DVD or DOWNLOAD?

For the last two weeks there has been the rumble of construction as AT&T put a new fiber box in the area, allowing us to possibly tap into some of that immense bandwidth and internet power of Warner Bros. The result is, as they seem to be offering, faster-than-cable internet service, digital and HD TV, phone service, and maybe even iphone service all in one package, available to all. This not only breaks the monopoly the cable company had in the area up 'til now, but gives everyone some incredible internet abilities.

With Apple TV sales allegedly "...through the roof, far beyond what Apple had planned.", according to applerecon.com, and massive lines at stores to get the iphone, both of which play widescreen video, including those from Youtube, people are getting attached to instant, or at least close to it, satisfaction of video downloads. Just two short years ago opponents of video downloads said it would never happen, with downloads taking too long, the lack of broadband penetration and an expected lack of ease. However, just like many music services proved in the years before, creating a multi-billion dollar "pay-per-download" music industry, which trounced all subscribtion and advertising based methods, now new services are repeating the same success with video.


iTunes boasts many full TV shows and a few movies in their online catalog. Already companies like Funimation and Mediaworks are releasing anime like Basilisk and Gunslinger Girl to iTunes. Now, of course, these major media outlets are only catering to the major studios, making rules about the size of content libraries to effectively keep indies from entering, but the technology itself has the potential to level the playing field.

Think about it. These services make their play based entirely on volume, and as such they serve mass market content. The niche market content is just not there. But they have proven the model. They have shown people will go for it. The key is to realize that if people can find it, they will also go to wherever is necessary to get the niche market content they desire to see, especially if this content can still be made to easily work with the tools and gadgets they already have.

If you can make your content work on the iPhone, easy to get on Apple TV, or work on the iPod, PSP or other popular device, and if you can bring the people to it, then why not simply sell it yourself, leaving behind these services that will take more than 50% of your profit for something pretty much anyone can do on the net. Now some will say, "Yeah but, being on iTunes or some big service has advantages. They have a name." The truth is, it doesn't matter where you are on the internet if no one knows you are there. There are thousands of items on iTunes, Custom Flix, Amazon, Lulu and everywhere else that no one knows or cares about. Your job then is to bring people to your content and if that is the case, why not bring them toyour site and let them download it directly for a very low price?

As a viewer today, which do you prefer? Do you like the DVD, going to stores and buying, ordering and waiting for it to be shipped? Or do you use iTunes, tools like bittorrent and download video content to view when you want? What about "On Demand" cable viewing of movies, Pay Per View, and similar services? On the flip side, as a creator, which would you prefer to sell? Digital downloads have absolutely no overhead, no manufacturing cost, nothing to ship. Or you can make a DVD, which can be manufactured through a replication house, forcing you to order in bulk and then deal with shipping yourself, or you can use a service like Custom Flix and Amazon, which take a large chuck of the profits for their trouble.

Personally, I like my DVD library. I like being able to play a DVD apart from my computer too, for example, while I am working. But lately, I am at the point where, when I think of something I want to see, I want to click a button and download it, and see it. These days, when I find out about a book, I hope it's available as an ebook. When I find a song I like, I hope it's on iTunes, MySpace or the MP3 is easy to come by. And with high speed internet, I more and more want to be able to just download a movie and view it too.

CRACKING THE CODE!

I've done it! Okay, maybe I didn't exactly get up at 4:00 AM but after reading the information about the working method of The Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown, it really struck a chord with me and I remembered the old days when I was doing what I loved, loving what I did, and was super productive. So I did not exactly rise at 4:00 AM, but I did, in fact, get up at 5:30 AM. By 6:00 AM or just after, I was sitting down to "work", which term I put in quotes because when you love what you do, you get to play all day. By playing, I got all my characters done!


Well, at least all of the characters needed for the first show. There will be one or two more that will be introduced a bit later.



Also, not all the characters shown were done today, nor are all the characters done pictured here. There are five characters which I finished earlier today, which are not shown, but they are somewhat minor compared to these, and I just didn't feel like putting together a third image. ;)

So how was following The Da Vinci Code creative process? Well, it was dark when I got up. It was quiet. Nothing was going on and that was kind of cool. Because I had not wasted any of the day away, there was no need of rushing. I had fun just creating. I had more done by the time I broke for breakfast at 10:30 AM then I get done most days. On top of that, I was psyched and ready for more. The biggest plus is that by 3:00 PM my characters were done and I was off to go shopping. The day was mine and I could enjoy the sun in the peace of knowing a lot got done.

