ClicksyPicsWiggle animations and more!

1900-1920 - Bethlehem and surroundings. Well of David .

*Just wanted to note the new ratings system at the bottom of these posts.  You don’t have to register to rate or comment, just click away…*

I finally got it down to two repeating background frames.  This stereo was in excellent condition, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have been able to pull it off.  They tend to get large faded and darkened areas, which I have to mask out in order to eliminate the flashy effect it creates.  With this one I had maybe 10-12 level adjustment layers, that’s about 1/4 of what I usually have.  This image is a total of 8 frames, I lost count of how many layers after I hit 70.  It took about 6 hours total to create.

There was a lot of great detail lost when I shrunk this image down.  There is a cross at the top of the well (colored in bright blue), as well as writing down the side.  View the original image here.

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This is pretty cool, from the AP:

ALBANY, N.Y. – Years before leading his vastly outnumbered troops to their doom at Little Bighorn, a young George Armstrong Custer was described as accurate in math.

Nearly 30 years before his March to the Sea laid waste to a large swath of Georgia, William Tecumseh Sherman was deemed a “fine energetic boy.”

And two decades before he would earn the nickname “Stonewall,” Thomas J. Jackson’s dreams of a military career got a boost from a man who would help start the Civil War.

Those are some of the tidbits gleaned from more than 115,000 U.S. Military Academy application documents being posted online for the first time by Ancestry.com. The Provo, Utah-based genealogy website said Tuesday that the information can be viewed for free starting Thursday — Veterans Day — through Sunday.

After Sunday, it will cost $12.95 a month for unlimited access to the West Point records and the website’s more than 100 million military documents, company officials said.

Read on…

1900-1920 - Around the Dead Sea. Man floating with book and umbrella in hands.

I learned a lot creating this image.  Getting water right has been a challenge.  I used two different techniques on the water.  The bottom area is a repeating pattern, the top is just a bit of semi-transparent movement in 3 areas.  Besides the wiggle and water, there are three animated elements in this image, can you find them?

Find out how these are created here.  View the original image here.  Get page updates on Facebook here.

View a great assortment of modern wiggle animations at Schillr.com here.  Be sure to check out the other tabs at the top.  Great site!

1923 - Barnum's Clown (Woman looking at clown while pointing to her arm muscle, weights labelled 250 lbs. on floor.)

More animation practice.

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1923 - The Girl in the moon

This is the same girl on the moon as in my ‘how are these created’ post below, just a different pose.  This is my first time attempting a falling pattern, can’t wait to try it out on a waterfall!

Find out how these are created here.  View the original image here.  Get page updates on Facebook here.

1873 - Fontinelle Weller posed as Columbia

I’ve added additional motion in 3 places on this image.  You get a hint, the additional animation is all on the girl.

Find out how these are created here.  View the original image here.  Get page updates on Facebook here.

This blog isn’t about politics.  But I thought with the recent elections and politics on people’s minds, some historic quotes from great Americans, that are especially meaningful to me, would be appropriate:

“When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.”  -Thomas Jefferson

“The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government – lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.” -Patrick Henry

“I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.” -Thomas Jefferson

“I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.” -Thomas Jefferson

“A government, for protecting business only, is but a carcass, and soon falls by its own corruption and decay.”  -Amos Bronson Alcott

“No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and Virtue is preserved. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders.”  -Samuel Adams

“In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we’ve discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We’ve learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose.” – Jimmy Carter, Crisis of Confidence speech, 1979

“In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution, with all its faults, — if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of government but what may be a blessing to the people, if well administered; and I believe, farther, that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other.” -Benjamin Franklin.  Speech to the Constitutional Convention (28 June 1787)

I am not a Democrat.  I am not a Republican.  I am an American living in the greatest failing nation in the world.

1900-1920 - Egyptian views; The pyramids of Gizeh. Photographer near top of Great Pyramid.

There’s no extra movement on this one,  just the stereo card colorized.

Find out how these are created here.  View the original image here.  Get page updates on Facebook here.

1900-1920 - Egyptian views; Assuan and Philae. Kiosk at Philae, looking S.W., taken from a boat.

I believe this is is Trajan’s Kiosk, on Agilkia Island.  Here is the wiki page, which also has a current image. Seems in the 1960′s, they moved this monument from the island of Philae because of high waters due to the construction of a dam on the Nile.  I believe they got the date from existing images of the site.  With a quick search I was able to find another flooded view from 1906 here.

I had trouble dealing with the warping of the kiosk on this image, but wanted to try out the water effect.  I used a free program, Sqirlz Water Reflections, available at CNet here.  The resulting gif was then chopped up so the top is wiggle between the two sides of the stereo, and the bottom was the Sqirlz gif.  I added too many frames, which is why I’ve sized it down a bit.  I would prefer to do the water by hand, but that’s taking some practice.  There just aren’t any tutorials about how to create flowing water in an existing animation, especially with only 2 to 4 frames.  And then taking that water and integrating it into the animation in a way to retain the 3d effect.  There are, however, plenty of tutorials on how to make crappy ugly fake looking water in just a few frames.  Maybe if I figure it out with a simple technique I will post one.  If anyone knows of some good water tutorials, I’d love to get a link.

Find out how these are created here.  View the original image here.