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asaraviapt · 1 year

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[EN] Video Game Writing Resources!

Hello! My name is Andrea--I have been writing for games since 2018, and even worked as a writer at Firaxis Games from 2022 until April of 2023. So, I knew a few things about narrative design--but what the fuck is it? Recently, I gave a talk about the fundamentals and history of the field of narrative design. In Spanish. So, let's talk about it in English--the "what," "why," "how," "when," and "who," of narrative design! What is narrative design? Narrative design is not just writing--it's a huge part of it, but designing a narrative system involves implementing narrative content into the build of the game. So there is a technical learning curve to it. Personally, I watched and obtained certifications in Unreal Engine 5 and Unity in order to be aware of the limitations of each engine. I used the free trial of LinkedIn Learning, but courses about this engine are available in these websites: - https://platzi.com/ - https://www.arkde.com/ - https://www.domestika.org/?query=unity - https://www.coursera.org/ Why do we need narrative design? In order to create an interactive story that the player feels a part of, narrative designers are mandatory. It's not a responsibility that can be placed on other designers (then we would be entering crunch territory) rather someone who specifically specializes in both creative writing and game design is needed to explain within the context of the game's story why the mechanics work in a certain way. Imagine if a Telltale game did not have dialogue, for example--what would we be left with? Or if The Last Of Us did not convey a narrative through its environments.

Narrative designers are needed so that all of the departments are in sync and understand the story that they are trying to tell. For example, if a game takes place in a haunted house that was abandoned, we need all hands on deck. The narrative designer can explain to the environment artists why there are so many holes in the living room--perhaps the last tenants of the house were a rowdy bunch. Or, they can tell the sound designers which planks of wood are the most rotten and need a loud sound effect to highlight how it has been abandoned. How do I become a narrative designer? There is no one way to become a narrative designer. Some people start in QA and transition into the field, I have also witnessed engineers and doctors wanting to get into narrative design. I do recommend having the following (at least): - A passion for storytelling. - Deep understanding of the mechanics of the game and the player experience. - Communication skills are incredibly important--can you describe your story in a concise way to your peers in a Confluence page?

Documentation skills are also a massive plus.

Very basic understanding of game engines and limitations. You don't have to be a computer science major, but know what your requests will entail. If you have an idea of a cutscene, can the engine handle it? Will the animators have enough time? Is it within scope?

If you can, attend game jams! They are an amazing way to network with amazing people and get a feel of what the game production pipeline is like.

Additionally, I highly recommend the following resources: First, the free resources! ~It's free real estate~

Look up Twinery tutorials. (https://twinery.org/) Not only is it free, but you can use it on your browser. More importantly, you will learn about branching narratives and can create your own games within a few minutes--the interface, though it requires a bit of coding, is incredibly easy to use and there are a lot of tutorials available online.

Download Ren'Py (https://www.renpy.org/) and watch tutorials. It's free, and there is a huge community of visual novel developers who may need help with narrative designers, writers, editors and even translators. An amazing resource that a colleague shared was this Discord with visual novel developers--if you have an idea, feel free to connect with artists and voice actors here! https://discord.gg/nW5yn4FE

Network, network, network! Follow narrative design and game writer groups on Discord, Facebook and even LinkedIn. -- An amazing convention that is online, free and accessible regarding narrative design is LudoNarraCon.

If you go to itch.io you will see a list of game jams that you can attend to for free! Some game jams that I have attended and had a positive experience are the following: - Woman Game Jam. I encourage folks from marginalized genders to attend this game jam, as we have a large pool of mentors willing to help in every single discipline at any time due to the global nature of it. It is a safe and inclusive space for women and nonbinary folx who want to get into the gaming industry! - Global Game Jam. Self explanatory, it has some in-person opportunities but you can also attend remotely. - Greenlight Jam. Do you have an idea that can not be done in only 48 hours? The Greenlight Jam is amazing, as it lasts four weeks--which allows narrative designers to develop complex narrative systems and even record voice lines for a more complex project. Side Note: Even though most game jams have a time limit, I do encourage narrative designers to develop and polish the prototypes and levels created during game jams to have portfolios and writing samples that stand out!

Work With Indies is a job site that publishes job opportunities--including ones in writing and narrative design. Additionally, their Discord has some networking events with writers so you can connect with them.

Other websites that not only publish jobs but include networking events are Hitmarker.net (this is their Discord), IndieGameAcademy (link to Discord),

Newsletters! A lot of experienced game writers have newsletters dedicated to the craft, to name a few that I highly recommend: -- Greg Buchanan's newsletter. Rounds up game writing news every Tuesday, and includes job opportunities. -- Bright Whitney's newsletter. A studio founder with amazing insights regarding game design and thoughtful narrative, Whitney's threads are extremely insightful. -- Susan O'Connor's blog on The Narrative Department. In addition to providing free knowledge regarding world building, narrative design, game writing and other specifics of the craft Susan interviews industry professionals and alumni who offer testimonials that have amazing advice. -- GDC talks about narrative design. Though I recommend the GDC vault as well in the next section, I highly recommend the GDC talks regarding not only narrative design but the development of your favorite titles!

Now, for resources that may not be free--but I highly recommend, as someone who used them first hand. - The Narrative Department. This post is not sponsored by them at all, however it is rare to find an instructor as kind and hard-working as Susan O'Connor who has been a narrative designer in historic AAA, AA and independent titles. Known for her contributions in Tomb Raider, Batman: The Enemy Within, and BioShock to name a few (imdb is: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1897248/) her Game Writing Masterclass offers a certification in everything related to game writing. A few subjects she touches on are: -- Characters and how to make them compelling. -- Barks and ambience writing. -- Dialogue, backstories and scripts. -- How to work with other departments. And more! Additionally, you would obtain access to a huge alumni network full of game writing professionals working in independent, AA and AAA studios! Not to mention that all of the assignments completed in the class will look amazing in a portfolio as game writing samples. - GDC Vault. Though I have an opinion on the price tag of GDC tickets and the vault, I would definitely include it as it has resources from several studios, writers, narrative designers and more! When was narrative design formed? When can I become a narrative designer?

That's a wonderful question. Narrative design, as a term, was first used around the 90s but became more established between the 2000s and 2010s. So, although the field is relatively new, and there are not a lot educational resources available, consider yourself part of an innovative field that is exponentially growing! Recently, a game developer asked when was the best time to keep an eye out for job openings. And a harsh truth about the gaming industry is that it is extremely volatile--layoffs, downsizings and startups rise and fall. This is not meant to deter anyone from pursuing a career in narrative design, but rather I am including it for the sake of transparency. We cannot predict when a studio is going to layoff their employees, or when they cancel unannounced projects. Unlike most industries where we know for a fact that recruiters keep a sharp eye for candidates in Q1 and Q3, a piece of advice I received from a mentor of mine was to try to predict when projects are going to need more stories. There's the release of a game, and then there is the addition of additional narrative content--and for this, they will more than likely need associate/entry/junior level narrative designers, writers and quest designers. But--this is related to searching for a job as a narrative designer, and I can write a novel about that (and will edit this article to redirect folx into it.) So, keep an eye out for huge game announcements. Then, cater your resume to what the studio is looking for in a narrative designer. Now, to finish off this article: Who is a narrative designer? If you have a passion for storytelling and games, and have participated in game jams, congratulations you are a wonderful narrative designer! Make sure you always include that you are a narrative designer, and not an aspiring narrative designer--it makes you stand out amongst applicants. That's all I have for now--feel free to interact, comment and share! Let me know if I missed something and I will be sure to add it.

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edification-otm · 7 months

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A fully AI generated video. The future will be terrifying for any kind of creator. Photographer? People may not prefer reality after a while, or better yet, a piece of software in a phone could make anyone an extremely good photographer through generated directions on where to place the camera to gain the best light, and an AI changing all the settings of the camera to ensure the best possible shot. Editor? Adobe rolled out their AI editing tool last year, a technology that will only continue to get better until a prompt is enough to edit any footage to exactly the user’s liking. Artist? Well, need I say more? With AI art becoming as widespread as it is, any idiot can put words into a generator and produce an amalgamation of artist’s work that can be used in any context they like. If they don’t like the generated art, who cares? They can just press the button again and get another hundred options. Writer? What happens when a TV show like Arcane can be boiled down into a storytelling algorithm? I know I wouldn’t be able to match that without at least a year of editing and trial and error. Will these movie studios simply sideline writers in order to make their content pipeline more streamlined? Probably? Maybe? Who can tell, but a terrifying century lies ahead of us. Keep fighting this ‘art’, it’s wrong and has absolutely no practical upside other than profit.

#movies #writing #philosophy #film #my writing #ai art #spilled thoughts #future #photography #creativeai

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weaselandfriends · 2 years

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I saw this tweet recently. It was part of a series of tweets about the uncertain fate of Twitter, most mired in anxiety about where one can go after Twitter collapses (as currently seems likely). I wanted to specifically hone in on this tweet, though.

Some cursory research shows me Robert Brockway is, as implied here, an author, primarily of various -punk science fiction. He is published by Tor Books, a pretty large publishing house that specializes in sci-fi and fantasy. I think what Mr. Brockway is so anxious about is not a problem with Twitter but rather a problem with the book publishing industry, which has been remarkably, mind-bogglingly mismanaged for decades.

You see, book publishing houses, even major ones, do not actually market or promote their authors in any meaningful capacity. They might ensure your book gets reviewed by the standard slate of newspaper writers who do book reviews, and then slap some of those reviews all over the front, back, and inside cover of your book; they may also ensure your book appears in Barnes & Noble and on the major sites that sell books, although once there your book is merely one among millions. Most publishers will barely spend a cent even on a good cover for your book. (Seriously, go to a bookstore and look through the covers and see how many are anything better than an abstract blob of colors with title text.)

