I’m not sure if you heard, but Utopian now has a 3 GIF limit for the Utopian GIF contest. You are free to post them in separate posts, or all together, it’s your choice. But limit it to 3.
I’d like to talk about the creative process for a second. I didn’t write this post to make anyone feel bad. I am writing this post to remind non-artists that the creative process is important and must be used a lot in daily life. Getting distance from your creative works is essential too. So, far, the turnout has been pretty decent, and I've enjoyed what's been created so far. I have my favorites, of course.....I know I just said only 3 GIFs are allowed, and you'll notice there are four in this post, but remember, I'm not participating in the contest! These are not official entries. This is just to motivate others....
I created a bunch of really crappy Utopian GIFs one night because it was fun. Most of them are total fails. Here’s a few of those:
The reason this one sucks: it’s too random, lacks a central story and is completely unrelated to Utopian’s mission.
This Gif sucks for the same reasons as the one above.
Now, to a GIF I made which is funny (at least to me):
It’s still not good as far as telling the story of Utopian, but for me it’s funny because of the laser eyes mixed with the coding in the background.
So, creating something half decent takes me many attempts. And I feel that it wasn’t until my 14th attempt that I felt I came up with something inspired. I think this GIF actually tells the story in the right tone.
And yeah, I did it in the middle of last night, waking up, seized with an image in my mind:
Some of the work involved making around 45 different images using the open source Gimp program:
As you can see, drawing in his eye to make it blink is not a perfect thing, but you can't tell these details in the finished GIF.
Art is nothing but bringing to light the internal stories that stir up our imaginations in a skillful way.
Part of being an experimental artist is being able to recognize when you’re experiments are just utter crap. This takes years of practice though. For people who are not used to exercising their creative side, this skill can take a while. For compulsive creators like me, I kind of know when i get something right (which is actually only about 5% of the time). I can usually tell when I create shit and when i create something that sparks. I often rely on others to tell me what is good. But what helped me the most: I’m emotionally detached from most things I create.
This next thing might sound a bit weird, but I really thought deeply about the meaning of open source when I created that GIF. I imagined the story of Diego Pucci creating this project, not to help his own pockets grow, but to help open source become the revolutionary step towards greater human progress. I had the feeling of inspiration in me before I went searching for NASA photos for the background. The mission of Utopian is huge and very expansive, so I realized the tone of the GIF needed to be equally expansive. But I also wanted something fun, so him blinking (which was suggested by the mods) seemed to fit the bill.
The true skill lies in being able to accurately capture the essence of a compelling story. Good artists tell stories, and they use images to do that. But they practice more than the average person, so they know what works and what doesn’t. But even good artists make crappy art……and then put it on Giphy. See all the Utopian GIFs so far, including all my fails (the first GIFs): https://giphy.com/channel/utopian_io
Hey, on a side note, did anyone get any surprise SP delegations?
Cheers,
Stella
Wow! Fantastic GIF
Wow! Utopian has changed a lot since I last looked. Last time it looked like a place to report bugs and make suggestions. Now it has so much more!
Cool! UV
utopian is changing how humans are organizing themselves. Don't underestimate it.
Lol. I felt the same way too. Great to know lots more are in utopian
I love the second one, the laser eyes. Hehehe
He's Carl Sagan?
yes
I have read the post you shared a day ago and I have also read your post at this time. I came to the conclusion that, you always awaken the spirit of the setemians like me little fish to race in development. I really like what you have described in the postinagan a day ago. because it reminds me of @blocktrades who have delegated me with the price of one steem that is 49.3 delegate sp. so when I knew the news, I immediately bought it with the number one steam. because I plan to buy it in the future. three days later I was planning to buy it again, but the price of the sp spare delegation is expensive. already the same price with @ minnowbooster which is about 37 per steem. this frustrates me. whereas I want to buy it from @blocktrades to develop steemit community in my place. is there any explanation and other solution from you for us small fish can develop in social society? .. thanks so much. i like you mister ..
Thanks. Last time i checked, I'm not a "mister" though.
o .. i'm sorry. are you a noble lady?
OMG. I can't believe we're having this conversation. Noble lady, no. A woman on a mission yes.
first I see your post by showing a photo of men. and naturally I suspect you as master. after you deny it, I suspect you as a mistress. but that, does not matter. which is very important to me is you have responded to my comments. and this, very honorable to me. I am very happy with this. i like you. i always follow you.
This post has been ranked within the top 50 most undervalued posts in the second half of Nov 28. We estimate that this post is undervalued by $21.37 as compared to a scenario in which every voter had an equal say.
