Animation Studio

Below is a skeleton laid out on top of an enlarged sketch of Zach. This gives us an idea of the ratio of the bones required. The bones are modified to match the limbs of our drawings. You can see that the upper arms are so modified and adjustable, depending on which character thy are used for. 

 This guides our work in building puppets, both manual and animatronic. 

Animatronics depends somewhat on whether or not IMS buys the machine shop; R.C. Klezżtzing Inc.

This also leads me to the subject of Animation. The intention is to incorporate animations into the e-Storybook. For the storybook, the animations can start out to be 2D and transition into 3D, but one of the efforts underway is to convert our characters from 2D to 3D and to set up a work station for that effort, This leads me to believe that we need to establish the IMS Animation Studio. 

So that will be happening. 

I invite participants interested in this arena to make their voices known.

AG

 

IMS Design Studio

Here's a link to a subject relative to the Gnomes;

IMS Design Studio

Theatrical Game Plan

  The theatrical production of The Gnomes of New Hope has been the ultimate goal since it's inception. Publishing the Illustrated Storybooks was originally intended as a means of building an audience for the stage show. Of course, the books have become an entity unto themselves, but the intent for the musical still exists as the purpose.

   This leads to the fact that once the books are fully put into play (meaning published and distributed) then the focus of attention will return to completing the score for the musical. 

   The Libretto is written sufficiently to work off of and begin building the show. We are considering painted drops vs an LED backdrop. The LED can be used for other film projects on the Sound Stage.

   The Musical Score is partially finished and needs to reach the point of publication. Although, all of the musical numbers have MIDI files outlining the melody lines and the majority of the arrangements. The last section of (maybe seven) songs still need to be arranged. There are a total of 70 musical numbers in the piece, that includes bridges and backdrops. The Overture is only sketched out at this point. Once the Illustrated Storybooks are finished and being distributed, then return to work on the music will occur.

    The Technical Manual for the show is started, but that cannot practically be fully produced until we are in production. Some portions of that can be set-up in pre-production, which will happen as we progress.

 

  Ideally, I would like to partner with other producers who work on Broadway. I prefer not to attempt that arena, simply because I have been involved in the development arena and have been away from that level of production for too long. 

   I have been building the tools, equipment and facilities to mount a try-out production and I have the video and film capabilities to create visual aids in mounting a larger production. Ultimately, I feel as though the larger professional endeavor should be implemented by a larger organization that is already steeped in the First Class Theatrical environment. That goes for the First Run Cinema as well. I think the project would be best served by that approach.

   I can and will continue in the Development process in-house and potentially into the Try-out Scenario, but advancing into a Try-out Tour will be contingent upon Licensing the First Class Production before doing so.

   There is an overall plan that involves conducting the Try-out Tour based on four wall contracts, meaning the First Class Contracts will not be tied to any third party agreements.

More later, AG

Artwork for Illustrations

   

    These binders contain the watercolor paintings that are finished and await being installed into the books. There are a dozen or so more paintings to be included in these binders, but that is it for the illustrations (actually there turned out to be another binder about 1/4 the thickness of these). I have eleven more binders like these, containing the all artwork that has been used in this Illustrated Storybook Collection.

 

   Installing this artwork involves;  first defining the sketches requires, then once they are composed properly, scanning the sketches and filing the scans away properly, then opening the digital sketches in Photoshop and proceeding to prepare the digital copy to be painted (cleaning up the extraneous lines, fixing rough edges and lines),  then printing the digital B&W sketch out on watercolor paper.  The sketches are then painted with watercolors, rescanned, cleaned up again, removed from the background, and processed to enhance the color, brilliance, contrast & exposure.  Then the individual drawings are assembled into a composite illustration, that illustration is reduced and inserted on the appropriate page.

    Whew! It's a lot of work !

   Just taking a wild guess, I'd say each of the 768 pages of the collection uses, on average, six paintings for the illustration, often times more than that, sometimes many more.  That's at least 5,000 watercolor paintings that cost around $500 a piece to produce.  In other words, the paintings used in this collection of books has cost approximately $2.5m and around fifteen years to produce.

   I better sell a lot of books to make up for that expenditure!

   When the books are finished and published, we will be moving to convert these paintings (of the characters) into 3D files for animation.  

   To say nothing of the stage production!

   Does it ever end ?  I hope so, I want to work on my cars.  AG

Purchasing the Books

Update, 7/24/25

Pre-Ordering Books

The Illustrated Storybook Collection is not yet fully in production.

