Here in you shall find the thoughts, oppinions, views, soapbox musings, and news and reviews on tools and services the aspiring independant cartoonist or animator may find useful.
Currently I am outlining the things I would like to cover in blogcasts/tutorials. Which might seem odd since I'm still learning my craft. However there are things that I've discovered that I've not found mentioned in books or other tutorials, at least not any of the ones I've found.
I'll touch on these things in the tutorials as well. Well, I guess I'll demonstrated these things in the tutorials. Right now I'm just going to start with one of the most basic things in flash....
SYMBOLS!
Symbols are the building blocks of flash, nearly everything that enters your project will be a symbol. There are three flavors. The two most fitting for animation, at least what I do. Are Graphic Symbols and Movie Clips, the third being Buttons.
You can also place symbols inside symbols, inside symbols. An awesome "feature" which can, and in my case did for sometime, lead to confusion. Organization is an important thing.
Graphic Symbols. Graphic Symbols, are the "least fancy" of the two. However, if you're simply doing frame-by-frame animation, and you don't need the object to do much else, Graphic Symbol is a good choice.
Graphic Symbols, unlike movie clips, have the advantage of playing any animation you do inside the symbol(examples to come) when you scrub or play the timeline. UNLESS! You've added animation to a Graphic Symbol inside that one, then you won't see that animation at all. Also you won't see the animation loop of a Movie Clip, but you will when you test your movie.
A SPECIAL NOTE ON GRAPHIC SYMBOLS
To see any animation inside a Graphic Symbol, you have to make sure your main timeline spans the same number of frames or more.
A SPECIAL NOTE ON SYMBOLS IN GENERAL
Any change you make to a symbol on the stage, will change it in your library, and any other symbol it is in. My book never told me that.
Movie Clips. Movie Clips are the symbol of choice when you need to do "fancy" things. Things such as, to loop continuously regardless of the number of frames in your timeline. The animation in a Movie clip loops independent of the main timeline. You can have one frame in your main timeline and 100 in your Movie Clip, it will still play. This is great for things that have persistent motion, such as a fire or a pulsing light.
Movie Clips, will not show animation when you scrub the timeline. So if you need to see how a symbol is animating in relation to the background or anything else in the scene, don't choose a Movie Clip.
Movie Clips do have the added benefit of being able to apply filter effects to a symbol. Such as glowing, blur, drop shadow. Depending on your needs filters can be a fun effect.
That's a good start for now. Next up will be tweens and comps. Stay Tuned!
So long time, no post. I don't know how I neglected to post this when I finished it. Here is my most recent practice animation.
More simple characters. But it's mostly so I get a feel for the ideas I've had for my animations. I tried a few techniques out. Once I'm a bit more comfortable with my animation set up I'll put together some "tutorials". Or at least share the tricks I use.
Well I've done it. I've begun setting up my new website! No more domain forwarding or free webhosting for me. It's simply not good for your internet visitibility and generating traffic. Ok if it goes to another site...it means when I accidentally re-forwarded my domain, things haven't been processed yet and I haven't been able to cancel the forwarding. Oy, we lrean more from our mistakes though. yeesh.
Finally http://hootnannyonline.com finally just goes there! Which means I can now submit my site to directories around the net and better my odds of getting more search traffic, more google loves, and hopefully some funding via ad revenue.
Eventualy this blog will actually have more cartooning information that is directly about cartooning. Still I figure any information I can provide to others like myself whom are trying to get their studios and projects off the ground may be of use.
I've stumbled across things in my efforts I never thought I'd have to think about. There is way more than simply putting up a site and waiting to be found. It's an adventure for sure. Hopefully the things I discover and share will be of use to others.
At last something animated! Yes it isn't much but it's a start. The last few days, no this didn't take that long, I've been getting the creative juices flowing.
I've been in a bit of a creative slump, or rather an animating slump. Too many ideas, not enough time, and I've not found many good tips for putting characters together in flash. So at long last I've decided to just try out all the theories I have and decide what techniques best help my ability to work quickly.
Aside from practicing effects with the vampire, I was also trying some of my "theories" about symbol composition. I think I'm on to something. As i become more comfortable and confident in those abilities I'll be sure to share those tidbits.
While looking through my stock music I ran across some catchy tunes that I could not remember where I'd gotten them.
Anyhow, long story short I finally thought to check the file's properties and found they were from Flashkit.com I can't believe I'd forgotten to make mention of such a great resource.
