Sneak Peek #10: Thaw

I had this irrational feeling that spring couldn't come until the Volume 1 and 2 corrections were finished. Sure enough, as soon as the final tweaks were completed, we were rewarded with a pleasant, invigorating thaw. Again, that magical time of the year when I can hurl bread at geese has arrived.

It certainly feels magical to me. Or rather, as though some binding curse has been lifted. Back in the fall, I thought a month would be all it took to polish off the fixes in both books. Ah, Past David, so young. So naive.

Last winter, I was saddled full time with commissions. This time around, it was an endless tundra of corrections, with Volume 3 frozen tragically in mid production, like a clapping Neanderthal in a block of ice.

...Stop second-guessing my analogies.

Finally clearing this last hurdle feels absolutely great: The grand task of getting our website to 'good enough' status, started last September, is concluding. Digital book sales will be announced soon, as well as our fun-packed Page Comparing Contest. So fun, it's capitalized!

I'm currently attending a laundry list of minor tasks - things that I know I'll never take the time for once Volume 3 production is steaming ahead. Over the next week or two I’ll be retooling the horizontal-format site navbars so they match the verticals, finishing that quickie LOL-Wisp illustration from last year, hosting the Dreamkeepers Facebook page, posting the foreign language links, doing taxes, etc, etc... And also creating some art for the Anime Punch convention. I was pleasantly surprised this year when they let me know there was still room in the artist's alley, so I signed up and drew this for their table discount:



Plus, I have to admit I was just itching to draw after such a marathon of less glamorous work. I've been doing Dreamkeepers exclusively for years now, and was curious to see if I could still play chameleon with other styles, like I did during my freelance days. Going for the straightforward anime look was fun for a spot of variety.

Anime Punch is in early April. By then, V3 production should be completely thawed and rolling, with no turning back.

Roommate In Paradise: Gecko Commentary

Ahh, my old senior thesis animation… It stirs the memories, posting this ancient creature of five years past online. (For the actual video, see our YouTube account http://www.youtube.com/user/dreamkeeperscomic)
Capping a four year degree in art, 'Roommate in Paradise' was my senior thesis project. Bearing in mind the quiet failure of every previous group project I had labored for, I made the unfortunately essential decision to go it alone on my thesis. Concept development, script and storyboards, character design, modeling, texturing, rigging, music, voice acting, yadda yadda... Everything was completed on my personal computer (no 24 hour labs were available at school) on my own time (far from streamlining, classes were a steady impediment). The downside to this approach was that I missed out on the social circles of incessant mutual congratulation and superficial hype which constituted the backbone of the school's instruction. The upside was that I was in the scant minority of students with finished work, and I gained a lot of animation experience in the process. Do I find it ironic that I was only able to develop significant skill by avoiding classes and teachers? Now that I'm shackled to exorbitant student loans, you bet. (Note: I remain extremely grateful to the few instructors with professional experience and competence whom I was fortunate to locate among the staff. If only there had been more like you.)
Despite being closely linked to my college experiences, let's steer this commentary back to the video. I was much happier with it in 2005 than I am now, although even at the time I understood that it was nothing terribly exceptional. Albeit a towering monolith of accomplishment at my Ohio art college, the animations and demo reels coming from comparable universities were visibly more professional and polished. This animation is rushed and clunky throughout, and the rigging is just barely adequate. I think I'm still happiest with how my render passes and compositing worked out - the overall lighting setup works nicely, especially in the late evening shots. My subsequent graphic novel work with Liz reflects the lighting lessons learned here.
Speaking of whom, although she didn’t directly contribute to the work on my thesis (obviously she had her own class work at the time) she was a great source for feedback and encouragement during production. In fact, squirreled away in my dorm room for nearly the entire semester with only Liz as company, most folks assumed that we were busy incessantly ravaging one another. Towards the end of the year when I finally showed some rendered progress to other dorm-mates, I remember looks of surprise and comments along the lines of “Oh, so THAT’S what you’ve been doing in there, no kidding!” Animation and CG rendering, of course - what else would a healthy and energetic young college student devote his time to?
Representing such generalized abilities, 'Roommates' was obviously of little value on a demo reel. Even as possibly the least embarrassing animation to emerge from that art college in a long time, my short was quickly brushed under the rug by a faculty preferring their home brand of insular blandishment to unflattering counterpoints of substance. This came as no surprise, and I never expected my effort to garnish value from any outside source. Rather, it gave me the crude abilities needed to work in the field after college, and came in especially handy with freelance work that culminated (and ended with) that indefatigable soul, Dempewolf.
Much to my surprise, I actually did get a job offer as a result of this short, years after I had sent out demo reels... It was related to some kind of television network position, and offered full time employment if I would relocate. Fortunately by that time I had fallen in love with my true artistic passion, and was not interested in professional animation industry employment. I regard that prospect now with almost a faint sense of horror.
I suppose the point of my rambling commentary is that upon reflection, I learned a lot from this short, and only some about animation. I look back on it with fondness now -it's a bit like watching a puppy sprawling happily but awkwardly across the lawn. And, of course, these geckos eventually merged personalities, turned 2-D, pink, and became 'Narp' from our ongoing Dreamkeepers project.