See the full rankings and details in The Daily Tribune: Nov 28 - Part II. You can also read about some of our methodology, data analysis and technical details in our initial post.
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Stella, you rock at making gif's. I like the second gif, maybe because of my penchant for dancing. Lol!
@maryfavour.
The one you did in the middle of the night wins. Looks like inspiration like birth usually takes place at midnight.
The final meme is priceless!
@stellabelle, failure is part of success story. You have really invested time in creating those gif. I want to learn how to make gif. I don't know if you can be of help. Thanks
all the tutorials are there....read them by many people.
Alright. Thanks
You make nice Gifs, Love the first one. And the one with the dancing lady is seemingly funny. Kudos!!!
Me pareció muy creativo hacer guiñar el ojo, no me lo esperaba ;)
En el arte todo se puede así tenga algunos defecto lo importante es que cumpla. Como dijiste sobre las pestañas de @elear no quedaron perfectas pero cumplió el objetivo jejeje. Como una frase que uso para animar a los participantes de mi concurso: "Hasta el mejor de los artistas se sale de las líneas"
Saludos!
Stella habla español?
non
LoL!
Personally, I think each of them have their own story to tell, and you didnt just pick random tool, your sub-consciousness took over lol.
Like the first one, it might seem random but look at the money falling down on utopian but same time with love, it talks about delegation been put into it and with love.
The second probably you a fan of matrix and its more or less all about coding and utopian love programmers xd.
The third, well am kinda confuse as well with the laser eyes, the code running on the background am just a little confuse, but then the billion tag tells a little story about it, a billionaire shooting billions into utopian lol probably @ned hahaha I don't know.
Then the final and master piece let me not comment on this as it is just too beautiful and the time you had to take to make that wink face, kudos and job well done. @stellabelle
All your gif are very nice, I would be very glad to learn more about how to create gif images if you could be of help to me, thanks
starting reading GIF tutorials. they are all in here, with the utopiangif tag. Knowledge is power.
Wow I wanna try this soon. Thank u Stella for sharing. I really wish to have gif as footer but I never knew how to do it. Who is Diego Pucci?
he is the founder of utopian
Aww thanku
not concerned with the contest. I like this thumbnail post. Hhaa
now I doubt. I'm sure @elear likes to blink when he sees a man
what does this mean?
I think if elear in real life likes to wink to all men. joke
The last time he winked at a man 1,000,000 SP landed at his door!
ha ha
I think I like the meme you did in the middle of the night. Well done
I will say i really suck at making Gif, but i tried one of recent with my GIf maker on android app.
wow thats good oportunity i will try it out thank you so much @stellabelle
I have a base idea for a gif, it's been about 20 years since my last effort 😳
Clearly the most professional and stand out one of yours is the last, the others remind me of 80s arcades, which isn't a bad thing thinking back!
The middle of the night ideas are always the best, and it's so true what you say many people see the final product and don't see all the work that was scrapped to get there. I really want to enter this contest. I am still mulling over some ides though. Hopefully one of them will gel for me in time to make the deadline :D
yeah, well, i had you in mind for SP delegation for a while. I decided to start using the "Menu" myself.
It's much appreciated, trying to put it to good use as we speak 😀
Wow that is quite the skill! I have no experience making gifs, but I love yours! Even the random ones are fun!
that's right!
You wrote important things.
I was wrong.....
Thank you^^
I entered the contest even though I knew I couldn't compete with the gifs that I have seen given my skills and tools. I've learned some things in the process though and that's important to me. I've started playing with adobe Photoshop too. Thanks @stellabelle
The post still says is limitless. Coincidentally, I did exactly 3 GIFs.
it needs to be updated.
Thx I just submitted my first entry, I hope you like it
https://steemit.com/utopian-io/@rival/my-contribution-to-the-utopian-io-gif-contest
i've read your text about ''Create A Free, Open-source Voting Bot For Steemit'' but i need really help. Can you help me please !
yeah, do you have skype? Let me know if you're available there. It's easier to talk through issues.
Hi Stella, great to have stumbled upon you and virtually make your aquaintance. You are so right when you highlight the fails in the creative process. I am an artist/writer/lightworker and the basis for my successes is a solid bedrock of flaky fails :) Funny, I kinda prefer your first GIF visually although I get your rationale! Been meaning to dip my toe into the GIF pool for some long while now but something always seems to crop up and thwart me. Be great if you had a mo to view my digital illustrations. Be happy, creative and well xox