Dan Brown says that his writing is a discipline and he must hone his skills. To that end, he writes seven days a week. I am taking that to heart to. This is what I do. It's all I have ever wanted to do. I don't mean just making animation, I mean the specifics of making what you want your way and not letting any "have to" scenarios crawl in. Getting through all the nonsense in my head to find what I truly desired was like cracking a code in and of itself. Now I can clearly see that most of what I was doing previously, was what I thought I had to do in order to sell. That is not the way to success. Only by cracking the code that leads to true desire will that be found.

CODE OF CREATION

Dan Brown, the best selling author of The Da Vinci Code has a success story that is not unlike many we have heard. His first book was published by a small publisher which put very little into marketing, forcing Brown to spend his own money booking radio interviews and doing his own publicity. His second book met with a similar fate, pushing Brown to sell books out of the trunk of his car while he struggled financially. After moving to Random House, and with a different agent, his work was pushed to the forefront of the mainstream and it hit big. There are common threads which run through all his work, though, back to the beginning. This can be found in his creative process. Transcripts of his witness statements from the High Court proceedings over disputed origins of The Da Vinci Code give us a view of that process.

Because my novels are so research-intensive, they take up to two years to write. If I am going to stay focused on a two-year project, it is imperative that I remain excited about the subject matter. Therefore I choose a subject which is not black and white, but rather contains a grey area. The ideal topic has no clear right and wrong, no definite good and evil, and makes for great debate. . . . For me, the 'must have' themes include codes, puzzles and treasure hunts, secretive organisations, and academic lectures on obscure topics.

While we know these elements are to be found in The Da Vinci Code, it might be surprising to find that his previous work, Angels and Demons, which features the same lead character and is also rumored to be coming to the big screen headlined by Tom Hanks, features much of the same. The elements which keep the creator motivated are only one aspect of "getting it done". How Dan Brown goes about this work is yet another important piece of the puzzle. He says:

Writing is a discipline, much like playing a musical instrument; it requires constant practice and honing of skills. For this reason, I write seven days a week. So, my routine begins at around 4 a.m. every morning, when there are no distractions. By making writing my first order of business every day, I am giving it enormous symbolic importance in my life, which helps keep me motivated. If I'm not at my desk by sunrise, I feel like I'm missing my most productive hours. In addition to starting early, I keep an antique hour glass on my desk and every hour break briefly to do push-ups, sit-ups, and some quick stretches. I find this helps keep the blood (and ideas) flowing.

He's getting his "big rocks" in first, the idea being if you're trying to fill a jar (your day) with sand, gravel and large rocks, you have to put the big rocks in first because the sand and gravel can fill the spaces around them, but if you start filling your jar with sand (all the little things) there will be no space left in which to fit the important big rocks. I've read of other novelists who have a similar process. The indie creator working alone to make a movie or animated series is much like a novelist. How we go about getting it done, how we schedule our time, what we put first in our day, can mean more than we think. We have to love the project while making a project we would love. Dan Brown says:

I tried to write a book I would love. I wanted every single chapter to compel the reader to turn the page. I was taught that efficiency of words is the way an author respects his readers' time.

We've heard this many times. The best creators, writers, directors, musicians, often say they were making the project they wanted to experience. The indie creator must do the same, especially on a really long project, if there is hope of getting it done. Don't make something you don't really want to make because you believe you have to or you think it is necessary to sell it. Enjoy your project first, above all else, and that insures the rest will fall into place. From reading what Dan Brown has to say, in order to get it done, it only takes putting together the puzzle pieces of a creative process, and in some cases creative solutions to problems. He says:

I'm also a big fan of gravity boots. Hanging upside down seems to help me solve plot challenges by shifting my entire perspective.

Keesha for Miki 2.0 available at Content Paradise

PRODUCTION DIARY 007

Yesterday I decided to wrap my mind around Soundtrack, the audio program that comes with Final Cut. Today I am going through LiveType, which is primarily for doing titles and effects, but it has potential to be so much more than that. So I want to talk about these tools for a bit and cover a few other things I learned as I continue to create. I am finding out quite a bit more about how much things have really changed since the days when I started this, and how the new tools I am using bring so many more possibilities, and with them, some potential drawbacks.


