Creating the Showreel.

When creating a showreel we had struggle, we realised that we were working in comics, and therefore not moving image, and a showreel would have to be unique. As soon as we were starting up a new business we decide to create a quick introduction video of the characters. When creating this in After Effects, I found that After Effects was moving my images in direction I had not told it too, this was because After Effects tries to move images mathematically, however strange it looks to us, to fix this I decided to key frame it as much as I had to until After Effects understood the direction I wanted it to follow. I found when rendering out the file it was 6.5 GB due to the image sizes, and animation with said images, especially the map, which had to remain a huge size as we were zooming in and out of it. I used music that was composed for us by an outside source, this was the same music used in the 2nd year 'Platypus Bill animation'. I knew I had to reduce the file size as it would not fit on the disk for submission. However this did not work, I tried Quicktime compressor, HandBrake compressor, Premier Pro compressor, Media Encoder and none worked, all made the video skip, loose frames, and distort although the settings were the same. Unable to fix this, I was ready to only submit a link,  or it on a memory stick, however I decided to upload this massive file to YouTube, and then rip it from YouTube using Clip Converter. I was then able to get the file under 1 GB, in 1920 x 1080p H264 as required. This did work well, however it still doesn't look as perfect as the big file. I then decided to re-render the footage several times looking at the bit rates, I tried 5,000 and 10,000, but both distorted the quality too much. I kept going up until it played the video to a great quality, I then rendered this out and I think its worked brilliantly in 50,000 bit rate, this came to 1.36 GB. I have however included a link to the 6.5 GB file in all its glory, which can be viewed at this address - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHJBKYFZ5mM

12-Month Plan

This plan will demonstrate my goals for the next 12 months. It will mostly consist of our (my and my brothers) aims for next year, and how we plan to achieve them. It will also consist of skills I would like to improve on, Comic-Cons we will go to, and finally, other means of employment in the unlikely case this project fails.

Firstly, we will be constantly updating our social media pages to keep audiences interested in our project. This could be a status on our Facebook page regarding the next convention we will be at, or as teasing as a script titled “Sawyer: Brigs return”, or even the bio’s of the main characters. We would also like to further our online presence by starting profiles on Instagram, Tumblr, Pintrest and Linkin accounts.

I would also like to create a more in depth plan of each issue/volume in our first chapter of this saga. So far, there is four phases consisting of ten volumes, that count down from four:

Phase 1

Volume 1: Ambam Nico – learning about “The Cage” and the North’s “Food Chain Ruling.”

Volume 2: Nina Nisha (formally Akira) – learning about the war against East and Northern Empire, and the spell book that can unleash the ancient Dragon.

Volume 3: Sawyer Carson – learning about world building and Muati’s influence in the West.

Volume 4: Mato Makkapitew – learning about comic lore and history, and Gustave’s influence over transpiring events.

Phase 2

Volume 5: Jennifer Lulu – learning about Marv and his underground criminal world – an attempt to stop the competition: Muati.

Volume 6: Sawyer & Bill – discovering new depths to Marv while stopping Mauti’s slave mining programme – this will stop the funding to Bolons empire.

Volume 7: Ambam & Nina – learning about Vigor & Gustave in search for missing Mato.

Phase 3

Volume 8: Sawyer, Bill & Jenny – learning about Gustave’s history, and why he wants Jenny’s  feet.

Volume 9: Ambam, Nina & Mato – Journey to Umri Wa, learn more about Bolon’s army, his deep sea scouts, Captain Odobenus, The Carrigo Seas and monsters of the deep…

Phase 4

Volume 10: Ambam, Nina, Mato, Sawyer, Bill, Jenny & Umri Wa – Assault on “The Cage.”

After we have a more in-depth plan, it will allow us to create a rough timeline of events in our world. This will help our writing process in terms of including easter eggs to each others work and what may be happening across seas, and even ensure character that may appear in both our works don’t appear in two places at once.  Once we have this, we can develop a stage-by-stage plan for each individual volume, which our creative consultants will read over and perfect, doing this for the first 10 volumes and overseeing the overall arcs. I will then take a larger roll over writing the scripts.  During Extended Practice and other projects we have worked on we learnt that I create quirkier dialogue with better one-liners and emotional depth. Stuart will then take a larger roll over the storyboarding stage as he can do this far faster and often has a more imaginative thought process when it comes to page layout. I tend to think from a cinematic perspective. Though there are similarities, such as composition of a shot, I seem to think of these storyboards more like film storyboards and not comic storyboards. We will both then start colouring our individual volumes, as we have both learnt to do this equally fast and will share information such as colour swatches, and which brushes make a nice texture for certain materials should we discover them.