They've got music, sound effects, tutorials of all manner and many other flash related goodies. Most importantly IT'S ALL FREE. Or free-ish. I've not yet found any particular restrictions or anything. Seems many may share the music and sounds for promotion. There are a few royalty free services that offer samples on Flashkit.
And there you have one more resource for your creative needs.
I'm not exactly sure how, but in my previous post where I listed some royalty free music sources, it would seem I forgot to list Shockwave-Sound.com .
Anyhow, they're another good option if you're looking for tunes. If you've just stumbled across my blog go checkout my archives for my posts on royalty free music and music services.
And looky, Shockwave has banners! They also have an affiliate program. So hopefully I'll increase my chances of making money online.
Yeah, shameless plug I know. But I've actually managed to make some money with blogging and google ads....Ok 2 whole cents in the last two days! Hey, it's a start. Besides if things start going well, I'll start sharing my online money secrets. FOR FREE! After funding your projects is a part of being your own studio.
Jus to shave a bit off of my previous post. I do have one more thing IMPORTANT to share about self publishing.
You must know that retailers are not always keen about stocking books from print-on-demand services. The reason being is that most POD services sales are non-returnable. Stores don't like buying things they can't return incase they don't sell.
Also when I looked at Writer's Beware I saw mention of Amazon not selling POD books their Booksurge doesn't print. I haven't gotten to checking up on how things are now though, as that was news they revealed last year. I also don't see how they could get away with it for long before lawsuits being filed.
Now that I've mentioned that. I also want to not that Lightning Source does allow you to set your books as being returnable. I assume that means returns will be deducted from your royalties. On the upside it hopefully makes retailers more likely to stock your books.
I actually contated them about in regards to that as soon as I found that out.
I haven't had a chance yet, but I'm going to ask if retailers when ordering are able to see that your books can be returned or are more likely to carry LS printed books because they give publishers the option of making their books returnable.
The next step in learning how to self publish would be layout and, well, publishing your book! You've now got your ISBN(s) barcode and you're ready to put that book together.
First of all you're going to need some way to convert your files into PDFs the likely format your printer of choice will need. A program such as Adobe Acrobat or another program capable of creating PDFs.
Open Office Is one such program, and it's free. It has a wide range of features, word proccessor, spread sheets, data bases, that sort of thing. And can save you money in that it can work with a lot different file types. I have it myself. However, Open Office is still leans more toward word processing and isn't really that good when it comes to book layout with pictures. If you're a writer it might be something you want to check out, as it can save you having to buy Acrobat if you're not looking to make complicated PDFs.
For those of us visual artists going the self publishing route, it really might be key obtaining a book layout and design specific program such as Adobe Indesign or Quark Xpress.
I mostly do my work in Adobe Flash and/or Adobe Illustrator I have Photoshop, but I hardly ever use it. You can do page layout in all of them. However, you still need means of putting those pages together.
I have to admit I don't know if you could pull that off in those, as I opted to invest in Adobe In Design. I look around for freelance work, and figured picking up a new program would allow me to expand my options and give me the opportunity to make more money.
I'm still just getting into In Design. The "magazine cover" featured in this post. I did that with Adobe In Design. It took very little time to figure out how. You have text boxes, image boxes, you can layer them, put them where ever you want. It's fairly user friendly right from the start. This is coming from someone that knew virtually nothing about things like that. I highly suggest getting In Design if you can.
NOW LETS GET TO THOSE ISBNs AND BARCODES!
So now you have an idea of layout and I bet you know where I'm going now. Once you have your barcodes, with the layout technique of your choosing, you just put it on the cover of your book. That's it. You just have to make sure it's in an area where it will be printed fully and scanable.
NOW FOR THE PUBLISHING!
The publishing part of self publishing is not without it's pitfalls. First of all you have to decide how much you're willing to spend to make things happen.
Now the many many things out there to read are beyond the scope of my blog to delve into. at the end of this I shall provide a few key links you may want to check out.
And so I shall skip ahead to Lulu.com my first choice for publishing. Depending on what your plans for self publishing are Lulu may be the right choice.
First of all they're "free-ish". They do have their basic service, you pic you book format, up load your files, and work everything out. That's just the "in a nutshell" description of the process.
They're basic "Published by Lulu" option is the free one. I think. Their guidelines mention it's subject to change so who really knows. That option is free, because they simply assign one of their own ISBNs to your book and are "officially" your publisher. You're not really stuck to them if you choose to take your book out of print and move elsewhere you just have to give them notice so they can work on bringing everything to a halt.
