ShadowBox Comics has been on my mind for a few years now.  I’ve written a few other articles laying the groundwork for this project, but it’s moving along a bit slower than I would like it to be.  So here’s the story.

I’ve been an exhibitor at comic book conventions for 3 years now, but I’ve never worked on a comic book.  I’m am so thrilled that I’ve been able to work with Lucasfilm and make new art for Star Wars, that I figured that comics would be the next big hurdle for me to conquer.  When I looked into what it would take to be a comic book artist, I was completely overwhelmed.  There are so many talented artists and writers out there I felt like I just couldn’t compete with them.  So I decided I would have to figure out a way to stand out in the crowd.

I’ve had a good response to the ShadowBoxes that I make, so I figure that I could try and apply that attention to a comic book reader.  Most digital comics are simple image viewers and don’t really take advantage of the device to show off the comic.  So I looked back at the traditional animation technique of using a Multiplane camera to create a multiplane comic on the iPad.  Check out the video below to see a sample.

You can see another video where I explain a bit more of the history of the multiplane camera and how I came to create ShadowBox Comics here, and a demo on the iPhone here.

 The iPad application launched right before the San Diego ComicCon in July of 2010 followed by the iPhone version in November.  So far it has been well received.  Like I said earlier, there are so many talented artists out there, perhaps I can now use ShadowBox Comics as a platform to launch other comic titles.  We’re working on a new site now with an online store and hope to start launching individual comic apps within the next few months.

All the way back in 2007-2008 the Writers Guild of America staged a Writers’ Strike. This mass refusal to work brought the entertainment industry to a standstill for it’s 14 week duration. One of the main goals of the strike was to balance the diminished monetary compensation the writers got in comparison with the profits of the larger studios. Among the many proposals from both sides regarding the new contract, there were several key issues of contention including DVD residuals, union jurisdiction over animation and reality program writers, and compensation for “new media” (content written for or distributed through emerging digital technology such as the Internet). As an example, a writer would receive residual income for their work in writing a script for the tv show The Office, but not for the short episodes that would appear exclusively the internet.

Out of this bitter conflict sprang a HORRIBLE idea (that’s a joke).   Joss Whedon, writer of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and FIREFLY decided to do something about it. Here’s what he wrote the following (as posted online here).

“It is time for us to change the face of Show Business as we know it. You know the old adage, “It’s Show Business – not Show Friends”? Well now it’s Show Friends. We did that. To Show Business. To show Show Business we mean business. (Also, there are now other businesses like it….Once upon a time, all the writers in the forest got very mad with the Forest Kings and declared a work-stoppage. The forest creatures were all sad; the mushrooms did not dance, the elderberries gave no juice for the festival wines, and the Teamsters were kinda pissed. (They were very polite about it, though.) During this work-stoppage, many writers tried to form partnerships for outside funding to create new work that circumvented the Forest King system.
Frustrated with the lack of movement on that front, I finally decided to do something very ambitious, very exciting, very mid-life-crisisy. Aided only by everyone I had worked with, was related to or had ever met, I single-handedly created this unique little epic. A supervillain musical, of which, as we all know, there are far too few.
The idea was to make it on the fly, on the cheap – but to make it. To turn out a really thrilling, professionalish piece of entertainment specifically for the internet. To show how much could be done with very little. To show the world there is another way. To give the public (and in particular you guys) something for all your support and patience. And to make a lot of silly jokes. Actually, that sentence probably should have come first.”

And he did it.  He made a 3 part web show called Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog.  He posted online for free, and then people bought it from iTunes, and then they bought the DVD, and comic book, and they dress up like the characters at conventions, and so on and so forth.  So what’s my point then?

New media was one of the sticking points of the writers strike.  Joss Whedon and his friends were just as successful as the big Hollywood studios were.  New Media has power.

 Around March 25th I learned that one of my favorite new animated shows was being canceled.  The internet rumors are swirling that this is not due to terrible ratings, but instead due to the fact that the show doesn’t have enough merchandising potential.

