largento

Thanks, guys! After giving it some thought, I've decided to start a "The Wannabe Pirates" comic book! I've got plenty of material (at least a dozen issues so far) and I think it would be fun. It would also offer a lower-price alternative. It's still a little pricey ($3.99 for a standard comic), but it's not outrageous. It will also give me a bigger footprint in the online stores. Of course, it means a whole bunch more work, but time is the only thing I'm not short on these days...

Thanks, Rodney. The pricing is definitely a penalty of doing Print On Demand. Sadly, the reality is that there simply are not enough Wannabe Pirates readers to warrant doing a press run. (Not that I could afford to do one anyway.) I would have to be in the position where I could sell thousands of books before I could go that route. I think I'll be lucky if I sell a couple of hundred of them. The POD place I went with (Ka-Blam) has the online outlet (IndyPlanet) and one that distributes to Comic Shops. They have a minimum price associated with the one that distributes to the comic shops and you can't price the IndyPlanet one for less. This was the lowest price I was allowed to charge. I could have split the book up into two books to lower the prices (although they'd probably end up costing more for two than for one) or gone with black and white interiors, but I wanted to have the whole story collected into one volume and I think a black and white version would be a let-down. Like you mentioned, the Print On Demand option does give me a great prototype to show to people for potential business. But at this point, it's mostly just wish-fulfillment on my part. So cool to finally have this in print. All the time doing the original strips and then all the work reformatting them into comic book pages was made worth it when I got to open the box and hold the books in my hands. :-)

Since I currently don't have a decent camera, I modeled a 3D version of the book to make a display photo: Better in a way, since you don't have to worry about gravity. :-)

Hey Everybody, Just got in the copies I ordered of the print version of The Wannabe Pirates and the Curse of Greyhawk Island and they look amazing! SOOO cool to see this in print! 208 pages (full color)! (That doesn't include the outside and inside covers which includes a full-page ad for Animation:Master!) I had my doubts about the quality of Print On Demand, but happily they were unfounded! The colors look great and the high resolution art lets you see more detail! Very happy with how it turned out! Here's the link to it! Go buy copies for everyone you know! :-) PS-->I can't see anywhere on the site if sales are limited to the US. They prefer PayPal, though, so I'd imagine they ship everywhere. So you non-US folks can take advantage of the weak US dollar! :-)

At least a *productive* use. I downloaded a free game called "Gold Strike" a few weeks ago and have lost many an hour to it. :-)

If you're running the latest version of OS X, you have access to the new Mac App Store. There's a free application in there called "Art Text Lite." It reminds me a little of an old application called TypeStyler that I used to use in the old days. Anyway, the free version comes with several preset styles. If you make a circle and apply the styles to them, you can then save out large resolution spheres that you can use with the Matcap shader! (Make sure your final image is square and has a black background.) If you spend the $20 for the full version, you have access to even more preset styles and you can customize your own.

Hope everything gets back to normal for you, Jirard! Best wishes!

Definitely are the models Jirard donated to the forums.

Hey, Rocky! Watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat! What if you have a framing sequence with a tuxedo-clad magician who somehow either puts his hat on the floor, or it is blown off of his head by the wind and then each participant does a character reaching into the hat and pulling whatever out?

LOL @ the ending. Cool.

Or even hold off until the logo comes into its final position and replace it with the actual logo, with drop shadows in place.

Well, I may have someone to do the voices! I had gotten an email from this guy a year ago, but he never followed up with me. Anyway, I emailed him again last week and he got back to me yesterday and sent me some samples. I think he's got an interesting take on them. Very weird hearing a "voice" attached to the characters. In my head they speak, but there's not really an audio component to their voices.

The monkeys are mean, Nancy. Totally evil. :-)

Here's my thoughts, Ken. I'm thinking this might be kind of a know-it-when-I-hear-it thing. Flemm: I think there's a tinge of heroic-ness in his voice, but somehow still comical. Almost like a comedian imitating a heroic actor (in the same way that Don Adams' Maxwell Smart voice is an imitation of William Powell.) Flemm is a kid at heart, so I don't think his voice is very deep. Comical without sounding weak or wimpy. Greyhawk: Fully heroic, but with some swashbuckle flair to it. I almost said Errol Flynn-like, but ironically, Flynn's voice is thin and weak. Mr. Sneeze: The faithful sidekick. A steady, friendly voice. Doc Bokor: An old man voice with a tinge of a Jamaican accent that still manages to sound sagely.

