However, my computer - bless its silicon heart - is not a particularly powerful device. We used to get on fine when I just used it as a word processor, and we still had close decent relationship when I added photography to my hobbies and soon filled over 40 gigabytes with "special" pictures (probably more by now...), but now that I have taken up computer generated animation, I really, really, really want a new one.
I'm dawdling on the idea of transferring to Unix, but that's by the by.
Point is, GIMP has come between my computer and I. I love GIMP. I particularly love how you can do just about everything (although not quite...) that you can do in Photoshop for the bargain price of £0.00. It's awesome. The same applies to a lot of GNU programs.
The trouble is that they are big. Well, not really big, so much as medium sized, but my poor little HP was purchased at a time when my only interest in computing was MSWord, MSExcel and the very occasional, very brief bit of photo editing.
In animation the way I do it, a single .xcf file can contain as many as 200 layers with various transparencies that are constantly being shifted and edited because I always forget what a pain it is to make something move and sing at the same time... so every frame in every stage (5 total) for a scene of an animation is held in one BIG file. And every re-write of every frame takes place in the same BIG file. And duplicates are made of key frames in case I damage one without noticing.
Couple this with HP's over zealous system maintenance operations, antivirus and the convoluted system of hosts that we know as Windows' version of functionality, and everything takes a very long time. Which is why this:
is still only on stage 2* after several weeks, when it would have been finished in 3 days if I could do it properly.
I have thus decided that I need two basic things: a new desktop computer and a double whammy of patience and concentration in my brain.
The second one can only be acheived by praying to anything that doesn't run screaming (up to and including slugs... can't run? Be my God!). However, the first one has more sensible requirements:
1) I need the money to buy it.
2) I need a desk to put it on.
3) I need money to buy a desk.
4) I need the space to put a desk.
5) I need the money to find somewhere that is not a broom cupboard in my grandmother's house for me, my new computer, my new desk, my pet snake and all my assorted junk.
6) I need a job of some sort to help me acquire said money for rent, desk, computer and so forth.
Alternatively I could take over the world...
But I think (although without any empirical evidence) that getting a job would be easier.
This one's gone a bit away... further than usual...
The point is, basically, that there will soon be an animation of six mini-eggs singing a song about a song they are about to sing about their origins, but it's taking longer than it ought to because I'm having a few techmological differences (to quote Idiocracy, which I should do more often). So the campaign for Mini-Eggs (and my associated level of ultra-crazy) to be available year round rather than limited to that special time of year when christians celebrate the foundation of their religion with a pagan festival of fertility...
(*Stage 1 - basic frames for timings, stage 2 - texture/generic features, Stage 3 - duplicates, colour and generic movements, stage 4 - character movements + individual features, Stage 5 - bookend animations)
PS - also, it turns out that I remain utterly unemployable... despite being informed that I "Passed the interview stage and am ideal for Sainsbury's"... I didn't get the job.
PPS - This has not greatly improved my sanity or my self-esteem.
PPPS - It has, however, allowed me to memorise most of the periodic table.
PPPPS - don't ask.
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