#boi goes buzzzzz

[onejellyfishplease]

Lmao wait, could I do this? xD

Cause like, not me thinking of a perfect excuse to turn Mikey into a bee or something lolol

do ittttttttt

(srsly tho! you guys dont have to ask my permission to do stuff like this!!! go crazy! i dont have the monopoly!)

[koukamisstuff]

Chapter 2 - Of All People 🤦🏾‍♀️

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Ahh Monday morning... it wasn't your least favorite day of the week but certainly, couldn't beat Thursdays when your favorite Korean drama updated. It was killing your curiosity waiting to find out what the heck happened to the main lead when their love interest returned his ring. (Like how can one do Lee Hyungseok dirty like that!) 

Your mind drifts back to present time and you finally work the energy to toss in your bed and look at the clock... 5:30am... ugh why am I up? Maybe I should make breakfast orrr grab coffee somewhere? You immediately create a mental picture of the breakfast options you could eat but in reality you'll probably start your day with coffee.

You took a look around the room which surprisingly, still looked like you remembered. It had been about 5 years since you've been in this room. There were still the same old family pictures hanging over the desk and the same drawer and bed that you'd use whenever you came to visit. There were a few boxes pilled in a corner of the room marked Kurakawa's stuff and a different set marked storage. Grandpa did say he used this as a guest room but after he heard you decided go come back. He quickly packed away anything he added to the room and prepped the room with your things. It warmed your heart to know that he was actually very happy you came home.

But to think its been years since you've slept in this bed yet something never felt so comfortable and homey. You couldn't help but sink back into your pillows and snuggled up in your blanket. Slowly your eyelids start falling back down...ahh sleeping in sounded nice.

~Grrrrrrrr~

There goes your plan to sleep in. You sit up and after a minute or two, you got up and walked over to open your luggage. You spend some time to place a few of your jackets and dresses inside the drawer in an attempt to clear your luggage (that’s been sitting for the past 2 days). You finally found the first pair of comfortable shorts to change into so you can go march your hungry self into the kitchen and whip up another one of your earlyyy morning meals. 

~Buzzz Buzzzz Buzzzzz~

Before you could go and do this favor, you realize that something was wrong with your luggage.

You decided that on the way to your grandpa's work, you'd try and find look for the lost key chain. You got dressed in light blue jeans, a short red pull over and your favorite red high tops. You head down to his office to get the files he needed and made sure to lock up the house before heading out. It had been about 2 days since you were at this bus stop and the odds of finding your key chain were slim. But still the hope that it would be buried in dirt or grass kept you going.

Sadly by the time you reached the bus stop, a strong sense of disappointment overcame you when there was no sight of your key chain. 

The sound of a bus arriving and the last minute call were the signals that you needed to worry about this later since you had a task to do. 

After a short bus ride over you finally arrived to Nekoma High. 

You walked into the gate and you could see students running around preparing for what you took as an end of the year activity. Your grandpa briefly mentioned this was a way clubs and organizations got members to join for the following year and for others to experience those last few days as a high school student. You took a look around and tried to look for anything pointing you towards the gym. Since you've never been here you didn't know where to go and people weren't that focused to notice someone looking lost. You casually walked through the school and STILL haven't found the gym. Alright time to ask for help...

After being rejected by a group of (rude ass) girls saying a first year should have memorized the campus already, you tried a boy who was carrying a bunch of posters, he was also no help since he ended up asking YOU where the resource room was. What is with these kids? Why is this school weird?

You try your luck one more time when you see a guy turn the corner just in front of you. He stood out to you for three different reasons. The first thing you noticed was his height (then again as someone who stood at 152 cm (5'0) everyone seemed tall). So far no one in this school seemed as tall as him. His hair was the second thing, it was black but styled in a peculiar way. The last thing was how he wasn't wearing the school's uniform. Instead he was wearing a red jersey and shorts. BINGO! He looks like he came from the gym.

You finally caught up to him, damn his long legs, "Umm excuse me?" You said tapping his shoulder.

He turned around.

Yup he's tall, very tall and you had to admit handsome.

"Can you tell me where the gym is?" You said in a soft tone.

"Sure its--"

You wonder why he stopped talking and just stared at you. You added one more thing to that list, his eyes could have been enough to capture your attention from the start. They were such a beautiful hazel color...hello snap out of it, "Ahh...sorry I didn’t catch that, which way?" You smile and awkwardly wait for him to respond.

"Its you." He said.

"I'm sorry?" Confusion...yeah that’s the right emotion to give.

His expression suddenly turned into a smile, “I didn’t think you’d find me this fast. I’m quite shocked but flattered you’d go to such lengths.” he said as he held on hand on his chest.

This school is absolutely full of weird people.

“You know what, nevermind. I’ll find a map.” You turn away to walk away.

“So I can keep your key chain then?” He calmly says.

You turned back to him,”Excuse me?”

"Isn’t that why you’re here?” His eyebrow was raised.