There's no set time that it has to be, but my guess is it's going to be between 1:30 and 2:00.

I thought I'd make a separate thread for this so that I could chronicle it (and hopefully force me to move forward with this!) What I'm working on is a movie trailer style commercial for the graphic novel version of The Wannabe Pirates and the Curse of Greyhawk Island! The first copies of the book are currently being printed. Once I've seen them and confirmed the quality, I'm going to make them for sale and I want to make this commercial to generate interest. I've written it and started to work on the audio, but I think my idea of doing all of the voices myself isn't going to work out. The voice of Flemm is one that I don't think I'm every going to be able to do myself. I'm thinking about posting on the website to see if I can find a fan to do the voice(s). Does anyone here want to give it a try? The dialogue is here in the script. There'll no doubt be some changes as I put it together, but here's the first draft. The numbers in parenthesis correspond to the strip number that the sequence is taken from. It's cool that I basically have choreographies set up for every shot. :-) Shot 1: (4-120) FADE IN from BLACK! The Greyhawk symbol appears white on a red background. There's a crackling noise, scanlines and a hum that makes us realize this is a transmission. GREYHAWK (VO) Attention, alien vessel! This world is protected by the pirate Greyhawk! You orbit this world at your own peril! Leave this world… Shot 1b: Image switches to GREYHAWK! GREYHAWK …Or suffer my wrath! FLEMM leans in. FLEMM Yeah! And I want my lucky hat back, too! Shot 2: Exciting TITLES appear! TITLES: Mark R. Largent & Mark McCrary Proudly Present TITLES: (logo) The Wannabe Pirates and the Curse of Greyhawk Island! Shot 3: (4-054) DOC BOKOR against a menacing, cloud-filled sky! DOC BOKOR No one has ever been to the island and survived! It's dangers are legendary! Only a fool would ever dare go there! Shot 3b: FLEMM FLEMM A fool or a man who laughs at danger! Shot 3c: Pull Back, to show all. DOC BOKOR There's a difference? Shot 4: TiTLES: A tale of Adventure! Shot 5: (4-079) FLEMM on the bowsprit challenges a SEA MONSTER! SEA MONSTER ROARS DEFIANTLY! FLEMM Okay, Sea Monster! You want to play it rough? We can play it rough! Shot 5b: Close-up Sneeze. SNEEZE It looks like he wants to play it rough, Cap'n! Shot 5c: Change angle to show Flemm & Sneeze. FLEMM Are you sure he's not just yawning? Shot 6: TITLES: Mystery! Shot 7: (4-097) DOC and SNEEZE walk through fog. SNEEZE I find I have no desire to question any of this. I'm just taking it all in stride. DOC BOKOR Don't worry, that's a well-documented side effect of being lost on a mysterious island! Shot 8: TITLES: Romance! Shot 9: (4-108) GREYHAWK pushes a button aimed at HENRIETTA! GREYHAWK Awaken, Sleeping Beauty! Shot 9b: Henrietta awakes and punches Greyhawk in the face. Shot 10: TITLE: And Indescribable Treasure! Shot 11: (4-068) FLEMM Indescribable? DOC BOKOR Yes, it cannot be described. FLEMM (after a beat) Is it blue? Shot 12: (4-075) TITLES: Across the sea! Shot 12b: Ship sails! Shot 13: (4-018) TITLES: And to the stars! Shot 13b: Spaceship Flies! Shot 14: (4-064) TITLES: With Monkeys! Shot 14b: Monkeys yell at Flemm from their ship. MONKEY OOO-OOOH! EEE-EEE-OOH AAH-OOO-EEE! Shot 14c: Flemm turns to Doc Bokor FLEMM That sounded awfully wordy for a simple "we surrender." Shot 15: (4-098) TITLES: Aliens! 15b: Aliens using scout ship to get into Greyhawk's cave. KERPAPPLE Aim disintegration ray at a height of 427 pilfers. DITTZLEBOOG Aiming… KERPAPPLE At the wall! Not at the prisoners! DITTZLEBOOG Oh, right. Shot 16: (4-113) TITLES: And terrible monsters! Shot 16b: CELESTIAL DRAGON Quick flash shot! Shot 17: TITLE: LOGO Shot 18-??: MONTAGE (no animation, just stills with KEN BURNS effect) SINGING Take a musket and fire it These Wannabe Pirates Were made for derring do! With their swords at the ready Their ship legs are steady Their compass points true! Oh his ship, he is mighty and Up for a fight he Will never back down Though he ain't got a parrot He's not without merit His fame is renowned! These are men of noble spirits Though they may have feet of clay Sure they may be Wannabe Pirates But just watch them win the day! Shot LAST: (4-054) FLEMM No matter the horrors that lie before us, men… We sail for Greyhawk Island! LIGHTNING STRIKES! FLEMM Unless it's raining… TITLES: (LOGO) The Wannabe Pirates and the Curse of Greyhawk Island Show book... maybe animation of flipping through it. TITLES: A 200-page graphic novel now available! TITLES: www.thewannabepirates.com

