watch Mothergoose desires critique! (surreal cartoon)

This is a dreamlike adventure. It is paradoxical; the pieces do not fit together, yet it is supposed to make sense. Does it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHAFBWFkofQ

Please be as straightforward as you can be - for the sake of constructive criticism! =P

Thanks for watching

AOO

Picture is too jerky, the animation needs needs smoothing. The screeching voice is a no no for me. The vid shows some creativity, needs music and sounds that flow. Id say it is a bit too childish in presentation. I think adding in some thought processes of the critters would be helpful. Not ready for prime time yet

Made it 1:20 in... couldn't continue, sorry. Yermumsmassivetitz? Humor I'd expect from a 10 year old (kinda like saying "bum" then giggling). The cut and paste animation held some promise as a style, but needed to be put to a compelling story - with slightly less cartoony voices, I can only stand one sense being assailed at a time.

I'm not sure what the next image was doing, looked like a really slow doodle with MSPaint (perhaps a map with travel?). By that point, you had lost me as an audience member. If there's a story, you need to get into it and push forward. I don't care what the images are so long as they compel the story. If the story is being served, your audience will stick with just about anything.

Not sure why this was made, either as just a creative endeavor on your part with some free time, or some kind of class assignment. The endeavor is good and will serve your animation skills in the future. The presentation needs some work, keep at it.

How are you recording and editing your audio?
What's the process you used on this piece?

And what are you using for your editor?

rayw said:

How are you recording and editing your audio?
What's the process you used on this piece?

And what are you using for your editor?

Click to expand...

All made using Windows movie maker and paint! >_<

knightly said:

Made it 1:20 in... couldn't continue, sorry. Yermumsmassivetitz? Humor I'd expect from a 10 year old (kinda like saying "bum" then giggling). The cut and paste animation held some promise as a style, but needed to be put to a compelling story - with slightly less cartoony voices, I can only stand one sense being assailed at a time.

Click to expand...

I respect the brilliant critique I have seen you give time and time again on my brief travels at this forum, Knightly, but I refuse to accept your claim that Yourmumsmassivtits is not funny, especially when taken into context of the overall piece; its all down to subjective taste. I think adults can laugh a the puerile, and that it takes maturity to effectively pull it off.

The whole thing is supposed to be crude and obnoxious - I can't do clean and nice even if I wanted to :-S

Thanks for your thoughts and time everyone >_<

I'm very familiar with working with MS Paint and can help there.
WMovMak I'm not familiar with, but can provide some guidance with some principles.
The audio on MOTHERGOOSE seems to be a quilt-work of sources. I can probably help with that, and certainly in audio editing of this scale.
I confess I'm not even interested in getting anywhere near your story telling. I recognize that what you're shooting for is a specific kind of audience that I acknowledge I don't understand.
I just don't get the interest in CHARLIE THE UNICORN, but I can't deny there's a great interest in it:
http://www.youtube.com/results?sear...1062l0l1002173l19l18l0l9l9l0l195l1170l3.6l9l0

But I'm happy to help with visual and audio if you want.
Is two outta three okay?
(I don't want to invest time & effort if this is a Don Quixote sorta thing for you. I hope you understand).


I did this with MS Paint, edited on Videopad (which I'm no longer using; working with Adobe Premier Elements 10, now), audio recorded on a Sanyo Xacti 1010, audio edited with Free Audio Editor (it's a download) and tweaked with AV-MP3 Player-Morpher (another free download):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dtc2kbv3EVI
Yes, I'm all lo/no budget over here.


VICTORIAN CUT OUT THEATER is made by another IT member I'd like to see more work from:
http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?t=37005&highlight=victorian
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykOEwAoX0TI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsWFh2otc48

You can see the three of us are working pretty much in the same medium, but I don't even know enough about animation to know what this Monty Python-esque style is called.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLlJfGybBcc

So whatchawannado at this point?

Archiveofobscurity said:

I respect the brilliant critique I have seen you give time and time again on my brief travels at this forum, Knightly, but I refuse to accept your claim that Yourmumsmassivtits is not funny, especially when taken into context of the overall piece; its all down to subjective taste. I think adults can laugh a the puerile, and that it takes maturity to effectively pull it off.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the praise It's not funny to me, just an opinion, as all of my comments always are. Not at all up my alley, and I think as a person presenting information to an audience, it helps to know why some of your audience isn't receiving the information you're trying to send. I expect the same with my work when I post here. This helps us become better at making works that people will see. We are communicators in a multimedia discipline.