Mr. Brockway is, conceptually, correct. In writing my most recent novel, Cockatiel x Chameleon, I researched a lot of independent porn artists, and many of them had extremely significant Twitter followings, with Twitter being their primary method to market their work. If Twitter goes down, they have to rebuild their following on some new social media site, which could potentially damage their growth and income. But that’s for porn artists working entirely independently of any major label or industry or company. Why is Mr. Brockway, published by Tor Books, feeling the exact same anxiety as some independent artist over the Twitter upheaval?

Because publishers don’t do shit!

This becomes even more hilarious when you think about how books are made and how they make money. The pipeline goes like this: You’re an unpublished author. On your own time, working for free, you spend hours (probably at minimum 80, highly likely it’s significantly higher than that) writing a completed novel. Then what? Do you send it to publishers for their consideration? Of course not, no major publisher will even look at an unsolicited manuscript. First you submit it to literary agencies. There are about ten million literary agencies in the United States and they’re all located in New York City and each of them gets 100 manuscripts a week so generally even agencies only look at manuscripts if you know someone in the industry already and get a referral (this is a completely unrelated idiotic element of the industry, but we’ll set it aside for now). If you manage to catch an agent’s attention, they take on your book for a cut of any money the book makes. Many agencies will also hire a professional editor to edit your book, and the editor also takes a cut of any money the book makes.

Then and only then does your agent shop your book to publishers. Publishers get the pick of the litter of completed manuscripts, already screened by agents and potentially already edited. Once a publisher decides to take on your work (again for a cut of the profits), they’ll use their extensive manufacturing and distribution connections to get your book into what is known as “brick and mortar” bookstores (like Barnes and Noble and formerly Borders), collect some aforementioned newspaper reviews, and then... that’s essentially it. Whether your book sells or not depends on how much it stands out among the crowd. Authors are expected to “leverage” social media to do their own promotion and advertising.

In pre-internet times, this model was... somewhat more fair. There was no online bookselling or e-books, so being traditionally published was the only way to get nation- or worldwide exposure. If you weren’t in a national brick and mortar chain, you didn’t exist. Publishers were also assuming much of the financial risk, as they had to print out a few thousand copies of your book ahead of time and they would not recoup the costs of paper and distribution if your book didn’t sell. Additionally, since social media didn’t exist, publishers spent more of an effort marketing their authors.

The internet changed everything though, for most creative industries. Film and music were hit especially hard by piracy, and eventually adapted by moving to a streaming model. In some ways, the literature industry has adapted too. A larger and larger portion of book sales are e-books, and brick and mortar stores are less relevant, with Barnes & Noble surviving mostly because it has a complete monopoly in the US after Borders closed. However, these innovations have made the previous model of publisher-author relations increasingly unfair and counterproductive to the long-term health of the industry. The value publishers brought to authors was putting them in front of a national audience, assuming the financial risk of production and distribution, and marketing them. In an e-book world, publishers now do exactly none of that.

Anyone can be in front of a national audience now because the internet exists. Publishers might be able to get your book more prominently positioned on Amazon or Barnes & Nobles’ websites or wherever else people buy books, but Joe Schmo self publisher can appear on those sites too. It’s no longer a matter of either being in a bookstore or not being in one. Everyone is in the bookstore by default. Secondly, e-books do not have production or distribution costs. There is no paper. There is no physical copy. Publishers are not putting down up-front costs for e-books. That leaves marketing as a valuable service publishers can still provide for authors. In a world where every self-published author can toss their book onto the same all-consuming website, marketing is ostensibly more valuable than ever before. Yet, as previously mentioned, publishers are spending less and less money on marketing and offloading the burden of promotion onto authors themselves via social media.

Isn’t this counterproductive? Authors aren’t professional marketers. No company is out there forcing the people who design its products to also be the ones who market them, it’s not an overlapping skillset. Why have publishers moved in this direction?

The issue is that the literary industry is floundering and has been for decades. If you follow business reports you might have heard that the literary industry is in fact making record profits year after year, but this is not because more people are reading books. It’s because publishers are cutting costs and cranking prices, heavily indexing into established authors instead of new ones and hard-hitting a few key demographics by constantly chasing popular trends. And, as I just described, publishers are assuming less and less risk. This keeps numbers up, while masking the decreasing health of the industry and the lack of long-term prospects.

Social media marketing can work, but it’s generally word-of-mouth, shared by people who are already interested in (thing) to other people who are already interested in (thing). It’s niche-based marketing. The literary industry has devolved from a major entertainment industry to a niche that caters more and more to its existing superfans. Its cultural relevance is nearly bankrupt, and this is due to cost-cutting and profit-wringing decisions made by publishers in response to the internet era. Some may respond to me and say that the diminishing of literature’s cultural relevance is natural; film is just such a cultural juggernaut in the US that literature is inevitably going to play second fiddle. To an extent, that’s true. But it’s also ignoring what literature as an industry can bring to the cultural table.

Film production is completely unlike book production. A film studio doesn’t just take a fully completed film, promise its creators a percent of whatever the film makes, and put the film in theaters. Films cost money, lots of money, up front. Your standard blockbuster is looking at a $200 million budget. (Not even counting the other 200 mil you’re throwing down for advertising.) Even a cheap film, a low budget horror or drama film, is probably costing around $10 million up front. This has led to film industries greenlighting “sure bets”--sequels, franchises, adaptations of already-successful properties, remakes, etc.--to ensure they don’t blow that $200 million on an original project that horribly flops. Many people bemoan the strong Hollywood emphasis on sequels and remakes, but honestly, given the amount of risk involved, it’s a pretty natural response to how much money you stand to lose if you goofball it. Frankly, the fact that we still get auteur guys who can produce risky passion projects at all is impressive in this harsh financial reality of the medium.

Literature is not like film. Publishers assume almost zero risk when they take on a new book. They pay everyone--author, agent, editor--in a cut of the book’s profits. (There are sometimes flat financial advances for books, but these generally go to established authors who are guaranteed to sell.) Physical print materials are less and less relevant in a digital age. And marketing is shoved off onto the authors instead of being handled by, you know, professionals. Why, then, do we see the same level of extreme risk aversion in the type of books that are published as we do in the film industry?

Sequels, series, established names. Trends chased hard. A few key genres focused over and over at the expense of others. Anyone writing “literary fiction” (the industry term for highbrow stuff) is coming out of the same MFA program in Iowa City, where they’re taught to write exactly the same as one another. Even pop cultural genres like fantasy and science fiction are often strained through writer’s workshops and focus on conformity and standardization of style.

Why?

The why is obvious. Short-term profits. These practices wring as much out of the existing base of the literary industry as possible. But the long-term ramifications are huge. The literary industry is quickly becoming just a bad version of Hollywood, of less interest and with less reach. As a low-risk industry, literature has a unique ability to position itself as the new avant garde, striking with overwhelming variety, pushing the storytelling envelope in a way that film cannot afford to. That would not only expand its cultural relevance over time, but give it a purpose for existing independent of the film industry. As it stands, the literary industry will likely just keep cranking prices until eventually the bottom falls out. “Treading water in a dying industry,” you might say.

Of course, there is one service publishers provide to authors that authors cannot do themselves. I’ve ignored it before, but it’s actually the most valuable thing they do, and it’s what rakes in the most money for authors and publishers alike. Publishers (and agents) negotiate the film rights for books. You write a book so the movie can make money. That’s the model in the US; eventually, though, you have to wonder when the film industry will decide they no longer need this remora and start writing their own uninspired, unoriginal original scripts in-house.

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somecynicalanimator · 2 years

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Module - Professional & Cultural Context

An animated piece of media doesn't simply appear out of nowhere. It often takes a team of people, collaborating together, in order to create something that can reach people, enrich their lives, and bring them hours of entertainment. This is where the animation production pipeline comes in, as different people with different disciplines come together to work on something. We spent much of this session discussing said pipeline. Production needs a good production management team, those who help helm the project. Producers largely handle budget, opening spreadsheets and making sure everything remains above board, with maybe some creative input, while the director handles direction & world-building. Production managers & coordinators are important, as they help organise different departments. They also tend to be practitioners themselves, needing to have some experience and/or understanding of every department, and other aspects of production. The first stage of production after an initial idea is development. This when the writers, concept artists, and others begin developing a pitch which, once picked up, leads into the pre-production phase. Here is when much of the groundwork for the final product is laid, such as the storyboard. Storyboard artist may be an entry level job, but it’s one of the jobs which have the most influence on how the final animation looks, since usually the final product matches the storyboard/animatic fairly closely. It’s when you reach production that you realise that figuring out big picture problems is somewhat more difficult than production problems, generally speaking, given that it mainly involves problem solving. Finally, in post-production, editors can work to refine and piece together the finished product. In live action projects, editors are usually brought in towards the end of the project. Whereas with animation, editors often work throughout production, working on voiceovers early on, then with the animatic, then finally the finished animation. Ira Glass, a media personality, was involved in producing a video a while ago called The Creative Process, in which he said that creatives early in their careers often have good taste but can’t produce work that reaches their ambitions. The point being that we should keep things in perspective and be kind to ourselves. We ended the session by watching a video called How We Make 2D Cartoons, in which an animator who works for Nickelodeon discusses the processes she and her colleagues use when creating TV shows. During the video, she discusses hiring and working with vender studios to work on production. This is less common in the UK; we’re animation is more likely to be produced in-house.

We also conducted an audit of resources, mainly front-facing social media accounts, that we can draw from when creating our portfolios and showreels.

#ma #ma animation #masters degree #professional & cultural context

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averagetastesofonelittlebird · 2 years

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Someone is creating a Nightbound continuation sequel project and they're searching for members like writers, artists, editors,... I like your art so I thought maybe you want to help them as an artist. It would be cool if you join them. You're a great artist. The project is totally free to play so no member gets payed, they just want to create a Choices game for everyone. Like doing charity work. What do you think? I am only a fan and the leader is @ garrusxnightbound .