However, with the basic option you don't really have any real visibility for your book beyond Lulu, retail wise. Because they have expanded features they want you to buy. Like their "expanded distribution" for $49.95. For that then they are supposed to list your book with Amazon and other retailers.
Be Warned!Lulu's Expanded Distribution, does not have sterling reviews what few there are.
Also at the basic level, books available for print are quite limited. I was VERY frustrated to beging putting things together for my book only to look back over Lulu's site and find the perfect size for my book, wasn't avaible to my chosen print/distribution methods and basic level.
Lulu also has their "Published by You" feature for $99. For that what happens is they simply sell you one of their ISBNs. They are one of the few authorized by RR Bowker to do so. You get some better distribution options and book formats. For me $99 for one ISBN was a bit spicy considering how much I'd save saving up for 10, especially because I have other bookable ideas.
If that sounds like something for your project, look into Lulu.
HOWEVER, Lulu pricing is really high. If you're doing a simple book, like a younger kids book I'm working on, to make a reasonable profit you have to set your price ridiculously high.
The lowest I could get my starter price to be was $10.25, which to make a reasonable profit. I couldn't even rationalize buying my own book. So you have to take that into account.
As you probably guessed they're the print service I'm planning on going with now. I've actually gotten mail from real people regaurding my questions, and rather promptly.
They don't have all the printing options I would like, but I found an option that works. Also I gave them a general idea of what I was thinking about the demensions of my book, pages and size, and asked about the base printing cost. On-Demand Printing costs more per book.
The base price of my book with Lighting Source was only about $3.50 So I can set the wholesale price to be a bit more inline with my book and hopefully potential retailers won't mark it up too much.
Now with LS costs for your proofs seems a little spicy at $30, which is mostly for the overnight delivery. However, considering other print on demand services want "huge" start up costs for your books, it's a steal. LS does have inital set up fees per book, but when you think about people having to actually do things to make sure your files print right. And the overall service is $12 per year. You're still comeing out ahead when something like Amazons Book Surge want's $300+ to start.
One other catch with Lighting Source, a catch I'm stuck on right now. You do need to have at least one ISBN as you work on finalizing your application. So I can't do that til I've saved up for my numbers.
All in all though, I'm still pretty confident with them.
And as I mentioned now some key linkies you may wanna check out.
Ok, at last I'm getting back to my self publishing adventure thus far.
In my previous post I just gave a quick blurb about ISBNs and Barcodes you need for self publishing. Do be sure to check out ISBN.org you'll find lot of important information there.
I'm not simply going to send you off there and let you do figure everything out, nay, I've already done some of that. Especially with the barcoding, they go hand in hand. You can't simply have your ISBN. You can, but without the barcode it pretty much defeats the purpose of trying to publish your book for real.
RR Bowker also has Bowker Barcode Service there are others out there, but I'm just going with them for ease of posting.
Barcoding is a pretty simple thing. Once you have your ISBN assigned to your book, you take the number and use a barcode generator, that such a service would offer. They use your ISBN and, well, generate your barcode. They then send the code off to you, however they will.
So now you have your book, your very own ISBN(s) and a barcode. What's next?
Next will be putting it all together. But first, a special note on ISBNs!
ISBN SPECIAL ALERT!
When it comes to publishing whomever buys the ISBN associated with a book is considered the publisher. Period.
There are services and companies out there that offer ISBN's for sale "affordably priced". The honest ones will eventually tell you the catch, the shadyones won't tell you a thing.
What these places do is buy ISBNs in large numbers from RR Bowker and get a volume discount. They then turn around and sell the numbers individually or at "reduced" prices and make a profit.
What this means for you is, when it comes to the big publishing picture, these companies are considered the publisher of your book. In all the databases and everything your book is attached to their company/or whatever name they registered not you.
Furthermore, very few companies are authorized with RR Bowker to sell individual ISBNs. One being Lulu.com
Anyother company or individual offering ISBNs for sale WILL BE CONSIDERED THE PUBLISHER OF YOUR BOOK.
So always besure to proceed with caution and read everything that affects your works.
When next I post, It'll be on to layout, design, and printing! YAY!
I'd like to give a bit of info on a pet project of mine. I know in the previous post I mentioned adding more publishing info, which I will.
Anyhow, The Cartoon Syndicate is an idea I've had for a long time. I'm trying to find ways to make it a site/service/resource for other cartoon minded folks out there, especially the little guys and fledgling creators like me.
The main focus is making animated toons, and I would hope it would become a place for cartoon loving individuals of all applicable talents to mingle with the potential to come together to make their own toons. The name isn't just catchy, it's quite litteral.