We will do this process until we have two full finished volumes of approximately ninety pages each. Once this is done, will make a pitch to publishing company Image comics, as it is our number one choice of publisher. If they like our work, we will have full two volumes to show them, although this time we will ensure the work is as good as it can possibly be, and has not been rushed as with our last pitch to Image. If we don’t feel we can create sufficient work of a high enough standard we will wait to the next opportunity, though this is unlikely, as we should have two full volumes worth of work in four months time.

Image is our first choice for a number of reasons, their creator owned policy perhaps being the greatest one. This means all content they publish, the creator still owns all the rights too. This is something that appeals to us as we plan Wild-Life to become a massive trans media franchise, so selling the rights this early on would be a very poor decision in our long term plan. But Image isn’t just appealing for the creator owned policy, we have been told directly by Tim Perkins, Tula Lotay, Richard Starkings and Peter Doherty that this is a good, friendly company to work with, and it is also somewhere our work could flourish.

If Image do turn our pitch down our pitch, and we are confident it is of the upmost standard, we will also make pitches to Dark Horse, Titan Comics, and IDW publishing, all whom we have met with previously whilst making our faces known at comic conventions over previous years. If all this fails, we will then consider self-publishing. This is not our ideal scenario as Tim Perkins telling us that it costs “beyond a five figure number,” which is not plausible for us at this point. However, if this is our last option I will start a Kickstater campaign to fund our idea, whilst Stuart will start pitching the idea to toy, video game and animation companies, such as Papo, Schliech, Playtonic games and Man of Action Studios.

Whilst creating these volumes and working on pitches, we will also be visiting comic convention across the country for feedback on our work as we have been doing for the last four years. Here we will also hand out our business cards, regardless weather we have a table or not. Here are some of the conventions. For those which overlap such as Thought Bubble and London Film and Comic Con, we will attend them separately. 

MCM Manchester Comic Con 2015: 25^th – 26^th July – Manchester Central

MCM Ireland Comic Con 2015: 29^th-30^th August – RDS, Ballsbridge, Dublin

MCM Scotland Comic Con 2015: 26^th-27^th September – SECC Gasgow

Thought Bubble 2015: 9^th – 15^th November - Leeds Royal Armouries

London Film and Comic Con Winter 2015:  14^th and 15^th November – Olympia London

MCM Birmingham Comic Con 2015: 21^st – 22^nd November – The Nec.

London Super Comic Con  2016: March  – ExCel Centre London.

When we find a suitable publisher for our work, or self publish, we will start attending these events as a company with our own table. We want to be doing this no later than London Super Comic Con 2016. We will also have our creative consultants helping to sell the comics and merchandise as me and Stuart work on original, personal signed sketches for customers, something we have seen much of and is very popular and money making at these conventions. After filming London Super Comic Con, the organiser told us if we wanted a table, to show him our work and he will see what he can do once viewing it, an offer we will likely take him up on come 2016.

Something else we want to have is a website. We know a company that has previously done this to a high standard, we will be contacting Medusa Digital to ask for their professional advice, and cost. This website will include tabs for:

Character bios

Options to purchase the comics

A time line of events

Prints and pin up work

Memorabilia

Interactive Map

Contact us

News feed/links to Facebook and twitter (example, if we are attending an upcoming comic convention).

Another aspect we will be working on is motion-comic trailers. Each volume will have a trailer in the style of a motion comic being a minute to two minutes long. This will be done in After Effects, original sound by the same start up company Meg Sugden and Sophie Curwen used for their Keith Koala project: Villain Sound. These will then be posted on the official Wild-Life YouTube page as well as website.

Something we would like do over the next year is buy a graphic tablet and practice using it. Also I would like to have access to a cintuque to practice with. I have noticed they are becoming more prominent in the industry, as we found out filming London Super Comic Con. This I think could speed up my drawing process greatly/

Something else we have decided to look at is creating custom photoshop brushes, downloading more or perhaps even subscribing to them monthly. Using different brushes to describe texture has greatly improved our work recently, something our peers have picked up on, and it is something I wish to continue to work upon.

