SKYLANDER

So I just watched the two episodes of Skyland that can be found by clicking here. Visually, they were absolutely amazing. I mean, I was floored. The world they created and the backgrounds were works of art. Unfortunately many other aspects of the show seemed a bit amateurish to me. The writing was not up to the level I expected and contained many blatant Star Wars homages. There were also strange and unnatural pauses in the dialogue. Some things seemed to just happen without reason. I still enjoyed it overall, but I would be curious to find out what the rating was. It seemed like it could be a bit slow for kids.

In contrast, another Nicktoons show, Avatar: The Last Airbender, doesn't look as good, and certainly doesn't have the stunning backgrounds of Skyland, but overall it seems a much more polished, professional show. This makes me think that Skyland may be something that was independently produce, in Canada it seems, and that Nickelodeon bought, as opposed to something they made themselves like Avatar. I suspect that, like many series, Skyland may just be getting off to a rough start and will likely come together as a much more solid show over time.

This makes me wonder about the upcoming TV series Oban Star Racers, which I know to be independently produced, but which was sold at MIPCOM this year. Remember the extremely popular, full 3D, cel shaded, little internet demo called Molly Star Racer which used a well known Ayumi Hamasaki song? That show is a full 26 episode series slated to begin running, on what channel I don't know, next year. I wonder how it will play.

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Sky's the Limit!

Nicktoons has actually released the first entire two episodes of their new 3D celshaded series Skyland online. Check out the page by following this link.

This is a really interesting move but it says a lot. Naturally they really want to hook you, but what about all those others creators out there? Would you be willing to release a full 30 minute episode or two of your show online? You should be. This is just one more example of what I was talking about in that "cold, hard cash" series of articles.

Imagine, even though it is at great cost to yourself, that you do create a short series or feature, but you take one or two thirty minute chunks and format them for the web. You have them available for all totally free. Now let the word get around and one day your hit counter on that page reads 2 million, or even more! Do you realize what that can translate into?

Anyway, check out Skyland. What is its effect on you? Does it make you want to tune in on TV? Would you buy DVD's based on these two episodes? The answers to these questions help us in our plans to make a living from our own works!

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THE NEXT ITERATION

I put up a new, higher quality trailer for the Daniel: Visions and Dreams project containing some scenes you haven't seen. You can check that out by following this link. This task led me to want to talk about a few things.

H.264 AND QUICKTIME 7

On the whole I haven't been too happy with Quicktime seven as a player, but it's true power really only comes to light when seen as an overall media tool. Then it is truly amazing. The ability to create video for the web has been put into the hands of all people. Anyone can create media of equal quality and small file sizes as the great trailers on the Apple website. It took some effort, but that effort was for me to figure out that the simplest settings they give you are the best.

Basically, I immediately dove into my video encoding knowledge and tried to do things the old way. I wanted to setup how many keyframes the video would use and tinker with quality settings. What I learned after several tries of encoding the video and not being happy with the quality, was that the automatic settings give the ultimate results.

The H.264 codec has been touted as the Shangri-La of digital media, and it is. It says that it can compress video sizes from full HD 1080P to cell phone media and always delver the best quality at the smallest file sizes. I believe it now. I avoided it, still using Sorensen codecs for my work until I realized that the trailers on the Apple website were already using it and they were half the size with no visible loss in visual quality. Now I use it, and will do so exclusively for video on the web.

THE POWER OF VEGAS

Well, I can finally say I edited something in Vegas, having bought it months ago. I was more than correct in my idea to leave Premiere in the dust. I have yet to even glance at the Vegas manual, but it is so intuitive, I can just get in there and start making stuff. Most importantly, I am amazed at the wealth of media codecs it offers. I can now do true 24 FPS progressive DV. Yes DV! I am doing animation, but imagine, if you shot with any of the 24P cameras out there, Vegas is ready to pull your actual 24 frames from each second, whether you shot 24P or 24P Advanced, and let you work in a true 24 FPS pipeline from start to finish. The final video from which I made my Daniel Trailer is a 24P DV file. Of course this cannot be output to tape, but if I needed to, Vegas will also do the reverse pulldown, back to 24P or 24P Advanced DV and it is ready to go. Of course, I'll not be doing that, as Vegas can make true 24P DVD's as well.

