Category Archives: Animated GIF

Over and Over He Stumbles – A Triolet for Eric

Over and over he stumbles,
‘Till he finally comes to a stop.
His unthinking chastising mumbles.
Over and over he stumbles.
Late one night on the stairs they hear rumbles,
As his bod trips right there at the top.
Over and over he stumbles,
‘Till he finally comes to a stop.

Well, the triolet poetry form was a new one to me this morning when I was reading The Daily Create tdc1155, and so I thought it would be fun to try it out. I used a familiar topic, just so that I could focus on the mechanics of the form.

The poem has a pattern of repeating lines as well as rhymes, described by Carol Rumens in this article in The GuardianIt will need eight lines and rhyme ABaAabAB. The capital letters indicate the refrain lines, the lower case letters add the requisite rhyming scheme. You can use any meter.

I found the triolet to be an interesting challenge. Certainly a more substantial effort would be required to get something that fits and yet disguises the form — one challenge is to have the opening refrain communicate a changed or evolving meaning as the poem progresses. I tried to do that with mine, although for most of my Friends, foreknowledge of the back story will cloud the alternative interpretation of the first instance as they jump to the final understanding.

I made this little GIF to perhaps support the triolet a bit. I hope you like it!

"Over and Over He Stumbles" Triolet Animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

“Over and Over He Stumbles” Triolet Animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

Where Is My First Officer, Spock?

“Bill, What Were You Thinking?” by iamTalkyTina, on Flickr

Well, today The Daily Create tdc1150 said to make a Star Trek facepalm one, so I did.

This is a picture that is from all of the original stars sitting around the table, like Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Scotty, but it is one that shows the only one that is still alive.

It is a sad picture.

I am making a facepalm here, because of what happened. Down underneath here is an animated GIF which makes a bit more of explaining in case you didn’t hear about it.

"How Could You Miss Leonard's Funeral?"

“How could you miss Leonard’s funeral?”

It is sad when your True Friends are gone. It is a noir thing.

Here is a song of it called, “Spock’s Missing” by SpizzEnergi that you should listen to. It is what Kirk should be saying and he is sad in it.

• I found the background picture with just Kirk left on www.ussticonderoga.org.
• I found the badge for my uniform here.

Fall for Me

“‘Fall for Me’Book Cover,” by Talky Tina, on Flickr

Well, The Daily Create tdc1113 on January 25th, 2015 said to make a Word Art picture. So I did. It looked the black and white one below with the bird and the fish. I added the words “Fall for Me” to make it into a word art one. It just came from an idea that I had.

“Fall For Me,” by Talky Tina, on Flickr

Then I thought it would be better without the bird and the fishbone, and with me, instead. So I did a little editing of it. See below? If you look closely, you can see that the bird (originally the source of the smaller shadow on the stairs) has been replaced by ME!

I think that this makes for a much stronger piece of Art, don’t you?

“Fall for Me, Revised” by Talky Tina, on Flickr

Then, I was thinking that a bit of colour would make it a bit more interesting. So I did. Plus, it could be for a Valentine one.  I think you can see how this little change of adding the colour of love brings just that much more depth to the image.  Imagine, the things that one does for love!

“Fall for Me, Valentine!” by Talky Tina, on Flickr

Then, it made sense to do a Book Cover version of it, and so that is what you can see up at the top of here.

Down below is a GIF that shows the evolution of it, so that you can appreciate the steps in the making of the Art of it.

"Fall For Me Evolution," animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

The book cover elements were borrowed from the cover of “The Grinning Gismo” (1952) by Samuel W. Taylor, found on Pulp Cover Art. But I put them in some slightly different spots because it made it look better than before.

So it is nice when a simple The Daily Create makes for some inspiration and for making more and more changes until you get a real piece of Art. Plus, it can be for an assignment, too. And so I made a new one, because there wasn’t one for Noir/Pulp Book Cover.  Now there is! It is now Design Assignment 1618: Noir/Pulp Book Cover, by me, @iamTalkyTina!

