March 2025 | James Durose-Rayner's website

MARCH 2025

The A's

ALL IMAGES OPEN IN TECHNICOLOUR

8 March 2025

I got up at 3:00 am.

Today we are out of the UK.

Cyprus beckons.

Got down the M1 with no fuss. Hopefully there'll not be another speeding fine this time!

The flight was on time and we got to the house for 6:30 pm Cyprus time.

Julie's just hanging up the washing that we brought in before we left 28 days ago.

I've set the laptop up for tomorrow and rigged up the 12TB external hard drive.

Generally we go to Fosis Coffee Shop (Gambling Den) on our arrival, but it's pointless going up there if I'm not having a drink... yet.

I'll couple up the FTO and we'll nip up to the Red Ruby.

So... I'll see you tomorrow.

I did the same sequence with the Leoni Middleton asset and it looks a bit cumbersome.

That, however - is possibly down to the shoes that she's wearing.

Leoni is a good character. Funny.

On other stuff, it was me that was tasked with the three dog walks as Julie had been house sitting for our Jamie - and I managed 90 minutes cardio. 30 minutes on the rower - 60 on the crosser.

As for music - the only thing that jumped out at me whilst in and out of the kitchen, whilst Radio Caroline was on was a song from off The Dandy Warhols' 1997 album Come Down, which is a fantastic album by a great band.

The song being played was Every Day Should Be a Holiday, which is an okay song, but there are much better on the album.

Good Morning has an awesome intro - and which their lead singer Courtney Taylor-Taylor compared the track to the style of Lloyd Cole.

Not sure where?

Be In is very psychedelic.

(Above) This is a 147 second animation of Astrid Karcherr and her model.

This has been done with the non pro software and rendered in 4K.

If you get close enough, and the lighting and colours are okay, there is very little difference with this and the pro-software.

As soon as you put a bit of distance in between the CAM and the subject - however, you begin to lose the definition of the teeth first, and then the eyes and fingers.

I'm assuming it will get better by time.

In the 69 days I've been doing it - lots of things have happened that have made things better. However, perfection is what we need to attain.

We really need the software to take 100MB files and keep the resolution intact.

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6 March 2025

I got up at 7:00 am.

I didn't get to bed until very late.

2:20 am.

There was no-one in the house bar me and the dog, and Julie did me some sandwiches, so I worked in the study until gone 10:30 pm.

Just animation and indexing.

I tried doing a very long shot - possibly 4m, of the Gaynor character asset walking through a Japanese bar.

Her eyes were perfect - however, by the time she got to the camera she looked like she'd aged around 10 years and grown 12 inches.

It doesn't look bad - it's just not Gaynor.

That fucker can go in my Bloopers file!

I did 60 minutes cardio - on the cross trainer, took the dog around the churchyard and got a bath and brought the laptop and the 12TB external hard drive into the dining kitchen - basically to keep the dog company until about 2:00 am.

Strange one this?

I was walking from the church down High Street around midnight, and the dog was walking as though she was pissed. Stop, starting and stumbling.

She always chases stuff - rabbits, squirrels, deer's, foxes, partridges, pheasants. You name it and she'll go after it.

On going up the church path on our way round, she did a short burst over the farmers field.

I put the torch on but I couldn't see what she was chasing. More than likely it was a rabbit, as that is what she generally chases.

I'm wondering if she just overdid it a bit?

Anyway. Post-indexing I found all my lost files... The wardrobes.

Dickhead.

You live and learn!

Music. I played Bleed Like Me - the 2005 album by Garbage - the American grunge band fronted by Shirley Manson.

There are some steady tracks on it.

I also played Feeder's 1997 album Polythene and their 1999 album Yesterday Went Too Soon.

5 March 2025

I got up at 7:00 am.

Not bad considering I didn't get to bed until 12:30 am.

I've just had two messages off Johnny Welsh - totally complaining about Radio Caroline playing Paul Simon.

Homeward Bound and Sounds of Silence are nice enough songs from when he was with Art Garfunkel, back in the day - circa 1966. Outside of that, I'm in total agreement.

As John says - dreadful boring voice and wank lyrics.

I'm on my own for a couple of days as Julie is house (and dog) sitting for our Jamie and Lianne down in Ealand as they are off down to Crufts for a couple of days.

Which means me back to walking the hound.

Yesterday, was another nothing day apart from me practicing with the internal software, which I finally got working.

Check out The Chelsea Girl opposite.

That was a 10 second video that I panned out to 25 using the pro software in several stages.

It took longer to render in 4K than it did for me to actually create it.

She looks good - doesn't she?

I have to use the pro software when shooting at distance and make the asset continually focus on the camera, as has soon as its focus goes, the eyes are all over the fucking place.

The non pro software is only good for 1m shots.

The Chelsea Girl was shot at 3m.

I never ever thought I'd ever get to this stage when I first sat down at the kitchen table in Levanda Hills and drafted the idea for the series.

Two attractive sisters with a bit of sibling rivalry and The District Line on London's Underground as the location.

Now, I know exactly where I'm going with it.

I had to basically create a new wardrobe for the Gaynor character as for some reason I mislaid all her new stuff.

It will be on an external flash drive somewhere.

I'm a git for not indexing straightaway.

All the clothes you see in The A's are designed by me.

Hugo Boss eat your heart out!

When I go to 3D that won't be the case, although I can change fabrics and the colours - which will be another learning curve.

Music. I had Radio Caroline on, but if I'm being honest, nothing jumped out at me - but I've been working at the other side of the house, so I've heard very little apart from when I've been nipping into the kitchen to make a coffee.

I did two hours cardio - 60 minutes on the dreaded rowing machine, and 60 on the crosser.

Piece of piss.

