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Old 03-16-2021, 10:38 AM   #419
Galadriel55
Blossom of Dwimordene
 
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Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: The realm of forgotten words
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Galadriel55 is lost in the dark paths of Moria.Galadriel55 is lost in the dark paths of Moria.Galadriel55 is lost in the dark paths of Moria.Galadriel55 is lost in the dark paths of Moria.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Huinesoron View Post
Ha, no. ^_^ I spent about half an hour on Wikimedia Commons finding public-domain drawings that would work for each attribute - 'heather' was the easiest, while deciding what to use for 'memory' and 'fate' were the hardest. Huan is here an Irish Wolfhound, because... wolf.
Hey, it turned out really well. I didn't immediately realize that they corresponded to the attributes, but once I did I thought it was really cute to use Huan. And well done on Memory and Fate!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hui
Perfectly happy to have them listed; I've put them in the Libretto too. They're entirely silly, but this whole project edges that way. ^_^
Nothing wrong with silly. ^.^

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hui
Right, so I've had one of my routine bouts of that insanity which whispers 'Maybe Sindarin isn't that bad...', and have started trying to do the Duel in Sindarin. (Sauron, having been in Middle-earth the whole time, would never have learnt Quenya...) It turns out Sindarin is that bad, and half an hour's work got me all of two lines:

Le beren athrad i 'lann nín pengarfad annin
Sí gwêath a faeath muil dhínin di nidh nín


"You are bold [= 'beren' ^_^] to cross my border without speaking to me
Here all creatures and all souls are silent slaves to my will"

dhínin is the epitome of Sindarin here: it's the barely-recognisable lentited plural form of dínen, as in Rath Dínen.
I think Sindarin looks prettier and more mysterious when written in English, but it's so much harder to pronounce. "Dhínin di nidh nín" has to be a Sindarin tongue twister. Can't speak to the vocab and grammar, but now having attempted to sing in both, Quenya is a lot kinder on the speech apparatus. ^.^

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hui
On the less my-mind-is-melting side, I've also done another paper cutout!

Thus it was that Men called King Felagund, whom they first met of all the Eldar, Nóm, that is Wisdom.
Nice! That's very lovely!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hui
I'm actually wondering about reverting to paper cutouts for the prologue/Act 2 prologue/epilogue images, at least for the faces. Looking at the shot of the Oath in the compiled Tracks 1-4 video, it struck me how goofy most of the faces look; they're very hard to do properly when they're so small! The only digitally-drawn face that really adds anything is Sauron in his fan-dancer shot, so why not lean into the stylised thing and just remove them? I've done other art which looks perfectly fine with blank faces.

I dunno; what are your thoughts? It'll be the first and last thing people see in the final video, so I want to get it right.
It took me a while to find the right video - I kept looking for the right link to Lament, but those are all still old-style with the backgrounds. I think that as a concept, faceless cutouts are fine, and even add an extra touch of themselves (ie highlight the difference between now/real and then/memory/history). I agree that the Oath faces look overexaggerated. But also looking at the plain cut-outs you've posted, some of the people look fine (especially those more in the distance, or when the face does not directly overlap with the body), but others are a bit creepy. I think it would be a good idea to somehow outline the head/face, or maybe put minimalistic features in there (eg only a nose, or something). Because the fully blank ones up close are just too blank. Though, what if you kept some of the shading to outline chins and such, but not the rest of the details? I dunno, I have no idea how you make the faces look real, so can't give any practical thoughts on the matter. But I think the concept itself is a great idea, just needs the right balance of detail.


...Actually, case in point. In this last one, the Man looks perfectly fine the way he is - and his face is rimmed by the beard, and his neck is a different colour. But Finrod's face looks a bit odd, too blank, and I also get the double-picture illusion where the part that sticks out can either be his neck or his nose, and I feel that outlining the chin or the nose or some other form of the face would probably solve my discomfort with that face. And looking even at the cutout for Oath, I feel more or less comfortable with most faces, especially Finrod and Feanor, but Galadriel and Curufin look weird. And it's comparing that to the completed picture which made me think that perhaps it's in the outline of the face, or lack of thereof. I don't know if that's any help, or just two paragraphs of no help.



On my front, I think we'll also need to redo Minions. My mom, who has nearly perfect hearing, told me I totally butchered the melody there, and considering the absolutely disharminious harmony they have there I can well believe her. I'm gonna ask her to help me fix it, and then I'll modify the instrumental (won't need to redo all of it, but would need to fix it to match the melody). And we'd need to re-sing it after. I'm sorry that I couldn't do it properly, but I'm glad at least someone has pointed it out before we're well past this song.
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