Thanks for all the tips, suggestions, and encouragement, guys. You've given me a lot to think about. And that "animated shorts" clip was hilarious, Myron! I'll have to figure out the path ahead, but I think I've managed to come down off of the ledge. :-)

Happy Birthday Mark S.! Thanks for all your contributions to the forum and to the Wannabe Pirates!

If it is refresh issue, I wonder if this is related. I've noticed that deleting choreography actions doesn't always remove the results of those keys. For example: Here, I've posed Flemm in a choreography. In the middle image, I've deleted all of the bones and user properties from the choreography action. In the right image, I've closed the project and reopened the choreography. The middle image should look exactly like the image on the right, but there are some obvious differences. I come across this often since I'm doing individual frames rather than animation. If I want to resave the choreography and change things, I find there's a "muscle memory" happening that can create unexpected results. Results that can only be seen until the project is closed and reopened. I keep every choreography incase it needs to be re-rendered, but if I don't go through this process to clear it out, I won't be able to get the same image. Like in this example, it would appear the mouth is open. If I re-posed Flemm, the render would show his mouth open. However. If I saved the choreography and reopened it at another time to render it, his mouth would now be closed, since there's no key on the jaw bone. Like I said, I'm not sure if this is related or not, but this post reminded me of it. [EDIT] I just noticed, in support of what Mark S. was saying, that the effected areas (face and hands) do have porcelain material applied to them.

I probably over-stated the "I'm not that into pirates" thing. I doubt Dik Browne was that into Vikings, either. :-) Still, Will's kinda' right. I may not be that into pirates, but I'm way into the Wannabe Pirates. :-) It's clear to me that the whole reason I'm questioning this is that I'm unemployed and accusing eyes are on me asking what are you doing to make money. The Wannabe Pirates has some rewards creatively, but none financially. I get the sense from my family that they think the Wannabe Pirates is a huge waste of time. I think my mom thinks I'm mentally ill. :-) For a long time, I could justify it as me staying productive while I waited for the job market to improve, but the job market hasn't been improving and it may never come back. This flips it all and makes me question if this was time spent well. Should I have abandoned this and tried something with more potential for income. Personally, I think the Wannabe Pirates has the potential to be successful, but I'm a lone voice in that and there's no evidence to support it. :-) So I keep trying to think of ways to make it profitable. Hence the online magazine idea. Nancy, the plan would be to take the printed version of the book (once it's printed) to the local school administration and discuss the idea with them. Essentially what I'm offering them is a way to promote their school system in the community. Then I'd go to the potential advertisers and try to get some of them onboard. If I keep my prices low in the beginning, then I think I can get some of them to take a chance. Any ad sales would be an improvement over the current situation. If I could fill up all the ad pages in every issue, I could make a living ...but do I abandon the webcomic to do the magazine instead? Rodney, I already have somebody involved in steering the ship (McCrary) and it's difficult enough for us to come to agreement on things. Adding a third would just mean two people could jump on one person and that wouldn't improve the situation. :-) Mike, I already think of the Wannabe Pirates as not really being historical. They basically talk like modern-day Americans and there are some modern things that we've commented on. I do want to stay away from politics, though. It's too divisive these days, and as I've gotten older, I've become more indifferent. These are also story-based comics, so these things have to be worked into the story so that they don't feel like they were just tacked on. I hadn't really thought of trying to "self syndicate" the strip, though. I could offer it to some kid-friendly sites essentially as free advertising for me. That's something I'll have to look into. I think I've just been frustrated lately. I keep getting job leads that sound promising and then go nowhere. Last week, I had an interview with a small ad agency and they seemed to love my stuff and were brainstorming all of these projects that I could work for them on ...and then dead silence. It's like people are purposely putting me on. :-) I'm going to just keep moving forward ...if nothing else, at least I'll have had some fun working on this... until Mom throws me into a mental institution. :-)

