Hamster X Studios

Getting ready to turn in but had to write a quick post about Alternative Press Expo 2008. I spent most of the day there and only got a third of the way through the venue on my second pass. I make a first pass to see what I like then on the second pass I do my buying. I also passed out quite a few copies of my Toast mini-comic. Next year I will have a table for sure.

After the show ended at 7 PM I went to the Isotope Comics after party. It was packed and rocking! I'll post pics from the show and the after party soon. Right now I have to sleep.

Yawn! I pulled an (almost) all-nighter last night putting together a video tutorial for Drop Comics.I used the Toast comic I mentioned in a previous post to show how to assemble a Drop Comic.

The video was pretty easy. Just stuck my camcorder on a tripod and did the folding and stapling. For the printing I did a combination of screen capture and video taping of the printer.

For the music track I found a nice jingle in Garageband that came in three lengths, short, medium and long. I started the track with the long version and then alternated between the medium and short versions. For the vocals, I wrote a text file of words and phrases and had the Mac record itself saying them. I then used various techniques on the samples as I dropped them into the track.

I 'm happy with the final video except for one problem. When the video is displayed on the Drop Comics site, the YouTube logo covers the information in the bottom right of the screen. Take a look at the video and let me know what you think!

Link: http://www.dropcomics.com

I'm currently working on a mini comic. Drop Comics needs a comic for launch before Alternative Press Expo 2008. Sing! the animation will be on hold until the comic is completed. The drawings are done, I am currently inking it and I'm on page 7 of 12. It should take another 5 days to complete then it is back to animation.

Page 6 of my Drop Comic.

And now for a handy storyboarding tip. Take white, lined 4 x 6 index cards and by placing horizontal lines with a black marker at the indicated spots, you get an HD proportioned drawing area. Plus you can write in frame numbers in the top section and notes at the bottom.

I'm assuming you have a light table and it goes without saying that you ink the black lines on the blank side of the card.

Here is a clip from a storyboard thumbnail in the previous post. We're using the 3D program Blender to animate in a flat style.