OTHER: Outstanding pajamas!

[Brian_Rice]

The first installment as is follows in no exact order:

1) Promo/prequel flash animation. "OPJS: PUSH TO START"

2) 13 part Flash animated series. "OPJS: BETWEEN THE PANELS"

3) Ongoing Page-per-panel comic ebook. "EVIL MEANS" (for purchase)

4) Serial novel. "REVELATION FALLS: TANTRUM" (for purchase)

5) Live action short film. "OPJS: RESTLESS"

6) 3 part CGI illustrated film. "OPJS: A REAPING UNORDINARY"

7) Live action Vlog. "OPJS: REFLUX RUMINATES ON (SUBJECT)"

8) Mix of traditional 2D animation and live action. "OPJS: TEASER"


The idea is that there will be enough free content so that people who only want to experience the animated series, live action short film, etc will have enough of an experience with just those items. For people who enjoy the series and want to see more (and different genres), the other experiences will be available. Then, of course, the compilation DVD "first season" will exist for those who want the former or who may just want to support the series or want to learn how to develop a similar transmedia series on their own.

So here's 1 of 7. The promo/prequel introducing people to the world of Outstanding Pajamas! 2 and 3 of 7 due this Spring, followed by 4 of 7 in the Summer. We'll hopefully be shooting the short film in the fall and with any luck the motion comic will slowly be being released throughout 2012 for a Christmas-time DVD release.

Check back here or at the fan page for further updates. And thanks for any support and feedback!

www.facebook.com/OPAJAMAS

NOTE: "page-per-panel ebook" is an invention of mine that works similar to a "guided view" experience like one might have on Comixology. Essentially the ebook will be uploaded where each panel of the comic (all panels being of identical size either horizontal or vertical) exists as its own page. This will make the reading experience on an iphone, kindle fire, ipad or other smart device simple and enjoyable even for people who don't necessarily understand the "language" of comics (how one should move their eye from panel to panel). My hope is that even non comic book readers might enjoy the experience as it will exist more as an interactive movie than a typical comic book. (I will also be specifying in the description that the page count reflects a panel-by-panel count and that, say, 150 page ebook actually equals a 24 page comic, etc)

 

[Brian_Rice]

Here are some traditional posed images of the characters:

 

[Kholi]

The per panel thing sounds pretty neat. You're heavily vested in comic culture aye?

 

[Brian_Rice]

Yeah, I think it's an interesting way to tell a visual story with little to no expense.

Here's some early stuff from the page-per-panel comics. No dialog or titles on them, just the images. Still working out the perfect size font for iPad all the way down to iPhone. Basically when you get the comic via the Kindle store (or app), Nook, what have you, you'll basically be flipping pages almost like a guided movie.

I decided to go with a very rudimentary comics strip style as I can get through it the fastest and I think it will add to the creepiness of a Sunday paper strip style comic being freaky and hyper violent with adult themes.

 

[Brian_Rice]

Basically the images will work nicely on the Kindle or smart device upright screen position. I might put in a couple of wide shots (horizontal), but only for establishing shots, etc. I want the word balloons to stay pretty consistent.

 

[Brian_Rice]

Here's an interview I just did on the project.

http://www.worldofsuperheroes.com/a...d-writer-bc-rice-about-his-transmedia-series/

 

[Brian_Rice]

Currently working on a new teaser for OPJS (that's tongue-in-cheek actually called "Teaser"). In keeping with the tansmedia concept, I'm going a totally different way with the animation. It's drawn at 24fps (12fps on the twos -- same as Disney films). Obviously because of the heavy workload it's going to be shorter than "Push to Start", but I think there will be some fun little tidbits in there -- including some live action stuff. Should be cool.

Here's a screen shot of the actual animation:



And this is the working title card. Thinking I might animate it as well, potentially in individual slabs.

 

[Brian_Rice]

In keeping with the transmedia theme, in addition to the comics, animated series, live action stuff, etc there's also a set of serial novels that are going to be published over the course of the next year. This is the first chapter for the first serial novel which I'm making available for anyone to view online.

Because I wanted to keep with the mood of the prose, the series is entitled Revelation Falls: (subtitle), which is the fictional city where Outstanding Pajamas takes place. Branding aside, I think it's important that the comic book and novels, while part of the greater story, exist for an audience on their own. The hope is that someone reading the comics or novels or animated series can enjoy each media on its own and that employing the other medias simply *adds to* the overall experience for the reader/viewer.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/17QjsuXNy8ip_96euKuX3HuhY4TdineUm1F5Nfeh8fBA/edit?pli=1

 

[Brian_Rice]

Current cover mock-up for the first serial novel.

 

[Brian_Rice]

Here's one of my character's key head symbol libraries as an example for Outstanding Pajamas. Each symbol contains 27 unique phonemes (opposed to the traditional 7-9). Each character is getting additional expressions based on character specifics or as scenes require with the basic expressions making up the bulk of each character's 35-odd points. Although this route is pre-production heavy taking many months to complete, it allows me to have lip synch at a true 24fps at about 3 minutes per second (Disney animates at 12fps on the twos). So even if you had continuous lip synch in every shot from beginning to end (which would never happen), you're still only looking at 180 minutes per minute of animation. The first season of 12 episodes is approx 55 minutes, so we're only talking about 9,900 minutes (if we decide to take what wouldn't be lip synch animation and instead apply it to key poses and minor inbetweens for body symbols) which means approx 165-185 hours to actually animate 55 minutes to an hour of animation.

The most dominant thing about the workflow I've developed, though, is that it will take that exact same amount of time, every time. So whether you're doing 10 hours of animation or just one, you're still coming in at between 3-4 minutes per second of animation -- as a single animator. Which is great as I'm planning on doing this series for at least the next few years, and will at some point look into outsourcing so that I can make time for other projects.

So basically it's 3 heads per character (4 with the 3/4 flipped horizontal) at 27 unique phonemes per head and 11 characters total.

All it takes is a little patience and a lot of genius.