Hello anon,

Thank you for your message and your kind words. I am delighted to see that there is a project in the pipeline for everyone who loves Nightbound and its universe. I am, however, unable to engage in this adventure. If I get onboard, I want to be fully present and dedicated to achieving whatever is needed on my part. Given the nature of my career and how it exhausts me on a regular basis, I don't feel I can be consistent/reliable enough for an "after work" project the size of a Nightbound sequel.

I still appreciate that you thought of me. If I had more time at hand and more headspace, things could have been different.

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felassan · 3 years

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Gamers For Groceries 2 event

A Twitch stream event from a few days ago. It can currently be re-watched here (it was fun & interesting, so I do recommend to check it out direct). This post contains some notes on things of particular interest & relevant timestamps, in case this is useful to anyone (for example bc of accessibility reasons).

First up is the All About Animating panel, a series of mini-interviews with game devs (animators) asking what they do, how they got there, and advice for anyone interested in getting into the industry. Some or all of the devs that were interviewed are currently working on DA4. They talked a bit about their day-to-day work and a lot about the craft of game dev animation in general. This segment runs from timestamp ~38 mins 40 secs to 1:07:50. Some notes:

[sounded like DA4] Right now the creature team are working on different creatures in a way which involves going through a lot of mocap data

At BioWare they have a pretty big technical animation team, to support their animators, so each tech animator has a different specialty. Tech anim involves animation support, character art support, and rigging the characters so that the animators can pose them

[not sure if re: DA4 work specifically, another project or a general comment on the craft] One of the featured animators’ area of specialty at the moment is faces and hair (building the control structure for face animations). First they had to decide how the face rig and its control structure would work. This involves a lot of performance capture of live actors for things like cinematics and gameplay animation, therefore the rigs for bodies and faces have to be able to accurately capture the full range of expressions and emotions that the actor is portraying. Right now the stage that this dev is working on most is setting up the heads that they’re getting through the pipeline from character art e.g. making adjustments based on feedback from the cinematics team. “Polish - just trying to get realism”

Hair tech has come quite a long way in the last few years [in the industry]

[not sure if re: DA4 work specifically, another project or a general comment on the craft] Hair is very complex to get right. “In the past most games have used card-based hair, which is basically like sheets of polygons with a texture on it that looks like hair, through layers of transparency. But real hair is strand-based, digital strands, so we’re starting to look into that kind of tech - try to get more realistic, more beautiful hair, but there’s always a performance cost to hair. Layers of transparent things are always an expense, they need to balance like, it looks good and moves well, but it doesn’t make your computer or console chug. [...] I guess we’re in the prototype stage but we’ve almost got a set pipeline. It’s always fun to experiment”

In Mass Effect 2 or 3, Miranda’s hair was as expensive as a whole character (!)

[on balancing hair costs/performance, general] It depends on things like character importance and how many characters are on-screen at the time. When you’re in gameplay fighting a bunch of monsters you’re not going to be giving full beautiful hair to all the characters and the monsters, as it will cost too much. (Having a helmet on is a convenient way to get rid of hair.) But if it’s a cinematic scene, with 2 characters talking to each other in a dramatic context, there’s a better budget for nice hair allocated

Some of the hair in Anthem was quite expensive in cinematics. They kept getting bugs from QA saying (for example) that a character’s hair was tripling the performance cost in the scene, so it would go back to character art so they could take away some of the hair cards. “Tough balance, quality versus cost”

“I wish all the characters could have beautiful strand hair”

For p-cap, a lot of the time they don’t want to be too prescriptive in terms of the direction that they’re giving the actors, as the actors know what they’re doing and have a lot of experience, so they give them vague instructions that they then riff off of

[sounded like DA4] They recently did a mocap shoot

[sounded like DA4] There’s a bit more productivity happening now in the pandemic situation; now that the animators are not all going to the capture lab in Vancouver in person for shoots, if it’s not their turn to direct a shot they can instead be working on something else on their computers (multi-tasking). ((Lead DA4 Producer Scylla Costa recently gave a talk at a games festival on the challenges of DA production during the pandemic. In part of this talk he talked about various benefits and drawbacks to the remote-working situation. He also talked about and showed some behind-the-scenes stuff for p-cap and mocap. Notes, images and link here))

[sounded like DA4] Special mocap suits were sent out that they can use with a laptop to go anywhere and shoot motion capture. It’s not as high fidelity as what comes out of the capture lab, but it’s really good for prototyping stuff. Before the pandemic they did some of this (going to a park and shooting some running around)

[sounded like DA4] In one of the shoots they had some actors who were really well-trained in dancing. They were trying to get them to do some combat stuff. This was a bit challenging in the pandemic situation as there’s only so much they can demonstrate/portray as an example to the actors from a distance on camera. “It’s hard to describe what a ‘dodge to attack’ is through the camera to somebody who has no idea what combat looks like in video games”

[not sure if re: DA4 work specifically, another project or a general comment on the craft] The pandemic has really affected performance capture for the face side of things badly, as in order to record, the actor gets dots painted on their face in specific locations by a makeup artist. They can’t do that right now because of social distancing/restrictions, so they haven’t been recording faces at the moment

The more detailed a face, the more joints it has, the more the cost to performance is

---

There was also the Writers’ Block panel, featuring DA writers Mary Kirby, Sheryl Chee and Patrick Weekes, and DA editor Karin Weekes. The timestamps for this segment are ~2:37:50 - 3:26:20. Some notes:

PW has never been weirder than when they were writing Cole on DAI

PW thinks that they accidentally wrote part of “Timber” by Kesha into Solas at one point and they were like “Well, okay, I have to stop listening to Kesha”

For Sheryl, after a while Blackwall’s VA always nailed doing his lines. She loved the quality of his voice and so after a while would always hear his voice while she was writing. This really worked out

^ Mary had this with Merrill. As soon as they cast Eve Myles she listened to several hours of her in Torchwood, and then just wrote to the way that she spoke as much as possible

^ PW had this with GDL as Solas and FPJ as Bull. As soon as they heard FPJ’s delivery, they were like “Oh, okay, I have to write some lines differently, because Bull is smarter than I realized”. With GDL they were like “Okay, he’s going to put poetry into anything I say, in the best way possible”. In early drafts of Solas lines there were parts where they [PW] wondered “Is this too melodramatic? Is this too tragically-angstful?” and then they would hear GDL and be like “Oh! [It’s fine] Game on!”

For localization, German words are often quite long so they often have to make sure that everything fits on the GUI

They think scenes like the romance scenes sound prettier in the Italian versions

Behind the curtain in creating the in-world languages: PW: “There are some awesome websites that have every elven word, like ‘Here are the translations and verb tenses and conjugations’ [etc], [...] and usually Mary and I get very sad slightly looking at those pages going like ‘Does that mean that we have to stick to that?’ [...] The rule is, if I’ve looked at the Wiki and the words, and I go ‘Here’s the correct grammatical way to do it’, and if that turns out to be too long or too many disconnected syllables and it just looks bad or sounds bad, then we shorten it to something simpler, because the key is we want to give the flavor of a foreign language, but we don’t have the world-building budget and capacity to make something that is going to be dictionary-real [in a way that] someone could go through and translate all the background things written on the old temple walls”. Part of the reason for this is the consideration for VAs, who already have to act while bearing lots of things in mind, like the cues in the script for each line

Mary: “For building a language, the first things that I started with for qunlat, elven and dwarven, was what words do we need to use the most? Greetings, farewells, words for friend and enemy, basic things that will come up easily in conversation. After that it’s ‘How difficult is this for other writers to use?’ Can they just pick it off the Wiki? Do they need just one word? Do they need to write whole sentences, and how does that work? Qunlat has almost no grammar to it because asking anyone to learn how to use Qunari grammar and conjugate verbs in a pretend language is impossible, and then once you’ve done that a human being has to be able to read it, while not knowing what any of it means”

PW: “One thing that I was really impressed with with Mary in particular doing, Mary was one of the big lore people across the entire DA series; I can look at a word and go like, ‘That has two A’s in a row, that’s definitely a Qunari word. That word is kind of long and maybe has some apostrophes and has a couple of flowy vowel sounds, that’s probably elven’, I think that’s what’s important. You want players to be able to look at a word, players want to feel smart, [like] ‘Oh I don’t know what that means but I totally know that’s a word from the Qunari people!’”. Mary: “Every language has its own set of phonemes, the sounds that they make, and the sort of word structure and spelling so that it gives a flavor to that language. Hopefully that is always chosen to be pronounceable, because again, very important that the words can be said by human beings :D”

Sheryl: “One of the fun things to do is to make up swear words in the fake languages [...] Recently Brianne wanted a word, I don’t know if she managed to find one”

The origin of bosh’tet in ME: it’s just saying “bastard” and slurring it

PW: “I feel like there are times when past writers kind of leave traps for future writers, where past writers will go ‘Okay, I’m going to write this detailed phrase in a codex entry but don’t worry, it doesn’t matter if it can never be said aloud, because it’ll never have to be voiced!’ and then, next game, guess what guys! Look what you have to make someone [a VA] say! And you’re like [facepalm], c’mon!”

Karin: “Now, four games in, we have pages and pages of all these examples, and I wanna say this, well that’s how we said something before, well that’s ridiculous, I don’t wanna say that, but now we’ve said it and it’s out there, so it’s like, how do we, y’know, how do we evolve, and sometimes we just go ‘Screw it! Languages are living languages! We’ll just say it like this now!’”