Books one through Four are finished and ready to be produced.

Book Five through Seven, although mostly completed, 

still need to have some artwork installed, which is underway.

All the Artwork is completed, just not installed in the layout.

I am still setting up the payment systems, 

along with production lines for publishing and the necessary registrations.
So at this time, I will not be accepting payment,
I only seek to know if you are interested.

If you are a distribution outlet, give me an idea of the quantity you might like

and I will get back to you on the details.

Once payment is set-up, I will accept Sales of individual books

and Pre-Orders the entire collection of seven books.

If you are interested in securing the entire collection of books,
let me know, as I will be offering a discount to persons
who pre-order all seven books.

Terms for a pre-order for the entire collection will be forthcoming.

You may choose to purchase Book One,

since Book One is an introduction to the collection and the actual story of

"Zach & Zebby's Grand Adventure"

begins with Book Two

Here's a Graphic from one of the songs,
just to show you the titles.

If you would like to order Book One, the whole collection
 or have other interests in the book series,
send an email to my attention Arthur Greisiger at;
imagemindag.publishing@gmail.com

I will let you know when payment systems are in place.

I may release each book at an interval, once the artwork is installed
that hasn't been decided yet.

Archive;

Here is a Flyer that was produced years ago

 (when I had no idea just how long it would take to build these books)

It is still valid.

I am building this page to be the online shopping cart for book sales

and will connect via PayPal.

This order form below is outdated as to pricing, but the rest of it is legit.

I will modify the above order form to reflect the accurate pricing.

As of my last production run of prototype books

the MSRP for the books was 

$34.95 

(per book, plus shipping and sales tax) 

 Look for updates to make this page your portal to buy the books.

They will become available after I build the inventory 

and finish setting up the production line.

If you would like to pre-order, you may do so without sending any money

I will inform you when the books are ready for purchase.

Use the contact form in the sidebar or the above email.

If you would like a hard copy order form that is easier to read

please provide a mailing address.

Initial production runs of the books, will only be available by direct purchase 

through this web page.  As it stands now,  all books will be MSRP without any discounts, 

because the books are all hand-stitched and they take time to bind this way.

Delivery times will be according how quickly we can make the books.

We do expect to maintain at least 100 books in inventory before we release them

and wholesale orders will not be permitted to deplete that inventory.

AG

Exhibition

Update 7/19/25

   We spend a time yesterday reviewing the lighting needs for the exhibition panels and what needs to be done to complete the actual display panels. I was hung u on a few aspects of the panels for some time, being unable to decide how to approach hanging the artwork and other exhibition items.  I have finally concluded what the finish will be on the surface of the panels and how I will implement framing the exhibition items. I was experimenting with aged wood for the framing and I realized that I have a surplus of aged stockage fencing, which, as it turns out, would be perfect for constructing framesThere are a few variations on what can and should be done, but since there are 32 panels, there can be a variety of layouts that will accommodate assorted exhibitions.

   Here's a view of the last section of panels. In the foreground you can see a wallpaper that I have, which I may be using to cover the panels with. I tried staining the panel, but it doesn't really look the way I want it to. The wallpaper achieves the look but poses challenges in regard to hanging the artwork. Since now I can create frames from the aged fencing this will work well thematically.  I will be setting up different panels with a different framing layout (as to position and size).  There are a number of design selections with this aged wood look, so I may mix and match, just to give the exhibition diversity.  Plus, I have at least three (or more) exhibitions on different subjects that these panels can be used for. (in addition to renting it out for other artists to use.)

   In the background you can see an early stage model and one of the (unpainted) Garden Gnome Statues  in the far back, the curtains were used on the outdoor stage we used for the Shakespeareans and around the corner is a larger stage model, (which I expect to refine).

  Since the publication of the Gnomes of New Hope Illustrated Storybook is nearing completion, I can turn my attention to finishing the exhibition, since that will go along with the stage show in the theatre  lobby and in other promotional opportunities.

Archive

   

    Since we are down to the last few Watercolor Illustrations for the books, we are now thinking in terms of a Gallery Exhibition of the artwork. I still have quite a bit of work to do to assemble and install the artwork into the book layout, but it appears that most of the artwork is finished being painted. There may be pages where I will want to replace artwork that was used more than once or twice, but I won't know that until the last of what we have is installed.