Concerning LiveType, I've really only begun going through this program and that's why I am so excited about it. As you know, I am a big fan of templates, especially if they're good templates and don't limit you to just what you see, but can be altered to a great extent. This program comes with more than one might expect. It actually comes with two DVD's full of content to be exact. I think at least one of them is a DVD-9. Needless to say there's a lot fo stuff.

Just going through some of the textures, effects and templates in there, I see incredible potential. Not just for doing great professional looking titles, but beyond that. Some of the effects can stand on their own for some great uses. For example, Some of the volumetric and smoke effects could easily make for good composite layers to use in a shot. Imagine being able to quickly throw some slow moving, smoky, volumetric light rays over a shot to add a bit of spice to it. One of the coolest things that comes to mind though, is if you had a science fiction scene in which you needed to populate a number of monitors with cool graphics and text, moving grids, lines, numbers, scroll bars, and the like, this is the program. You could quickly create any manner of computer monitor screen full of data, pulsatings lines, bars, grids, graphs and other staples of that genre in no time. It is too easy. And everything is keyframable. You could move, slide or place any effect, anywhere and at any speed. I remember spending a lot of time creating these types of effects from scratch for Anigen and previous shows and now some of those exact effects are just sitting in this new program. That's just cool.

As for Sountrack, one of the first things I noticed is that it is not a replacement for Garage Band in the sense that Final Cut surely replaces iMovie. Soundtrack is not the program to which you will plug in your music keyboard and start jamming. It is very much meant to be a part of Final Cut and be used to do sound for your show. It can do some pretty complex loop based music, and it actually handles loops better than Garage Band, but that is more of a bonus than the focus of the app. The thing it does far beyond Garage Band, is working with sound for video. Your dialogue editing, sound effects, audio processing and more are now all on the professional level. Everything is more precise. Something that was a simple little slider in Garage Band is now a bar with 0 - 2400 ticks which can be entered numerically. Some filters bring up incredibly detailed panels that are far beyond what I normally get into. A professional audio editor who has spent a lot of time playing with such panels, on the front of practical audio gear in the real world, would be very much at home here. This doesn't mean that there is a barrier to the editor who doesn't want to deal with it, though. As usual, there are plenty of aptly named templates to get you started.

So all the programs are amazing and I am sure I could spend many more days learning them and playing with them, but I want to get back to creating. The drawback to fishing out eery little possibility in these programs is that when you gain the power to do anything, it becomes difficult to focus on what you really want to do, or do right now. I am not going to go any further with learning them now. I am sure I can continue to learn as I go, working on the actual project. Speaking of that project, I was working on a character earlier today and the thought occured to me, "Do you like your character?" I hadn't really thought of this before. If you're doing 2D, do you enjoy drawing your character? Enough to draw that character over and over, day in and day out over the course of a long project? If you're doing 3D, how much do you like your character? Do you like just loading it up and rotating it, posing it, rendering it and looking at it. Does that get you motivated to see it in scenes?

I did an episode of Anigen that was specifically about the importance of character. In it I talked about Naruto, from Masashi Kishimoto. Imagine what it must be like for a manga artist like this, who does 16 to 25 pages per week revolving primarily around this character. You have to really like that character to keep that going! Imagine doing it for ten years like Toriyama did with DragonBall. It surprised me when it really dawned on me. I often create characters based on types. A certain "type" of bad guy would fit here, so to speak. I never really thought about how much I actually liked the character. Enjoying drawing is one thing, but how much do you enjoy drawing this particular character? This really got me thinking. I could go back through my previous works and there are characters I didn't really care for to be found there. So now I want to do things differently. I want to make sure I really like my characters, so much so that I can't wait to get up and work wit them!

Keesha for Miki 2.0 available at Content Paradise

PRODUCTION DIARY 006

So I got the program today and it was a surprisingly long install. About 16 GB of content, most of which I installed to an external USB 2.0 drive for space reasons. I haven't had a chance to even look at LiveType or Soundtrack Pro yet, but Final Cut, in the short time I have been playing with it, seems like the dream I have been searching for. It is easy, as I already something up and running with little effort. It is fast, meaning I was worried about the time involved rendering filters and motion on clips. It is powerful, such that many things normally done in a full fledged compositor, even layer composite modes, can be done here.