So do it! Make some Art! You know you want to!

Dali Bobblehead

Dali-Bobblehead_640

“Dali Bobblehead” animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

Well, a month is a long time to go between a GIFfight challenge, so I figure that since this Salvadore Dali  one was posted on November 24th and it is now the 27th of December, it is time for someone to make the next GIFfight.

However, while I am waiting, I did this one. If he had a persistent bobble head.

Not Just Another Face in A Hole

Tina, with Hair, Pigment, and Ray Ban Sunglasses, by @iamTalkyTina

Tina, with Hair, Pigment, and Ray Ban Sunglasses, by @iamTalkyTina

WELL! I am NOT just another Face in a Hole. 

But sometimes I think that someone (La kisha Mahone (@LKMahone) not saying any names)  is just stuck on trying to make a monkey of me. Because when I woke up this morning, I was another face in a hole of me and of monkeys from her.

So it reminded me again of a dark time and when I was making a movie (but just a bit part) — but I already told you that story.

So anyway, when I got made a monkey of the second time with the Face in a Hole, I just had to set the record straight again. Plus, make a GIF of it (actually, TWO). Because making a GIF of it makes it even more fun. And two GIFs makes it double the even more fun!

So anyway, up above here is my response to it. Now, I will tell you how I did it without that Face in the Hole thing.

First, I had to find the original image of some guy and monkeys (it is always good to attribute your sources) and so I used TinEye, the Reverse Image Search engine to do that. I found 50 results and selected this picture of Bruno Looking Stupid.

Instead of a Face in the Hole one which says Face in a Hole on it, I made one of me with my hair showing (so that I do not look like Thomas the Tank Engine) but I also coloured my hair to match the hair of my actor friends in their monkey costumes (so for that, I used the Colour Replace tool, plus another layer of me where I made the Brightness darker and the Contrast more of it). Then, because they had colour in their faces, I put colour in my face (even though I am from the Black and White TV times) — I can do that as a professional in the business with make-up and the such. I also used the Colour Replace tool for that, too, borrowing some face colour from the other monkeys for it.  Plus, because they were all wearing their cool-kid sunglasses from the set, I am wearing my sunglasses, too (which came from here). So you don’t get any of that hair or colour or glasses with Face in a Hole.

Then, because just a regular picture sometimes needs a little sprucing up, plus for the exercise of making a GIF, plus for the fun and the Art of It, I decided that I needed to add some movement to the image. I remembered that Arthur C. Clarke was on the set that day playing with that bone, so I found this image of it on the Internet.

"2001 bone to spaceship cut scene" GIF

“2001 bone to spaceship cut scene” GIF from andrewsimone.com

Then, I put the GIF into photoshop and got rid of the sky parts so that I would just have the tumble bone. I also removed the spaceship part and set it aside so that I could use it later for the coupe de groom. That is like a coup de grace, but with Jim Groom instead, and transportation (that’s the coupe part).

So here is what it looks like when you use the Magic Tool to select something and then use the eraser to get rid of it. You just have the bone left.  (Note, this is just one frame, you have do do it for each frame of the bone in each active layer of it. So that takes a few minutes. But worth it!)

"Bone Isolation Technique" animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

“Bone Isolation Technique” animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

Next up was to insert the 25-odd animated bone frames into my static image, and re-create the situation from when the photo is purported to have been taken — me and my actor buds hanging out, with Arthur C. Clarke in the background practicing the bone scene. Look how surprised they all are at getting their picture taken with me.

"Not Just a Pretty Face in a Hole" animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

“Not Just a Pretty Face in a Hole” animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

Now, that is pretty much enough of it, because that is my @iamTalkyTina picture, plus a GIF the bone in the background. But remember, there is a coupe de groom coming up.

So back to the bone-spaceship GIF where we set aside the spaceship part for later? Now we get that back out and add in some Dancing Jim Groom from the Dancing Jim All Over the World assignment (Animated GIF Assignment 1001) and make it kind of like Slim Pickens in Dr. Strangelove or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb but with Jim Groom instead and on the bone-spaceship instead of the bomb.

