoftware.com - CTP, for broadcast-quality. www.softimage.com - Toonz is a digital ink-and-paint X-sheet studio. www.toonboom.com - USAnimation v.5 is a vector-based studio. /* *************************************************************************** ** LINGUISTICS ** Adages, aphorisms and maxims ** ************************************************************************ */ Bombarded with aphorisms, epigrams, truisms and "old saws" in novels, it occured to me (as a Good Reader) to wonder if there was really any difference between them. From the _Doubleday Roget's Thesaurus in Dictionary Form_ (1977) and _Random House Webster's College Dictionary_ (1992), I learned: no, not really. The many circular references visible below drag the definitions together into a knot, like gluons acting upon each other. ADAGE - a traditional saying expressing a common experience or observation; proverb. APHORISM - a terse saying embodying a general truth or astute observation. APOTHEGM - a short, pithy saying; aphorism. AXIOM - 1. a self-evident truth that requires no proof. DICTUM - 2. a saying; maxim. EPIGRAM - 1. a witty, ingenious, or pointed saying tersely expressed. MAXIM - 1. an expression of a general truth or principle, esp. an aphoristic or sententious [2. given to excessive moralizing; self-righteous 3. of the nature of a maxim; pithy [1. brief, forceful, and meaningful in expression; terse; forcible]] one. PROVERB - 1. a short popular saying, usu. of unknown and ancient origin, that expresses effectively some commonplace truth or useful thought; adage; saw. [...] A PROVERB is such a saying popularly known and repeated, usu. expressing simply and concretely, though often meatphorically, a truth based on common sense or practical human experience. A MAXIM is a brief statement of a general and practical truth, esp. one that serves as a rule of conduct. SAW - a maxim; proverb; saying. TRUISM - a self-evident, obvious truth, esp. a cliché [1. a trite, stereotyped expression]. /* *************************************************************************** ** UPCOMING ** Series, Seasons, Episodes, Movies, Books ** ************************************************************************ */ The third season of "Farscape" premieres on the Sci-Fi Channel soon. The fantasy film "Monkeybone" is now open in theatres; it features Brendan Fraser ("The Mummy") and much stop-motion animation by the man (not Tim Burton) who did "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "James and the Giant Peach". I've ported full TV listings to the NSX website (http://nsx.underbase.org/tv/); I update them every five to ten days. If anyone wishes to e-receive them, please contact me; I can initiate another one-way distribution list. /** ************************************************************************ ** Legalese ** Acknowledgments ** Opt-in/out Instructions ** *********************************************************************** */ The set of creative works herein reviewed and analyzed, including the subset {books, movies, TV shows, toys}, are the property of their respective copyright holders. No infringement or endorsement is expressed, implied or intended. The original reviews and analyses are themselves copyright 2001 by Phillip Thorne. If you're receiving this newsletter, you've probably intentionally subscribed to it, or possibly you're interested in special conference/convention/tradeshow coverage. In any case, to cancel your subscription, send an email message to nsx@underbase.org with the words "UNSUBSCRIBE NON-SEQUITUR" in the subject line and/or body. Newsletter: nsx@underbase.org (human-managed) Discussion list: nsx-l-subscribe@underbase.org (to subscribe; blank subject) nsx-l (list posting) nsx-l-unsubscribe (to unsubscribe) TV listings site: http://nsx.underbase.org/tv/ /* *************************************************************************** ** *************************************************************************** ** The Non-Sequitur Express ** http://nsx.underbase.org/ ** Volume 3, Issue 1: Sunday, 25 February 2001 ** Copyright 1999-2001 Phillip Thorne, nsx@underbase.org ** *************************************************************************** ** ************************************************************************ */