Bullet in the Hole Diamonds: Animatic Action

...Wouldn't it be awesome if, theoretically, you were quietly browsing online one day, and then WHAMMO! Sparkly, fully-animated Dreamkeepers action flew out of nowhere to kick you in the ass?

And wouldn't it be crazy, suppositionally, if that cartoon collision happened in a big, high-profile mainstream website - the type of site where no independent comic, let alone a furry anything, has ever before ventured?

And wouldn't it be spiffy if none of this was hypothetical?

Liz & I have plans in motion to produce a 15-second, fully animated Dreamkeepers commercial slated to air on Adultswim.com this summer - for starters. Using our publishing revenues and some planned 2011 fundraisers, we've budgeted $10,000 to unleash an unprecedented independent ad campaign. It's our intent to spread this promo to the ends of the earth, and take a big step towards bringing Dreamkeepers- and the entire genre of furry art & comics - closer to the mainstream recognition it merits.

But I'm staying pretty composed about the whole thing. Serene. Unflappable. Mr. Cool, that's me.

As much as I enjoy power-blasting hot air regarding our hopes and plans, 'what-ifs' are never quite as fun as 'lookit this'. So check out our progress so far! (Note - There's no need to worry about spoilers in the animated scenes, as they're intended to be teaser images for new readers. So if there is anything that's new or suggestive, bear in mind that it's not a major story twist or anything, you are safe.)

(Youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/user/dreamkeeperscomic?feature=mhum#p/a/u/0/-mfFZ1L-NJQ )

But, regarding the animatic above - a bit of background before I dash off.

We were fortunate to meet voice actor Philip Sacramento at a previous convention. Contacting him again recently, he was available to create the spectacular voice-over work you just heard. This guy is absolutely stellar - he even went so far as to give us more than one version of his lines!

It was hell trying to choose which take to use in the commercial - but a good kind of hell. If you really want some fun, check out the amazing range on his site's vocal reel, I'd highly recommend him for anyone seeking some voice talent.

http://www.aspects-of-voice.net/

The background music I made myself, cobbling together royalty-fee samples and foggy memories of childhood piano lessons. Audio isn't my forte' but with some tweaking I think we've got a perfectly serviceable soundtrack coming together for the promo. Plus the composer was willing to work for coffee and peanuts, which is pretty awesome.

Most of the work, of course, will be in creating the actual animation - even 15 seconds of good stuff is a monumental task. Which is another salient reason we made the decision to add some freelancers to the team recently. That way we have some extra production-power in churning out animation frames, plus the ability to keep Volume 3 progress rolling forward unchecked.

And speaking of Volume 3, we've got some fun in store for you, right here next week...

Bullet in the Hole Hearts: Colorful Staff

It's time for our first Bullet in the Hole announcement - by the by, the name is derived from a poker term, where aces are present in a person's hand. There are four aces in a deck, four blogs to post, & four weeks left to post them. Why are we using poker terms for our announcements? Because it's Christmastime, that's why! I dunno, just roll with it.

Revealing the first card in our deck of surprises, Dreamkeepers has expanded its staff!

Rest assured this change isn't going to change much. Up 'til now, the whole show has been put on by one dynamically unpaid duo: Dave and Liz, cartoon junkies extraordinaire. But for the first time ever, we've expanded Vivid to bring in a few cohorts as freelance assistants on the project. Hopefully, we'll be able to do more damage that way.

Ha! No, not damage, art. I sometimes confuse the two. As for what exactly this will mean for Dreamkeepers, you may have some questions - watch, as I pretend I know what they are, and proceed to answer them!

That's pretty much it. Volume 3 is huge, and we're still finishing off the first of three chapters. ...Which is running to about 43 pages. Any normal DK book, that'd be about the halfway point. But V3 is looking to exceed 130 pages - it's a freakin' shark attack!

As far as creators go, Dave & Liz tend towards extreme self-reliance. We built our own book series, our own company to publish it, and our own website & webcomic to promote it. We weave our own clothing from the grass of the field and hunt & kill our own frozen waffles. We don' need no high-falutin' help from NOBAWDY!

Well, maybe we do. In fact, we'd had plans in years past about, in a far-off someday, hiring some help for the project. But 'someday' has come upon us far faster than we'd ever expected. With the huge, supportive, and eager response from readers for the next book, we finally realized that it's time to take care of business.

