Happy New Year 2009

Happy New Year to any and all of my readers.

I'm looking forward to a great year, with Barn Dances (or Ceilidhs) at weekends, and time during the week to get on with some of the things I really enjoy doing. Now that I've got my website up and running (http://barndance.biz), I can devote a bit more time to personal and professional self-development.

One of my New Year's "resolutions" is to learn lots of new things, starting with my long-standing desire to get to grips with 3D modelling and animation.

Well, since procrastination and I are old friends, I've decided to make a start in January 2009, with the Open Source 3D software Blender (available from www.blender.org).

Why do I want to do 3D modelling and animation? Because I'd like to make some educational videos, demonstrating how to dance the various figures that I use in my barn dances. Rather than use human "actors" (with all the problems they bring with them -- not to mention the problems of lighting, at least two cameras with operators, editing ...) I thought I'd try to use computer-generated characters (probably slightly cartoony) to make the instructional films.

Watch this space!