“How do you--? Why is it--”, then it clicked, “Are you the guy from the bus stop?”

He smiled, “Ahh now she remembers me. My foot is find by the way.”

In a shot of sudden joy but general confusion, without thinking you grabbed his arm, “YOU HAVE MY KEY CHAIN!?” 

“Kuroo?” The moment is cut short when you get interrupted by a boy with blonde hair and black roots walking towards you. 

“Coach Nekomata said to bring the files to the meeting room when you get them.” The boy said. 

“Kenma give me a sec, okay?” Kuroo said.

Coach? AHH SHOOT! I almost forgot! You let go of Kuroo’s arm and turn towards the boy named Kenma, “Do you know my grandfather, he told me to bring him these files.” you pull out the files from your bag and hand it to him.

“Ohh I’m not the one delivering them to him... he is.” Kenma nonchalantly said pointing back to Kuroo.

“Okay wait...” You stop to gather your thoughts on this current situation. What the heck is going on? How do you they know grandpa? Why is he receiving these files? And how did he end up with my key chain?

“I’m so confused right now.” You frustratingly said throwing your hands out. “Introductions now.” you turn to Kuroo. 

His smile was different this time, it wasn’t one like earlier. Instead he seemed to find this whole thing funny. How annoying.

“My name is Kuroo Tetsuro. His name is Kenma. I was asked by our coach to receive his files from someone named Miku...something. Although from what I see those are the files I need but you were definitely not the person I expected.” He smiled and gestured his hand, waiting for your introduction.

“My name is Mikasuki Kurakawa and my grandfather asked me to drop files to him. But he never told me to expect someone and let alone it would be you of all people.” you smiled sarcastically. 

“What a small world. The girl who ran me over with her luggage happens to be the granddaughter of our coach.” Kuroo said taking the files. 

“I’m very sorry about that.” You shyly said remembering the incident. So embarrassing.

“Kenma can you go ahead and tell the guys I’ll be late. I’ll take Mikasuki-chan to coach. We seem to have a lot to talk about.” Kuroo said smiling as he guided you in the direction away from his friend.

Damn its that smile... this can’t be good.

Hello everyone!

So sorry this chapter is a day late but I wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything. Below will be some reading content to help make my story flow. I hope you guys enjoy it and let me know what you think! Any questions, just ask 😊

TAGLIST IS OPEN! - Please leave an ask, message or comment if you would like to be added to the taglist! 😊

[justin-chapmanswers]

I'm helping my (internet) friends make an object show, and I'm unfortunately not that confident about it, as we're all under 18 and don't have the money to really afford good quality mics or animation software. I'm wondering if you have any tips for people on a budget trying to make an object show for the first time?

Working under a tight budget is tough, that’s undeniable. I think the important thing to keep in mind is that having expensive utilities available does not guarantee success in the first place, it simply makes the process easier. Having the best equipment and software in the world isn’t going to do all that much for people who aren’t familiar with the basics in the first place. If you are incredibly passionate about this work, I would consider investing your money into equipment over time, but for the time-being take your time in that department and really focus in on proving that, as artists, you can make do with what you have.

I am far more interested in consuming media that is bare-bones in its visual and audio presentation but has masterful storytelling than the reverse, and I think much more of your potential audience will agree than the average person assumes. Know your story. Know your characters. Whether or not you will have full control over when your characters come and go (per your decision), it is imperative that you treat each and every installment as its own distinct collection of story and character arcs. If you set up your show in a manner in which you can play every detail out ahead of time, even better! Within an episode, an arc of episodes, or a full season/series you are able to construct interesting narratives in which characters are given obstacles: physical, emotional or otherwise. Especially in an object show you are given a set of obstacles, be it through challenges or the emotional burden of competition. On a budget or not, this is the heart of your show. No matter how the technical presentation comes across you can garner and audience through excellent storytelling. Anyone can do it with practice. ESPECIALLY you!

As for the technical department, itself, let’s talk audio. Back in early 2009 I picked up a ‘lil $10 Logitech microphone at Target and got started on my first voice performance (as Lakitu found here) and I wouldn’t say it’s all that bad. A little bad. Tiny bit. But it worked! Plug in a cheap mic, download Audacity for free, and you’re already well on your way. Audacity isn’t top-of-the-line, but as far as free programs go it works really well, and is probably your lowest priority for upgrading beyond if you choose to bump up your equipment/software. The focus here comes down to putting in a strong, meaningful performance as your character, working around your mic limitations through setup and Audacity editing, and being open to re-recording. It happens!