    

    Here's a view of the exhibition panels, which are still being refined. (along with my other stuff tht came out of the office when we set it up)  I'm trying to come up with an aesthetic design that works with how the artwork is presented. I'm thinking now that we need to carpet the floor under the exhibition.

    I'm still building the exhibition panels and the lighting for the setup. There are 32 panels which are designed to travel, but I am struggling to figure out how to make the artwork affix to the panels. I've tried a half-a-dozen methods, none of which really worked. I wanted the setup to be flexible for the needs, thinking of a number of shows the panels can be used for, but I think I'm going to have to build the frames into the panels, not the artwork. Only in that way will they be properly affixed. I guess I'll add more when I get down to working on finishing the panels up 

   It will be interesting to see how the Exhibition turns out, we have so much material to select from. We discussed what we will want to do and one component will be showing the progression from a description through rough sketches to final sketches to watercolor printout to painting to page. I also want to take the stage model up to a condition where it can be included. As it stands now, we have an opportunity to assemble a display for Charter Day in the fall at ANC. Jency is looking into that. I may have to pursue that opportunity more aggressively though.

ACT ONE ∞ Timing Breakdown

 Here is a 

Summary and Timing breakdown 

of the Music in Act One

As Publishing work nears completion, 

theatrical production elements will begin appearing on this blog

I do expect to be getting back to working on the music 

after the publishing materials are fully locked in

and some book inventory has been established.

This Breakdown identifies the Timing of the Songs, but also contains timing 

for the blocking in order to identify the length of the show variations.

You can see at the top that there are five different time frames

depending on which version of the show will be produced.

I was working on this to assist in a Breakdown for another theatrical project

I'll add ACT TWO, when I consolidate that.

The Impending Release of the Books

The Books are getting closer to Release

 I am finalizing the remaining Illustration Panels

there is still much to do, but relatively speaking,

we are almost done.

The Cover of the e-Storybook

UPDATE (6/14/25) :

 

   I have the prototypes of books one through four printed and bound.   We have nearly completed all the watercolors for the entire series, with only a dozen of so needing to be painted.  There are Illustration Panels that still need to be assembled from numerous paintings and there are two three inch binders of art that is ready to be installed into the layout. When we do complete the painting for the Illustrations, we will shift over to painting drops for the "Little Theatre" stage show.

   Little Theatre; Definition - in this context, this refers to the size of the Green Screen/Sound Stage that is being set-up in the studio. That is 20" wide by 18" deep by 14' high. This will serve a number of theatres available for the try-out run.  The size is expandable (within IMS space) to 30" wide by 25' deep if necessary, but my opinion is the smaller version will be suitable for workshopping this show, since there must be smaller productions available, within the context of the entire scope of possible venues. Certainly a larger production could be produced, but that is outside of my immediate scope at this time.

   My mission has now become printing Book Five, which is the longest of the books, because that book contains "The Gnomic Tales". These are not the full version of the tales, but only summaries of the stories that are used to serve the storyline of "Zach and Zebby's Grand Adventure".   Publishing of the prototype books continues; Five, then Six and finally Seven, with only a small amount of work remaining to be completed.

   So now, I have enough of the book series finished that I can talk turkey with another publisher and or distributor. But since I am finishing up the final layout. I will not be soliciting that dialogue, but I will be open to discuss the project if I receive inquiries.

  Even after I finish the books, the only publication I will be doing is in-house, which amounts to limited quantities. My efforts will shift over to Theatre Production, Animation, Literary Representation and Cinema.  The larger Publication and Distribution activities will take place within the context of an organized production structure that is external from the development environment of Image of the Mind Studios. That means that the rights to all markets will need to be negotiated with my literary Representative, if and when I secure that agreement. Until the entire series is fully published in it's completed form that agreement will not be implemented.

   If you are an Industry Professional, I am certainly willing to discuss the possibility of licensing any market, and I will be able to accept an Option of First Refusal, contingent upon the proper contract structure being put in place for Union Operations if that Option is implemented into a Production Contract. I have to say that, contrary to the Writer's & Dramatist's Guild Contracts, I will not permit any other writers or any producer to modify what I have written.  I will remain open to enhancing what has already been written, in fact I created opportunities for that to happen within the material, but I retain sole authority over the Core Creative Material ad infimum, in all markets.

   "The Gnomic Tales", five at this point, can be constructed by a writing team, but I will supervise and direct that if it occurs.