I very much doubt that I'll be enrolling for Iron Man anytime soon, however. So I'm feeling better.

Let's see what today brings!

4 March 2025

I got up at 7:30 am.

I was actually up at 5:00 am with dog barking.

I came downstairs, let her out and had a look around the drive and patio, and nothing. Must have been a cat.

You have to get up just in case.

When we were first married I ignored the dog barking and got up to find that the kitchen window had been barred open.

Nothing had been taken as the dog had scared them off, but nevertheless, it had been foolish to have ignored her barking.

I never did it again.

That dog was also a female Alsatian. Snowy, and very much like the one we have now. Lucy.

Yesterday was a nothing day.

An afternoon in the cardiologists at Grimsby Hospital.

Not me - Julie.

I just drove her there and had a tuna melt and a bag of crisps while I waited... and waited.

I hate hospital's.

Full of lazy people seemingly walking around doing nothing.

And you ought to have seen the cleaner dusting down the waiting room. So useless!

I bet her house is a right tip.

I remember taking Julie to the cardiologists at Doncaster Royal Infirmary a few years ago, and this so-called heart specialist was left scratching his head, and gave her what every specialist says. You know - their stock answer.

Stop drinking and lose some weight.

The irony was that he looked like a busted cushion weighing in at fuck knows what.

Julie's suffered from high blood pressure since being a bin lid.

It's an hereditary problem.

I gotta admit, it's dropped dramatically since we've not being drinking.

Generally it can be over 180, but recently she's regularly had it down to 120.

Anyway.

I animated nothing, just continued downloading assets which I'd already bought.

Music. I listened to the 1993 album Ring - by the American alternative band the Connells, with 74-75, being the stand out track and relistened to Lush's debut album Spooky, whilst in between, Duran Duran's 1982 album Rio was played on the B2.

I'm still dry. Day 24.

I need to do two hours cardio today as I only managed 60 minutes yesterday - all on the cross trainer.

3 March 2025.

I got up at 7:30 am.

The weekend has gone.

We went for a curry Saturday night. The Imperial Mahal in Scunthorpe.

The jungle telegraph must have been in motion as Big Scott was on Facebook sat in there last night, with his second eldest son, Hunter. And with their coats on - as the only downside about the restaurant, is that it's fucking freezing in there.

I'm still dry and still doing cardio.

90 minutes last night. 30 on the rower, and an hour on the crosser.

I'm on Day 23 now.

Animation was certainly interesting yesterday as I felt like putting my foot through the computer.

Not only was the external software playing up, the internal software on my system wasn't doing what I was asking too.

I've just chucked four short clips of Robbie and Annie Coulthard's family up on the site.

Robbie and Annie are great characters and have two accident-prone kids who Mason and Gaynor sit from time to time, and who have a tendency to just say it how it is.

Annie, was the only friend that stuck with Gaynor when things went bad.

Music. Nothing has jumped out at me and I've had both the B2 and Radio Caroline playing all weekend.

In the Gaynor and the record player animation from yesterday... that is Lush playing Track 12 from their 1996 Lovelife album - Olympia.

2 March 2025

Morning... or is it nearly the afternoon.

11:31 am it says on my PC.

I was up and at 'em at 8:15 am - however, I think the late nights have caught up with me.

Last night, I spent an hour or so looking for lost files.

The external hard drive is the problem. I know I copied them to it but they aren't on it.

Highly annoying.

And I gotta admit, this external software is getting very hit and miss, in that sometimes it's out of this world and the next it's utterly shite.

I had a system, a sequence, and it's gone from being quite consistent - to not.

I know the file size has something to do with it, but even then...

I did an animation with the Gaynor character asset sat on the floor listening to the record player and it was nothing short of fantastic.

The contrast of colours, her expressions - brilliant.

I then tried elaborating on the animation with dialogue and it went to shit. In fact, every bit of dialogue I did after that was the same.

I'm not sure why.

Again, highly annoying.

The one thing about this particular external software I've been using, is that for pure animation, it is Top Rank and it is the main one that I will run with especially as I have been loading it with files larger than 10MB and it has been accepting them.

1 March 2025

Morning

I got up at 7:30 am..

Not bad, considering that I didn't get to bed until 2:00 am.

I was watching the President of the U.S.A cutting off the billions to the corrupt President of the Ukraine in a meeting in the Oval office.

You need to watch the whole 40 minute meeting and not just the selected forty-second-to-two minute clips that the mainstream media are continually regurgitating and pushing in your face to suit their narrative.

Wars are bad - but good for those who wish to make money.

You will see that in The A's, as that is how Jacob Gotleib and to an extent Simeon Cartier Bloem and Zeffy Rosenstein make their money - all of who are bankers.

As we are now in March, I'll create a new page later.

Yesterday was a sort of nothing day.

When you are trying to be good, the weekends are the worst as your social life doesn't just go down the pan - it's non-existent.

Nobody had any dinner yesterday as nobody was bothered. It was the same with my two hours cardio. I did 60 minutes on the cross trainer and thought Fuck It.

Julie was in bed at 7:30 pm with a book and I was downloading 3D assets and animating using the inferior software - practice more than anything.

The pub calls on a weekend but I'm now on Day 21 and I don't want to bollocks up all the hard work.

Music. I was working in the study yesterday, so I didn't hear anything on Radio Caroline.

Saying that, they have just played Jon Vangelis' I'll Find My Way Home, which is a Lovely track that sort of takes me back.

I had a bit of a conversation with John Welsh regarding him submitting his Top 15 to the station, but the rigmarole you have to go through to submit it is if I am being honest - quite pathetic.

The station play people's top 15's every day of the week.

Half John's Top 15 aren't even on their database of music, which I find as being strange, as they are supposedly, the album station.

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© JAMES DUROSE-RAYNER 2024