If you consider yourself an artist, you want to make pieces that affect people intellectually or emotionally (or you just need to get it out of your head - and that doesn't require an audience). You have affected me emotionally, I just don't think the reaction is the one you intended. I do think that the techniques you're using are a great starting point for developing your own particular style of information delivery... because if you're not the "get it out of my head" type of artist, then not achieving an audience is counter to your goals. If you have a specific audience you're working toward, I'm not part of that audience and that's OK.

In my seasonal improv gig, I get to give shows to rotating crowds of 20-50 people at a time who are free to come and go as they please. I do say lines that I know will only hit home with a small subset of the audience, so that is not a dismissive critique. My questions is: "What are your goals with this piece?"

I live by a simple philosophy in my work, "If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it... who cares?" I need an audience and am REALLY honest about it... so I'm willing to pander a bit... I do make peurile humor in my show, but I target it very carefully to that 10-15 year old age range (more burp and fart humor, but same thing really). I laughed at the poop monster in Dogma too... so I get the joke, just didn't ring true with me, perhaps it was a delivery issue?

I will say that I think you have a wonderfully creative mind and can't wait to see you develop that technique more and many others over time.

knightly said:

I will say that I think you have a wonderfully creative mind and can't wait to see you develop that technique more and many others over time.

Click to expand...

Firstly *blush*, I'm sooooooo not worthy =P

Oh I would like as big an audience as possible. I want everyone to see it, even if they despise it. This is definitely the most...esoteric thing I do.

I suppose I am an artiste (!). I produce what I'd like to see; I try to fill the gaps I perceive in the mainstream. Yet I'm not sure I know my audience. I sometimes romanticise it all by saying 'if I can please 5% of the audience its a job well done' but I'm not sure I believe it. I guess 'the kind of person who likes monty python' is a general answer.

With cartoons, surrealness is definitely the way to go for me, as I do not yet have the means or skill to create a more naturalistic cartoon - that is why I lionize the grotesque and try to embrace it (!). It is supposed to be humourous and random, but I also try to get people thinking and I genuinely want to improve the world - and see this as a means of doing so (unrealistic?). I want it to be cathartic and I want people to feel good. I suppose it is a laugh at the absurdity of the cosmos (!). I like the fact that it might not be taken seriously and that the (supposedly!) intelligent themes could be missed.

------------

In Mothergoose goes on a package holiday, it begins with her regular tube journey to work, and she is quite gay about it, but simultaneously she recognises it as drudgery (aren't we all paradoxical creatures, swinging between moods?). Once at work, Mothergoose performs her pointless task, and wins a package holiday to some inane resort - oh the joy!

So, somewhat alienated from her environment, she takes the holiday. But it is ultimately unsatisfying, and contrived and overpriced. Everything is either pretentious or prolefeed and it alienates her further from the world. But she does see one sign that promises a path to wisdom. She takes it, finding a guru in a cave. The mischievous side of the goose kicks in and she corrupts the guru, and he leaves the cave to get laid.

-------------------

There have actually been three Mothergeese created over the months, and she is steadily improving, so I
thank you all for your encouragement, and I promise it will steadily get better =)

@Ray: How can you help with the visuals and audios matey? I am quite capricious, flirting with various projects simultaneously, leaving things unfinished,etc, so not the kind of person to work with in a long distance relationship =P But I am all ears on these principles!

Cool.

INVENTORY CONTROL.
You really gotta be on top of each and every element from scene to scene and within each scene itself.
You gotta plan the story down like knowing the alphabet.
Setting A.
Setting B.
Setting C.
Return to Setting A.
Setting D.
Etc...

Then each element or element group that goes onto each setting gets inventoried.

Now, none of this can effectively be done unless you script out, record and edit the dialog.
Trying to spitball the visual ahead of the audio just isn't gonna work; not saying that's what you did, just confirming that's what happens when someone tries that.


And this is why I keep badgering about what are you recording with or where are you getting your dialog audio from?
My sense of hearing is FUBAR, and even I can hear the mish mash of audio going on.


Now, back to visual...

PART A: Bigger Pictures

Second thing: START WITH BIGGER PICTURES!
There are primarily two different aspect ratio sizes - 4:3 and 16:9



Just because 16:9 (16 units across for every 9 units down) is the HDTV standard, out of practicality you might as well just start making everything according to that standard.

What Windows operating system are you using? XP or 7?