This book needs to get done, and especially with our to-be-announced excitement next week, it's time we loosened up a bit and accepted some help.

As my spectacularly rendered flow-chart illustrates, the story and finished art are still Dave & Liz territory, so the look and feel of Dreamkeepers isn't going to be warped or changed at all. But blocking in the flat colors is extremely time consuming - the most laborious part of producing the art, in fact. And that is where our intrepid freelancers will be zooming to the rescue, to act as our new color department!

They'll get single pages with swatch sheets that look a little something like this: (Liz blocks in the characters, so she can catch & correct my consistency bloopers.)

We'll nix the word balloon text on outgoing pages, to reduce risk of spoiler leaks because blowing the story is the sole province of Liz and I. We may get pages back that look a little something like this:

At which point we'll flip some final color choices about:

-and then Dave shades in the fun stuff.

Admittedly, the color department doesn't have the most glamour-drenched job in the world, but that's why we're compensating them - whether it be with money, sparkly pebbles, or bits of ribbon remains to be seen. Depends on what I can get away with. (We'll pay with money - I was a starving artist too long to turn around & not pay others for their work.)

Reasons - I haz them! I know there's a flood of readers out there who would be more than willing to help us out of the goodness of their hearts. However, we have enough trouble staying organized amongst ourselves as it is, so keeping our team small and cohesive is the way to go right now. It's not our intent to be exclusionary, but there's only so many people we can effectively work with at any given time. If we ever publicly open applications for freelancers, we'll be sure to announce it here first and foremost.

I haven't actually asked yet if anyone prefers anonymity or not - once we actually start working with our new allies, I'll know whom I'm permitted to assign blame to. For now they shall simply be known as "The Association of Seven." Are there seven of them? No. But it's got a nice ring to it.

One might also wonder, why are we starting to pay freelancers if we haven't actually started paying ourselves yet? Simple. That way, we can build up the funds to more effectively promote Dreamkeepers, and do spectacularly fun things -

Such as the thing which we will be announcing next week.

...Since adding staff is such a new and different step for us, we are anticipating more questions on the subject. In a vain attempt to fend off the inevitable, we present for your perusal:

"Feel the Illinoise!”

Strangers in fedoras, anime-character identity crossovers, very confused marketing executives, and somebody threw a tank. I’m speaking, of course, about the recently concluded Midwest Furfest convention in Chicago!

We had a blast, and got out alive - the primary hallmarks of a successful convention. I must add, it’s always fun when a non-furry, 'Business Leaders Roundtable’ or something is meeting in the same hotel and weekend as a furry con. Executives in suits just wander shell-shocked around the lobby, looking for all the world like they accidentally woke up in Dr. Seuss Hell.

Interestingly, they often seem to pick Liz out of the crowd to demand an explanation from. Bouncing around, she looks too fun not be involved somehow, yet she’s tiny and blonde and therefore safe to speak to. So far as anyone knows.

The convention was a blast - we saw old friends, and had the opportunity to meet for the first time (in person) some of the folks from our forum. Oddly enough, there seemed to be a tendency for everyone to be wearing fedoras - which I wholeheartedly approve of. We wound up having a little fedora flotilla around our table - even one total stranger was pulled in by it’s dark, rakish gravity.

Apparently, Liz & I also made quite the impression on another con-goer, with the fursona 'Steven' who declared unwaveringly that he recognizes us - as characters from the anime series ‘Baccano!’. Evidently my choice of wardrobe and Liz's pantomimes were enough to give us away. After acquiescing to a photo-op, curiosity over our animated doppelgangers motivated us to look it up:

I think Liz matches all too well, which is consistent with her animated cinematic track record:

But clearly, my double is missing the crucial glasses, and I need to cultivate some sideburns to keep up. But on the plus side, Isaac and Miria rob places dressed in outrageous costumes - which is, of course, the Way It Should Be Done. I don’t countenance boring criminals. Although I’ve found a subtle crime is impossible in costume - the time I went shopping in Michaels dressed as a WWII soldier, I was lavished with attentive customer service. Too bad for them I was just browsin’ for Krauts.

Cartoonish antics aside, most of the convention was spent with my nose to the grindstone, sketching out... cartoon characters & commissions. (Currently available only at conventions.)

Even my pencil commissions are getting increasingly elaborate and fun, and we’re getting more and more requests for them at conventions.

