Learning, learning, learning

I just finished reading "Creating Characters with Personality" by Tom Bancroft.  The drawing style is very different from my own, but I learned new things from this book. A brilliant feature is the six guest illustrators, including Peter de Seve and Jack Davis, who all used the same written instructions to create a character.

I'm now reading "The Animators Survival Kit" by Richard Williams. Who knew how much thought went into animating a character walking? Not me. This book definitely lives up to its good reviews.

I also just started reading "Directing the Story: Professional Storytelling and Storyboarding Techniques for Live Action and Animation" by Francis Glebas.  I have high hopes for this one too.  All three of these books include a lot of very helpful illustrations.

I'm also reading (and doing) "Adobe Flash Pro CS6 Classroom in a Book" to learn how to create images for the iPad that move. I'm looking forward to the animation tutorials, but one step at a time.

Each Flash tutorial is supposed to take around 60-90 minutes. They end up taking me a lot longer because I start experimenting, pushing buttons to see what happens, creating my own versions, etc.

One experiment became a slide show of my work, which is now on the homepage of my site.  Take a peek! http://www.phylliscahill.com

I've been looking at software programs to create apps and trying to figure out what to use.

On the following websites you use their software and keep all your intellectual property rights:

Interactive Touch Books http://www.interactivetouchbooks.com   They take a 30% commission after third party fees and your app appears in the bookstore on their site. You can't publish the same content elsewhere. 

Moglue http://moglue.com  You pay a flat fee at publication (currently $199 for one app for iOS, $299 for one app for iOS and Android) which includes submission to Apple's app store. You keep all royalties.

Talespring http://www.talespring.com They take a 50% royalty on all sales based on the sales price.  It's $150 to publish, which includes submission to Apple's app store.  Your app also appears in the bookstore on Talespring's site.

Storybuilder http://www.littlerobot.com  They take a small commission (not clear how much) based on net sales.  You can publish to Apple's app store.  There will also be a bookstore on Storybuilder's site.  Things are still under development.

There's a definite advantage to easy-to-use software and the marketing exposure and tech support offered.  It's probably well worth the fees. 

At this point, what interests me is Adobe's Digital Publishing Suite.  It seems very flexible, though I'm guessing it won't be as easy as the animation effects available through the software above.

I already use InDesign and Photoshop.  I signed up for Adobe's Creative Cloud, downloaded Flash Pro and Edge Animate.  I bought some how-to books and watched some instructional videos.  I still have a LOT of reading and learning to do.

Regardless, learning new things (like animation) is exciting.  I'm thinking it should improve my drawing abilities.

The iPad arrived!  I'm still figuring out how it works, but it's pretty amazing. I've download several picture book apps and have more downloading as I write. 

So far, I really enjoy "The Three Little Pigs" published by Nosy Crow. I found "Tacky the Penguin," one of my favorites illustrated by Lynn Munsinger and some ibooks of Hans Christian Andersen tales with lovely Edmund Dulac illustrations.

Trying to find good picture books through the app store is a challenge. Maybe I just don't know how to use the app store yet, or maybe it's more of a book warehouse instead of a bookstore.

Kirkus Reviews helps http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/ipad, as do other review sites like http://www.appysmarts.com, http://digital-storytime.com, http://kidlitapps.com.  When I find a book I like, I'll look to see what other books that publisher has.

I'm just beginning to develop opinions about what I like or don't like in an app.  I appreciate interactivity that enhances the story.  I like to choose whether the story is read aloud or not.  If the narrator's voice doesn't sound professional, it's distracting. If voices overlap, it's a noisy mess.

An interesting article is "What Makes a Good Picture Book App?"  http://www.hbook.com/2012/02/using-books/what-makes-a-good-picture-book-app.

E is for Book http://www.eisforbook.com is a very helpful site to learn more from authors and illustrators about publishing ebooks and apps.

I also bought Will Terry's instructional video, "Painting on the iPad," from http://folioacademy.com.  The photo below shows my first finger painting done with the Brushes app while riding in the car.  It's pretty awful.  I'll definitely use the stylus next time.

I've dabbled in digital illustration over the years, but never made a concerted effort until about a year and a half ago.  Most of my work has been in traditional watercolor.  Then I started working for a client for whom it was obvious that digital art was the smartest and easiest way to accomplish what they needed.  So I learned how to paint in Photoshop in a hurry.

What really helped me was Will Terry's course, "Digital Painting in Photoshop - Part 1" available through http://folioacademy.com.

I confess, I haven't watched the entire course, but I didn't need to.  That's how good it was.

Folio Academy has many other video art courses available too.  Their videos really work well to teach just what you need to know in an easy-to-understand manner so you can be productive right away.  They really helped me.

I took the leap and ordered an iPad this morning.  It's a gently used 3rd edition with the new Retina display.  I got it through ebay and it should arrive in a few days.

It's one of my first steps in learning how to create apps. (It's hard to know what the steps are, exactly, but this seems to definitely be one of them.) 

Next is figuring out which software to use.  I have QuarkXpress 9 with App Studio and I took their class on apps.  I love Quark, so it's a place to start.  Demibooks Composer looks promising too.  There are so many new programs, it's hard to sort it all out. 

Learning the vocabulary of apps and iPads is another challenge.  Swiping, pinching...

I attended the digital conference put on by our local SCBWI chapter this summer.  Last weekend I was at another SCBWI conference and learned more about apps from Will Terry--a most excellent speaker, http://www.willterry.com . 

This journey into app-land should be interesting and I'll attempt to record it in this blog.