In either OS, pull up MS Paint and hit CTRL+E and an "Image Properties" window pops up.
Here, you can change your image size (the canvas-like part).
You civilized UK people have managed to convert to the incredibly sensible metric system, whereas us Luddites over here in the States are still working with an incredibly retarded Imperial System of measurement, so feel free to adjust your units accordingly.


Common sense tells us that there will be four times as many pixels in a 16x9cm box if those dimensions are doubled to a 32x18cm box.
Proportions remain the same. Resolution doubles. Your image output looks better - but then again, the errors become twice as noticeable, as well.

What size monitor are you using? How many units across can you fit on a screen without wasting time scrolling up and down?
Look, I know this is just for goofing off. We ain't gettin' paid to make this stuff, so there's no sense in wasting time scrolling up and down and left to right if we don't need to.
Just figure out something for your screen width's lowest common denominator and scale the height and width accordingly.

How many units can you put across?
32cm across? Fine.
Then 18cm down should be no prob.

32cm across is too wide? 28cm (a random number) fit better?
"Nah. I can fit 36cm across". Great. Cool. Wonderful.
Fine. There's simple math available to figure out how to scale the height.

Where you are
divided by where you were
equals a ratio.
Multiply the ratio
by the number you have
to get where you're going.

32cm across
/ 16 units width
= 2
x 9 unit height
= 18cm down

If you want to scale a 32cm width, you need a 18cm height.
But we already figured that out by simply doubling 16:9.
Duh!

28cm across
/ 16 unit width
= 1.75
x 9 unit height
= 15.75cm down

Ta dah!!!! Easy.

36cm across
/ 16 unit width
= 2.25
x 9 unit height
= 20.25cm down

Whatever it is, it's easy as 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510...

Figure out whatever the magic math is for your monitor screen and just work from that as your animation template.
Each and every time.
For every background you use in a single piece of work.


Now go hunt down images from wherever you go get 'em.
I always suggest a google image search for public domain images first, otherwise let your conscious be your guide.

If anyone comes crying claim your UK counterpart to "Fair Use" and hope they give up trying to prove you wrong.

Since we're looking for large images to copy and paste you might as well begin your search by selecting the "Large" pictures box on you google image search.
If you ain't finding no happiness there, then a general search and working with the resolution issue associated with working with medium-ish images will just have to do.

Find a picture, hit CTRL + to make it bigger or CTRL - to make it smaller.
To copy the image AS IS hit CTRL+PrintScreen (it's usually above the number pad section on your keyboard).
Go back to MS Paint and CTRL+V to paste, slide the whole thing up until the browser gibberish is off screen, click off the active area to "drop it".

I don't recall if Windows XP MS Paint allows you to show rulers.

Anyways, use the select tool to select just the part of the image you wanna use.
CTRL+C to copy,
CTRL+E to open "Image properties",
change to 1 x 1 (trust me & don't wory about it),
CTRL+V paste.

Eyeball it.
Figure out which part you wanna sacrifice.
Consider rotating or flipping it vertical or horizontal.
CTRL+E for "Image Properties" again,
Note the width,
open MS Calculator & do the math from part 1 above:

Where you are
divided by where you were
equals a ratio.
Multiply the ratio
by the number you have
to get where you're going.


Although this time - you use the width and height you've already calculated for your screen!

Go back to MS Paint and change the height to accommodate the width.


PART B: Getting the backgrounds to a consistent size.

Making images smaller doesn't make images AS ugly as making them bigger.
You can make 'em bigger by only about 10, maybe 15, percent before the pixels get screwy.
But you can almost always shrink 'em down.

Collect all your perfectly proportioned backgrounds of likely various sizes,
Note the next-to-smallest width (as long as it's no more than 10% bigger than the smallest background image),
Pick that as your standard width to work with.

Select the smallest BG image,
CTRL+E, adjust width & height,
CTRL+A, CTRL+W, resize to 110%, or whatever it takes to make it fit,
See if it looks good.

Then make all the other's BGs smaller.
Open them, CTRL+A, CTRL+W, note the width,
open the calculator, divide where you want to be (the smaller standard) by where you are (the current larger dimension),
This renders a <1 percentage,
Go back to Paint, enter that percentage for both width & height.
Sometimes it's off by a smidge,
CTRL+Z and retry it a percentage up or down. (Don't try to make a "almost small enough" image smaller, or "a wee too small" image bigger at this point).
When the correct size is achieved CTRL+E, fix the entire field width and height.

Repeat for all backgrounds.

Ta da! Consistent Proportioned Backgrounds.