I'm ever stewing the structure I would like for the site and just the right associated community set up. Infact, when I have time I must again edit the site.
Also when I can I'll be dropping my free host to do away with the need for having all my domains forwarded. That way I can hopefully get more visibility and traffic to my sites, and hopefully make some advertising money at last.
I do have some really big plans for Cartoon Syndicate, that I have not and shall not go into just yet.
So for the time being I figured I could at least shed a bit of light on it here. Also there is a Cartoon Syndicate Blog With over lapping information with this one. Because they're both mine. The CS blog however I have new ideas for.
Please do check out the Syndicate's site, in all of it's neglected glory. Also if you're a toon-minded person, aspiring creator, that likes the sound of it, please do let me know. It helps me know where I need to focus my efforts.
Well, I decided to share a little on how things are going so far with self publishing. I'm not anywhere near as close as I thought I was to getting a book into print. Primarily because my chosen printer requires in their application process for you to provide at least one ISBN. They didn't mention that anywhere prior to that step.
A little "hey before you apply make sure you have your ISBN(s)" would have been nice.
Now I'm sure most have an inkling of what an ISBN is. Those are those serial numbers with the barcodes on your books.
What you might not know, I didn't, is that pretty much anyone looking to publish a book can buy them. Just go here. http://www.isbn.org R.R Bowker is the company that handles ISBNs in the US. You can find out more about the whole deal there.
The catch is that they sell ISBNs in groups of 10 and they're a few hundred bucks. However, you're pretty much a publisher at that point. And it's up to you to find a printer.
Also you will need to purchase a barcode as well if you're looking for retail distribution. Good news is Barcodes are only about $25. Again, more information on Bowker's site. I'll touch on that more later myself as there are more artisty designy things associated with that.
I do have to say I have stumbled across self-publishing information way easier than I thought I would. Or perhaps the universe decided to cut me a break. Not break enough to have the $275 for my ISBNs right now, but it's a start.
Now there are options out there that might save you a few bucks, but as usual there are catches to them. And I will get to those soon enough. Not right now because, well I've had a full day and this evening is getting long.
Well a little idea that I had for a simple little alphabet book has taken me in an interesting direction. BOOKS!
Yes I need to get me a copy of Children's Writers Market simply to look toward more traditional publishing. However I am also looking into self/Print-on-Demand publishing.
There is much to learn and one day my head will be full of fun and generally useless facts once more. Also as things progress I'll begin touching upon the knowlege I've managed to aquire. Of course that will require readers. Although I have one comment further down, YES!
Guess I should go get creative and figure out some places to venture for promotion.
At long last I finally decided to whip up a cartoony pic of myself. I figured it was time for the net to have a face to put with my works.
So there's cartoony me, and my cartoony "Geek Sheque" ensamble. Nothing says "I'm a proud geek and dig the 80's" like a Members Only jacket and a Thundercats T-shirt.
In the previous post I touched on the benefits of using music you're in control of in your productions. Now I'll make mention of a few of the sites and services I've encountered thus far. In no particular order. Though I will start with the absolute cheapest option of the things you pay for!
1. SoundSnap - SoundSnap began life as a VERY noble idea. That being that it was absolutely free. All of the music and various sounds provided were largely contributed by talented individuals of the industry. Sort of a side project throwing us little guys a bone. There was a vast assortment of quality music and effects, it was in fact too good to be true. It's not hard to immagine that quality all at the very affordable price of FREE did wonders for their PR. It did. Of course that means higher opperating costs and means of the minds behind it making more money. Now SoundSnap isn't as free as it used to be.
At the most basic level you still have free and complete access to SoundSnap's library. HOWEVER! You can only download 5 files per month. Depending on your particular needs that may be good enough. If you need more than that, you can upgrade your membership to one of their several subscription plans. The lowest being $29 per month for 100 downloads per.
$29 might be a number larger than you wanted to see, but that's still a great deal if you're working to amass a library for your projects. Especially considering that most royalty free places charge that per track!
So go checkout SoundSnap Their library is quite vast and you'll likely find the style tunes you're looking for, or get pretty darn close.
2. StockMusic.net - One of the more "affordably priced" options out there. They have a good and largely original library. I say that because I have actually found some sites selling the same music found on their competitors. You can also download their track demos. Buuuuut, they're "watermarked". So if you plan on using it for anything, you'll have your work cut out for you.