"Dancing Jim Groom Around the World on the 2001 Bone Spaceship" animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

“Dancing Jim Groom Around the World on the 2001 Bone Spaceship” animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

So that is what can come from invoking me, @iamTalkyTina in a blog post. Or if you make a monkey of me. And it shows just how much learning can come after a simple Face in the Hole.

Well, bye!

#GIFfight Diving with Wee-Bey

Diving in Wee-Bey's Aquarium" animatedGIF by @iamTalkyTina"

“Diving in Wee-Bey’s Aquarium” animatedGIF by @iamTalkyTina

Well, this take from “The Wire” was cut and they reshot it without me. It was decided that my character didn’t really fit in with the Baltimore scene — so I spent most of my time there hanging with Omar and Bunk. And Jimmy.

But it works for the GIFfight! 

Tina’s 2001 Odyssey

"Hello Tina" animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

“Hello Tina” animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

Well, thanks to my True Friend, Mr. Paul (@phb256, on Twitter, I woke this morning to see a tweet about me took me to the #ds106 web page of La Kisha Mahone where I got made a monkey of.  It looks like this:

"Monkey Mash'n Time" by @LKMahone

“Monkey Mash’n Time” by @LKMahone

It was nice that @LKMahone said I was the very first invite she got on Twitter, and nice that she paid homage to me (that is always a nice thing for a True Friend to do, not saying any names, @JimGroom). And I made a comment saying that.

But it was also a sad thing for me that the picture brought back some Dark Time Memories for me of when back in the late sixties after The Twilight Zone I was still in The Biz but was having a really hard time with typecasting and people saying that I was too short all the time and stuff.

A Dear Friend of mine (different from a True Friend) got word from Mario Bava to Stanley Kubrick that I was feeling down and really needing some work and so Stanley managed to get me onto the set one day when he was shooting a film and got me into a small-bit non-speaking role. It wasn’t my finest moment, and I really found that fur to be scratchy and itchy and I had a rash for weeks after which meant I really couldn’t capitalize on the moment by networking with Kier and Ed (given my background, I really enjoyed it when he starred in UFO a couple years later!) and Gary and Terry and I was really ticked to miss the chance to hobnob with Arthur C. Clarke when he was on set. In the end, aside from getting free food from the craft table during the shoot and my meagre extra’s scale pay for the scene, I really didn’t benefit much from the experience.

The one bright light of the whole sad affair was the time I got to spend with Douglas Rain. He had such a nice way of talking to me and expressed to me his feelings of also feeling withdrawn from others at the time and felt bad that he only had a voice-only role and was playing somewhat of a tragic character in the film. I liked it every morning when he said “Hello, Tina!” in that nice soft voice of his. It was a moment when I truly started to realize how important it is to have Dear Friends and True Friends and Friends and Make Art Not Just Because You Are Hungry for Food But For Art’s Sake, Too.

But for the most part, that wasn’t a very fond time for me.

I dug through my shoebox just now, and found this pic. You can kind of just see me in a little bit of the shot.

"My Scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey"

“My Scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey”

So, @LKMahone, thanks for bringing back the memories. Now, everybody, get out there and Make Some Art, Bub! Be sure to write about what you learned from the experience. And remember to attribute where you get the stuff! 

A couple notes about The Bits.

Hello Tina is based on the following:

  • This image of smiley HAL900
  • the free-for-personal-use font TwoBit, available from www.ffonts.net

I took a screen capture of just the original HELLO DAVE text,

"Hello Dave" text, inverted to put dark text on light background

“Hello Dave”  inverted (dark text on light background)

and uploaded it to whatfontis.com and selected the TwoBit font as the one I liked best from the returned matches.