I was able to import an entire folder where I had my clips into a bin inside the program. It imports everything as "selected", which is cool because once I grabbed one clip to put on the timeline, the entire sequence was there, in order and ready for cutting and trimming. That's fast! I was able to easily zoom and pan the oversized clips I had rendered for that purpose, and since every clip was a Quicktime file with embedded alpha, I tested throwing in a background on another layer, and saw the effect I expected. This all amounts to one thing, speed!

I know I have only begun to scratch the surface of what is possible here. Imagine a pipeline so streamlined that can finally attain my dreams of doing series work. Everything is reusable. Motions, filters, settings can all easily be copied from one clip to another or to all. These are the types of things which make this advantageous over doing the same work in a compositor where its one clip at a time. There is so much repetition in what I do, this is liberating! I have a lot more to explore. We'll see how it goes in the coming days.

Keesha for Miki 2.0 available at Content Paradise

PRODUCTION DIARY 005

In an effort to keep from program hopping and learning too many tools on my project, it turns out I am actually going to be learning an all new tool. That tool is Final Cut Express HD. It became clear to me not long ago that my production process was being hindered by the limitations of iMovie. While I value the simplicity of the program, and though it is certainly possible to do everything I need in it, how it is done becomes another story.

As I have mentioned before I like speed. While iMovie may be simple and fast, it's limitations are causing me to do more in other programs and use more programs in general to achieve the sought after result. The primary reason for this is because of iMovie's lack of layers. Now there is a matte plugin or two for iMovie, which would allow me to bring in a layer with an alpha channel to put on top of another, and I was well nigh on the verge of clicking the "add to cart" button for that plugin, but then I was schooled in the ways of Final Cut.

I have, of course, seen FInal Cut many times. They use it at UFO. I knew of its power. I was intentionally trying to avoid it because I wanted to simplify my process. Unfortunately, for what I want to do, that simplification came at the cost of speed. I had to do far more advance prep work to make sure things were ready to go into iMovie. This actually affected how I work in general. With Final Cut, that all goes out the window. It is freedom, and this means the freedom to experiment. I can focus on elements and only worry about the elements currently on my mind because with 99 layers of video, I can always add, change or subtract elements at any point during the production. This brings a lot of freedom. It also means I can put so much more of the project on the back end, in the post phase, where it belongs, rather than needing to be concious of some of it up front.

Anyway, I don't actually have it yet, so my next diary, which will be a report on getting it up and running, should be interesting.

Keesha for Miki 2.0 available at Content Paradise

PRODUCTION DIARY 004

I was watching a Charlie Rose Show interview with Guillermo Del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth, Blade II) and, in it, he stated, "If there's not a monster on my call sheet for the day , I won't even show up to shoot." I kind of feel the same way. As I wrote previously I have, lately, been trying to clear out the "have to's" from my creative process and get down to what I really want to do. You may remember I did a little exercise that day to find out what really creates that fire and enthusiasm, and I found that one of the things that did that for me was fantasy.


Enthusiasm comes from the Greek roots en and theos (as in theology), and originally meant "inspired by God". It was that power from within that let you know you were on the right path or doing what you were supposed to do. A story could seem like a totally real world drama, but add that one supernatural or fantastical element and suddenly I am very interested. Monsters, and especially monsters that were once human and remember that they were human, like vampires, zombies or werewolves, are a great element to bring out that interest to me.

There is a concept in the 3D world that is not unlike working in live action. When I worked on Locusts: The Eighth Plague at UFO Films, there were shots were I built digital prosthetics in Lightwave 3D, that were tracked onto live actors to create impossible wounds and damage. A similar process can be done for work entirely in 3D, especially for use with Poser. Just like Stan Winston Studios might do for a live actor, you could build digital prosthetics that attach in the same fashion to a Poser figure. Now you may ask, why would you do this? Well, think of the advantages that come with using a tool like Poser. You have the character library, preset rigging, tons of morphs, poses and motions. By building "make up" effects for these characters you lose none of that.


That's only one avenue of exploration. With a tool like modo you can create custom morph targets to get monstrous effects. But there's no reason to stop there. Consider that you can hide parts of any body from the render and replace them with props which you may have created elsewhere. Imagine hiding a character's legs and replacing them with props of a leg that bends like a dog's leg, which are then parented to the hidden rig. You could still use motion capture, the Walk Designer or any other tools, but have your reversed legs do the motion. With displacement mapping now a part of the modern Poser, you could even do a total ZBrush style rework of an existing character to create a new monster.

