Face To Face For The First Time

I'm typing this blog on the last leg of a trip my husband and I made to Vancouver B.C. via a cruise ship being repositioned from San Francisco to Vancouver.

After working over a year with Kate Jeong, the illustrator for Purple Carrot Books, I was determined to find a way to meet her in person. We had never met face to face. An email from Princess Cruises presented the perfect opportunity—take a cruise for two nights, spend a day with Kate and her family and fly back home.

The Jeong family (Kate, husband Don and their three boisterous boys, Steven, Danny and Harry) met us after we disembarked from the ship at the docks in Vancouver. It was like a reunion with a long-time friend. Up to that point Kate and I had only communicated via email and Skype video conferencing.

They took us to Granville Island where we browsed through the Public Market then had coffee and visited while the boys chased pigeons along the waterfront. Later we found a kids park where the boys played until they collapsed with hunger.

After lunch we checked into our hotel and rested until Don and Harry picked us up to deliver us to their home where Kate and Don put the finishing touches on a traditional Korean dinner with lots of vegetables served on a bed of rice. Delicious!

Today Kate and I spent two and a half hours working on our latest app, Goldilocks and The Three Bears. We worked through the storyboard and added all the animation, interaction and sound notes. Now Kate can begin producing the finished color scenes. Kids are going to love this app.

Have you had a relationship where you didn't meet the person face to face until some time later?

Have you seen The Prisoner of Carrot Castle iPad app with Kate's beautiful illustrations?
 

Developing an iPad App: Step Four

The storyboard is now well defined, coming alive with sketches and interactive features. In Step Two I laid out each scene and identified interaction, animation and sound. As we got more into the process, seeing scene sketches from Kate, we added new interactions to many scenes.

Step Four: Merge Sketches with Storyboard

There are two types of animation that may occur in a scene:

• One time animation that coincides with the narration
• Interactive animation that happens when the reader interacts by touching or moving the iPad.

In the example scene (Scene 4) shown above, our main character, Aiden, developed during Step Three, feels hopeless finding himself in a prison cell. He just met the ugly prison guard who informed him he would face the King of Carrot Castle before the sun goes down.

(Narrator) “What am I going to do? I have to get out of here!” he whispered, burying his head in his hands.
A shuffling sound startled him. (1) He looked up to see a mouse scurry into a small hole in the carrot cell wall. “Hmmmm.” Aiden studied the hole in the wall. “The mouse eats carrots, but I don’t like carrots,” he said, wrinkling his face.

(Art Notes) Aiden sitting in the middle of the prison cell with his head buried in his hands, his dinner fork in his pocket. (spot illus.) Aiden's head up to see mouse. (spot illus.) Mouse running (two views--legs stretched out, legs in).

(One time animation) (1) Aiden looks up, mouse runs into hole

(Continuous animation) sparkling dust flying around in light from window. Shake iPad to make it move.

(Interactive animation) Touch hole to see mouse pop out.

(Sound notes) shuffling sound, mouse squeaks

At narration point (1), Aiden changes pose to see the mouse scurry across the floor and disappear in a hole. Those are the one-time animations for Scene 4. Interactive animations include a continuous animation that the reader can interact with—you see dust floating in the beam of light cast by the cell window that scatters when you shake the iPad. Also, touching the mouse hole makes the mouse appear with a squeak.

Kate came up with several fun games for the reader to do that helps move the story along. In addition, an entertaining sidebar enlists the reader to dress a knight in his armor, making him ready for the big castle search when Aiden escapes.

Our next actions include:

1. Nur animating Scene 4 and 5 using rough sketches and spot poses.
2. Kate working on color studies of Aiden and some scenes.
3. I am putting together a payment agreement for the three of us with an attorney.

Stay tuned for the next step when I am sure to have color for you to marvel over.

Developing an iPad App: Step Two

I completed the draft of the storyboard for The Prisoner of Carrot Castle and sent it to Nur (developer) for comment. Once we are settled on the storyboard, I'll send it on to Kate (illustrator) so she can get started on the scene art and come up with an estimate of her time involved.

My first video conference with Kate took place on January 11th via Skype. It was great to meet her and even see sketches she made of Aiden and the castle people. We both got very excited as we anticipate our creations coming to life on the iPad.

Step Two: Complete Storyboard
The storyboard for the app comprises dividing the picture book manuscript into scene/pages similar to a spread in a picture book. Each scene consists of narration of the story, art notes for illustrating the scene and any spot illustrations used in animation, animation notes and sound. Below is an example of one of the scenes from the storyboard:

(Narrator) A loud, scruffy voice came from outside the cell, “Hey! What’s going on in there?” Aiden froze. What am I going to do? I’ve got to get out of here!

(Art Notes) Aiden with a frightened look staring at the cell door with hatch, chains to restrain prisoner hanging from cell wall

(Animation Notes) Touch hatch to hear “Hey! What’s going on in there?” Touch Aiden to see different pose, touch chains to make them shake and rattle

(Sound) “Hey! What’s going on in there?” Chains rattling

Eventually our storyboard will include the art/illustration for each scene.

We are forging ahead on our project. I hope you are enjoying following along. Keep tuning in to see The Prisoner of Carrot Castle coming to life.

Leave a comment to tell me what kind of things you like in an iPad children's app.

Developing an iPad App: Step One

I am marching forward with my plans to make my picture book, The Prisoner of Carrot Castle, into an iPad app. The team consists of developer, Nur Monson, and illustrator, Kate Jeong, writer and project coordinator, moi. We are just getting started.

Tomorrow is my first Skype video chat with Kate to get the project started. Kate lives in Toronto, Canada and Nur lives in the Bay Area 100 miles west so we will be using technology to coordinate the project. I have done a lot of research on how to put this all together so I thought there might be some readers of this blog that find following the project helpful. In this era of changing modes of publishing, an author has many options for being published.

Step One: Assemble the Team
Identify a developer for the iPad programming. You can do a Google search for iPad developers. There are many to choose from. I chose my uber talented programmer son, Nur.

Next, I needed an illustrator. At the last regional SCBWI conference I attended, I picked up a couple of business cards for illustrators I liked. After perusing each of their websites, I contacted Kate and asked if she would like to be a part of our team. Happily she agreed. We still have details to work out on the payment, which will be nailed down once we have the storyboard finalized.

Last, I completed the manuscript for The Prisoner of Carrot Castle and have begun the storyboard process. I will organize and manage the project.

I'm looking forward to moving ahead on this project and seeing our first page come to life! We have a great team for the project. Is there an iPad app you thought would be interesting to develop?