V3 Sneak Peek #9: Scripted Material

Are the Volume 1 corrections finished? Nope. Is Volume 3 done? Heh heh, it's good you're keeping that sense of humor, you're a real trooper.

Although it's not comprised of pretty pictures, there is some heartening progress on both fronts. And sketches - keep reading, and you'll be rewarded with doodles. I bet that's just what you were thinking when you woke up this morning, "I hope my day is FILLED with doodles!" Well, you're in luck. Read on.

Doodles.

Anyways, the Chapter 8 and 9 scripts for Volume 3 have been roughed out, redrafted, polished, and finalized within the last couple of months, and now the entire book is completely written! Although the progress isn't something I can visually show, it's a huge step forward from back when Chapter 7 was the only completed writing within the story outline. Here, for your browsing pleasure, are six dialogue lines from scattered scenes and various characters in the upcoming book. They are chosen at random, not related in any way, and they‘re spoiler-free:


“It’s me. The loveable one.”

“I hope you've explosively crapped your pants, Grunn, because the only other explanation for that face is unacceptable.”

“WOTS DIS DO??”

“I wanted to see what would happen.”

“You’re not with the church, are you.”

“Pa-Vwaoo!”


Having the entire draft in my hands is indescribably exciting, because this story is coming out really, really cool. (A lot better than the 5 random lines seem to indicate, trust me.) I remember back during Volume 2 production, I had been a little concerned that Volume 3 was at risk for having a weaker story than Volumes 2 or 4, but that concern is history now. I can hardly wait to continue drawing this book up!

In fact, the thumbnail page layouts of Chapter 9 were completely sketched out as of last night. My suspicions about Volume 3's increased page count have proven correct - this is gonna be a big one. While that means it will take quite some time to produce, and the printing and retail price will have to be higher than our other books, when I think about the story we've written I know it will be worth it.

The only barricade to nonstop free - flowing Volume 3 production remains the Volume 1 corrections... What can I say, getting out of purgatory is never easy. Thankfully, we're much closer to completion than we were a month ago. The fix-it list for the entire book has, as of tonight, finally been compiled. Cataloging the errors is a 'where's Waldo' of concentration games at least as time consuming as executing the fixes. As such, the Volume 1 tweaks are (at least) at the halfway mark of completion, and February / March is slated for grinding through those corrections until the whole pile has been processed, and digital sales at last transition from my hackneyed conversation topic and into a reality.
Once the corrections are finished and digital sales pending, we’re planning on doing a little contest with a before and after page, along the lines of “Can you find the 12 differences between image A and image B?” So, you have that to look forward to.

As promised, here are some doodles, done on the side during script revision sessions between Liz and I. Some of these are rough concept for Volume 3 or other books, but mainly they're just some random thoughts put to paper.

Hopefully after another month or two of escaping purgatory, I'll be back to showing off V3 penciling progress in here- thanks to everyone for being so patient with me while we get our act together!

V3 Sneak Peak #8: Purgatory

Purgatory. I'm trapped in art purgatory. I'm paying for my creative sins, and cannot move forward until all of my past wrongs have been atoned for.

...So, yes, the book corrections are significantly more work intensive than I'd estimated. The 104 pages of Volume 2 fixes are finished, but Volume 1 is still in the works. Although finalizing Volume 1 for digital sale remains my priority, there have been windows of time where I've been able to splurge on sanity-restoring V3 work.