I’m going to skip over talking vocal performances for the time being (I can always return to that upon request) and stick the practical here. With any microphone set up you’re going to want to do as much as you can to keep your accosting integrity in good standing. What I mean by that, firstly, is recording in a location that absorbs noise. Typically being in echo-y locations, we’re trained to ignore our own voices reverberating (unless it is to an intense extent), so sometimes noticing whether a voice echoes in a recording takes a lot of focus. It’s often not as intense as an echo you’d hear in, say, a cave, just ever so slight to break the illusion of a character being right there on screen and not someone speaking through a microphone. This is solved low-budget quite simply in recording in tight spaces with as much sound-absorbing material as possible. The best option would be hanging up clothes, blankets, or simply recording in a closet- so long as it’s safe. (The higher-budget alternative is buying acoustic foam or utilizing, specifically, a sound booth.) Watch your recording program, find your balance of recording as loudly and clearly as you can while also not getting too close to your audio peaking (the little soundy wave bois not hitting the top/bottom of your recording strip pal). The audio can be made louder or softer later, but peaking is much tougher to fix back up.

It also helps to have any sort of make-shift pop filter you can get together. They’re foam or a screen that you can typically buy cheap that will catch some of the plosives and other weird noises your mouth makes without you noticing before they hit the microphone, which is very helpful in the longterm. And, if you don’t feel like buying them, I know Adam used a sock for a while early on and it worked just fine. Just throw that boi right over the microphone and listen back to how the quality changes. If it’s roughly the same, you’re in the clear for your early, low-budget project.

There’s also plenty that can be done in Audacity to set your audio apart from the rest. I’d say top priority is dealing with background noise. I’m not speaking to parents chatting or the house’s floorboards mysteriously creaking in the background (because that should not be heard whatsoever in your area of recording, listen back to a dialogue-less track of your audio to make sure none of that is coming through), here I am talking to the consistent track of buzzzzz or variation that will come across in any cheaper microphone. The world makes noise, some you can’t hear, and your microphone eats it up. It’ll be in the back of your recording track, and getting rid of it goes a long way. Here the simplest means of going about fixing that is to, at the very start or end of your recording session, record a solid fifteen seconds of background noise without aaaaany noises on your part. Listen back, grab just the few seconds of bg noise that has the most consistent sound without your breathing or other interference, go to effects and hit “noise reduction” (or “noise removal” in other versions), hit “get noise profile,” now highlight eeeeeverything you’ve recorded, go back to “noise removal,” start by setting your noise reduction to around 10-15, and hit “okay.” Listen back and see if that did the job, you may need to make the number a bit higher (I try my best to avoid the 20s). The job here is to use as little of it as possible to get the job done, as the more you use the more of a chance it has at diminishing the quality of your recording. You can also use “equalization” in this process, lowering or boosting very specific frequencies, if you are willing to experiment and get a feel for it. Some others use “compression” to get a much fuller-sounding voice, although if anything I keep this to a minimum and save it more-so for non-narrative pieces where a single voice needs to be dominant.

In the case of audio peaking, clipping, or any plosives/pops/background sounds coming through, you have to be comfortable with re-recording. Going back into your recording spot for a minute goes a long way for a product that you’ll be putting up alone for a forever. This also goes for potentially going in for a strong performance, but that is more subjective and up to a standard you must set, yourself. After that it is your job to bring all the audio from all characters together and balance all of them out neatly volume-wise, pace the recordings out, add in sound effects and music as necessary and balance them out too (a common mistake is making music too loud for the audience to understand what the characters are saying because the sound editor already knows what the characters are saying, so there’s a disconnect). With enough time you will have an excellent audio skeleton for your animation, even with a low budget.

I’ll be honest in that I am much less experienced in animation than I am in audio so I cannot offer all the advice in the world, but here’s what I can say. With the technology available today you are able to create a lot of striking imagery. Whether you use a cheap animation program (do people still use Anime Studio?), Powerpoint, or a more typical program acquired through illegal means (which I would not say here that I condone, but I am aware it happens and people do what people do), there is no stopping you from coming up with unique visuals. I think in the object show community people get pretty caught up in keeping up standard animation conventions, simply making smooth motions and a good frame-rate and making sure everything looks “professional.” That is a luxury, and especially when you are starting out it is far from necessary.

What you want when you are starting out are visuals that are striking. Creative. Memorable. You’re working in animation, the most fluid and fun medium out there! You can spend all day getting bogged down in the basics of movement, which can be important down the line, but what is unique to you is the style that you bring to the table. Make characters do what only animated characters can do. Make characters pose in ways that people can think back on in wonder. As an object show, think of challenges that make characters do the absurd or push them to physical limits. Inanimate Insanity does not get to hit on this often but it is something I value in animation. You can impress people with or without the best animation program in town, it’s just more trying. But far more rewarding.

So much of the magic of object show community is that it works as a training grounds. Create create create! This is the time to do the weird and meaningful things that you might not have an opportunity to create far down the line when responsibilities get in the way. It doesn’t matter in the slightest if your work is perfect, so long as you are creating something and getting it out there and, above all, expressing yourself- I am impressed.

I know that most of this has been more to general show production and not more specifically to object show production, but I think it is important to note that it does work the same as any other show. People will always appreciate good, strong stories, as well as the bare minimum put into your audio and visuals. Effort means the world.

You got this.