3. Music Bakery - They offer a quality, varied, and original selecion of music. Tracks going from $14 and up depending on their production work/quality. They do offer Lo-Fi selections of their music. The samples are VERY LO-FI. But you can down load them. What I downloaded didn't seem to be watermarked, or it could very well be I didn't hear it. Yeah, that Lo-Fi. All in all they're still an "affordable" choice, depending on what catches your ear.
Music Services and Networking
Apart from royalty free tunes there are a couple of options I've found so far where free is still the name of the game. Including social networking. Basically the sites are geared toward musically talented folks to mingle and share their audio creations as well as mix-and-match the submissions of other site members with provided audio mixing as part of the site.
So you not only have the ability to find new and free music for your production, you might just find a talented person to make tunes for your project and getting a bit of exposure for themselves too.
1. Jamglue - Jamglue is a good place to start rooting around for music or a contributing artist. The site however, is a wee bit buggy. I always had an issue with the mixer freezing up or crashing. Also when combing tracks and loops the mixer doesn't really allow you to seamlessly combine and edit samples. Maybe the place just doesn't like me.
2. Splice Music - I think Splice Music may have been merging with someone else. At least that was the word the last time I tried checking them out. I heard of the place, like Jamglue, while watching Attack of the Show on G4 a long time ago. I have yet to actually see how the site works. Not because I haven't tried, but because no matter where I was or who's PC i was using the site just didn't work. Either the site would crash, or the blasted thing just wouldn't load. So if the link works for you, good luck, the site likely won't. I never said all the options would be good ones.
All in all there's a lot of cyberspace to be covered when looking for sound and music for your toons. I know it's incredibly easy just to use tunes from your favorite CD's or downloads. And the vast majority of independant toons out there on the net do just that. Which I guess is all well and good if you never plan on profiting from it.
Even when you're still learning the ropes, going that extra mile to find music you control for your projects and practice lends a little bit more of a professional touch to the whole thing.
Sound effects and music are a vital part of any toon. For now I don't believe I'll get into the effects, as stock effects are a bit easier to come by than music.
"Music isn't hard to come by," you say? It is if you don't want to be slapped with a cease and desist order, or worse, sued if your project starts becoming profitable.
So what's a plucky creator to do? Well, there's always the option of seeking out music that is more or less public domain. In that regaurd the older the music or deader(yes, deader) the original creator the better. It's basically music old enough there's not many around to legally claim it. Aside from the unique vibe it lent the series, that was some of the reasons "Ren & Stimpy" featured such old music. They didn't have to pay for it.
From the realm of Public Domain we move on to "Royalty Free Music". Sorry to say, but "Royalty Free" doesn't mean free. You do have to pay for it. Although once you do the music is yours to do with as you please. All that trademarked licensed music in your favorite movies and such, unless they paid big bucks for the use, the companies likely have to pay out royalties to the artists featured in the sound track.
For the obvious great advantage of Royalty Free saving you from legal issues that may arise from selling a project with someone else's music, there is one big downside. Depending on the company or service providing the royalty free tunes, you may be paying the price of a full CD or more per track, which are sometimes only a few seconds long!!!
Royalty free is a great idea, but why so much? Fact is, it's a VERY niche market. The people behind it all are assorted artists and talented people and companies providing a product to a rather small market in the grand scheme of things. And their clientel are generally various companies, corporations, and studios with the money to afford the big price tags on royalty free tracks and libraries. Also when they sell that music they sell all the rights that go along with it. Some places actually sell tracks exclusively. Meaning that once a client purchases the music they aquire ALL RIGHTS to it. But that's something we little guys need not worry about.
If one is lucky, they can track down companies that offer a selection of free samples. A Google search can generally provide one a good place to start.
In the follow up to this I'll cover a few of the sites and services I've run across in a search for cartooning resources
Here be the first post. I suppose it would be good to start at with everything that's brought me to this point. Pretty much lots of rooting around the net and typing setting up everything I want to be associated with Hoot'Nanny Productions.
It's tricky trying to form your own "brand" especially when it serves as both a personal project as well as something semi-professional. I'm proud that I can really say "professional" in a sentence as I have finally managed to land a few commissions.
The website is mostly functional http://hootnannyonline.com I've begun work on the galleries. Although I've got a free host and I'm likely going to have to rework my flash "practice" files and things to include play buttons. Then I have to get links and things up.
Speaking of links, I may also have a "sponsor's" page just incase there's anyone that may like to throw a little money my way for ad space.
Eccentric fellow, creative, and enterprising. With a pleasant smell of exotic spices and rich leather. I enjoy cartooning, fine beer, and handcrafted wares.
Posts
