Lettering

[Laurence Finston]

Working on cutouts. This wasn't planned, so all of the drawings will need some modification. First I want to test making the joints. I could try doing some cutout animation.

[Laurence Finston]

Originally Posted by Laurence Finston

There are several types of camera moves: zooms, pans, tracks and tilts.

I forgot about rotating the camera about its own axis, or rather, about the line perpendicular to the surface of the lens and passing through the aperture. That one isn't used too often, probably because it would make the camera operator dizzy. They all correspond exactly to operations that can be performed on the focus when making a perspective projection using 3D graphics software.

These camera moves remind me of the kinds of motion possible for a ship or an airplane, which I read about a long time ago. I remember pitching and yawing but I've forgotten the names of the others.

[Laurence Finston]

Originally Posted by Laurence Finston

These camera moves remind me of the kinds of motion possible for a ship or an airplane, which I read about a long time ago. I remember pitching and yawing but I've forgotten the names of the others.

It suddenly occurred to me: "Rolling" is the third and there are only the three. They all refer to rotation about an axis. "Translation", aka. "shifting", isn't accounted for.

[Laurence Finston]

This is another drawing for "The Nutcracker" that I think would be suitable for cut-outs.

The first image shows a scan of the original drawing at 60% of the original size. I had to shrink it to get it to fit onto A4 within the 16:9 frame. The following images show parts of the drawing at the original size, multiple times for making cut-outs.

In theory, it should be possible to make composite images using rotation and shifting with MetaPost and exteps and/or TeX and dvips, but this didn't work well. I finally did it in GIMP, which worked great.

I may add a handle to the coffee cup, because without it, it looks like a teacup, while the pot looks like a coffee pot. On the other hand, it could just draw a teapot and use the two figures for different sections of the ballet.

[Laurence Finston]

In my broschure for Schmincke Horadam watercolors, I discovered one called "graphite gray". The pigment is actually graphite and it's intended to match the appearance of pencil drawings when combining them with watercolor. I made a background using it and tried it out with this drawing. I think it looks pretty good.

[Laurence Finston]

It occurred to me that it's very easy to reverse images using GIMP. In 2D, it's reflection about an axis and GIMP provides rotation about the vertical and horizontal axes of a picture as predefined operations. Reflection about an axis in 2D corresponds to rotation about an axis by 180° in 3D.

I now have right- and left-handed versions of this drawing and also of the ladybug fairy. Handed-ness or parity is an interesting mathematical topic and it can be used for interesting and sometimes confusing or puzzling visual effects.

Using the upside-down images also makes it possible for me to use the space on the page more efficiently. Making these cut-outs is producing even more scraps of paper than usual.

[Laurence Finston]

I've taken my first steps toward making paper puppets out of my cut-outs. Yesterday I made a couple of failed attempts but early this morning it worked nearly right away.

The idea is to take the two pieces that are meant to be connected with a moveable joint, sandwich them between two small pieces of paper and stitch all four pieces together with needle and thread. In order for the stitch to hold but also allow the inner pieces to move, the outer ones must have two holes while the inner ones have only one.

First I poked holes through the pieces. For the inner pieces I used the awl. It was too early to do any hammering, otherwise I would have used a hole punch, which is what I'll do in the future. For the outer pieces I used the needle that I later used for sewing everything together. Then I reinforced all the pieces with cellophane tape and poked through the holes again.

Then I secured the two inner pieces with a piece of removeable drafting tape, which must lie outside of the hole. Then I tape the outer pieces to the inner ones on each side with the same tape. This time, the tape can cover the holes because it will tear easily when pulled off through the stitch.

Then I make a single backstitch through all four layers and secure it on the back side. Then I remove all the drafting tape carefully. This time, I had to pull on the paper a little bit to free up the stitch because the hole through the inner pieces wasn't large enough. This shouldn't happen when I use a hole punch.

Finally, I snip off as much of the outer piece on the front as possible. The head is now freely moveable with respect to the trunk (in the plane).

Of course, for "production", the outer piece on the front and the thread should match the color of the face of the top inner piece, unless a "special effect" is desired. A small button would also be a possibility.

Using a rivet might also work. I have a riveter and rivets for fabric, if I can find all the parts.