Over the last month, Chapter 8 has gone from a story outline to a script second draft. I'm extremely excited about how the narrative is shaping up, but it's difficult to share examples without giving stuff away. ...I have to at least share a tiny bit - "Ravat". There! That's the tidbit - ask for no more, the treat jar is sealed tight.
In addition to scripting the next Chapter, we've been making some progress blocking in the colors for the establishing shot of the strip club from Chapter 7.. That single page had enough coloring in it to stretch out over a few days' work all on it's own. Those establishing shots are endlessly pretty, but enormous production-time hogs.

And in other news, we made our first seasonal Christmas Prelude! http://www.dreamkeeperscomic.com/PreludeChristmas09 We wanted to try something a bit new with this one, so there's actually some animation included in the comic.
Nothing major - and nothing in the direction of the 'motion comics' that some companies have been trying to push in recent years. Whenever I saw one of those 'motion comics', I always felt like I was just watching an extremely cheap incomplete animated show with no sound budget. I think by crossing the media border a little too far, they lost the appeal unique to comics, and had nothing to offer alongside the competing full-motion animation out there.
Our experiment is really more of a small flourish layered on top of a traditional static comic format - a little falling snow here, some blinking lights there... Feel free to check it out, and we'd definitely welcome any feedback about what you think!

It's certainly been awhile since I rolled out the animation skills... Getting a bit rusty, even the simple 5-frame snow effects loop had me scrunching up my forehead in effort. Apparently the brow-scrunching friction in the skin somehow directs kinetic energy into the brain cavity and helps speed up the ol' head engine. At least, that's the theoretical framework I'm working within at this point. I may want to use caution with any increasingly ambitious animated endeavors, lest my face implode in upon itself.

And leaving you with that thought, I hope everyone out there has a very fun and gratifying holiday season - take care, and enjoy the seasonal Prelude!

V3 Sneak Peek #7: Final Calibrations

Welcome to the latest behind the scenes sneak peek at Volume 3! One question you may be asking yourself right now: Why is there no actual Volume 3 progress in this update?

What, exactly, is distracting Dave and Liz from working on the next book? Halloween is over, so the contest is no excuse. Did a circus camp outside their apartment? Did the 'shiny and sparkly' merchant roll into town? Or did they decide to kiss this cold, cruel world goodbye once and for all, and start playing World of Warcraft?

Don't panic, I promise you. We would never do something that drastic.

Still on the same web design crusade that saw the 'Battle of the Dreamworld Pages', we've come to our final and greatest remaining objective:

Digital Book Sales.

Predominance is being placed on the web design right now because of our big-picture Vivid Publishing strategy. The greatest barrier to success is our lack of cash: no money equals small print runs, equals virtually zero profits on book sales. And Mace is demanding a bigger cut of the revenues. (I think Whip gave him the idea.)

So we aim to build our 'Dreamkeepers' audience larger while creating Volume 3, hopefully pushing Pre-Orders into (finally!) the range of profitability.
Building an audience means marketing - and with our budget, not one single cent can be permitted to go to waste. (We're not the government.) That means the website must be as appealing as possible to fresh new visitors, so that any advertising expenditures we make have the maximum possible customer retention rate.

(So, if this nice block of text didn't drive the point home, I HAVE AN EXCUSE! Volume 3 is going slow, but I have all sorts of reasons! The more words I use, the more justified I clearly am. Why, here's some more words now!)

Once digital book sales are in place to offer a lower pricing tier to new readers, the site will be ready to roll.

Of course, there's some work to do before we can finalize digital sales. Over the years of selling graphic novels and checking through them for misprints, we've compiled a rather intimidating list of quirks and inconsistencies in the art and text... Now, the normal person (As opposed to the occasional godlike-fan who knows all and sees all) wouldn't notice any of these snafus during a casual read-through. But they are there, and before immortalizing the pages online, we're fixing them.

Now, don't fret that your book is suddenly going to be obsolete due to a feverish bout of revisions on our part - we're not changing anything major. Plot isn't shifting an iota, the narrative remains identical, zero additional visual clues appear, and Lilith won't suddenly have a third katana-toting arm. As much as I argued for it. We're just correcting visual consistency issues (buildings, minute character detailing, etc.) and the occasional grammar error.

Compounding the task of corrections is the headache that, during production, I didn't have finalized references for several characters and settings - Notably Scinter. That bastard changes more often than a chameleon in diapers. In addition to writing out the history of the Dreamworld and finishing the website, we've been compiling a belated binder of detailed, official character and location references. Better late than never, right?