In other news, I am always trying to find new ways to gain more speed and, with it, more creative freedom. One of the things that slows me down is jumping from program to program, especially to do some minor task, but one that must be done before I can move on. This shift in focus keeps me from getting into "the zone". In my quest to find more ways to do more with less, I started learning more about iMovie, which I use for editing. My friend Jillian pointed me to an online manual for iMovie (you know artists generally never read the manual) and I actually decided to go through the entire thing. I found out that this program does far more than I originally thought it did, including many things I was doing on a step by step basis in my compositor. What this means is I can eliminate a lot of program hopping knowing that many effects can be done on the back end in post. This will increase my speed dramatically. I also found that there is quite a third party plugin market for iMovie. Most of the plugins are "flashy toys" that wouldn't necessarily be useful in making a movie, but there are some powerhouses found there too. There's even some good green screen and matte tools out there. I will be looking into these things futher in the coming days.

Keesha for Miki 2.0 available at Content Paradise

PRODUCTION DIARY 003

"As if overnight, they appeared, attaching themselves to the city, growing. There was no warning for they made no sound. They drew no attention. The streets were empty, quiet. The life which made up this little place we called home was gone. The air was thick, as if there was something more than air inside it. It was like you could feel invisible figures brush past you. Somehow I was left with the feeling that no matter where the people went, it had to be a better place than here."


It's amazing what you can learn when you dare to try new things. Trying new things is, of course, not always the best idea, especially if it means trying new software in the middle of production. In this case, though, I decided to try a new technique. I decided I wanted to model something using metablobs in Vue 6 Infinite. My experiment was not at all successful, in that I didn't get what I wanted. What I learned, though, and what I can now see as the future of using this technique has great value.

I had an image in my head of this substance growing from a center and crawing up the buildings. My first thought was that metablobs might be a way to achieve it. While my experiments with metablobs yielded a lot of interesting organic shapes and showed me great potential for other possible uses. It did not get what I need here, so I went with more conventional methods with primitives, objects and displacement maps. In the end the result is what counts, but at the same time you don't want to sacrifice momentum when you have it. Momentum is hard to come by. It is slow to build. When you have it, you must push on and let it continue to steam roll, otherwise, you may find yourself feeling as though you are starting all over.

One of the best ways to build momentum is to see results. This is why dailies can be a great thing. From the first day I create an edit timeline and start throwing shots into it. Sometimes I will even pull music from my library of many soundtracks to have as temp music so that scenes feel more complete. Watching this, creates of the feeling that "this is real." It feels like "this is a real movie." That immediately makes you want to see more and more.

Another killer of momentum is just plain using too many tools. I think I mentioned before how guys I know working in the hectic television production world, like on Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles, would setup everything in camera, in Lightwave 3D, and get it right so they could move on. The speed of the show demanded it. Well, I am finding more and more a desire to do similar things as I continue working. Jumping from program to program too often is both tiring, and a killer of momentum.

Don't get me wrong, compared to the days of Understanding Chaos, the very nature of the tools and technology available to us today allows me work almost ten times faster, but my greatest desire right now is to find that "flow", where time disappears and creativity falls into the realm of the unconcious. There is a creative process there that I remember from long ago. My goal is to experience that again.

Keesha for Miki 2.0 available at Content Paradise

PRODUCTION DIARY 002

I've been preparing a number of elements for future scenes and learning a lot as I go. This is a fluid process after all. At least, that's the way I want it to be. You see, there are two ways I see to approach setting up a sequence or the environment for a sequence. One is to start on paper. Drawings are done, erased, corrected and revised until the desired design is arrived at. Maybe a color chart is done for the set and everything is set in stone before any actual models are built or background paintings done. We all know this works. It is the way it has been done for years. It's not the way I want to work though.


Programs like Vue 6 Infinite come with a lot of simple, little, everyday objects that often seem forgotten on the extras CD. I have yet to really grasp the wealth of stuff that is there. On top of this, the way Vue's interface is setup, when browsing for objects, it can also show items which are available on the content site for quick purchasing while working. I know some hate this setup, but I tend to like it, mainly because rather than searching through mounds of content on the site, it is organized based on what I am working on at the moment. The need can be more apparent.