   I will add more to this discussion as necessary, as time allows. AG

Notes regarding Distribution

    I have a number of versions of the books.  Above you see a cover for the e-Storybook. The e-Storybook, which will be a subscription, includes not only the Audio Book,  but the watercolor illustrations contained within it will (gradually) become animations, meaning most of the page illustration panels will be converted to GIFs.   Eventually, this will lead to an Animated feature film or television series.  The books were in fact, designed to serve as Storyboards for a film.

   There are the Gnome-sized books; a small version that is about 3.5" square. There are the Big People's books that are about 9"x10".  There is the "Hand-stitched" version and a "machine bound version".  Both of these editions will be presented in boxed set editions.

  I will be keeping the "Hand-Stitched" and Boxed set versions as in-house production, at least for the time being,  because they will become the signed and numbered editions and I have yet to have found a production house willing to make Hand-Stitched Editions who is willing to adhere to my design specifications and do so at a price that works. As it stands now, the MSRP is $34.95 per book. There are seven books in the collection.

   I may release the Hand-Stitched (as well as all other ancillary markets) at some point, to another publisher/producer if the design elements are maintained and the down payment is sufficient.  Contact me to discuss terms.  Basically my terms are; a deposit against a guarantee, plus 10% of the gross on all markets. That applies to every market. That's firm.

   For now,  I am looking to find partners for publishing and distributing these books.  I am publishing in-house but those quantities are very limited. This is because I need to focus on the details of producing the stage musical and not assembling and selling books.  After all, the whole point is the stage musical and I can't focus on that - if I have to be making books.

   I will be making Hand-Stitched books on a regular basis and they can be ordered directly by contacting me via email. I will be setting up a Shopping Cart and selling the books direct using PayPal. 

   I will not be concerned with mass production, unless I receive bulk orders exceeding for 25K books.  If that occurs,  it will be contingent upon available personnel and/or publishing partners.

   Just some recent thoughts. 

Contact me via email if this business opportunity interests you.

image.of.the.mind.studios@gmail.com

AG

Poser Tests

Update:

  One of the people I am talking to tells me that there is a Ai program that can take our 2D artwork and extrapolate the information needed to turn it into 3D.

   It's important to me that we maintain the aesthetic style of the artwork, to keep the watercolor textures. I'm hoping we can do that with animation programs. I would be very happy if we can have a 3D file for each of the characters. Further, if we could initiate action of those files, that would be optimal for creating our animations 

AG

Archive:

Here are a few screen shots from Poser.

The main objective right now is learning how to switch the figure 

from a naked woman into our Gnomic watercolors. 

It's a question of creating skins.

There has been some discussion of using AI to achieve that,

but that is in the early stages of thinking animation through.

Once we achieve that, we can create animated action with our characters.

From there it should not be too difficult to place them into our backgrounds.

But, of course, we will need to animate the backgrounds as well.

I would be interested in discussing this objective with anyone 

who knows how to create skins or work with Poser.

Right now, it is Poser, but is has been suggested the we use Blender.

Either way this is our next objective.

Once the Illustrated Storybooks are in production and being distributed, 

we will be focusing on Animation.

As with everything else,  I am open to discussing business opportunities,

but in the absence of any viable proposals

we will proceed in-house.

As far as animation goes, 

my interest is animating the illustrations for the e-Storybook.

The Stage play will be produced by Image of the Mind Studios

as the principle through

The Elder Gnomes Joint Venture

Board positions in the Elder Gnomes are available,

but there is a substantial buy-in.

There will likely be a Limited Partnership established.

with the Elder Gnome Joint Venture partnering with 

The Gnomes of New Hope Productions

and other Production companies.

A feature film or television series is another matter,

which will be jobbed out and supervised by the Elder Gnomes Joint Venture,

Cinema may be part of The Gnomes of New Hope Productions.

AG

Inserting the remaining Artwork

 Here you see some of the artwork for these books
indexed in binders according to page number where it first appears.

There are six more binders that have not been indexed.

The yellow binder is the artwork that needs to 

yet be inserted in the book layout.

All told there are 13 binders of artwork, both sketches and watercolors.

This is not complete, as there is another binder of sketches 

which need to be converted to watercolors and painted.

That involves processing the sketches 

by removing extraneous sketch lines

making repairs to the lines, in order to prepare it 

to be printed on watercolor paper.