The result, which we were forced to face this con, is that I’m getting severely overbooked - pun, INTENDED! HA ha! I’m the only one laughing...

The easy solution, of course, would be to start saying ‘no’ to people. I tried that, but it turns out my heart has all the toughness of a delightful custard. One hopeful set of eyes, and kaPOW! My willpower disintegrates faster than an executive’s grasp of reality at a furry con.

As a result, we’ve got to integrate some price hikes and a first-come first-serve slot system for the next round of conventions. This should provide the structure and firmness which my spine currently lacks - I’ll post up the details when we get closer to our next convention.

And in closing (You’re still reading? Wow! I could just write anything in here and you’d seriously read it for this long? Well- Ahem; Dear, dear, dearest internet-Diary, let me count the ways...)

Or not. In closing, we're home - and we've got some fun in store for you. A lot of fun. We've got a salvo of mind-exploding Dreamkeepers announcements which, if unleashed in one blog, might just be too much fun for any one reader to withstand. Heck, we've been having enough trouble ourselves, just containing our enthusiasm - our tendency is to play things close to the chest until they transition from a 'what if' to a certainty... And a whole pile of fun has just made the transition. So to protect us all from enthusiasm overload, we'll be releasing the news in bite-size chunks all month - during our December news marathon, Bullets in the Hole. Right here, every Thursday, we'll be slapping down glittering, untold Dreamkeepers news - see you next week!

Meanwhile, we have much to do - to observe, enjoy our newly designated, self indulgent webcam: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzI-hp9x_6M

Sneak Peek #18: Thumbnails of Disorder

As the annual Halloween contest builds, Volume 3 has been continuing it's inexorable march towards completion behind the scenes.

Having finished all our special seasonal art for the year, (I can't WAIT to show this year's Halloween Prelude!) can you guess what specifically I've been working on lately? If you can, good for you, no need to read further. Congratulations for being on top of things.

If you're still reading this, then you don't know. Excellent - I LOVE delivering a good surprise! Sit down avid reader, quell your anticipation - and prepare for the veil of mystery to be torn asunder!

While Chapter 7 color blocking continues thanks to the ever-brilliant Liz, I've been doing thumbnail layouts for the Chapter 8 pages. That way we can keep our production groove continuous - no hurdles will be in the way of gliding right into Ch. 8 page pencils.

Thumbnailing is one of those tasks which always takes longer than I expect... There's just so much that hinges on them. The script is one thing, but the layout determines how the scene is expressed, where the characters are in relation to everything, the narrative pacing, the camera angles - in short, most of the actual directing (to shamelessly plunder terminology from film) happens during the thumbnail stage. Every subsequent drawing relies on the thumbnail for it's foundation. There’s always the temptation to simplify things and draw the thumbs from an orbital view, thus nixing a lot of drawing work - but Google Earth probably won’t let us user their images in our books.
I'm about halfway through the thumbnails for Chapter 8 right now - which is shaping up to be a 40 page chapter. Yikes. Volume 3 is going to be a book-and-a-half.

An odd production quirk for V3 - these are actually the last thumbnails I'll be doing for the entire book. The Chapter 9 thumbnails are already done, finished back in January. During the winter, while getting Volume 1 and 2 revised for download sales, we were also writing the final scripts for Volume 3. Chapter 8 needed another draft though, and actually wound up being revised until February. So when I jumped into thumbnails that winter, I went for Chapter 9 first - and now here we are!

You may notice the labeling system on these thumbnails - by Chapter, page, and panel. This helps us keep organized when we’re revising the scenes and sketching out alternatives and improvements - if we didn’t improve our rough drafts (which these are), our work would be on the fast-track to mediocrity.

I know it has to be frustrating waiting on this behemoth of a book, but take heart. The script is written in stone, the thumbnails are 84% done, and that should really help us keep the art in production at a nice steady pace until the end. Even so, thank you again to everyone for being so patient.

Actually, as a show of gratitude (And to demonstrate that, yes, we're getting this book done) we have a surprise coming around December. Will it be Santa, gift wrapped and delivered to your door? Nope. Because I don't mess around with Santa. Never. Santa is NOT welcome in my abode. I'll explain why, in detail, closer to the "Yule-tide," whatever that is. In the meanwhile, don't trust Santa.

And let's end things on that note.