Do this and the resolution will be (fairly) consistent throughout the entire project.

Hold your panties!
Part II coming soon.

Part II


The elements that go onto the background are your foreground elements.
You'll want to go though nearly the exact same scaling process for these as you will for the back grounds, putting them on white backgrounds, of course.
You'll build a library of them.

Build a library of foreground elements.
Build a library of backgrounds.

Since backgrounds are fewer I just number them 01 Description, 02 Description, 03 Description, etc so that I can click on the "Name" carat when I go to open them and arrange them as I need them in some sensible order, and select from there.


In your MOTHERGOOSE video note the green patches on mothergoose's cheeks @ 1:47
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=RHAFBWFkofQ#t=107s
And the white patches around the right-side character @ 3:24
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=RHAFBWFkofQ#t=204s

There's white and then there's "almost white that looks d@mn near white".

Goto http://www.rspb.org.uk/images/cache/canadagoose_300_tcm9-139738_v1.jpg
CTRL+PrintScreen copy that, then paste it into a MS Paint page, drop it by clicking something off the field.
Box Select just the goose,
Copy it,
CTRL+E, make page 1 x 1,
Paste it,
Select the paint bucket tool,
change the left-click color to dark blue,
paint bucket the "white" background.

"D@MNATION! There's that white blotchy stuff around the image just like @ 3:24!"
Well, it gets better.

CTRL+A, select all, delete
Use the paint bucket to paint in the entire field dark blue,
Paste the goose image still in desktop memory,
make the goose's background clear.

"PUDDING AND PIE!!! Now there's blue blotches on the cheeks and arse, too, just like @ 1:47!!! WTF is going on here?!"

Well, there's white and then there's "almost white that looks d@mn near white".
The former is allowing the background to come through because those spots really are white and need to be filled.
The latter needs to be cleaned up with any combination of a good old eraser, or pencil, or curved line tool - then saved.

Magnify, use the eyedropper tool to select an "almost white that looks d@mn near white" and paint out the blue cheek blotches.
"Aw, h3ll! That's miserable. Is there a better way to do this?"
Actually, yeah.

Magnify, use the eyedropper tool to left-button select a "almost white that looks d@mn near white",
CTRL+A, delete everything,
Use the paint bucket tool to paint the entire field "almost white that looks d@mn near white",
Paste, left-button select the dark blue again,
Use the paint bucket to paint the background dark blue again.
All interior white spots have now been colored in "almost white that looks d@mn near white".

Time to start working on those blocky blotches around the image.

Select some bizarro color like that electric green screen green or that ridiculous pink to start painting over the "almost white that looks d@mn near white" surrounding the goose.
Yeah, it can get tedious.
The reason you're using the dorky colors instead of white is so that you can see where you have and haven't painted.
If you use actual white to paint over "almost white that looks d@mn near white" it's really kinda hard to tell WTH you have and haven't painted.
After you paint out all the "almost white that looks d@mn near white" with the electric green or pink you simply select the paint bucket tool again to fill it all in with the background color.

There should now be a "clean" foreground image.

Select the right-click color to be white,
Use the paint bucket to make the entire background actually white this time.

Now, select all, copy, paint bucket in the background some color, paste - and you should still have a clean image.

Save as 24-bit bitmap BMP image using a naming system that works good for you.

This has been your image clean-up stage.

If this has been useful I'll keep going.
If not I'll shaddap.

lol these are some mad improve-your-animation skillz Ray >_<

It is useful, but I do need a lot of time to absorb it all.

My audio was recorded using a Samson CO1U USB mike.

I'm using XP.

My netbook has a small screen, so I'm used to everything being weally weally tiny >_<

p.s. sometimes I leave graphical imperfections such as grotesque white bits around JPG's in an I love really pixellated zooms occasionally. Its like, postmodern, man =P

When you're recording your audio, you may want to both backup a bit from it (about a foot or two form the mic to mouth if you're going to be loud)... and / or turn down the input gain (volume) to prevent clipping of the audio as you're recording.

Netbook. XP. Samson CO1U USB mic.
Got it.


This mic?: http://www.samsontech.com/samson/products/microphones/usb-microphones/c01u/
The description makes it sound as if this is Wonder Mic!
Tech spec: 16-Bit resolution, 44.1-48kHz sampling
That's certainly good enough.

I wonder if you're recording/speaking too close to the microphone?

Try a test reading "Mary had a little hippopotamus and a syphilitic alligator" at approx. 20cm, then @ 30cm, then 40cm, then 50cms.
Somewhere in that "just under a half meter" mark there ought to be a sweet spot.