"TwoBit font, my favourite for HAL9000" results from WhatFontIs.com

“TwoBit font, my favourite for HAL9000” results from WhatFontIs.com

I downloaded the free-for-personal-use font and installed it (double click on the .ttf file and then click the Install Font button in the on a Mac)

"Install Font: TwoBit"

“Install Font: TwoBit”

  • I found the scene photo as an existing GIF in a digital shoebox on Screen.Genius.com.
  • I found the red arrow in my shoebox, too. I rotated it and made it 50% transparent in Photoshop, only making it visible for the frames where I am visible.

Don’t Try this at Home, Kids!

"Playing on the Stairs," animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

“Playing on the Stairs,” animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

First, please understand that as a trained actress, stunt person, ninja, and generally responsible person, I have a deep understanding and heathy respect for stairs. Those of you who know me will understand this.

Second, know that as the designated and contracted Health and Safety Officer for The DS106 WorkPlace, I can only advocate for a most careful and proper use of any and all stairs. Stairs are not to be trifled with, nor treated without the appropriate caution. If there are handrails, hold onto them.

Third, please respect and follow my direction when I say, “Don’t Try This at Home, Kids!”

All that being said, I got a great piece of news today from my friend Mariana (@mdvfunes), who found me a beautiful set of stairs by S|PyroGIF on Tumblr (@BlobbyBarack on Twitter). I just had to try them out as soon as I saw them, and I must confess that I have been playing on them ever since.  Up and down, down and up, they are just SO MUCH FUN! I have been doing all of my special moves and and even trying out some new ones and I must admit that they are among the finest stairs I have ever encountered. Yes, there have been other stairs that are more aesthetic, or more historic, or more personally satisfying for reasons I will not mention. But these stairs are the most funnest!

And so, as I say “Well, Bye,” you can imagine me enjoying many hours yet to come of exploring this new find. Thanks, Mariana!

See ya!   😉

The Ballad of Talky Tina

"Dreams of Stairs and True Friends" animatedGIF by @iamTalkyTina

“Dreams of Stairs and True Friends” animatedGIF by @iamTalkyTina

Well, this started out as The Daily Create TDC916 two-limerick Physics lesson, but there was a little more to tell to provide the proper context, so I wrote down a little bit more limericks to say a bit more of the story.  Now it has six instead of just two. But not all about Physics. Plus, I made that animated GIF up there called “Dreams of Stairs and True Friends.”

Their once was a dolly named Tina,
With a glowing and Friendly patina.
With her eyes wet and misty,
She was brought home by Christie,
Who became the first True Friend of Tina.

Mom and Christie came home from the store.
From the car to their house’s front door.
But with some trepidation,
and a queasy sensation,
Trouble met them there on the first floor.

Now at this point we’ll be shifting the focus,
With some poetic hocusy-pocus,
From omniscient thee,
To the first person me,
We’ll continue with I as the locus.

That Erich, he was a bad papa,
With his yelling’ and shoutin’ improppa.
He cut me and squished me,
Tried to burn me and ditch me.
Despite all our pleas, he don’t stoppa.

With my Friend Christie cryin’ and ballin’,
In the late night that Erich came callin’.
But he tumbled and tripped,
Summersaulted and flipped.
Them stairs stopped him dead with that fallin’.

So my True Friend grew up to be strong.
After that, me, I moved right along.
With spy missions and acting,
Ninja skills and some packing*,
My list of True Friends now is long.

———-

*For more explanation about the packing reference, you can read about one of my former careers.

Thank you to all my True Friends for staying True!
Remember, DUTMW. TDLTMW!

Well, bye!

Well, ds106 IS #4life, bub!

"DS106 IS #4life Spiral GIF" animatedGIF by @iamTalkyTina

“DS106 IS #4life Spiral GIF” animatedGIF by @iamTalkyTina

This is a little GIF that I made today for a little project I am working on. I will share the little project when it is done. But in the intervening time, just stare at this for a few minutes (put on a pomodoro timer like my Super True New Old Radio Friend Scott (@scottlo on #ds106radio), and then you will understand.