In other news, I was recently sent the link to check out the Nicktoons show Skyland. I can only say WOW! I can't wait to see the actual show.


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ANOTHER MODE

So I said I wanted to talk about creating again. That's what I have been delving into. The thing I am looking for is that perfect combination of look and speed. When I did Understanding Chaos and Shadowskin, I did not have a WACOM tablet, so very little actual drawing went into them. Starting with J4A, however, I began to see the power of the pen in making my shows.

I placed here a test movie I have been working on today. The idea is to find a better combination of the different crafts I employ to maintain speed, but get a better look and generally have more fun doing what I do. In this case, the 3D commonly used in my work, though still present in the creation process, is entirely unseen. While I certainly like the look better than most of what I've done, there is left something to be desired in terms of speed.

Does regaining speed necessarily have to mean more use of 3D? Perhaps it simply means getting better tools. When I did World of Hartz for TOKYOPOP, I learned how to draw fast. This was using the tablet I still own to this day, the Intuos 2. But how much faster would I be returning to something more closely approximating pen and paper? This makes me think of getting a WACOM Cintiq or a Mirage Nomad. I am leaning toward the Nomad because I can use it as a Cintiq at home, but also finally have a portable computer for my many future travels. ;)

I haven't found that perfect combination yet. But I am trying many things as I get back into being productive.

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TALKING

I had a bit of a rough week trying to hit a deadline on the current film at UFO Films where I work. We have a new website now. Check out the demo reel there.

So anyway, I missed a good week of posting. Having covered many aspects of turning our indie animation into cold hard cash, I want to get back to talking about the creation side of things. Speaking of talking, I had the idea that it is high time to add a forum to this website. I found some free forum software thanks to PJ Foley, and it seems it might be easy to implement.

I think it would be good to have a place where indie animators could discuss topics like turning indie animation into cold hard cash. People who have done it can offer stories and experiences and those who want to do it can help build a community where ideas can come out of real conversation.

Turning animation projects into cash through licensing and distribution deals is only one aspect of the big puzzle. I want to talk more about the creative side. Not just how animation is created, be it 2D or 3D using Mirage, Lightwave 3D or Maya, but go back even further. Many can create great art, but how many create unique visions?

PROTECT YOUR IP

How do we Turn Our Indie Animation into Cold, Hard Cash?
Part VII

One way to insure that you lose out on your cold, hard cash is to let your intellectual property out for free. If some organization can "license" your creation for free, you can be sure that they will. Ideally, before you show your works on any scale, you should make certain they are fully protected under the law.

Luckily, in today's world, a lot of this can be done online and it's not as expensive a process as one might think. Still, there are some myths abound about how to protect your work, especially for those on a budget. Beware, lest you fall into such a trap. One of these is the so-called poor man's copyright. The idea is that you seal your IP contents into an envelope, mail it to yourself via certified mail, so that it is dated, and then never open the envelope, thus proving you have the earliest dated version of the content should you need it. Now ask yourself realistically, if a major studio stole your work, and considering the team of attorneys they would have at their disposal, do you really think this would stand up in court?

There is not a single example in existence of this method of "copyright" ever working in a court case. IN fact, it is said that a judge will not even hear your case if you do not have legitimate government protection of your intellectual property. The poor man's copyright can be faked. You could mail yourself an unsealed envelope and put whatever you want in it later. It will never hold in court. So let's talk about legitimate protection of IP.

The Library of Congress Copyright Office is available online. Everything you need for legitimate copyright of your work can be found here. The process is not hard. You put an application, a $30 payment to "Register of Copyrights.", and non returnable copies of the material to be protected into an envelope and send it to the Library of Congress. Note that they say:

Your registration becomes effective on the day that the Copyright Office receives your application, payment, and copy(ies) in acceptable form. If your submission is in order, you will receive a certificate of registration in 4 to 5 months.