Are you editing the audio before working with it or just throwing it out "as is", no clean up, no filtering?



re. graphical imperfections.
Super. Cool. Rockin'.

I respect there's that boundary threshold between doing goofy sh!t with intent and dismissing sloppiness as artistic choice, so I'll take your word on the former rather than latter.



http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Green_field.jpg
http://23onastick.pbworks.com/f/1222311037/holstein_cow.jpg
http://mirod.com/
http://www.richtonemusic.co.uk/products/samson_c01u_usb_condenser_microphone.asp

Open "Field" picture, CTRL+PrtScrn, paste into MS Paint, box select image just over 21cm across, copy, CTRL+E, 1 tab 1, enter.
Open calculator: 21, divide by 16, multiply by 9, equals 11.81 down.
Back in Paint: CTRL+E, 21, tab, 11.81, enter, CTRL+S to save as 24-bit bitmap.
I now have a 16:9 background.

Open "Cow" picture, CTRL+PrtScn, open 2nd MS Paint field, paste, box select just around the cow, copy.
CTRL+E, 1 tab 1, enter, paste, save as 256-Color bitmap.
Use eraser to separate cow from background, then use the free-form select tool to loop around sections to delete chunks, and the eraser for final clean up. Save.
The goal is to maintain some "darn near white" in the cow.
Use the paint bucket to fill the entire background red.
Select the rectangle box select tool, box select just the cow, copy, select all, delete, paint the entire field red again, paste cow making background transparent.
Any "true white" spots will show through.
There shouldn't be any, but this is how you test.
With the cow selected still, CTRL+W, make horizontal and vertical 20%, enter, CRTL+W, make horizontal and vertical 500%.
Cow is digitized.
Click off field to "set it", paint bucket the background white, box select the cow again, copy, select all, delete, paint bucket the field red again, paste cow making background transparent.
There should be two red pixel squares to be filled in "near white", use the eyedropper tool and paint bucket to fix that.
I now have Pixel Cow.

Box select the face of the cow, copy, paste, move to front of cow, drop.
Magnify, free-form select tool loop around the lower jaw, copy, paste, slide just below jaw, drop.
Paste again, slide under the previous dropped addition, drop.
Use eyedropper tool to select appropriate colors for tongue, paint with pencil tool.
Box select just around the opened lower jaw, copy, paste, move to a nearby blank space.

Open the "Laptop" picture, CTRL+PrtScn, open 3rd MS Paint field, paste, box select just around the laptop, copy.
CTRL+E, 1 tab 1, enter, paste, save as 256-Color bitmap.
Use eraser to separate laptop from background, then use the free-form select tool to loop around sections to delete chunks, and the eraser for final clean up. Save.
The goal is to maintain some "darn near white" in the laptop.
Box select just the laptop, copy.
Goto "Cow" picture, left-button select red, make a large red box big enough for the copied "laptop" to paste into (but not yet!).
Use the eyedropper tool to select the creamy "near white" from the cow,
paint bucket fill in the red square with the creamy "near white",
paste, move laptop over the creamy field within the square,
use the paint bucket fill set to white to delete all the creamy "near white" around the laptop within the red box,
delete the box with the paint bucket as well. Save.
I now have Pixel Cow and a 256 color laptop.

Open the "microphone" picture, CTRL+PrtScn, open 3rd MS Paint field, paste, box select just around the microphone, copy.
CTRL+E, 1 tab 1, enter, paste, save as 24-bit bitmap.
Left-button select dark green, use paint bucket to fill in background, note blocky patches of near white.
Left-button select red, use curved line too to overpaint blocky patches to separate mic from background, and the eraser for final clean up. Save.
Box Select Microphone, copy, goto "Cow" image, paste.
I now have Pixel Cow, a 256 color laptop, and a 24-bit microphone.

Goto "Field" picture, Save As "01 Empty Field".

Goto "Cow" picture with the laptop and mic, box select cow, copy, paste, CTRL+W, 80 tab 80, enter, copy, delete.
Goto "01 Empty field", paste, adjust position. Save As "02 Standing Cow".

Goto "Cow" picture with the laptop and mic, box select open jaw, copy, paste, CTRL+W, 80 tab 80, enter, copy, delete.
Goto "02 Standing Cow", paste, adjust position. Save As "03 Standing Cow - Mouth Open".