But summing up, I know it may seem right now as though our progress is frozen in place. And in terms of new Volume 3 art, it is. But we're making final preparations to launch Vivid for the long haul, both business-wise and creatively, and under the ice the currents are surging. These calibrations have been shifting into place over the entire last year or two, and are just now culminating in the exclusion of focus that brings completion.

Excuse complete!

Unless I can find some external source to blame, blame is always the best. If anyone can help me brainstorm some stuff to blame, let me know.

Just bear with us, we've almost got the last piece of this monster bolted down - and once it gets rolling on the right track, I don't think it'll stop.

Lost in the Dreamworld

Yeah, um, about that little smidge of history I was gonna post in the 'placeholder' Dreamworld page...

Well, I got to thinking (a rare but potent risk), if I'm going to slap some history up, the least I could do is include links to the old website' 'ryuu-neko' and 'flo-wood'' etc. pages.

A lightning fast addition - couple of old links, done deal. I'd pull the job off and be outta the vault before the cops even got the call. But... Well, if I'm going to post up the old pages, I could just as easily move their text and images into the new website format while I'm at it, right? Totally innocent. And as I was working with the text, I realized it really needed some brushing up, and - ooh! What if I made rollover images to use as the links from the Dreamworld page? And Fort Knox - how hard would it be, really, to clean them out? They're right next to the ATM machine, after all.

I know I'm only supposed to be doing drive-by web design on the way to glorious Volume 3 completion, but that's exactly what motivated me to do a thorough job on the 'Dreamworld' page. I realized that whatever I finished here and now would be staring accusingly in my face for the next year or longer, so I might as well make it pretty. Nobody wants to be glared at for years by a skunk-ugly web page.

So things snowballed out of control, I did not pass 'Go', and I spent two solid weeks finishing the 'Dreamworld' pages with Liz. Voila! Go check it out! Interactive map, technology pages, ryuu-nekos, and a big pile of Anduruna history. Especially in a fantasy story, it helps to have some context for the events, so I'm hoping these pages will help people anticipate the scope we have in mind for Dreamkeepers.

Still on my plate are the corrections and fixes on the old Volume 1 and 2 files, a necessary detour on the way to digital book sales -although with the Halloween contest coming up, I wouldn't look forward to those being ready for another month at least.

Working on the graphic novel 'characters' page has been scrapped for now, because I really need to get cracking on V3 again once those digital sales are set up.

So, yeah! Dreamworld pages up yesterday. Oh, and that same day I insulted a stranger while wearing a striped tie and a bright red fedora. And then I was given his sandwich as a reward. And then the Venture Brothers season 4 first episode premiered online. And I got to paint Halloween beads and watch Beetlejuice.

So...

Yes.

It was a good day.

V3 Sneak Peek #6: Totally unrelated.

It's been awhile since the last Sneak Peek for Volume 3 - sorry about the delay. Kidnapped by a Mexican drug cartel during a discrete fact-finding trip to Latin America, I wasn't able to post an update until I'd fashioned a lock pick from a chicken bone, and surreptitiously made my way back to the States disguised as an illegal immigrant.

Well... Perhaps that story is only partially true - in the sense that it's not at all. But admittedly, it does sound cooler than my actual excuse - and it certainly carries more machismo.

...I was working on my web-site. HTML FTW!

There, I said it. I hope you’re happy. I was content with the ’escaping from drug lords’ storyline, but you had to have the “facts“. Well, persnickety one, prepare to be entertained.

I switched gears in September to focus on web design, and the effort was more work-intensive than anticipated. With the Halloween Fanart contest coming up again, I realized that it would be roughly the one year anniversary of the new gallery pages of the site... And correspondingly, the one year anniversary of nearly every gallery being labeled as ’Under Construction’. Fearing the truth would be revealed, and my fallacious usage of the phrase ’under construction’ exposed for the lie that it is, I figured it was time to get some web pages done.

The Fanart, Commissions, and Tutorials galleries are now open for viewing. I’m also finishing up the Prelude cast & storylines pages, more placeholder history for the ‘Dreamworld’ page, and I hope to get the digital book sales (finally!) set up in October, as well as a primary ‘characters’ page on the website.

Once all of that is accomplished, I’ll have - for the first time ever - a relatively complete and functional website for Dreamkeepers. I’m rather looking forward to it! Then I can jump back into Volume 3 production, with no diversions. And even though my penciling has stalled out over the last month, the colors are still moving forward in that 1st half of Chapter 7 - so once I’m back on task, some fully shaded and completed pages won’t be too far off.