Droppin' Beats, Bustin' Typos

Ahem... Quick confession: Elementary school failed on me. You know spelling, like, with words? I tend to balls that up quite frequently. Like on a recent Prelude:

http://www.dreamkeeperscomic.com/Prelude.php?pg=171

Where I misspelled "relevance" as "relevence".

Little did I know the impending consequences - for then, a most rhymalicious e-mail appeared in my inbox:

Awwww shit son, Typo Busta T's in the house! You ready to get philological up in this piece?

Then drop the beat!

Yo I'm the man himself, Typo Busta T,
The mac daddy of lexicography!
Hired gun of the proofreadin' bourgeoisie,
Bustin' typos and rhymes with equal frequency.

First my '64 Pinto comes from out of the sky -
You ain't the only one with a whip that can fly!
Then I land and crush typos like the witch of the east,
Turning the Typo Demon into a neutered beast.

As my ride lifts off from panel two you'll see
A chalk outline where "relevence" used to be.
I stole an A from panel nine so you can fix that shit
And now it's time for me to make like Wisp and split.

Correctly-spelled word to your mother! I'm out!

PEACE!

-TBT

PS: I apologize for nothing.

It's a comfort knowing I've got such colorfully competent individuals backing me up - the e-mail and it's magical correctives were bestowed upon me by Taylor, who has thrown us a spelling life preserver now and then in our journey. Thanks Taylor, for making our life both more grammatically correct and fun. Well, I've got work to do - back to making misspelled comics!

Halloween - Jinkies!

Our 2010 Dreamkeepers Halloween illustration! For any who have been waiting, this officially kicks off the 5th annual Dreamkeepers Halloween Fanart contest.

The credit for the idea of a Scooby Doo parody goes entirely to Liz. As soon as we made the connections, this illustration became inevitable; things just matched up too eerily well, from the scruffy Mace to his unintelligible, ravenous sidekick.

It was a ton of fun loading every cliché imaginable onto the monster in the background. As lame as it sounds, once I finished this pic I found myself wishing it was a DVD that I could then play… Also, it made me lust after a Dreamkeepers candy bar. Why? That’s a mystery I can’t solve.

But the Mystery of the Swamp Monster Ghost Pirate etc. etc. is solved, on our Halloween Rules page - because no Scooby adventure is complete until the mask comes off.

http://www.dreamkeeperscomic.com/HalloweenRules.htm

Contestants and browsers alike are welcome to attend! The gallery of entries will be unveiled October 31st, Halloween. Until then, feel free to browse through illustrations from years past: http://www.dreamkeeperscomic.com/gallery_halloween.htm

Well, I hope everyone’s in the mood for some cold-blooded October fun, because it’s on the way! In other news, we also have graphic novels back in stock on the site for any who have been waiting - I would advise making any Christmas gift purchases early to ensure we don’t run out again.

V3 Sneak Peek #17: Graphite Milestone

All the pencils for Chapter 7 are finished! Weighing in at 43 pages, it's our heftiest stretch of story to date. Why 43? Because the significance of 42 was too intimidating.

It's a fantastic relief to finally hit a major milestone on the production of this book - it's been long overdue. It's 2010, after all. Volume 2 released in 2008. Why in the hell did it take us this long just to draw the 1st chapter of the next book?

Well, for those of you who don't obsessively read and memorize my every keystroke in this blog, let me refer you to our 'Box 'o Excuses'. For those interested more in results than excuses, feel free to skip past it, we've got some pretty pictures up.

And, voila! I hope you enjoyed the excuses. None of those will be bogging us down now - we're not getting married again for awhile, commissions are of course closed, the website and the second edition downloads are done and staying put, and plus it's more fun to draw than continue fabricating excuses.

So without further ado, here are some samples from Chapter 7!

You may notice that some of these are still lineart, and some are in various stages of coloring. That's thanks to Liz, who has been hard at work blocking in colors the entire time I've been penciling. With such a strong head start on the colors, we're hoping to completely finish Chapter 7 in time for Midwest Furfest this November. It's something to shoot for, anyways.

Currently, I'm getting some Dreamkeepers Halloween art ready for the coming season, as I work on Chapter 8 page thumbnails and gear up for Chapter 7 final shading.

Well, that's it for now! Thanks again to everyone for being patient with us while we've been laying the foundation for global cartoon conquest.

Things to look forward to: A finished Chapter 7 this fall, and of course coming up very soon we'll be posting prizes and rules for the 5th annual Dreamkeepers Halloween Fanart Contest!