Entering into Animation

 For some time I have intended to integrate animation into the e-Storybook. There are a number of options for doing this. Some years ago, I experimented with video, filming (so-to-speak) a sequence of me doing some dance movements in order to capture the frames to use for drawing the artwork. That process worked quite well and so I have intended on getting the green-screen stage set up. So I have the supplies to do that, including the video equipment, et al, but the publishing work has had to take precedence. Using live actors is one method, but I have also intended on using marionettes in the same fashion. Now that I am setting up an animation workstation, using Poser as one of the tools, digital animation is also an option. I have found that the artwork we already have (and more we intend on creating) can be integrated into the Poser software to create endless scenes from the storyline(s). The trick now is adapting the figures to the size and shape of the various gnomes and learning how to create the skins for those figures. It would be preferable to create the skins from the existing artwork, but we may have to approach it in another fashion. All of this is yet to be seen, as we are just beginning to approach the digital animation arena with the figures. Now that the whole collection is postured for publishing, with the extensive cross-referencing finished, we will be able to move into creating an animated e-Storybook. Even though developing animations that are based on the illustrations is moving forward, the results of that will not be seen by the general public, truth be told, for years to come. It is all very extensive and complicated to manifest these concepts, it depends on many factors, funding and personnel are part of that scenario, which brings with it all the other complexities of producing and dealing with regulations, taxation, insurance and a whole litany of other factors that come into play. 

All I can say is: Onward and Upward. AG

The Three Volume Illustrated Storybook

I have been preparing to print the entire collection, as a prototype in order to price out the end product. I set the pricing at what I thought would be the most anyone might be willing to pay, taking into account the different number of pages in each volume. I expect that I will need to achieve​ a certain level of sales in order to publish a production quantity that is sufficient to bring the end cost into line with the budget. Basically, that means I will need distributors to issue purchase orders in the tens of thousands or more. It's​ really at the point where I cannot deal with small quantity sales at all. IMS Publishing is strictly wholesale. I have built a pricing schedule that works for smaller retail quantities, but the expectation of a full keystone cannot happen without a minimum of 25k units. Obviously, on a distributor can issue a purchase order for that number of books. But I'm not even certain that the books can be produced, even with that quantity, to meet the budget. It's very possible that the printing will need to go to web in order to bring the wholesale price in line for a fully keystone. MSRP Pricing is; $29.95 for Volume One, $34.95 for Volume Two and $39.95 for Volume Three. The whole collection is between 800 & 900 fully illustrated full color pages. So as you can imagine, it is an expensive collection of books to publish.

More later. AG

2/21 Update RE: Publishing

 The more recent posts landed on Image of the Mind Studios, so check that out.

An earlier photo of one of my puppet workstations.

     I'm experimenting with the mechanics and programming of Animatronics. There are a number programs that I am considering, one of which is Conductor, which will serve to control all those aspects, while also addressing the lighting and the stage controls needed for the stage show and the parade. So the control programs need to be established before the puppets are constructed. I thought I might use Digital Perfomer, but I don't think that does DMX. It may, I haven't had the chance to explore the newest version, or really even consider the formats yet, since we used that program to write the music. Beyond the programming, I need to acquire another lathe & milling machine and finish getting the metal working shop set-up, before I advance with the larger part of the puppetry work. Sculpting needs to take place in the summer, when I can put the clay out in the hot sun. Right now the shop is too cold for sculpting.

    Now, in regard to publishing; As you may have read here, this process has been an laborious (never-ending) process. I have gone through so many changes, it is impossible to comprehend, even for me. A great deal of time has been "wasted" because of disc failure and loosing the work product. I have had to rebuild the files (literally) countless times. that has been the most frustrating and angering aspect of this project. The other aspect of delay that has been, well, challenging, is that changes to the layout and design have progressed on the basis of long term practicality. An example would be that - some design element that worked for the immediate prototype layout, ultimately would require changes in order to work for the long term (ie: HDTV version) plans. As I developed this e-Storybook for delivery in numerous digital media arenas, it became clear that the elements involved in those specialities needed to be adjusted accordingly. So my approach has been to develop smaller test run layouts for each of the medias that are/were to be expected. The result has been that specialities of the design, which are addressed in each of those medias, revealed themselves to be different, sometimes only slightly, and sometimes in major ways. So, I discovered the hard way, that going through the entire collection with the expectation that it would be completed by doing so, was a big mistake. Of course I did that about ten times before I woke up to the fact that that was not a good approach. 