PW's favorite is the sarcastic Mythal’enaste, “Because it’s the sarcastic Mythal's blessing that basically means you’re getting screwed over somehow. I love it because Mythal nasty! Whoever wrote that clearly never thought that someone would have to say this out loud”

Sheryl wrote Bull’s joke icicles line. She also wrote Isabela’s big boats line - Jennifer took it out but then DG was like “No it has to come back”

They have a pun test, they get a few of them and have to allot them wisely so as not to oversaturate on the puns. “Is this good/bad enough to be one of the times that we pull the trigger? We did have one of those recently, I obviously can’t talk about it, but it was pronounced Okay to go ahead”

The ‘baby-est’ writer is Brianne, who’s been there 8 years

It makes PW sad that the players never get to see the writers’ temp-text [placeholder text when portions are a WIP]. “People have the best temp-text". Mary: “The number of conversations that I’ve temped in like ‘WELL. I hope nothing BAD happens HERE’”

Q. If you could bring in anybody from outside of gamedev, who would you like to work with and do a writer’s session with? PW: “I will say romance novelist Nora Roberts, she is really smart and also she knows how to write inside a genre, and do wonders within it. Her structure is so good. If you pick up one of her books, you know here’s when this is gonna happen, here’s when they’re gonna meet, here’s when this first moment will happen. We’re all experienced and I feel pretty good about that but I really like all of the things she does that way, and also I am a sucker for romance so I would love to bring a romance novelist in and just have them look at our scenes and go ‘Okay here, no, they should pull the tie so that the article of clothing comes open, we need a sense of how warm the skin is here’ - something like that. I’d wanna see what they could do with that”

“Luke writes the best worst lines”

“I’m always impressed with Mary getting away with lines. There are lines that I look at like, wow, you buried that one. [...] The only players who get that line, I feel like they earned it if they went that far into it. [...] And then Varric or Merrill says a ridiculous line in a one-time throwaway”

Karin: “The group dynamic, you’ll see conversations or snippets of a lunch chat or a thing we’ve been joking about and you’ll see it get pulled in, and how all of you [the writers] are able to take a normal kind of thing - as normal as we get as a group anyway - and then turn it into a moment, and use it to further the plot or use it to further a character. It’s just the cleverest thing and it happens in so many different ways. [...] The little snippet of life, then how you crafted it into this very cool thing”

Quartermaster Threnn was written by PW in half a day. “When I was writing Threnn, ‘Okay, this is a good-hearted [person], I was doing a little bit of Steel Magnolias, southern, no-nonsense, but like, blue collar Steel Magnolias’. This is someone accustomed to the ways of the world so she’s going to call a spade a spade. If you come up to her and you’re an elf she doesn’t recognize you and says ‘Buckets are over there’ because she thinks you’re there to clean, [but] ‘Anyone calls you a knife-ear you come to me I’ll take care of it’. It’s problematic but she’s trying - the good-hearted person rooted for the wrong group on every occasion. She was a proud Loghain supporter, she gets really exited if he comes to Skyhold. That was a fun character for me to write because I had a viewpoint in my mind. I remember someone was like ‘Threnn is really important to me’. And you have to honor that, cause you’re like ‘Cool, it means so much to me that this connected with some part of you’”

---

Also of interest was the Mass Affection panel, in which BioWare devs looked back in over a decade of history to remaster a classic. It featured devs who worked on MELE. The timestamps for this segment are ~3:36:09 - 4:24:37. Some notes:

When the pandemic hit the MELE team were in a relatively awkward spot. They were really entering into what they consider full production and were on-boarding a bunch of teams, as well as training and on-boarding third-party external partner specialized teams worldwide. When the pandemic hit, BioWare and EA were super on top of it. They were tracking it weeks beforehand, getting everyone their computers ready, and getting everything encrypted. When the middle of March 2020 hit they were home rightaway. EA were nothing but supportive throughout the entire thing. They got money every quarter for stuff. It functionally ‘hit’ at 4-6 different times for them as the pandemic occurred in different places throughout the world at different times depending on each country’s response plan (and their external partners were in different countries). “So it was one of those things where it was just like, every day we’d come in like can we still work with this company anymore? Do we need to find someone else? Do we need to pull people in off the other projects at BioWare to fill gaps here and there?”

There was a bug on Virmire at the part when you’re coming into the STG camp. If the Mako had its new boosters on and you came hurtling in really fast, it cut to the cutscene, but the Mako hit a jump and when Ash was like “What do we do now?” the Mako ended up literally flying around in the background sideways and then crashing into the camp

Another bug: when they were re-tuning the guns, the physics force on some of the guns with Hammerhead rounds was so high that when you were fighting some of the Thorian Creepers, you could ragdoll them so hard that you could basically embed them in the roof. They’d be moving so fast that they’d penetrate all the walls with their legs dangling out. It was so easy to do and you could do it to everybody. You could launch a geth halfway across an Uncharted World

Another bug: with Shepard’s casual appearance in ME3, if you didn’t have it set up perfectly correctly it would default to Grunt for some reason. You’d be walking around as Grunt, going on dates as Grunt, and your face would be all scrunched up because it was all mapped to human bones still, so it was just, like, Nightmare Fuel of Grunt

Another bug: in ME2 on Illium when trying to recruit Samara, the Asari enemies just would not stop screaming - regardless of whether they were hit or not, it was endless screaming. Later one of the devs got an audio file of the scream, endless and looped, and now one of the devs has it on their phone and uses it for their morning alarm tone

“Shepard would come up to characters and they’d just be screaming”

---

There was also the Programming Variables panel, talking about what hurdles game programmers face. Some [or all?] of the devs that were part of this panel are currently working on DA4. They talked a bit about their day-to-day work and about the craft of game dev programming in general. The timestamps for this segment are ~ 4:24:46 - 5:06:02.

[source]

[insights/notes from Gamers For Groceries 1]

[☕ found this post or blog interesting or useful? my ko-fi is here if you feel inclined. thank you 🙏]

#dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #da4 #dragon age #bioware #video games #long post #longpost #in case this is of interest to anyone #mass effect #anthem #covid mention #cole #spirit boy #solas #lul

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disneytva · 5 years

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CTN Animation Expo 2019: Disney Television Animation Panels

Developing with Disney: A Talk with the Development Team of Disney TV Animation

Friday, November 22 2019

2:30 PM - 3:30 PM

Ever wonder what goes into developing a show at Disney TVA? Join some of Disney Television Animations’ development executives as they discuss their journey to development and answer all your questions about what it takes to break in and make your own show. From pitch to story and visual development; hear about all the pieces of the process.

Presented by:Katherine Walsh - Development Manager Emily Carson - Development Manager James Anderson - Executive Producer

Disney Animation Television: Crafting a Song Sequence

Friday, November 22 2019

5:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Craig Gerber (Executive Producer) and Elliot Bour (Supervising Director and Co-Producer) from Elena of Avalor will show you how to craft a song sequence from concept to animation by pushing story in interesting and entertaining ways.

Presented by:Craig Gerber - Executive Producer Elliot Bour - Supervising Director and Co-Producer

Disney Television Animation: How to Direct a Board Driven Show

Friday, November 22 2019

5:30 PM - 6:30 PM Monica Ray (Supervising Director) and Natasha Kline (Director) of Big City Greens give you a comprehensive look at how directing on a board driven show differs from the traditional script driven pipeline. Also, some useful tips for working on a show where the board artists and directors have a lot of control over the writing!

Presented by:Monica Ray - Supervising Director

Natasha Kline - Director

From Crew to Creator: A Talk with Disney Television Animation Showrunners

Saturday, November 23 2019

1:00 PM - 2:00 PM

Learn what it takes to make the jump to pitching and running your own show from Disney Television Animation’s Chris and Shane Houghton (Creators & Executive Producers, Big City Greens), Matt Braly (Creator & Executive Producer, Amphibia) and Dana Terrace (Creator & Executive Producer, The Owl House). You’ll learn about their journey from crew member to creator and pick up tips and tricks on pitching your ideas to make the next hit. Presented by:Moderator: Elyse Findley - Production Manager Panelists: Chris and Shane Houghton - Showrunner and Writers Matt Braly - Showrunner and Storyboard Artist Dana Terrace - Showrunner and Storyboard Artist

The Origins of Amphibia – Drawing from Your Background

Sunday, November 24 2019 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

Join Creator/Executive Producer, Matt Braly, along with series crew members as they discuss how their own heritage and experiences helped inform and shape Amphibia. Series Co-Producer/Story Editor, Jack Ferraiolo moderates this candid discussion about the creative process, inspiration, and building authentic characters. Come learn about the show’s origins as the team shares exclusive behind-the-scenes stories and details!

Moderated by Jack Ferraiolo - Co-Producer, Story Editor

Matt Braly - Creator, Executive Producer Gloria Shen - Writer Jenava Mie - Writer

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jem-jarrett · 4 years

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20 and 29?

Okay, 20 was any new hobbies? Hmm...not really. I’m really into cooking, so I’ve been doing that more, but I wouldn’t say it’s new. I was actually doing the coolest thing, before the COVID lockdown: I was volunteering as a chef at a home for folks with HIV, and my mentors there are both professional chefs. Missy, who referred to herself as the resident butch, and Umut, a really tall, really funny Turkish guy who loves heavy metal. I was learning so much from them but now I’m on my own at home.

29 was plans for the future. Oof. Good question. Rn I’m working for Allstate (catch these good hands 👏🏽👏🏽) which is dependable and gives me stability. But more than anything, I want to work anywhere in the animation pipeline, for animated tv shows. Writer, editor, character designer, story board artist, background painter, concept artist, visual effects...I’d gladly do any of it. I also love books, so I’d love to work in publishing. My degree is in Creative Writing, Editing and Publishing. But overall animation has been the dream since I first saw James Baxter drawing in the bonus features for Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron when I was 4. As for plans, Octavia Butler said, “So be it, see to it.” So I’m gonna make it happen, one step at a time 💪🏽💥

I also have plans for a graphic novel about pure of heart, dumb of ass lesbian soldier who falls in love with a werewolf girl. There’s witches and curses, a plethora of chihuahuas, swords (of course), cooking, and lots of pining.