Neat stuff, Rodney! There was some discussion of Popeye between McCrary and me early on. This was when the project was just one short film. I think McCrary was suggesting the idea that they could be short formula type films.

Great stuff, David. This is going to be top notch!

@Jake I have given a little bit of thought to going back to a 2D version. There's definitely a stigma out there against 3D comics. I had thought doing it in 3D would actually make it more unique, but there's a lot of people who look down on it. If I were to go that route, it wouldn't be until after this story is finished, since it would be too jarring for the style to change in the middle of it. @Gerry Not beloved, those pirates. :-) @Nancy I hadn't really given thought to making it focused on actual learning, but that could be a way to go. My idea was more to make it localized. X number of pages of comic each month, x number of pages of games and puzzles and x number of pages focusing on local school news and profiles. The rest would be ad pages that would be sold to local businesses. The hurdle is that it would need to be accepted into the schools in order to sell the advertising and make it financially viable. Having some sort of educational tutorials in it, might help with that. I guess what I keep coming back to every so often is the thought that this may not be the right comic to be pouring all of my efforts into. I'm not really that into pirates and it could be that I'd have success with another comic. ...BUT what if the missing piece is just the time. What if it just takes five years for the saturation to start to happen? Then I'd be starting back over on day one with another five years ahead of me...

Thanks, Jake. Sadly, I don't think the syndication path is viable anymore. I had considered it last year when I first began doing the the strip in 3D. I thought it would be a novelty for the syndicates. Then I read a story about a lady who had gotten her strip syndicated, and she didn't paint a pretty picture. The reality is that newspapers are on their deathbed in the US. Beyond merchandising, syndicated strip artists make 50% from the sale of their strips to newspapers. There just aren't enough newspapers left to make a strip a success. The chances of being accepted by a syndicate and getting into newspapers has always been microscopic, but nowadays, it's even worse. Also, I wouldn't have ownership of the property. Anything I would want to do with the Wannabe Pirates would be controlled by the syndicate. The animated trailer is something I've seriously been working on over the last week. It's really a commercial for the book that I'm getting printed. I went through the book and wrote a movie-trailer style commercial integrating some scenes from the book. The tricky part for me (as always) has been doing the audio to time it with the animatic. However, I'm just accepting that it won't be perfect so that I can make it happen. I had considered doing one for a long time, but my major impetus now is that I think it's the only way I'll be able to get any "press" for the book.

Thanks, guys! Sadly it didn't translate into any real traffic, but it was still nice to know that someone out there knows the strip exists. :-) I've been circling around an idea to take the Wannabe Pirates into local schools to promote reading. Maybe as some kind of online magazine for kids. I don't know what that would mean for the webcomic. It's just so clear that the audience for the strip (if there is one) isn't finding it. I'm thinking that maybe trying to join up with the local schools would put it in front of kids who might catch on to it. I think they might go for it. I haven't really written the strip "down" to kids, but I don't think there is anything content-wise that would be objectionable to the school boards. The other alternative would be to try to change the strip in a way that would hopefully attract more readers. I just think I need to find some way to make this sustainable. In September, I will have been at this for four years. I've wanted to commit to five years, but a part of me keeps thinking what's the point of doing it for another year if it's not going to go anywhere? It would be one thing if the numbers seemed to be on an upward slope, but that's not the case.