Sym-Bionic Titan debuted Sept. 17, 2010 on the Cartoon Network. Billed as “an exciting hybrid of high school drama and giant robot battles”, Sym-Bionic Titan features “the adventures of three beings from the planet Galaluna who crash-land on Earth while attempting to escape their war-torn world.” The series follows the lives of Ilana, Lance, and Octus, two alien teens and a robot in the form of humanoids who arrive on Earth while fleeing an evil general who has taken over their home planet with the help of monstrous creatures called Mutraddi. (via)

The show’s creator, Genndy Tartakovsky, is best known to me for his work on the original animated micro-series Star Wars Clone Wars as well as Samurai Jack and Dexter’s Lab.  In the video below Genndy describes that the premise for the show came from he and his son watching Godzilla movies, and then re-enacting them with little soldiers and Barbies!

I loved that these aliens had to try and figure out a way to fit in to this new world AND they had to try and fit into High School too.  The show had some scary moments as well as a scene where the head cheerleader tries to convince one of the characters to do her homework by dancing around the room, BUT I really enjoyed it.  As Newton (robot disguised as a big nerdy kid) refuses to do Kimmie’s homework (head cheerleader just mentioned), and helps her figure it out for herself she gives him a kiss.  Shes never felt that she was smart enough to do this work, and Newton helped to build her confidence.  This video takes place right after this scene (thank you Flock of SeaGulls for just the right song!).

So there it is.  I really enjoyed this show, but now, it looks like it’s gone.  I’ve been thinking quite a bit about how this could have been avoided, but I’ll save that post for later.

The other day I saw a random post inviting me to follow a link and check out the way that Disney made cartoons “Back in the Day”.  I love animation, and more specify, I love Disney.  I grew up watching the live action and animated features as well as the Wonderful World of Disney TV show.  I loved drawing and decided that I would someday work for the Disney Animation Studios.  I went to art school at Arizona State University, got a degree, and interviewed at Disney… and I didn’t get in.  I came back to Phoenix and interviewed at Fox Animation Studios… and didn’t get in.  There’s quite a bit of competition in the animation and film industry and (I can admit now) that I just wasn’t good enough.  In fact, there are LOTS of people that are better at this stuff than me, but when I saw that link, and I watched Walt at the studio, I remembered what it felt like growing up on Disney animation, and it makes me happy.  It makes me want to go out and fulfill that dream of being an artist and storyteller.

That link started me on a bit of a quest.  I’m working on a project right now that has its roots in traditional animation techniques (more to come on that later).   So I started to look into what I found and I’ve decided that I would use this post to catalog my findings.  It’s going to be long and drawn out, so if you’re interested you can check it out after the break.

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Tonight is the special advanced theatrical screening of the next 3 episodes of the Clone Wars.  This new story should give us a little more information about Asajj Ventress’ backstory as well as introduce us to Darth Maul’s brother Savage Oppress.  The video below is a short introduction of Savage Oppress.

While I’m not opposed to introducing new characters into the Star Wars story line, it does seem to be a bit odd that this new character happens to be the brother of the big bad guy from Star Wars episode I.  Another thing that I find interesting is the way that this new character seems to be bringing some new powers with him.  Powers that have not been seen yet in Star Wars.  This leads into a discussion about what is a “real” Canonized Star Wars story and what is simply the interpretation of a creator working outside the Star Wars universe.

I really enjoy seeing bits and pieces of stories considered to be outside of the “official” Star Wars universe finding they’re way into Star Wars the Clone Wars (there by validating them).  I’m expecting that tonight’s special showing of the Clone Wars will allude to part of Asajj Ventress’ story as told by Genndy Tartakovsky in the original Clone Wars animated series.  I’m equally excited to see Savage Oppress use some of the force powers as displayed in one of my video games “The Force Unleashed” as you can see in the video below.

Next we’ll have to discuss what it is that gives Savage Oppress and Starkiller such super force powers.

With the introduction of low cost, high speed cameras, it’s really no surprise to see so many people creating fantastic slow motion videos.  I came across this music video on Gizmodo, but I just had to know more about it. So here’s the video and then the research below.