Anyway, the point of having all these little pieces opens the door to more trial and error. That means it is fast and I can work in the environment I am creating. I can add things and see if they work or, if not, throw them out. This is fast and a lot more fun. I do the same with characters in Poser. I have built up quite a library of costumes, weapons and other pieces both from my own library and the content sites, such that when I create a character I can "try things on", mix and match pieces and see what "feels" right. Even if I have a vision of the character in my mind, sometimes I am surprised by something better.


Setting up an environment for an action scene brings its own set of challenges. How the characters will interact with the environment, and thus what program elements will be created and rendered in, becomes extremely important. For example, what is background and what is "cel"? What if a character picks up an object and throws it? What if a character needs to go behind an object in the background? There are a few ways to do this. It could be done as a matte in compositing. That one object could become a "cel" for that scene and thus be part of the character animation. The object could be cel shaded or it could still be textured and shaded. There are many considerations.

As I mentioned before, I like speed, just like the Universe. This brings up many questions on when and where to use compositing and the necessity of it. I remember Q once spoke about the hectic pace of doing weekly TV like on CSI and he mentioned that often times, for reasons of speed and productivity, they get shots right, completely inside of Lightwave 3D and render, even with DOF and other FX goodies. I see the value of this, especially on a larger project. Many of the benefits of multipass rendering are actually unnecessary when working alone.

Keesha for Miki 2.0 available at Content Paradise

PRODUCTION DIARY 001

This isn't exactly my first day working on this feature project, so the diary numbers won't necessarily correspond to days. It is my first day to see some scenes roll off the presses, though, and having learned a lot for one day, I wanted to talk about some things that are very different from the last time I did such a project. In fact, it is that very difference that is key for the indie to constantly progress, improve, and even attempt to build a library of content such as will be necessary for the future of digital media. That key can be summed up in four simple words: Old Thinking Must Go.


Aside from a few tests, this is my first time really back in the thick of production in a long time. It's also the largest project I have ever attempted, and it is using tools I have not used on any major project before. All these are good things in reality, but they do come with necessary learning and growth. The greatest of this comes not in terms of new software or new ways of creating images, but in the form of content management.

I learned a lot while working at UFO Films about content management for large productions. The content structure setup there made it easy to find what was needed from the creation of elements for a shot all the way to the editing room, even on a feature length production. This is more important when working with a number of people too. When I did my last project, I was working primarily in Lightwave 3D and Mirage, editing in Adobe Premiere, using Sound Forge for most audio work and a few other tools for finalizing things. Some of these programs force the user into particular content structures. They were good for their time and for their pipeline, but walk into a new set of tools and a new pipeline and thinking along those same lines can hold you back.


Now I am primarily using modo, Vue 6 Infinite, Poser 7, Garage Band and editing in iMovie. Things are far more integrated today. Tools talk to each other better, The process, also, is very different. Back in the day, I used to work very similar to how Japanese studios created, getting the animation down first, or at least in layout and then "after recording" the voice work. This time around, thanks to tools like the Talk Designer in Poser 7, I now record voices first. These files have to be managed. They have to relate to subsequent sequence and scene files in Vue, Poser, my compositor or my editor.

When I began the project, I naturally fell into using the content and directory structure I was used to. That was based on a pipeline I am not using and I was setting myself up to run into major walls later. For example, Vue 6 Infinite allows you to encapsulate elements such as objects and even their textures into the scene file. This was something that was never even a consideration in the old days. Now I see many advantages to this and use it often. Less to deal with. Also, with hard drives being cheap as they are, the potential increase in file size is no longer an issue. The same goes with editing in iMovie. The program creates a "package" with all of the video, as quicktime clips, stored inside. This eliminates the need to keep separate frames or even outside Quicktime clips around. These kinds of things really streamline the process.


I like speed. I like getting things done. I notice very quickly when things I don't want to deal with in the first place are getting in the way of a good production flow. I never got to feel like I was "in the zone" today, but that will happen as I dig in deeper into this production. Right now I am grateful to see some shots and some progress. I did notice that each shot became easier than the last. Imagine what it could be like deep into the process when the flow becomes more unconcious. Imagine what it could be like over a larger period of time, over the course of many projects as the content library builds. Imagine the speed, the productivity. I am excited. I will report more as it happens.