Goto "Cow" picture with the laptop and mic, box select mic, copy, Goto "03 Standing Cow - Mouth Open", paste, CTRL+W, 50 tab 50, enter, adjust position. Save As "04 Standing Cow - Mouth Open w Mic".

Goto "02 Standing Cow" picture, box select area around cow's mouth larger than the open mouth about to be covered, copy, Goto "04 Standing Cow - Mouth Open w Mic", magnify, paste, adjust position to exactly cover existing head and open mouth. Save As "05 Standing Cow - Mouth Closed w Mic".

Goto "Cow" picture with the laptop and mic, box select laptop, copy, Goto "05 Standing Cow - Mouth Closed w Mic", paste, adjust position, use side handle to adjust width. Toggle CTRL+Z undo and CTRL+Y redo back and forth a few times to make sure you're not off by any pixels. Save As "06 Singing Cow w Mic & Laptop".

Close all MS Paint windows.

Open WMovMak, import "01 Field", "02 Standing Cow", "03 Standing Cow - Mouth Open", 04 Standing Cow - Mouth Open w Mic", "05 Standing Cow - Mouth Closed w Mic", "06 Singing Cow w Mic & Laptop".
Import your pre-recorded "Mary had a little hippopotamus and a syphilitic alligator" you've cleaned up and adjusted for timing and tone on your audio editor.
Go crazy.

Might end up looking something like this on your WMovMak:


Turns out like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ujzd1wY2_m4

Ah, I wish Windows movie maker could be like that =(

Which programme are you using matey? WMM is like...well, a syphilitic alligator =(

How can I brush up my sound once recorded? any free software out there?

pweeeeeeease hwelp me, i'd be ever so grateful, and I *do* read everything wu write. pweeeeeeease =(

get Free Audio Editor for audio clean up and mild tweaking:
http://free-audio-editor.com/download/index.html

Since it can record whatever is playing across your 'puter's speakers I find whatever public domain music or soundbible.com audio effect I want, record it, save that original, then save as clean up, delete odds and ends, save.
Then start testing assorted filters on it to find something acceptable or interesting.

Do the same with your own dialog recordings.
Play 'em.
Record 'em.
Delete breath inhalations.
Narrow timing gaps.
Change pacing and timing.
Add material from other recordings.

Many people like audacity.
http://www.sonicdownloads.net/download/Audio/Audacity/?f=O2RraF5kS&a=6591&adid=9533935880
I don't care for it, but apparantly it "the sh!t".
??

Also get AV MP3 Player Morpher to bugger with your voice.
http://download.cnet.com/AV-MP3-Player-Morpher/3000-2140_4-10201978.html

I find the effect with the three slider bars most useful.
Get your altered voice where you want it,
Open Free Audio Editor,
New record,
Start recording,
Play your altered voice on the Player-Morpher
Watch your audio input levels back on Free Audio Editor, (sometimes you gotta fiddle with your computer's speaker level higher or lower)
Save it,
Clean & filter.
Save again.

Make wav. file products for your WMM.


Oh, and I edited that stupid cow thing on Adobe Premier Elements 10 which I can't say that I enjoy working with. It's kinda funny acting. I dunno. I suppose it'll be okay after I fool with it quite a bit more.
http://www.google.com/#q=adobe+prem....,cf.osb&fp=1d7a9b1764b78d76&biw=1023&bih=609
I got mine bundled with Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 which I haven't even bothered opening up after a month of being loaded onto the computer.
I need to get a handle on the NLE before fooling with an image editor.
I'm sure it's fine.
Just gimme a year to get around to it.

The cow's chewing sound I got from here:
http://soundbible.com/976-Eating.html
I recorded that as it was playing,
Selected one four part sound, deleted the first two, applied some audio effets to it and kicked the volume up 400%.
= cow chewing.

I think I got the blowing wind from one of these
http://soundbible.com/tags-field.html
Took a sample,
Cleaned it,
Copied it,
Pasted it a few dozen times end to end for the time length I knew I needed.
Save as wav.

Another powerful, free, cross-browser audio editing app is audacity, I highly recommend it as it has most of the features you use in higher end apps anyway - and it's free.

GIMP (Graphics Image Manipulation Program) is a free image editor with much more powerful image editing tools -- it's targeted as a photoshop replacement. There's even a version called "Gimpshop" that mirrors the PS interface more closely.

Inkscape is a free illustrator clone.

These tools will give you much more control over the images you're compositing together and the audio you're using in your animations.

I'm falling asleep writing this, but I watched about a minute of yr short & it looks great. I can't wait to wake up & watch the whole thing. Nice work.