The video was commissioned by Diesel:U:Music and directed by Tomas Mankovsky for the band Dancing Pigeons. Wait… what? The video was “commissioned”? by who?  Diesel used to make clothes, but sometime when I wasn’t looking, they began to identify themselves as, “DIESEL - the jeans, clothes, shoes and distraction company, not the fuel.”  They have expanded their brand name and worked to create a culture around their products by being involved in more than clothes.  So while looking into this video, I learned from their music site that Diesel:U:Music (D:U:M) launched 10 years ago (I am soooo clueless).  It’s a yearly (unsigned) music talent awards and a worldwide support network built to promote new artists, labels, radio stations, and journalists across most countries.  As D:U:M evolved and grew they began connecting fans to the bands, and in 2009 went on tour with two lucky winning bands.

To celebrate Diesel’s first decade in music, they’ve created a music contest.  Here’s more from their site about the contest.  ”In line with our prodigal Be Stupid philosophy we’ve screwed with the classic branded music contest, here’s the idea - now you the fan take centre stage and commit ’stupid’ acts to win gigs, recording fees and global infamy for your favourite bands, and thousands worth of actually amazing prizes for you. Easy…Through a series of heats and knockout rounds we will find the most obsessively followed new band in the world. It’s the ultimate battle of the fans, it’s survival of the stupidest and it’s online now.”

They have a “Be Stupid” philosophy?  That sounds dumb.  I guess to their targeted demographic the term “Be Stupid” could also mean, “Be daring, be spontaneous, be original, take risks, live life to it’s fullest, and have fun”, but that doesn’t grab your attention like being stupid.  So to help bring attention to the contest, it looks like D:U:M made a music video for the band Dancing Pigeons.

From the band’s MySpace page, I learned that their ”bedroom-recorded electro pop songs” really started to gather attention in spring of 2008. Within in a few months they began to support international acts and traveled around the world without even releasing any records.  Now as they work to make their first Studio-recorded album, they’ll be getting even more attention from this D:U:M contest.  :D

Advertised as “Amazing iPad Animations”, the video below uses a technique as old as animation itself, and really, it’s not that amazing.  Well, turning your $500.00 iPad into a $10.00 pre-schooler’s board book is pretty amazing I guess.  So here’s the amazing video.

 With the publication of his 2007 children’s book, Rufus Butler Seder called this display technique Scannimation.  In gathering information about his books, Seder states that he has invented this technique for books and has obtained a patent for it.  See the video for his explanation of his invention.

Interestingly, the Scanimate program was being used for motion capture experiments, animated intros, and animated logos back in the 1960’s.  There’s a pretty interesting news report video here.  But this whole process and technology goes back even further than that.

The Zoetrope was created in China around 180 AD and then refined in 1834 by British Mathematician William George Horner. The Zeotrope is made from a cylinder with slits cut vertically in the sides. Beneath the slits on the inner surface of the cylinder is a band which has either individual frames from a video/film or images from a set of sequenced drawings or photographs. As the cylinder spins the user looks through the slits at the pictures on the opposite side of the cylinder’s interior. The scanning of the slits keeps the pictures from simply blurring together so that the user sees a rapid succession of images producing the illusion of motion, the equivalent of a motion picture. Cylindrical zoetropes have the property of causing the images to appear thinner than their actual sizes when viewed in motion through the slits.

This AMAZING moving picture parlor trick led to the creation of flip books, and then motion photography, and then film, and then animated motion pictures, and then super technical 3D computer rendered imagery!  Then the technology advanced and compacted and now we can walk around with the equivalent of a whole BUILDING’S worth of 1960’s computing power in the palm of our hands!  What better use of this magnificent marvel of technology than to turn it into a toy from the 1800s.

Associate professor of the Department of Bioengineering at the University of California Berkeley Daniel Fletcher posed a challenge to his students.He said to imagine working in a remote African village at the time of a disease outbreak, and that all they have at their disposal is a camera cell phone and an assortment of basic optics lenses and mounts. He asked if it would it be possible to convert the camera phone into a sort of mobile microscope that could be used to diagnose the disease?

A small team of graduate, postdoctoral and undergraduate students has worked with Fletcher to refine their invention which they call CellScope.

In some sort of super powered Team up, the Wizards of Aardman Animation (Wallace & Gromit) are using the brand spanking new 8 megapixel Nokia N8 and the CellScope to create the animation below.

Here is a fabulous behind the scenes look at the creation of this World Record holding animaiton.