#ask #anon #sorry for rambling #again #this has also been on my mind #and i havent talked w people in awhile #week 5 of quarantine baaby #about me

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andyctwrites · 4 years

Text

Selling Your Story – Peaks and Pitfalls of Publishing Contracts

Points to consider when deciding if a Publisher is the right fit for you.

Landing a publishing contract is the Holy Grail for many creators who set their sights on “breaking in” to comics, and it’s understandable as to why this is the case…

It’s a big ego bump for starters. Someone external, has recognised your work as good enough to be associated with, promote and sell. In terms of logistics, publishers have established distribution and promotional tools at their disposal and should have a bigger voice than you alone to share your creation with their customer base. As an independent creator, associating yourself with something bigger can also boost your profile – Like a more positive version of joining a gang in prison (I’d imagine).

The subject of publisher relations with creators, differential deals and the fairness of agreements became the subject of debate across comics twitter recently. Voices of creators and collaborators I have a great deal of respect for came out to talk about their views on several publishers with messages of both condemnation and support. Wider spread trends led to a number of freelance workers actively sharing what they had been paid for projects. While there’s no need to pick through a debate which is easily searched, I’ve been thinking a great deal on the subject of publisher contracts. Specifically, how an independent creator can review and consider what publishers are offering more critically in the hope they secure favourable terms, or at very least don’t feel regrets down the line as items not considered at the time of signing come home to roost.

I’ve sat to write this piece in the hope it sparks more discussion and helps those working in the small press scene, which I love, ask the right questions and considering offerings from publishers who show interest in their work. Hopefully I’ve made it accessible and not hideously dull.

Before we take a step further, let’s cover a few notes and caveats here:

Who is this guy? – I’m Andy Conduit-Turner a writer and extremely small name, in all but letter count, in UK indie comic publishing. The chances are, that if we’ve not met, you’ve not heard of me.

My comics contracting experience is primarily limited to drafting my own commissioning contracts to engage with collaborators for comics I have written, and in licencing short stories which I’ve written to appear in anthologies and other mediums produced by others. At the time of writing, I have neither signed with, or been rejected by any major (or minor) comics publisher and am not providing comment on any observed content which may or may not appear in a publishing agreement from any given company.

I am, neither a qualified legal professional or literary agent. In the event any contract you ever receive for any purpose is of extreme importance, investing in the support of a qualified person with greater industry experience is of far greater value than anything you’ll read here.

Outside of comics, my professional career and other personal projects over the last decade have seen me review, interpret, question, edit and respond to countless legal agreements for a variety of purposes. This has left me with a wealth of experience in considering longer term impacts for both the purchasing and suppling parties of service agreements – I’ve spent a great deal of time having both commercial and capability-based discussions prior to contracts being signed.

This is by no means an anti-publisher piece – Regardless of where you stand on recent publishing discussions, I’ve no desire to create an Us (Creators) vs Them (Publishers) sentiment here. There are countless publishers who are passionate about sharing creator’s stories, invest significantly and add a great deal of value to both individual projects and the industry as a whole. No reputable publisher is out to trick creators or deliberately give them a raw deal. That said, as with many transactions, a publisher is a business with an end goal of limiting liability and generating revenue in both the short and long term – Depending on your ideological feelings, this isn’t necessarily an inherently evil objective, and it’s how publishers remain in business.

Your publishing contract is equally not a formality, a magnanimous offer from a friend with nothing to gain from the arrangement, and your unconditional ticket to success and acclaim. Different deals will work for different creators – A good deal to one will be an unacceptable deal for someone else and there are few terms which would be universally perfect or awful for everyone. I’d hope through these pages I can maybe help you consider your offers, ask necessary questions and make decisions you’re comfortable with for your own circumstances.

Negotiation carries risks – Especially within the sphere of indie publishing, there are a couple of truths we need to reflect on.

1. Comics are an attractive and exciting creative medium for people to get into. Especially if a publisher is welcome to unsolicited submissions, they are likely to have no shortage of people interested in publishing with them.

2. Many publishers aren’t huge organisations. In the event a member of their core team is not already a legal professional, it’s unlikely they will have a legal department on their staff to directly manage adjustments to legal documents and agreements.

What this boils down to is that, many publishers may simply not have the resources or interest in negotiating or adjusting a contract with you – There’s every chance that the offer made to you is non-negotiable. While I’d argue that the withdrawal of an offer in response to a question asked or statement challenged in good faith is indicative of the professionalism of the organisation in question, you should be prepared for the fact that being the squeaky wheel may not land you the deal you want, and may take the one you have off the table.

A Note on NDAs and Market Norms

NDAs, or Non-Disclosure Agreements are very common, as part of, or prior to contracting in many industries. They are typically used to protect (in this case publishers’) private or proprietary information concerning their business practises, contracting terms, project pipeline and pay rates private and confidential. They are a routine consideration and not indicative of any sinister goings on. In keeping with professional conduct, if you sign an NDA you should, of course, respect its conditions though here are a few considerations and questions you may ask or confirm however.

1: Is the NDA mutually beneficial – While you are agreeing not to share the details of a publisher’s business and offer outside involved parties, does the signed NDA bind the publisher to offer you the same regardless as to whether the end result is a signed publishing agreement?

Are there stated commitments to your work remaining confidential and not circulated to other outside parties during your negotiations? What commitments are made to the return / disposal of any project details or materials shared should an agreement not be finalised.

Additionally, can you expect details on deals you accept in terms of up front remuneration, percentage splits on profits and additional contract terms to remain confidential?

2: Pitch exclusivity – Are there any expectations, formal or otherwise that you should not pitch your comic elsewhere until negotiations have been concluded?

3: Your right to advice – No NDA should prevent you taking appropriate professional advice before signing any final agreement.

Rules on business competition internationally, already provide a great deal of legislation to ensure businesses to remain competitive and prevent illegal practises such as price fixing and market sharing. While market norms may dictate and guide the offers you’re likely to receive competing businesses should not mutually agree to adhere to set fees or conditions. At this point I’ll pause and note that I don’t hold the market specific professional knowledge to apply Anti-Trust and similar business competition legislation to publishing contracts – These should be forefront of a publisher’s mind when managing confidentiality of contract content.

So…With all of that now said (in painstaking detail) let’s get into this shall we

What’s in this for you?

So, you’ve pitched your book to a publisher and they’re interested in working with you? Great news! Now comes the time when you need to consider what you want to get from your potential partner, and consider, realistically, what you’ll accept. For many creators your wants and expectations may include:

Contribution to production costs. Particularly for writer led teams, an ability to appropriately pay artists, colourists, letterers, editors and other professionals make up the bulk of comic production costs even before downstream logistics such as printing, marketing and distribution come into play. Many publishers may state up front whether this is a model they can support. Initial production costs add to the overall risk and increase the volume needed to sell before profits are realised. Consider – Landing a publisher may not relieve you of the need to raise personal funds or take to Kickstarter.

Upfront royalty payments. A noble dream for some, though likely only realised by more established creators. Belief in your project will need to be high to warrant an upfront payment to the creator for a book prior to a single copy being sold Consider – Manage your expectations here, how promising is your pitch? Do you have a track record of success that offsets the risk of an upfront pay out?

Percentage Profits – This is likely to be a long-term arrangement of any publishing deal whereby the creator and the publisher acting a licence holder take an agreed % split of future profit revenue generated from the project – Profits from what exactly we’ll come to later. Consider – There’s no way around this, any additional step in the process here are going to reduce the by unit revenue you receive per each sale. By working with a publisher, the benefit to you is that they support you in, ideally, selling more copies than you would alone.

Production and logistical support – Sure, you know writing, art or whichever your creative field may be, but there’s every chance that your publisher is more familiar with the processes involved with getting your book into people’s hands. With established relationships with suppliers and retailers your publisher may also be able to optimise the per unit profit on your book sales, in addition to increasing your potential audience through supply networks and wider convention attendance.

In some cases, your publisher may also take a creative role in the process, appointing an editor, or suggesting changes to make a book more marketable in their experience – We’ll also return to this point later.

Comic Financials - Hypothetical example – Comic X

Working without a publisher

You as creator spend £2000 on the production of your comic (Art, letters, colour, whatever!) Print volumes allow you to obtain copies of your book at £2 per copy

You price your book at £5 per copy Let’s then also assume a modest spend of £200 on website, and attending some local cons, and you break even on Postage and Packing. Under this model you’ll see a profit on your creation once you sell your 734th copy of Comic X. This assumes you sell exactly all of your stock and are left with no additional copies which you’ve paid to have printed, but not yet sold. Let’s make this a tiny bit more complex and suggest that you diversify from selling physical copies online and at cons alone. You begin selling digital copies via an established digital store front at £3. You also connect with local comic retailers who agree to carry copies of your comics in store. To keep this simple and not lose the remaining 3 people this dive into maths hasn’t lost already let’s assume that your sales across all avenues equal out to 1/3 each, and once again all copies you produce will sell. The digital sales have no print cost but the digital storefront takes 50% of the sale price

The stores agree to purchase copies of your book from you for £4, creating a 33% share on profit after print costs.

Under this scenario, Comic X will officially be profitable after around 245 direct physical sales, 489 digital sales and 367 sales via stores.

Working with a publisher

Under this model, we’ll assume that you as a creator invested the same £2000 in production costs but nothing further, leaving the publisher to manage the printing along with costs for attending conventions etc.

Outside of the numbers here, your publisher is also the party taking the risk regarding the volume produced if any copies go unsold. The trade off is that your publisher will take a percentage of any profits before they reach you. For this example, let’s say you agree on 50% revenue share and receive no contribution to production costs or any upfront payment.

For argument sake, let’s assume your publisher secures the same unit costs and margins (though you’d hope they may be able to negotiate better through volume purchasing). Understanding a publisher’s direct cost with con attendance, and marketing when applied to a single book is a level of hypothetical we won’t attempt here.

