Marching through Q-1

Going on Three months into 2024, and where are we at?

I now have the primary pages for my categories written, and they're ready to now be linked with my actual writing topics!

For "Completed" tasks, that's all I finished in this last month.

Seem kind of slow? Truth be told, I had this done at the end of February, and have been putting my time towards the next step"

Creating Content Loops

What's a "Content Loop"?

Put simply, it's when you create a group of web pages (or content) that is then linked to other web pages, creating a "loop" of information that is relevant to the topic the viewer just read.

The main benefit of such a system is that when a viewer wants to read/learn more information, they have directions of what to read next. Since my goal is to create an Informational Website, the two goals I need to meet for my content is: 1. Each topic should be easy to search for and found, and 2. Related Topics should also be easy to find and shown to be related to the previous topic.

On the flip side, viewers may also feel that you're purposely breaking up information across different web pages, so that they have to visit more parts of your website to get what they want (For Ad Revenue or otherwise).

So for my content, the information needs to be "Long enough to get the point across", but also "Short enough to keep the reader's interest".

The question is, how do I structure my content for these loops of information?

Content Loop Structures

For my chosen topic (Animation), I have 3 main categories of "difficulty" to use for my content loop. The idea is that once a viewer finishes enough content for one difficulty, they can advance to the next one. (As in, that next tier of information is now usable to them).

So for my finished "Loop", something like Reading 3 Beginner pages, which leads to 3 Advanced pages, and finally directs to 3 Expert pages.

On completion of that loop, I would then recommend another Beginner, Advanced, or Expert topic (letting the viewers choose their skill level), which would start another Loop of Content for them to explore.

The question is, how does this structure Directly affect my Niche Animation? (Particularly, how does this divide my niche into topics?)

Simply put, I'm dividing into categories I'm calling Tools, Techniques and Stories.

• Tools are the Animation programs to choose from (and how they work).
• Techniques refer to using a combination of different tools, or specialized tools to get more effective outcomes or meet certain goals.
• Stories is about combining different techniques in an Animation program to craft scenes that build an overarching narrative (aka telling a story).

Most Animators generally start out by having a story they want to tell, and just choose Animation as their medium of choice. Which means that the program they decide to learn and how animation programs differ from one another is a good starting point.

The "basic" tools (Move, Rotate, Keyframe, Import/Export) are roughly the same for all programs, but each program has their own nuances (or Techniques) on how to do some of the more complicated actions. (Such as Lighting/Rendering, UV Mapping, Cloth and Hair Physics)

And even though Stories & Storytelling isn't exactly Program specific, it's better for an Animator to know how their program works before trying any larger projects dealing with crafting a narrative. Which is why I have this topic covered last on the list. (But with a Website who's pages are free to view, the viewer is free to look ahead at their own curiosity)

Then the final question at this point is: Where am I at on this first Loop?

Test Driving My Own Loop

Where most of my time this month has gone, was making sure that my own content actually works! When dealing with software, it is Far better to actually test information yourself, than to simply share information that other's have said.

I also have to consider what my first "loop" entails, which is creating a 3D Animation from Scratch. Since I am looking at using MMD (MikuMikuDance) as the first Animation program I am covering (for being Free and fairly simple to use), it does NOT cover 3D Modeling or Texturing, which needs another program.

If someone does want to animate with MMD, that leads to the animator making 1 of 2 choices; either find places to get ready made resources that can be downloaded, or use another program to create the assets, to import into MMD.

The former is easy enough, I have already found a few different resources that are current and easy to use. But for the latter, it turn's into Trial and Error trying out things that "Should" work, using not so direct information from Google to get close to somethings that Will work.

The latest issue I've been working on, is while I can successfully create 3D models and import them into MMD, the Texture file is being imported improperly. And the error that I assume is happening, is that Blender (the 3D Modeling program used for this example), has a different UV Map reader than MMD, which is why the texture is showing up incorrectly when imported.

The file is being read because is shows up on the model, but it isn't shown in the correct orientation. (Because the Top and Bottom sides of the texture are marked, while the model shows the marks being split across the entire model.)

But until I find a fix, I can't exactly say what is or isn't happening, which also means I can't definitively tell You why it does or doesn't work!

Though it's through this process of trial and error, that I now have quite the stacked list of notes covering the entire process that Does work, making a good outline for this content loop. And as I practice the actual content in this loop, I'll also have example files (images and video) to use with the text as visuals!

While I would estimate it will take another month or two without interrupts to finalize the text of this Loop, if I can confirm this texture snag then there will be only 1 more major topic to cover for files that can be imported into MMD. It will be the complex topic of Rigging Character Models (which take time to Model and Texture alone), but then all the major bases will be covered, and any additional topics related to MMD can be added as an optional addendum at a later date!

All in all, not too much "real" proof to show for the month of March, but the Research is nearly complete to make the writing that much smoother!