Soquili Font: ready to proceed!!!

[Gare]

Okay, I bashed myself over this for two days straight and I think I have some materials that need tracing, so we can make the Soquili TG font a reality now.

First, let's backtrack because this thread has been static for a while. The Soquili tg font will consist of 26 characters, each character will be one frame of a horse galloping. So people who use this font can make nice borders and such for rodeos and horse shows, whatever, but if they use the Animation Frame Gallery, and type successive characters on each frame, the result will be the animation I have here, except it'll be black and white only.

Now excuse any flaws in continuity because I can't get it much better. 26 is a weird number for frames, and the tail and mane are a little crude, because I drew these mostly without guides in After Effects. The tail certainly could use tapering at the ends of the strands, but you all will get the general idea:





I'm also attaching four zip files. Each one contains a frame, a JPEG that's 1280 by 720 (a 720p video, in digital measurements).

I'm not in charge of this project, but I figure the way this can go is: take a zip file. Each one contains 6 or 7 JPEGs. You don't have to do all 6, but it's a good idea to report in this thread which frames you volunteer to do.

Closed paths only, please. A font is one color, and we usually consider this to be black. White comes in where there is no path, it's transparent, just like holds in shapes you create.

Now this is a big "perhaps": perhaps instead of repeating the 26 glyphs for upper and lowercase, you draw the corresponding shadow, so each shadow—like for G and for g, corresponds. You could make a really neat animation with a black horse and a light grey shadow, you know? It's more work, I'll let the group decide.

Once I've downloaded the results of this group tracing (you upload your work as a Xara file as an attachment here), I will review them, do a little tweaking in Font Lab for the sake of visual continuity, and in a few days I'll post the font and all the paperwork for it to be a SIL piece of work we can all be proud of being a part of. And a very loving tribute to Bill "Soquili" Taylor.

This one's for you, Billy J.

My Best,

Gary

[angelize]

This is splendid news Gary!

For anyone just tuning in this is a continuation of this thread

Although I think to make sure we don't all start tracing the same set of glyphs I propose that we first post here to say which set we are tracing, and just a reminder if you want to help out we do need you to post a release for the SIL licensing if you have not already done so here.

I'll start by volunteering to do 1-6

[wizard509]

I haven't been able to view them yet but I'll take 7-13

EDiT: Makes a real nice animation Gare.

[wizard509]

OK Gare, I looked at the zips and my question is how are we going to handle the main and tail so they all look alike?

[Gare]

Let's do this: trace the entire image off as it is, remain faithful to the image, and I'll do the editing before I compile the font.

1 person editing=consistency, right?

By the way, you do not have to commit to doing 6 or 7 drawings, just because I packed them that way. If you only want to do three, for example, make a post, "I volunteer to do numbers 20, 21, and 22".

Yes, the point is to have only one person doing a frame, so we should post which ones a person is responsible for.

A single frame looks like this:




I'd just say try to keep the interpretation faithful to the JPEG image, and I will try to make them all conform to a consistent style when I compile the font.

@Frances, yes, agreed on signing off on the work. Can you please copy or link to the last font we did to provide and example of signing off, so it's easy for the volunteers?

TIA,

Gary

-g

[Christine Farrelly]

I'll do 14-19.

Christine

[Gare]

Terrific, thanks all!

That leaves only 20 through 26.

If there's a general question about how we move this font to the finish line, please post it here, where angelize or I will try to answer it.

If it's a technical question—how to accomplish something in your trace in Xara, or size or display on the page—if you feel your posr won't benefit the group, you are welcome to PM me.

Okay, I'm jazzed. This tribute font has been tossed around for almost half a year; now I can visualize it!

My Best,

Gary

[Christine Farrelly]

Question - do we really need the obvious masculine element to remain?

[angelize]

I guess it's suitable that the horse is a stallion, but I'll defer to Gary on this

For anyone who hasn't volunteered for a font project before you can see in the Roundhead TG thread how the process works

[Gare]

I feel what I have to say here needs to strike a fine balance between calling too much attention to a detail in a subject, and ignoring the question altogether.

In brief: yes, the 26 images need to be traced over as they are. If individuals start editing their work based on what they feel comfortable seeing or drawing, then the animation won’t work, nor will the font represent a unified group effort.

Let me say that if anyone on this thread has downloaded the files (I see several downloads) and doesn’t want to help complete the project for any reason, write me a PM to keep this diversion on this thread to a minimum. I really would like this post to be the last on the subject Christine is asking about.

Moreover, neither I nor the members I know here, would make a judgment on a personal decision not to participate, for whatever reason.

I really didn’t mean to light any fuses here, so let me briefly explain a little about this animation, its background and an observation about the project as a whole.

Our Administrator, also known as Barbara Bouton, came to me with the idea of a horse animation font, while we were collectively creatively stalled on what to do typographically to honor the memory of Bill Taylor. Once we proposed the idea publicly and it was met with approval, I bought the model of a stallion—a male horse—and the animation tracks online and Barbara and I agreed upon the purchase and she saw the model and my progress with it along the way. And had and has no problem with it as a person or as a woman.

I chose a highly detailed stallion because I always start a project with good data. Bill Taylor is a man, thus the choice of a stallion and not a mare as a 3D model was an appropriate one. The optimum angle for rendering a gallop is from the side, where unavoidably the gender of a horse can be noticeable. Not obvious, not the focal point of this illustration, but a fairly innocuous bump is there, yes.

I cannot say that I ever gave this area even the slightest thought while working on the animation and the frames, and thinking about it, I don’t think it’s because I’m a guy. It’s because this is an animal, and unless one lives in a city their entire life, you are bound to see nude animals—animals in a natural state (as opposed to cats people dress up!)—at petting zoos, on ranches and farms, and even in motion pictures depicting American settlers and Native Americans—of which Bill shared a heritage.

There is no detail in the area I’m addressing, absolutely nothing suggestive of any action other than being part of a galloping horse.

I've written too much, sorry! Can we get back to the project?

Thanks!

Gary