Good news that I could move my very small home office to a new (much better) location. If you are curious, this is my new setup:

So, I hope to use a few hours of this Thanksgiving holidays to, at least, play with the Cintiq and SketchBook (another tool I bought but couldn’t use. Any suggestions on how to extend daily hours?

I will be in charge of story, illustration, animation, development (100% using Kwik, which will probably introduce some features it does not currently have), and a few sound effects. I will invite my son to create the music score, and an American friend to narrate the story.

New equipment are arriving to complement my current setup (a MacBook Pro, with Asus 21 external monitor, and a Seagate external drive for backing up). Here is the list:

– Audio-Technica AT2020 USB Microphone (with On-Stage Desk Mic Stand and Nady SSPF-4 Mic Pop Filter) will be used in the narration recording;

- Alesis Q49 Midi Keyboard Controller, together GarageBand, it will be use for music composition and sound effects;

- Wacom Cintiq 12wx (this is an expensive toy but I hope it pays itself soon) will be used to draw and paint all book pages;

- Photoshop (of course), Corona and Kwik;

For animations and illustration, I will do some testings to pick the best option:

- Flash CS5 (good option to create animations, than export them as sprite sheet with Spriteloq);

- Anime Studio 8 (seems to be easier than Flash for animation)

- Alias SketchBook Pro (seems to be great for illustration);

I will keep you posted on the progresses and on the final selection for drawing and animation software.

Lastly, two great products coming soon:

- Jot, the best pen for iPad and tablets ever made – check the project and you will know why (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/531383637/jot-capacitive-touch-stylus)

- If you use a tablet (computer, Cintiq, or any other Wacom’s one), you should check PenMoto too (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1107850856/penmoto-improved-and-relaunched)

I am working in a linear mode. The moment I close a scene concept (the action and the text supporting it), I start to plan what is going to appear in there, the animations and interactions supporting it and the background sounds. Final text is almost complete and I hope to use my American friend and reviser to record the narration sound (she doesn’t know it yet ). Below, the original sketches for the first four scenes. Enjoy!

Scene 1 – Candice is introduced

In this scene, the reader will meet Candice, as she plays in front her house. As you can notice, she doesn’t have many friends to play with, besides her book of spells. I drew a few house ideas but, at the end, this one (I sketched this looking at a pool slider at Disney’s Vero Beach Resort) was selected, as a homage to the place I sketched it. Things that are going to happen here includes a moving seesaw, door that open with a click, smoke from the chimney, and a book that bounces.

Scene 2 (this scan is simply horrible) – Candice’s “lab” (how do you call a witch workplace?)

Readers will play with Candice’s spell ingredients and meet her crazy broom. Cat clock moves, books try to get out of the shelves, spider gets up and down, the broom cleans the room. Poor little Candice.

Scene 3 – Candice wants to fly. Her broom not.

The little witch wants to fly her broom. However, the broom doesn’t like the idea very much. As a powered paraglider pilot myself, should I suggest her to switch her way of transportation? Anyways, clicking the objects will reveal some surprises to the readers.

Scene 4 – Dreaming awake

Her dream is to attend the witches fair. But with no broom, she can’t get there!

I have been out of this blog for a long time due lots of work all around (which I am not complaining at all). Although I will be still very busy, I decided to start a new project called Candice (no, it is not a new baby!).

I want to use Kwik in a real project so, I decided to write and illustrate an original story for children. My idea is to transform it in an interactive book, publishing at Apple, Android, Amazon and (hopefully) Nook stores. Part of the files will also be available as a free download to Kwik users (I strong believe this is the best way to learn about new features).

For this first posting, I will share some of the characters studies and the main plot of the story. Basically it is about a young witch apprentice, called Candice. She needs to attend a witch fair but she can’t make her broom to fly. She starts a journey in search of some magical ingredients, meeting some new friends in the way.

For the little witch, I sketched a few different body shapes (tall, short, “chubby”, thin, etc):

Although the “judges” (my family) selected the tall witch…

…I opted by the short one, mostly because later in the story she will need to fit in a small space. Also, a short girl was always my vision since the beginning (as the author, illustrator, editor and publisher, final word is mine, right?

Considering I needed to attend a workshop from SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators), and I needed a simple animation to show off Kwik, I quickly draw it in Flash (not many details yet) and use it in the animation I showed:

For the horse (it is a toy, made of wood), I tried a few samples (probably will pick the second one as it matches more with Candice’s drawing style):

For the snail, just two samples but, the family winner is the second one, as it is a homage to an original drawing our oldest soon (he is almost 19 now) drew when he was very young (you know moms’, right? They keep everything):

If you want to see the first animation test, check the complementary posting, available at www.kwiksher.com/blog

Again, thanks for your friendship and interest. Ideas? Just leave a comment!

Alex

More on that at www.kwiksher.com (for the full story, check www.kwiksher.com/blog)

Enjoy! It is free for projects with up 2 pages!

Another “taste” of what is coming…

Tomorrow morning keep your eyes on the media. After several months of designing, coding and testing, the “baby” will born!

If you use Photoshop and are interested in creating mobile apps from there, no development skills needed, you MUST check it!

I will share the Twitter account, Facebook page and, most important, the product site tomorrow morning!

The wait is almost over!

Guesses??

I strongly suggest people interested in to use it (works on Photoshop CS and above, in both Windows and Mac platform) to check the Fireworks posting, as both code work in a similar way: they get the elements of your design and export a main.lua file, with positioning and attributes (for example a font style).

To those ones in a hurry, here goes a quick instruction on how to use:

a) Create you Photoshop file, using layers for each element;

b) Each grouped layer will be scripted as a single image;

c) If you have a button in your design, add the word ‘button’ or ‘but’, in the layer name (for example: “main_but”, “button_Main”);

d) Background images follow the same concept: name a layer using the ‘background’ or ‘back’ works;

Send me your suggestions and comments!

Enjoy!

Alex

As a Corona user, I was always impressed not only with the product but even more by the passionate community, and the way Ansca’s members interact with their customers.

Carlos (I believe it applies to Walter too), besides a visionary, is a gentleman. Even thou on vacations, he found time to meet me for a few hours. If before this meeting I was looking forward for the January’s announcement, I have to say now that I am really waiting for ALL 2011 announcements! There are lots of things coming from their hands in the coming months. I will do my best to add a few add-ons to their features as well.

If you are already a Corona developer, keep your hands busy! If you never heard about them, take a look at their site at http://www.anscamobile.com. I am betting the future will be bright for Carlos and all Ansca’s team.

Happy holidays!
Alex