Focussing on you as a creator, under the same sales methods used in the non-publisher model you would begin to see profit on your production investment of £2000 from publisher paid royalties after 445 direct sales, 889 digital sales and 667 in store sales.

After all this talk of money, the first thing to recognise is that it isn’t everything to all creators. Many will consider the long-term goals of building an audience as a pathway to bigger and better things, or simply an investment in their creative hobby. Those with realistic aspirations will likely not expect to anything resembling a profit from their early books (save perhaps for those with the skills to produce a comic entirely alone or with collaborators satisfied with payment purely from sale revenue). For many creators, having a partner who ensures copies of their books get into people’s hands, minimising their own administrative efforts is the goal.

What is critical is to do your own calculations, consider your goals along with level of financial investment and energy you have to invest in selling your own book. In this simplified example, we’ve not considered the accuracy of print orders vs sales, tax applications or eligible rebates or potential publisher costs deducted from profits to account for their operational expenses, but it should give you a loose model to consider your own investment against.

Potential Questions – Depending on your financial and creative motivations

What sales numbers does the publisher consider to be a success? Assuming the publisher will set sale price – What margin do they consider acceptable vs costs? What sales avenues does the publisher use? Does the publisher have established relationships with distributors and retailers with agreements to carry their stock? If so, what regions and countries do they have distribution networks within? Which electronic store fronts does the publisher make books available via? What volume of conventions, in which locations, does the publisher typically attend? Are they willing to share any statistics on which platforms generate the strongest sales? How, if at all, are publisher overhead costs factored into overall sale profits for division between publisher and creator? Does the agreement permit the creator to obtain copies of the publication at cost, or discounted rates for either personal use or onward sale? What marketing methods do the publisher deploy to promote new and existing content? Does the agreement, place any expectations or limitations on the actions of the creator to promote the comic? Does the agreement commit the publisher to any minimum volume of books to be produced for sale, or resources allocated to promote the publication?

What’s in this for them?

Now we come to the other half of the deal. In working with a publisher, you grant your partner certain rights in potentially both the short and long term. Understanding the rights, you’re happy to sign away and the long-term implications can be key points in your decision-making process.

Your potential publisher may request some of the following:

Percentage Profits on book sales – This is a given and how your publisher will make the most immediate return on backing your comic and investing in its production or distribution

Editorial and creative direction – While some publishers may primarily take on completed projects, others may provide editorial input. For many creators, this may be beneficial professional, input to improve the project overall. Consider – When you engage an editor privately as a self-published creator, the final decision on how you incorporate your editor’s feedback is your own. A publisher driven edit may take the final creative control out of your own hands. As with many aspects in this section this can be a positive, but it is something you should consider and make peace with before you agree to your publishing deal.

Revenue on sale of promotional and licensed goods – As part of your agreement, your publisher may gain rights to produce and sell a variety of goods associated with your comic. For a small press projects, this could be as simple as prints, postcards and pins made available as add on purchases, but an agreement could equally account for additional 3rd party licensing. Consider – From a financial perspective do you retain a share of the profits from the sale of promotional or licensed goods? Is the rate in line with the percentage you earn from book sales? Depending on the answer to these questions, if your book is successful and lends itself to popular merchandise, you’ll potentially see a larger return on your production investment more quickly, in time you may even see more royalties from the tasteful sets of commemorative glassware your story has produced than the book itself. From a creative standpoint, you need to consider that you are likely giving up a degree of control here. If you’ve strong feelings that series logo should never appear on a tote bag, this is potentially something your deal may remove your option to veto in the future.

Adaptation rights – In licensing your comic for publication, your publisher may request rights concerning the adaptation of your comic into other mediums. These rights may extend to written and audio productions, stage, television and film versions and interactive media such as video games. The requested rights may be inclusive of both financial benefits of licensing for alternative mediums and overall creative control in the adaptation for other media. Consider – If you’re a creative person with hands in other media, be it a keen filmmaker or an apprentice of coding, you may wish to seek to retain your own rights to pursue alternative interpretations of your story. Particularly in fields you have interest in. This may also be the time to consider how you would feel about any alternative take on your work with which you may have no creative involvement or influence over.

Sequel / Spin-off Rights – In agreeing to publish your project your publisher may also requests rights relating to production of related projects, both in comics or other media (as detailed above). These rights may include first review and option to license the new publication prior to it being offered to other publishers, the right to engage the creative team professionally to actively work on a related publication, or potentially engaging a separate creative team. Consider – As with the above point, your decision on agreeing with these terms will depend on your overall attachments to the project and your own long-term plans for ongoing related stories. If the idea of having limited or no control on how your original story grows into future projects gives you cold sweats, this is a right you’ll need to consider your comfort with, before you sign. How important is having ongoing control to you?

Potential Questions – Depending on your financial and creative motivations

What history does the publisher have with facilitating adaptation of comics to other media? Does the agreement, obligate or limit the creator in efforts to adapt the publication for other media? Does the publisher actively seek opportunities for property adaptations, or is this handled ad hoc as interested parties approach the publisher as licence holder? Does the publisher’s right to financial share in adaptation driven revenue differ in the event that the publisher take no active role in adapting or pitching the an adaptation of the property? What rights do the publisher hold regarding the sale or transition of publishing or ongoing licensing rights to a third party?

Overall, considering the ongoing rights and control a creator or creative team is willing to hand over to a publisher will be a critical point for many in making a decision before signing an agreement. How you perceive the value of publisher input, a potential reduction in creative control and your confidence in the long-term potential of your story will be key points in influencing what you’re comfortable in conceding in exchange for the benefits your publisher brings to the table.

The Finer Details

With the main points of your agreement carefully reviewed, it’s time to consider the ifs and buts, concerning the terms and limitations of your agreement.

Time – How long does your agreement grant the stated rights to your publisher? A set period? A set period with right to extend or first refusal to negotiate extension on similar terms or terms related to performance? Indefinite? Location – Are publication rights granted internationally or only in certain territories? Does your selected publisher have capabilities to market and distribute in all stated territories? If not, do they actively seek third party partners to distribute successful publications in additional territories?

Obligations – Are there stated timings for release, efforts to market, volumes sold, or stock made available for purchase a publisher must maintain to retain the license to your comic? Remuneration and Reporting – How frequently are royalties calculated and paid to the creator or creative team? Are there lower and upper limits to disbursement amounts? What reporting does your publisher provide to indicate gross profits leading to creator revenue share? Specifically, when it comes to matters of accounting. If you intend to maintain a financial interest in the performance of your work, appropriate transparency of accounting may be essential to understand your publisher’s level of investment and gross earnings before final profits are divided? Most organisations should permit you a right to audit, but be mindful of the conditions applied. Permitting a deep audit via the appointment of an official accountant able to review documentation on a publisher’s premises may fulfil legal obligations but creates an immediate pay wall for you as an independent creator, whose initial earnings on a single book may not warrant the investment.

If your potential publisher is able to provide sample reporting, you can accommodate yourself with the level of detail prior to signature and assure yourself that the level of transparency meets your level of interest.

Legal obligations – In addition to any submission conditions when you pitched your book, signing a publishing agreement will almost certainly involve your further verification that the work is your own and indemnify your publisher from any obligation or responsibility should this statement prove inaccurate in the future. In addition to the obligations on the creator, take note of any commitments made by the publisher to protect the IP you are licensing to them, and potential indemnity from any actions arising from material changes to the work or subsequent adaptation upon which the publisher, or their representative exercises creative control.

Limitations and release – Tied to the any limitations relating to time or location stated in your contract, it’s also worth noting any other terms which would lead to overall rights being returned back to the original creator or creative team. The most commonly anticipated reason for this would be publisher insolvency, though in some cases a struggling publisher with the appropriate rights could look to sell on any held licensing rights to a third party to raise capital prior to this occurring (assuming your agreement permits this). Clauses that benefit the creator in this area could speak to the minimum level of production or service provided to promote your comic, which if not met over an extended period results in the rights returning to the creator to pitch elsewhere or develop further with no further obligation to the publisher, thus holding your publisher to a higher degree of accountability for your book’s ongoing performance. Another alternative may represent a defined buy out clause, permitting the creative team to release themselves or further obligation to a publisher by either ensuring a pre-defined return on the publisher’s initial investment or a sum equal relevant to the book’s performance. The latter examples, I’d anticipate would be less frequent in their appearance within standard contract language, however these may be some of the most essential inclusions for a creator who is invested in the long-term management and performance of their work.

For an example, we’ll return to Comic X…

Worst case scenario…

Joe Creator, writer of Comic X, signs a publisher agreement granting licencing rights, inclusive of, merchandise, sequel and adaptation control and financial rights irrevocably to a publisher.

Joe’s agreement sees the creator receive 50% of Net profits from book sales but nothing from any additional licensing or merchandising unless directly engaged by the publisher to work on this new content under a separate agreement. The publisher will manage distribution and printing costs but does not contribute to the initial creation cost for artwork and associated tasks.

The rights will return to Joe only should the publisher file bankruptcy or should they fail to produce any volumes of the work within a defined period following initial project completion.

With no minimum term of service, the publisher fulfils their obligation to Joe through a short production run of 50 copies of their book, which are not directly marketed by the publisher but organically sells 30 copies through their inclusion on the publisher’s stand at conventions. The remaining 20 copies are sold at stock clearance reduction prices and do not recoup their print costs. The book is not listed digitally or marketed to any retailers. In the end of his first year since publication, the royalties owed to Joe from the profit share fall well below the minimum payment threshold and no payment is made.

In the five years that follow, the book remains listed on the publisher’s store front as “Out of Stock” and based on performance no further print runs are ordered.