It's that easy. There's no excuse for letting work go out unprotected. If you are going further and creating a series, franchise or "brand", then you also need to think about trademarks. This is a bit more complex, and usually handled by an attorney, but in this age, it can online too. You can even check the trademark office's web site for free to see if your desired brand name has been registered by someone else. Do you have to use an attorney to file a trademark? They say:

No, although it may be desirable to employ an attorney who is familiar with trademark matters. An applicant must comply with all substantive and procedural requirements of the Trademark Act and the Trademark Rules of Practice even if he or she is not represented by an attorney. The names of attorneys who specialize in trademark law may be found in the telephone yellow pages, or by contacting a local bar association. The USPTO cannot aid in the selection of an attorney.

I know people who have done it on their own, and it will be cheaper to do it yourself, but services out there like Legal Zoom can have professional attorneys do it for you at not much more expense. In my opinion, if you are truly serious about diving into this business, and you can afford it, get yourself an intellectual property attorney, and if they are any good, keep them on retainer. I also recommend reading Intellectual Property Handbook by Michael A. Lechter, most of which recently became part of Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad book series under the title Protecting Your #1 Asset.

Once you're fully protected, you need to get your show out there in front of as many eyes as possible to make that cold, hard cash. So how do you do that?

More on that in the next post in this series...

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Dueling Directors

So I watched the first "Duel Project" offering, 2LDK, and I can only say that it was inspiring. In my mind, I couldn't quite conceive of how a director would be able to pace a feature film made under the rules of the duel. Remember, they are as follows:

Yukihiko Tsutsumi and Ryuhei Kitamura each finished their contributions to the short film anthology Jam Films (2002) in record time. As a result producer Shinya Kawai gave the two directors a proposal to each create a feature length movie with only two actors, battling in one setting and filmed entirely in one week. The undertaking was called the Duel Project. This movie was Yukihiko Tsutsumi's result and Ryuhei Kitamura's was Aragami (2003).

Even more inspiring than watching such a well crafted film, though, were the special features, which detailed much more about the dueling directors, the project, and contained a making-of documentary on the grueling week of shooting the film. I am certain that I want to follow suit in some way, creating some form of animated project along these lines. What an exercise that will be. Tonight, for more inspirational filmmaking, I will watch the second half of the duel, the film Aragami.

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LICENSE TO DEAL

How do we Turn Our Indie Animation into Cold, Hard Cash?
Part VI

So, here we are in the present, the here and now, and we want to sell our creations, our animation. Or do we? Well, we really want to make money off our animation, maybe even make a living doing it, but does that mean selling? Do we have to go through the trouble of making and marketing self published DVD media and dealing with shipping our product? Well, that certainly isn't the road for everyone. In fact, it may be the road for only a few.

You've seen the above image before. It is from Aol's Princess Natasha, an original web series developed to target their younger audience. Twenty or so short episodes have been available for quite some time, and they have been totally free to view. Now when I say free, most people cringe, some get upset. They say, "How am I supposed to make a living from my work?!"

Well, what is marketing about? In the traditional sense, it is about how many eyeballs you can command. The more eyeballs you command, the more popular your show. The more popular your show, the more in demand it is. There is no demand for an indie property no one ever heard of, so how are you going to package it on a pretty DVD and sell it? One must wonder, then, how does that indie property get demand? You have to create it, and the web is the best place to do that, without the need of a multimillion dollar ad campaign. Note that in the article I quoted from last time we read:

American Online, Inc. has signed licensing deals with the Cartoon Network and Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, which extend its original "Princess Natasha" webisode series beyond the internet.

Their free web series is now headed to TV and to the land of children's books. If popular there, can it be a big leap to a video game licensing deal? You could call this getting paid for all that work that went into producing and getting out those web episodes that made the show popular enough to score such a deal. It requires an investment, this path does. It's not an investment in capital, but, for the indie, an investment in time, skill and faith.