Then it is painted, scanned again, and processed 

for insertion in the illustration panel.

After all this is done, the entire book needs 

to be inspected for the EFX on the art,

so that all the pages are consistent.

You can see the prototypes of Volumes One & Two 

on the shelf behind the yellow binder.

I am posting this to give you an idea 

of how far away from finished the entire layout is.

I do expect to start publishing the finished books 

and getting the production line for binding up and running.

Set Construction

 

The Meadow Amphitheatre
in
Tamenend Park, Southampton

   The photo above was the stage I built in Tamenend Park and used to start a Shakespearean Troupe called The Shakespeareans of Tamenend Park. That stage is now gone, I disassembled it because vandals kept damaging it and I got tired of fixing it. I lot of other things happened there, but I won't go into that now. The title above is linked to that page. 

   So, for The Gnomes of New Hope, the first tangible construction effort for the stage show will be an aspect of the stage design, not specifically sets but rather backdrops.

   I decided that I can build a setting in the studio without worrying about staffing the show and going through rehearsals. There is a design I want to implement for shifting the setting around, which involves mechanical design. So being that I am putting a sound stage in the studio, I figure I can use that to construct this design I have in mind. Now, the stage I am building is essentially 20w x 18d, a bit smaller that some of the bigger 1600 seat houses, but I figure there are enough smaller houses 500-1200 seats that it would be worth doing for those venues.I can also design elements of that design so that it could be expandable if necessary. In terms of The Bucks County Playhouse, the proscenium there is 29', so the setting can be trimmed down to twenty, only loosing 4 feet or so on each side. I'm pretty sure I will build it in a modular design, so we can expand it if we re in a larger house or reduce it if is in a smaller house. So that will be the first stage of doing the sets. It doesn't much matter, because if the show moves into a union house, the sets will have to be rebuilt by union personnel. 

   So the set construction will be as I described. I'm also thinking of doing a version of the show with stick puppets for film, so we would do that in-house anyway.

More later, AG

2/25 Update

Here's an early version of this page.
(this low resolution copy is a little dark)

ILLUSTRATED STORYBOOKS

   If you've been watching this blog, you know we've gone through a lot up ups & downs, in terms of thinking the books are almost done. Egads! 

   So, the result of this is that; it seems like it is taking FORVER to get the Illustrated Storybook Collection finished. The truth is that, we cannot force it to be finished. We have taken great pains to represent the story with artwork that express' the text. In some instances we have generally highlighted the text, but in most instances the illustrations are specific to the page.

   Sometimes ago, we began illustrating the components of an illustration separately. What this means is that if an illustration has a crowd of Gnomes in it, we have illustrated each Gnome separately, so I have the flexibility to assemble an illustration as I see fit, being able to move the Gnomes around in the background.

   As you can see, approaching the artwork in this way causes the process to be quite a bit more lengthy. But the end result is - better illustrations, with more clarity. More than that, having the characters separated from the backgrounds, sets us up to do animation. I do expect that once all the Illustration panels are completed for these books, then we will move forward into animating some of the artwork in "old-world" fashion. I have explored 3D CGI. I'm not sure how all this will fit together yet. But I have some ideas.

   That being said, I have counted the pages remaining that are lacking color illustrations.  The number is 60. But, we have a three inch binder full of color illustrations, which are waiting to be scanned and inserted into the book pages.

   So, I don't know the actual status yet, but just guessing, I think there are less than ten pages that need to have the sketches made and turned into color paintings.

   I will be cross-referencing these materials, because I need to ascertain what Jency needs to be working on. 🎬

SET DESIGN

   One other aspect of this is the set design for the stage presentations. There are numerous versions of the musical. So, with this in mind, I will be constructing three of the primary settings for the show using a design I have that involves shifting the borders and legs as part of the backdrop design. I believe I will fly the blacks to reveal the variable hard props that will exist in those positions. 

   Overall, I am designing the staging to fit a 20' proscenium width and 18' depth. This is a smaller stage setting, but it allows for a wider range of venues.  We'll trim a larger stage for this width. We might be able to expand the design and I expect to take that into consideration, should it be required for a longer run is a theatre with a larger stage.  Of course, if the show goes into a union house, everything will need to be rebuilt anyway, so that doesn't matter much. My focus of attention will be smaller, non-union theatres, as a way to build the audience and do a tryout run.  There's also a mobile stage, which I mention below, so the design will need to service that stage too. 🎭