Meanwhile, Joe continues to build career momentum through well received subsequent releases, published independently and interest in obtaining adaptation rights for Joe Creator properties hits public consciousness. Having secured irrevocable licencing rights the publisher secures a lucrative 3 series deal with Netflix adapting Joe’s original Comic X series. Netflix opts to use their own writing team, whose agents ensure they are recognised as lead creatives. A credit listing “Based on Comic X by Joe Creator” appears at the end of the opening credits, but everyone skips these.

With the Netflix series differing significantly from the original Comic X, rather than reprint the original, the publisher opts to engage a different creative team to spin off a new ongoing series based more closely on the aesthetic and themes of the new Netflix creation. The financial impact to Joe from creating the original work remains fundamentally minus £2000 as the £35 owed to Joe in previous revenue falls below the minimum payment threshold. This is an extreme example, played up for the sake of hyperbole, but hopefully it illustrates the point Consider your conditions carefully, what you gain, what you give away, and the level of effort your publisher commits to you. and finally.

Know who you’re dealing with - Know your own worth

Throughout previous sections, I’ve encouraged creators to consider what they want from a publisher, what they are happy to give in exchange and the finer details of agreements.

I’ll leave you with a (mercifully) briefer point by encouraging both research and self-reflection. Your research on a publisher should not begin and end with “Who is accepting pitches?”

Consider the fit of your project within their body of work.

Meet and connect with other creators who’ve worked with them and politely request their feedback.

Look at publisher’s company performance and makeup with resources such a Companies house or Endole. Do they appear financially stable? How large is their team? What other interests to their leadership team have?

Look at publisher’s websites and social media platforms, how are they marketing? How large is their reach? How much interaction do you see with their posts? How large is their portfolio?

Measure your own, time, resources, and reach against your potential publishers and consider objectively and, in quantifiable terms wherever you can, how you measure up. If you’re brining a sizable or active existing audience with you to a publisher this may enhance your ability to negotiate.

To wrap up I’ll say, that I hope the last, almost 5000 words *Jeez* have been of some value, whatever your experience of creating or publishing to date. I by no means consider myself an authority on anything so would be delighted if this sparks further conversation and discussion from others who may add more specific examples and considerations which may help others chasing the goal of having published work out in the wild.

I’ll return to one of my opening points that there are some fantastic publishers doing incredible work in the indie comic scene and making books possible that would otherwise never see the light of day. For indie creators, whether a publishing deal is a Holy Grail or a Poison Chalice will likely remain up to the individual and determined by how circumstances play out. If this helps just one person, take pause, consider their options and make an informed choice it will have been worth the effort.

#comics #comic books #smallpress #indie comics #publishing

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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Wave of Sexual Misconduct Accusations Rock Comics Industry

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

CW: Sexual harassment, grooming

This week saw a wave of sexual misconduct allegations against men of varying positions in the comic book industry. The first came from artist Aviva Artzy, followed up by artist and writer Kate Leth, with support from the wife of the late Darwyn Cooke, Marsha Cooke, and convention organizer Andrea Demonakos, accusing Cameron Stewart of grooming underage girls. Grooming is when an older person establishes a relationship with a usually underage one, with the intention of developing a sexual relationship in the future. As a result of this, Stewart, the one time Batgirl co-writer and Seaguy artist, was let go from a previously unannounced DC project and had a variant cover for Image’s Ice Cream Man canceled.

Later, former Dark Horse editor Brendan Wright was accused by former colleague Bekah Caden of an extended campaign of sexual harassment and stalking. Wright left Dark Horse in 2015, and has been dropped by Starburns Industries Press, as well as an anthology benefit comic for gun violence survivors, and multiple other small press books.

And finally, Warren Ellis was accused by writer/editor Katie West of using his power and influence to emotionally manipulate women into often sexual relationships, emotionally abusing them, and abandoning them. West was joined by musician Meredith Yayanos, and photographer Jhayne Holmes, who later started cataloguing and providing support to other victims of Ellis. At last count, that group is over 60. Ellis has since been dropped from the Dark Nights: Death Metal anthology he was scheduled to take part in.

Ellis’ response, posted on Twitter and emailed to his newsletter list, is embarrassing in its totality. The idea that the showrunner of Netflix’s Castlevania, a man who has had multiple comics adapted into movies grossing hundreds of millions of dollars, the man whose millennial web forum launched the careers of half of comics, didn’t realize he was famous enough to abuse a power imbalance is insulting to the intelligence he used to demand of his audience.

What these three separate instances of abuse represent are yet another example of a pattern of toxicity at the intersection of multiple forces at work in comics as a whole: a toxic undercurrent that exists inherent to fandom and the complicity it encourages, and an industry full of informal work arrangements that encourages the rapid downward distribution of exploitation. And with comics at an inflection point, caused by the massive jolt to all the systems of the world by this pandemic summer, it’s worth examining the systemic flaws that enable rampant sexual misconduct to exist as open secrets, unaddressed, for decades, and think about systemic solutions.

Just about everyone who loves comics wants to make them. This isn’t universal; there are some people who enjoy simply spectating in the medium, but if you talk to 100 comics fans, I promise 98 of them are sitting on a pitch for something. Comic conventions are packed with people looking for portfolio reviews; the internet, jammed with people trying to get their scripts looked at.

While it was in existence, the Warren Ellis Forum was one of the most reliable pipelines for new comics talent. There are good rundowns of the contributions of the WEF to current comics culture from both pre- and post-toppling of this idol, but what neither mentions is that this was an accepted way to break into the business for a brief comics era – not only through the WEF, but through the Bendis boards, and through Mark Millar’s faint echo of the WEF, Millarworld. The internet dramatically expanded the potential audience for comics, and made it easier than ever to put out your own work, but it also combined with the superhero industry’s tendency towards bombastic personalities to channel talent development through a series of larger than life internet personas and the cyber networking events that sprang up around them. These, as is the convention social scene, are full of potential abuse.

One commonality to all of these cases (and not just these cases, but also with Brian Wood and Scott Lobdell and many others) was the access to the industry they dangled to entice women into relationships. That power imbalance is creepy and bordering on toxic from the start, even if there are anecdotes of it working out. There are different ways to solve this problem – using agents to mediate the relationship between publisher and creator, as Kelly Sue DeConnick suggests, would help, though it wouldn’t be a panacea. As would comic companies regularizing the talent scouting and development process. Greater systemic access for new creators closes off one channel that these predators hunt through. If it’s easier to get your break on superhero books through a new talent training school than it is to know somebody who knows somebody, then those intermediate somebodies lose access to impressionable, exploitable fans.

It’s also time for comics to reexamine the freelance system. The comics industry has a long history of exploiting its workers powered by the freelance system, and an under examined side effect of freelancing is that it absolves companies of responsibility for the actions of what should be their employees. Freelancers occupy a murky area in employment law, particularly when it comes to harassment laws. Some places, like New York City, explicitly cover freelancers under sexual harassment laws. But New York is the exception to the rule. Most freelancers in any industry have no legal protection against the sexual harassment or discrimination that we seem to hear about every other month. It’s long past time for comic publishers to adopt policies to mitigate these problems.

Finally, a portion of the responsibility for this abuse falls on all of us, the comics community. Time and time again, when one of these harassers is outed, they’re followed by stories about extensive whisper networks warning of the harasser’s behavior, or of victims being ignored, or harassment being downplayed by people in positions of authority. Every time one of these harassers is outed, the accusation is followed by a flood of additional abuse pointed at the victim. And without fail, this additional abuse falls into one of three categories:

“[barely intelligible bigoted shrieking]”

“I like the opportunity the abuser afforded me in the industry.”

“I like the comics the abuser made.”

The first is a problem with broader civil society and won’t be eliminated until we can collectively toss hatred from acceptable public discourse, and is too big a problem to break down today. The second is a condemnation of the work arrangements common to comics and can be mitigated by the industry offering more opportunities than the abusers. The final one is a problem we should all be working to solve.

When victims don’t feel safe standing up for themselves through official channels, it’s not just the official channels that have failed those victims. Every member of the community at large has failed those victims, by failing to demand greater accountability of the ones setting and mediating the rules of the community, failing to demand more protection on behalf of their fellow fans and friends and present and future creators. Whisper networks exist because victims aren’t heard and believed. And they perpetuate the problem – you can’t be a part of a whisper network if you’re not connected to the network. They exclude large portions of fans, who eventually may find themselves targeted by these predators.

This is not on the whisper networks to fix, and none of this should be read as casting a drop of blame on the people working to protect whoever they can in the comics community. Nor should any blame be hung on the victims themselves – “We all should have seen the signs” is a cop out that ignores the complexity of abuse patterns and how abusers manipulate the rules to get away with their abuse. This is on the companies to fix, by ending their support and protection for known abusers. This is on the comics media, to stop promoting and protecting known abusers. This is on cons, to stop platforming abusers and to do what they can to control the social scene that springs up around them. And this is on all of us as fans, to stop putting these people on pedestals. Sometimes a monument needs to be torn down.

The post Wave of Sexual Misconduct Accusations Rock Comics Industry appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Comics – Den of Geek https://ift.tt/31b9y2C

#aion-rsa #Comics – Den of Geek

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emzeciorrr · 5 years

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vimeo

Dying Light 2 Trailer from Platige Image on Vimeo.