If Wild-Life were to fail as a project, I would start applying for jobs as a comic artist for other publishers that have work they need illustrating. This would build up my portfolio, CV and name so Wild-Life may stand a better chance of success in the future. If I was still unsuccessful, I would then apply for jobs as a concept artist for various film studios and video game companies, depending on who was hiring.

If all this were to fail, I do have an upcoming company to go back to that is getting large in which I would cosplay as Iron Man for children’s parties and nightclub events, touring across Europe. Both this and my job as a bar man at Fab Cafe are very realistic and easily obtainable possibilities for work as I continue building Wild-Life for future pitches. I have also considered taking the free six month studio space in Leeds that college offers to third years leaving, as can with a weekend job afford to rent a flat in the outskirts of Leeds, and I work in this space in my five days off a week.  This I am confident will allow me to put more hours into Wild-Life whilst earning money, and be able to improve my work. I will continue this strategy for a further two years after my 12 month plan, and possibly longer. I do not feel I would ever give up on Wild-life, even if it rests as a illustration hobby I do in my spare time, as it has been something I have been working on in my spare time for the last three years anyway. In the unlikely case at some point in the future I truly do feel Wild-Life has no future, I will in all probability start another project with Stuart, and apply for jobs as a concept artist in the film, animation, and video game industries, and get involved with other creative projects happening. And possibly return to it many years down the line after I have built a name for myself in the creative industry. 

Peparing for End oF Year Show

This is what we hope our end of year show section will look like. This includes all the main pieces we completed, and a few to see how we crated the project including:

• Our map.
• A printed image of our collective image of the main characters.
• Multiple versions of our printed comic.
• Printed images of our anatomy and expression studies.
• Our action figures we have built. 
• Replica examples.
• The necklace we had made.
• Printed posters for the live action film.
• Enlarged pictures from the comic.
• Full scale cardboard cut outs of the main characters.
• Me and Callum, wearing the Wild-Life hoodies we had made.

If we do not get this amount of space, we will firstly take down the enlarged comic pages, then the movie posters, and if necessary our expression and anatomy work. We would be insistent on having space for the map, collective picture, figures, jewellery and replicas, as well as wearing our Wild-Life hoodies. We would also push for the card board cut outs.  

Writing a 12 month plan.

I found writing the years plan very difficult, not because of what to say, but how to say it. Me and Stuart were asked to write separate plans, however our project and future being the same, it was difficult to write them separately. We decided to go over our years plan in bullet points, making sure we included everything thing we wanted to do and then went our separate ways to write it up from there.

Business Cards

For our business cards we decided to create four different backs, showing different characters, just to have a variety amongst them, and hint at a larger world. All of these contained the same information as you can see below. We used a website recommended by a graphic designer, called MOO Print Limited. 

Social Media Presence

You can view our social media presence on both Facebook and Twitter at the following links. We intend to continue updating these, weekly or more, with more content and posts about what we are currently working on, with some behind the scenes sketches of the upcoming issues as we pencil them. We also intend to create more social media accounts such as Tumblr, LinkedIn, Pintrest, Instagram. We will also be uploading content with what we have handed in this module.

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Wild.Life.BrownTwins

Twitter - https://twitter.com/Wild_Life_comic

BBC Path Yorkshire

After calling the BBC for a spot in their Path Yorkshire talent search, we got a response confirming our attendance. We were told this was the BBC looking for fresh new talent and ideas to broadcast. Thrilled we went expecting to pitch Wilf-Life, however after the overview, we learnt it was more about them wanting YouTubers. A new audience they wanted to obtain, looking for fun, eccentric people and ideas to upload to their channel. Not really what we wanted, however we quickly came up with some ideas we could make, a mocumentry about hamsters living in a doll house in a domestic lifestyle with ordinary situations, or perhaps making it a western, using guinea pigs with saddles as horses. This was all thinking on the spot as we did not think Wild-Life was suited to this. We got a call back some time later saying they would be in touch in their next search, but we were unsuccessful this time. We did not mind this outcome, as we had our Extended Practice module to complete, along with our jobs and flat to hold down. However this maybe a post-uni thing we try at again. I will include a screenshot of this email in my submission as the information in it is confidential and we were asked not to distribute it.