    After a while, I realized that certain elements needed to be fully confirmed across the board, before they could be practically applied to the finished product. The proof-reading process was like a trip into insanity. The end product, meaning the Three Volume Illustrated Storybook, amounts to 766 pages of the introduction and the story. There are additional pages, represented in the Covers, Preface, and Appendixes which take the entire collection closer to 900 pages, give or take. The number of corrections that were continually being discovered after, quite literally, thousands of read throughs was astounding.  Along those lines, I determined to read the narration for the e-Storybook and proceeded to do so. What I discovered surprised me. Even though, while writing this, I had structured the language for the narration, I found that, even then, the sentence structure was not correct for the spoken word. So I proceeded to make those corrections. 

    Now, making corrections sounds easier than it really is. The layout, being graphic in nature is designed in such a way as to make the end working product essentially a picture, meaning that the text on the page is a flattened image. There are a whole lot of reasons for this, which I won't go into now, but that means that in order to make corrections, I need to go back to the original word processing document which was used to write the story. Otherwise the corrections would not be resident in the foundational documents. That means that I also have to go back through the process of creating the alternating gutter flattened documents that were used in the graphic layout. Suffice it to say- that is a long process, although I managed to pair it down quite a bit by changing the overall working layout design. Fortunately, the text layouts are now completely locked in and all layout elements are likewise finished and set up for easy modification when new artwork is created for the remaining pages. 

    Beyond having th layout finished for ease of inserting the new illustrations, it is also now accommodated for insertion of numerous other kinds of media. In fact, the long process of refinement has resulted in the Core creative Materials, represented in the Illustrated Storybook, being accommodated for numerous mediums and having been designed for consistency across those platforms. This will allow us to introduce new forms of exploitation without needing to go back to make major changes.

   I am particularly excited to see animations or GIFs inserted into the e-Storybook, not only because it will move us forward toward a full animated feature, but because by delivering the Illustrated e-Storybook via a subscription, the people subscribing can watch the progress and travel the path toward a full cinema and theatrical presentation of this musical. Under normal production standard practices, a show like this is developed within the studio environment and released to the public when it is ready. With the scenario we are working with, each step along the way represents an advancement of the original product and by so doing, the general public can take that journey with us. Essentially, the subscription e-Storybook will be updated as we progress and our fans of the project can watch as this happens. There are so many aspects of this project that are vey interesting to watch, most especially the construction of the Parade Float, the building of the sets and puppets that will be used for parades, and the preparations of a mini-show, that i think it will be very interesting for people watch.

    All of this is contingent upon sufficient books being sold to fund the operations. My position is that I will only move forward using funds that are available to me without needing to pay those funds back. That's not to say that investors are not welcome, that's only to say that thus far, I have conducted my development activities mostly on the aforementioned terms. Yes I do have investors, and yes that money must be repaid, with profit. But I have avoided becoming overly indebted to achieve this project. Now, at least, we have a product that can generate capital influx. Properly installed in the marketplace, we at least have something that will help us pay back any investor's money that might come in.

  As it stands now, the remaining artwork for the entire collection, will cost another 100k to complete. I may be able to swing it for less, but calculating the effort that went into the artwork that has been used thus far, that is really the actual cost. My effort on the existing artwork was five to ten times as much as the effort to create the artwork. preparation for publication and matching the elements for the layout are complex and quite time consuming. Hopefully, the work I did on the existing artwork will expedite that process, since the work done up until now has, in large part, been trial and error. It is really the settings in processing the graphics that makes the difference.

   I am also going to reevaluate the color balance for the HDTV version. all the work thus far has been oriented toward the printing press. Yes the layout ratios where matched to the HDTV, and yes I used a large HDTV as my monitor, but I recently put the layout upon a different screen (via Apple's Preview) and the color balance was terrible. Now I believe that is a result of Preview. Every time I use Preview I doo not get the result I am seeking. So I have to be certain that the delivery medium is correct, not only for the e-Storybook, but also consistent across numerous HDTV screens and presenting the correct color balance over all. I think that will occur once the e-Storybook is formatted as a .MOV file, which is the method of presenting the narrated version of the book. Other possible formats may be presented as well, because I would like the viewer to have control over how they proceed in viewing the material. Even if it is presented as a ,MOV file, one can stop and start in-between pages, so that may be sufficient.

   Well, that's all for now  AG