PLATIGE IMAGE TEAM Director & Writer: Tomek Suwalski CG Supervisor: Wojciech Idzi Executive Producer: Piotr Prokop Producer: Marina Borokhova Production Assistant: Karolina Koszewska Head of Production: Magdalena Machalica Head of CG: Bartłomiej Witulski Department coordinator: Tomasz Wróbel Motion Capture TD: Grzegorz Mazur Motion Capture Junior TD: Aleksander Szymkuć Motion Capture coordinator: Anna Stańczak Motion Capture performers: Maciej Kwiatkowski, Sławomir Kurek, Agnieszka Pawłowska

Grading: Piotr Sasim Online: Paweł Małkowski Sound Design: Wojciech Chołaściński Sound Producer: Sabina Pająk-Maciaś Storyboard: Michał Murawski Editor: Marta Wadecka Data Wrangler: Michał Własiuk Audio/Video Technique: Maciej Żak, Maciej Niemirski CTO: Tomasz Kruszona Lead Pipeline TD: Jarosław Zawiśliński Pipeline TD: Łukasz Dąbała, Witold Duraj, Tomasz Kurgan, Maksim Kuzubov Head of IT: Piotr Getka IT: Jakub Dąbrowski, Krzysztof Konig, Marcin Maciejewski, Łukasz Olewniczak TECHLAND TEAM Warszawa Art Director: Agata Cholewa Lead Cinematic Artist: Krzysztof Stefański Cinematic Artist: Kacper Szymczak, Michał Nizinski, Michał Monart, Bartłomniej Borawski Previs Artist: Jan Sojka, Katarzyna Olszewska Animators: Ryan Sequeira, Marco Cagnacci, Katarzyna Olszewska Technical Animator: Wojciech Kucia Concept Artist: Aleksey Pollack, Barbara Światczak, Agnieszka Bobrowska Character Artist: Alexandru Halcescu, Renata Ryszkowska English Writer: Travis Currit Technology Programmer: Jarosław Bronisz IT Administrator: Radosław Nojak Wrocław Creative Director: Adrian Ciszewski Head of Marketing: Ed Lin Lead Brand Manager: Will Graham Digital Distribution Director: Michał Miłosz Composer: Olivier Deriviere VO Producer : George R. Ledoux Voice Over: Jonah Scott Sound Design: Wojtek Siadak, Tomasz Siadak Level Art: Adrian Nowak, Jarosław Gąsior, Katarzyna Tarnacka, Paweł Maliński, Piotr Wojtas Motion Capture Specialist: Szymon Lasota Producer: Jacek Szarejko, Małgorzata Mitręga Animation: Dariusz Kaszycki, Dawid Lubryka, Kaja Kisielewska, Krzysztof Kotarba, Mathieu Courtois Technical Animator: Bartosz Kulon, Błażej Kowalski, Hubert Jarnecki, Janusz Borkowski Engine suport: Daniel Janowski, Konrad Kucharski, Łukasz Burdka, Mateusz Supronowicz Video Editing: Karol Sapiński, Przemysław Mróz

FX artist: Łukasz Kozak Senior Character Artist: Arkadiusz Jarmuła, Dominik Wasieńko, Jan Siomin, Maciej Sobolewski, Przemysław Mirowski Character Artist: Łukasz Grabny Junior Character Artist: Karolina Holly, Katarzyna Bech Lead 3D Enviro Artist: Michał Kubas Senior Material Artist: Marek Musiał, Mateusz Manes Senior Concept Artist: Krzysztof Baron, Rafał Rybak Concept Art: Lorenzo Tosi Quality Assurance: Aron Pietroń

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recentanimenews · 2 years

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Japanese Publishing Giant Shueisha Establishes Shueisha Games, Introduces First Four Titles

Shueisha, the Japanese publisher behind Shonen Jump and some of the biggest manga titles in the world, is stepping into the arena of games with a recently established company. Featuring Shinichiro Hirono as representative director and Masahiko Ibaraki, Motokazu Kitabatake, Yoshihisa Heishi and Masana Takahashi as company directors, Shueisha Games currently has multiple titles in the works for later this year and beyond.

Among the revealed games we have tentatively-titled 3D action game ONI, due out on unspecified platforms in 2022. This one is being developed by Small World Entertainment under the direction of Kenei Design.

The Tower of Children is a survival roguelike adventure that's on the way this summer.

Captain Velvet Meteor in The Jump+ Dimensions finds a shy boy named Damien moving to Japan and eventually fighting alongside Shonen Jump+ heroes in his imaginary world. The tactical action game is coming to Nintendo Switch this summer.

UKIYO is a cyberpunk adventure with a distinctly Japanese aesthetic that's being penciled in for sometime between 2022 and early 2023.

Beyond these titles, there's a new mobile game in the works at a major overseas game company, featuring character designs by a famous Weekly Shonen Jump artist. The release date is TBA but its global plans will begin in Japan and Asia.

There's also a "Multiplayer Speed Trick Action Title" in the works, as well as new large-scale projects that will team Shueisha's popular writers and editorial knowledge up with major game companies. Stay tuned for more on all of these and other titles in the pipeline soon, and check out the official website for Shueisha Games.

Source: Shueisha Games via Gematsu

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Joseph Luster is the Games and Web editor at Otaku USA Magazine. You can read his comics at subhumanzoids. Follow him on Twitter @Moldilox.

By: Joseph Luster

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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itraininginchandigarh · 3 years

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Animation courses after 12 in Chandigarh

Animation courses after 12 in Chandigarh: Animation is the process of giving life to stable images. It creates a sense of an illusion of motion in static images by photographing the subject matter one frame at a time and afterward, it displays the images in quick series at high frames per second.

The students who are interested in creating animations like generating lighting, backgrounds and creating special characters can choose animation courses after 12th in Chandigarh. There are several 2-years associate and 3/4-years bachelor’s degree courses in animation. Generally, animation courses do not require any essential skills or knowledge but students should have a basic working knowledge of computers and must be capable of utilizing colors, graphics, and sounds. It is one of the creative fields where a learner should choose their own high imagination qualities and fast improvisation skills. A learner who selects an animation course learns the traditional digital techniques like stop-motion, claymation, 2-D and 3-D animation.

Eligibility – The students who have passed 10+2 (streams – Science, Commerce or Arts) from a recognized board are eligible to pursue the animation course. There are no minimum marks criteria for this course but in some cases, institutes demand 50% marks.

If you are searching for the best animation courses after 12th? You are actually standing at the crossroad of chances as far as your choice is concerned. There are various opportunities on offer, from B.A and B.Sc graduate courses to specialized certificate and diploma courses in animation in chandigarh. Click and discover the best animation courses after class 12th and find all the information you may want right from admission to placement.

Degree Courses

B. Sc (Multimedia)

B. Sc (Multimedia and Animation)

B.Sc (Animation)

B.Design (Multimedia)

B.Sc Graphic Design

BA in 3D Animation and Visual Effects (BA [AVFX])

BA in VFX animation

BFA (Animation)

Advanced diploma courses

Graduate Diploma in Print, Broadcast, multimedia journalism or online

2D and 3D Animation

3D Game development and programming

ACGPS (Advanced CG Pipeline) Specialization

Advanced diploma in 3D animation

Advanced diploma in animation and gaming

Advanced diploma in Digital Animation

Advanced diploma in Game Art

Animaster Maya Professional

Animation Film Making

Certificate courses

Certificate Course in Adobe Photoshop

Certificate Course in Adobe Illustrator

Certificate Course in Adobe In Design

Certificate Course in Adobe Premiere

Certificate Course in Particle Illusion

Certificate Course in Flash

Certificate Course in Director

Certificate Course in Anime Studio

Certificate Course in Dream weaver

Animation Courses Skills and Qualities

Necessarily, to become an animator, one should have a number of few qualities and skills –

Powerful Observation

Concentration

Minute Attention

Drawing

Sketching

Creativity

Software skills

Team-spirit

This article provides you a complete guide for Animation and various related courses in India in this particular field. It lists and talks in detail about numerous animation courses you can pursue after finishing your 12th and after your graduation.

IMPORTANCE OF ANIMATION IN TODAY’S WORLD

The animation is an art which plays a very important role in the business world as well as touches the lives of general masses. In this world of digital marketing, a lot of animation is used on the internet for advancement among the target audience. We come across animation on other mediums such as print media and television as it is one of the most adaptable and flexible means. The requirement for animation arises as a form of an excellent means of interactivity that helps to communicate the concept of any kind to a large number of audiences, whether young or old.

People accept that it is the medium that can bring ideas or thoughts to real life through character outlining. Animations are made by puting time and effort besides money in a storyline. This storyline has to be well scripted to keep the audience engaged and enveloping to the end. Animation has been used since ages to approach the general masses. For a generation, we have been watching characters like Spiderman, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Tom, and Jerry, etc. which have lived in our memories more than any text we might have read recently.

Career and Job Opportunities Under

Animation Courses

Unlike in old times, the demand for animators in the industries is increasing speedily. Animators are now required in different sectors of the economy.

Owing to such high demand, the number of job opportunities and career prospects is also enhancing in the field of Animation.

Below, we have stated a few of the career fields where Animators can advance.

A Director

Script Writer

Illustrator

Digital Painter

Modeler

Editor

Production Designer

Storyboard Artist

Layout Artist

Animator

Compositor

Animators can also select to work under firms and industries. Some of the sectors with a high demand for animators include

Animation Studios

Film Production Houses

Advertising Agencies

Game developing Firms

Media Agencies

Post-production Houses

Web Entities

Job Prospects, Scope and Salary

A decade back, animation courses were not so famous among the Indian students. With the growth of Indian animation films and cartoons, the animation courses in India started to gain popularity. The film production units along with the animation companies are investing huge amounts of money to improve the quality of animation in India. They have realized the possibility that animation has in the Indian market. So, there is a need for qualified and skillful animators in the industry.

The animation is not just about sketching, drawing, and giving life to characters. It is much more than that. A good animator has to go through various stages and processes before releasing a good piece of animation. The job profiles of an animator are –

1. Layout Artist 2. Product Designer 3. Digital Painter 4. Editor 5. Illustrator 6. Director 7. StoryBoard Artist 8. Script Writer 9. Animator

There are freelance work opportunities for animators. They can also start their own journey or work for companies in domains like Advertising Agencies, Film Production Houses, Computer and Mobile Game Developers, Animation Studios or Media Agencies.

The starting salary of an animator ranges from 10k-15k. With experience, the salary transmission capacity increases to 25k-10k. A good animator can also earn a high amount of 50k-60k.

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