Licensing isn't just Cartoon Network and Little, Brown Books. Afro Samurai went from a single artist's one-shot manga to a Spike TV anime mini-series by GONZO, a live action movie starring Samuel Jackson, a Namco made video game, new, full-color manga and, of course, toys. Can you build up your property on the web, and get enough people to follow it to command that kind of licensing deal? You probably won't get there charging a subscription fee. You may not get there on DVD, where the most successfl titles have had a theatrical release or been broadcast before. But you may get there by presenting your property to the masses, totally free.

More on that in the next post...

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RESTRICTED

What is the greatest barrier to indie animation perfection? It's freedom! The ability to make whatever you want. Unlimited time. Technology that seemingly lets you do anything. At least it appears that way. Most people I talk too haven't started their project because, frankly, its insurmountable. It's just plain too big.

Understanding Chaos started off with an email from a buddy of mine about a film festival in Tokyo. You see, it had to get done in a month, or I wouldn't make the festival. Suddenly there was drive, there was motivation. I had to craft a project that could be done in that amount of time. Needless to say, I didn't make the festival, but you get the idea. So what happens when you don't have unlimited time or the ability to do what you want, and you still plan to make a film?

The above image is from a recent Japanese film called 2LDK, about two girls who end up competing for the same part in a movie. There squabble gets out of hand and goes over the top (meaning chainsaws and the like) very quickly. It was born out of restriction. Check this out:

Yukihiko Tsutsumi and Ryuhei Kitamura each finished their contributions to the short film anthology Jam Films (2002) in record time. As a result producer Shinya Kawai gave the two directors a proposal to each create a feature length movie with only two actors, battling in one setting and filmed entirely in one week. The undertaking was called the Duel Project. This movie was Yukihiko Tsutsumi's result and Ryuhei Kitamura's was Aragami (2003).

Aragami, pictured above, sounds even more impressive than 2LDK, because this director made a swordsman fantasy under these rules. How amazing is that?! Apparently this wandering samurai finds his way into a temple hosted by a demon and realizes he won't be leaving without a destroying this enemy. That just sounds cool!

I haven't seen either film, though people have recommended 2LDK to me before. But what I am intrigued with is creativity born out of restriction. How many people hoping to make their Star Wars might actually get a project finished if they had to work under these conditions? I am very tempted to try it, just for the exercise. What would be some good boundaries to set for an anime film in this vein? For example, four characters maximum, two locations, six months total production time. How would that affect what you choose to put on screen?

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MEDIA EVERYWHERE!

Sony has released a new media management tool for their PSP portable entertainment system. This is a very good thing, because getting media to the PSP has, in some past cases, been a real pain. Now it's apparently as easy as a drag and a drop to get mp3, wma, wav, pca, ogg, m1a, mpa, m2a, m4a, m4b, aac, mp4, avi, wmv, mov, qt, dv, mpg, mpeg, mpeg1, mpeg2 and many other file formats transferred to your handheld game system.

"Whether your source is 16:9 high definition video footage, a collection of photos from your latest vacation, or a PSP formatted publication, this new technology lets you view and share it anywhere you and your PSP system go," said Sony Media Software VP Dave Chaimson.

Problem is, this tool is not free, as I think it should be. I really just don't have a wealth of ogg and pca files I need to get to my PSP. I have been up until now using PSP Video 9 to do the task of getting file to my machine, and it has served me well. Sony's tool, even though you know I am a Sony fan, would have to offer a lot more to make me consider paying even the meager $19.95 to download it. I will keep a look out to see what's up.

In other news, a few of the films I worked on at UFO are coming up on Sci-fi Channel soon. You may have seen some clips from these in the Bauhaus Software, Mirage demo reel. Either way, be on the look out for them and check them out if you can.

http://www.scifi.com/manticore/

http://www.scifi.com/locusts

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