TODEPOND TIMES: Curvy Stem

Hello hello hello it's time for another weekly edition... of the...

🐸 TODEPOND TIMES 🐸

What's new this week?

Order

Every time I make a video, there are certain building blocks that I need to make - and put together. Like... the script, the music, the voiceover, the code, the effects.

And... Every time I make a video, I end up constructing those building blocks in a *different order*.

Sometimes, I edit the music first - and write a script around that. This makes it easier to keep control of the video's pace - allowing the script and music to sync up.

But sometimes, the script has too many requirements - like, if I'm actually trying to explain something. For those videos, I write the script first - splicing up the music to fit in with everything else.

Sometimes... I stick with one track the whole way through, which restricts me more. And sometimes, I use a whole range, which lets me edit more freely.

If the coding feels straightforward enough, I can leave it until the end. But often, I'm not 100% sure that it'll actually work, or what it'll look like it. If that's the case, I need to do it first!

New Order

So what are we doing this time?

The video is about an engine (Arroost), which lets you make *noises*. Which means... the video's structure is a bit different to usual.

Because of this, the video's music will be added quite late in the process. It'll depend on the "gameplay clips" that I use, which is usually the final step.

It's a little bit daunting not knowing how the video will sound at this stage. That being said, I am currently planning the music that we'll make during the video.

In each section, we'll start from scratch - from total silence. And we'll gradually build up a little repetitive tune.

Each section will sound different, but they'll all build up to the same repeated tune.

I've created lots of little variations of this tune! And I'm now allocating them to the different sections.

Recording

This week, I recorded the voiceover for the video!

I did three different takes.

Take 1 was a bit grander and louder.
Take 2 was more whispery.
Take 3 was more conversational.

And take 3 also has a bit of corpsing in it.

Corpsing is when a performer unintentionally breaks character by giggling or laughing. In comedy, it's generally bad practice to laugh at your own jokes. But a well-timed *intentional* corpse can help to put the audience at ease, and give them permission to laugh at your struggle on stage. It also serves as a way of breaking the fourth-wall.

But anyway, I liked take 2 and 3 best. So I imported them, and chopped them up into little pieces. Now I can choose from either take in any part of the video.

I'll probably use the whispery one for most of it, seeing as it fits nicely with the theme of "silence". But I can use 'take 3' every now-and-then if it needs mixing up!

By the way, I recorded my voice with two microphones at the same time. One of them was really close to my mouth, and captured more of an ASMR-y effect. The other one was further away, and produced a more consistent result.

This lets me pick what kind of sounds to use for different sections of the video!

Noise

Normally, there's a lot of loud-trance-music playing in the background of my videos. This means that it doesn't matter if there's a tiny bit of white noise on my voice recording - because it gets drowned out!

But with this video, there's the occasional patch of silence.

There's nowhere to hide! If there's noise on the recording, you'll hear it.

Because of this, I've been learning to improve my noise-reducing abilities. After reading up a bit, and watching some tutorials, I gave it a go.

To practise, I recorded myself talking while my washing machine and kettle were both chugging away in the background. It was useful! When it came to the actual recording, noise reduction went well!

Curvy Stem

In the Arroost engine, things can point to each other - using arrows.

Originally, all of these arrows were straight. I thought it would be simpler like this. But there are two problems!

1. You need to be able to point to yourself. This is impossible with a straight arrow. It needs to curve back around somehow.

2. You need to be able to point to the same thing twice. If you had multiple straight arrows pointing to the same thing, they'd overlap - and run out of space. By curving, they can make more room for each other.

So I've given arrows the ability to *curve*! They don't behave well yet - they curve all over the place. But that's next!

Hey thank you so much for sticking around and supporting me through all this! It's such a pleasure to be part of this little community, and I appreciate every one of you being here. Wherever you are in the world, I hope you have a great week! See you next time 🐸

Days since tode fell asleep: 140
Days since bot went missing: 105