Keesha for Miki 2.0 available at Content Paradise

INDIE DONE RIGHT

Imagine becoming so fed up with the animation industry, fed up with the low wages, the complete lack of creative freedom and ownership of intellectual property that you would be willing to simply quit your job. Imagine being so fed up that you'd be willing to actually leave the city, the center of all things media related, and move to the outskirts where living costs are cheaper. Imagine being out there alone, willing to do it your way, whatever way it takes, to live the dream of creating animation.

That is precisely where imagination has taken indie anime creator Ryo Ono, now famous for his self published Sugaikun to Kazokuishi anime created in Flash. Ono worked for more than ten years in the traditional media industry. Even though anime is a multi-billion dollar per year industry, the creators who provide the ideas and the knew-how receive little reward for their work. Even "big" directors are not paid very well and never own their creations. Animators on the other hand may earn as little as $900 per month to live on in a city where the cost of living makes New York, L.A., or even Hawaii seem like Austin Texas.

Sugaikun to Kazokuishi, which literally means Sguy and The Family Stone, a play on the 70's funk band, changed all that. Ono's anime about a black family living in Shimane started boasting 50,000 page views per day. His self produced DVD sold 5600 copies, netting him $96,000 dollars. I have heard, though never been able to verify, that with few exceptions, major studio anime on DVD in Japan tops out at 10,000 copies per volume in sales, so for an indie to do more than half that, shows a major change on the horizon. His success has led him to major deals with the likes of Toshiba, EMI and TV Asahi, and he always keeps his copyright. His work has since been seen on major TV broadcasts and in theaters.

Mr. Fire, Joe Vitale has said, "The Universe likes speed." Well apparently, so does the anime industry. While it traditionally takes several weeks and a lot of money to produce anime, Ono uses Flash and can do a 30 minute episode in days, even working alone and voicing all the characters. He is currently doing The Frogman Show for TBS (Tokyo Broadcasting System) late night programming, producing anime work at 10% of what it normally costs. He admits that his work does look as good as the creations of veterans, but it hasn't stopped his rise to success.

As I mentioned in a few previous articles, the Japanese anime industry is struggling to stay afloat. Production costs are rising even as wages for individuals are falling. This leads to mass exits fro the industry and work going overseas which, in the opinion of some, drops quality. Many of the majors are looking into co-production deals with the U.S., France and other nations which have a market for anime, but it seems that broadcasters may be ahead of them in seeking newer cheaper ways to get programming on the air for their multi-billion dollar industry.

Imagine a future where the industry belongs to indie animators or tiny studios producing their own in-house content using Flash, Anime Studio or even Poser and Vue. Broadcasters pay much, much less, but to the lone animator or small team, they are making so much more money that before. The old thinking has to go. Regardless of whether it is production technique, software or even content management, the way it was done, will soon be a relic of the past. We have to move forward.

In my next post, I will talk a bit about how old thinking has affected my current production.

NEW DIGITAL CONTENT

When Poser was created, it began as a simple artist's tool to replace the wooden desktop mannequin most used to visualize the poses needed for drawing. Over time, with much input from the users, it evolved. It grew in the level of complexity of its figure design. It began to see enhancements in tools for animation. It became the production tool of choice for hobbyists globally. With that sprung up an incredibly large content market, fueled by the users for the the users, which continues to advance the Poser world to this day. I also create for that market.


This is the fun and playful Keesha, a character set I created for the recently released Miki 2.0 from E-Frontier. For a limited time she is on sale at Content Paradise, the Poser integrated content domain. This is where the world of Poser figure design, art and animation expands to whatever the user can imagine.


The Keesha character set makes use of some of the recent surfacing additions to Poser, such as sub-surface scattering, to maximize realism in the render. It also included 5 light sets to create dynamic portrait style looks for the renders. With 20 fun poses also in the package, users can get right into creating cool images immediately.

I began creating content for Poser with my G2 Troopers - SWAT Unit body armor for the generation 2 male characters for Poser 7. I also have a couple of pieces for Anime Studio in the works which will soon find their way to Content Paradise. Eventually I will also expand my own site to include these and other useful 2D and 3D content pieces. In the meantime, you can see all of the complete renders of the character, and samples of the poses, on her page there.