About animated novels and comics

[Elodie]

Recently, I noticed a new fashion about "animated novels and comics". They usually use Flash for this (as it allows to write action scripts, in order to read "next page"), but there are more and more other ways to proceed.

Here is a little selection

"1000 words" from Yuumei :
http://yuumei.deviantart.com/art/1000-W0RDS-126831037" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A "turbomedia" by Malek :
http://leblogamalec.blogspot.fr/2012/03/chronicle.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Another "turbomedia" by Dave Donut :
http://tvpaint.deviantart.com/favourite ... 4#/d3hj4n6" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


A cinematic from Metal Gear Solid : Peace Walker (video game) :



Trailer of the next Ryan Woodward graphic novel :



Enjoy and add your own ideas, critics, videos etc...

[Elodie]

And just today, someone sent me his first "animated comic" made with TVPaint.

What a coincidence

http://comics.boumerie.com/?p=616" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

(yes, it's only a moving tumbleweed, but well, it's a good beginning ^_^)

[idragosani]

Clearly we need more to be done with TVPaint, we can't let these Flash animators get the jump on us!

Of course, they have the capability to use the interactivity Flash provides, but I bet you could something similar with HTML5 like on Vimeo.

[Klaus Hoefs]

Flash/Action Script won't run on any Apple mobile device or as any enhanced ebook ( "vooks" ). The only way to get animation into ePub-format is to embed mp4 - files. QuickTime before X could be programmed via a script language, but Apple dropped it more or less. Maybe with the boom of graphic novels for eg iPad, Apple will pick it up again, maybe for their new successor player.
We had a discussion about the "new way" here some time ago, i definitely don't agree that it " is a fashion" - it is something already on its remarkable successful way having own new venues. Now you can create a novel by writing and designing it (eg iBook creator), selling it, uploading, downloading, paying and reading it all with your one hardware piece,the tablet. The only missing is the App with which you can make animation films on a pro level - this will come soon.

[idragosani]

However, Flash can run on the Android platform!

[Klaus Hoefs]

Far as I heard, Adobe announced to stop development of the Flash Player.
And they also announced a new media player.
IMO the Flash Player is awful in many, many ways.

[idragosani]

I think moving to HTML5 is the way to go. It's standard and requires no special plugins.

[Elodie]

Clearly we need more to be done with TVPaint, we can't let these Flash animators get the jump on us!

Of course, they have the capability to use the interactivity Flash provides, but I bet you could something similar with HTML5 like on Vimeo.

Haha
Yes, I'd be glad to see more animated comics with TVPaint.
I think and hope too that HTML 5 could be the solution !

When we changed the website, we hesitated to build it in HTML5, but information about it were too rare at this period, and we couldn't take any risk of bugs or incompatibilities.

But now, maybe we could peek an eye on the possibilities that HTML5 offers

We had a discussion about the "new way" here some time ago, i definitely don't agree that it " is a fashion" - it is something already on its remarkable successful way having own new venues. Now you can create a novel by writing and designing it (eg iBook creator), selling it, uploading, downloading, paying and reading it all with your one hardware piece,the tablet. The only missing is the App with which you can make animation films on a pro level - this will come soon.

Well, many animated graphic novels or comics are not made on tablet. They can be read on it, but all the examples I shown were made on computers.

IMO, tablets are like a great memory stick or an alive portfolio. At the moment, even if they are more powerful than any 5-years-old computer, they are still really poor in their use (too small, pressure is not existing on many tablets, except some models...).
I mean, a tablet can be great to quickly draw in train, show your art to a producer (it's better to see moving images than paper sheets) etc... But it's definitively not a tool for serious work.

For example : I can't imagine Paul Fierlinger trading his big computer and his 4 screens for a small Android tablet

IMO the Flash Player is awful in many, many ways.

Haha, yes, personally, I always hated Flash websites
But at the moment, Flash animation has the advantage to be lighter than any video or animated GIF (I mean, without losing quality).

[slowtiger]

Sorry, but HMTL5 is anything but "standard" yet. "HTML5" is mostly a marketing term for a bunch of features which were introduced by several browser suppliers, namely Opera. None of those was officially decided upon by the W3C consortium. Over time, it will, but right now designing in HTML5 means to gamble with user's installed software, because you never can be sure wether a certain browser may or may not support a certain feature. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5 for the dirty details.)

[idragosani]

Sorry, but HMTL5 is anything but "standard" yet. "HTML5" is mostly a marketing term for a bunch of features which were introduced by several browser suppliers, namely Opera. None of those was officially decided upon by the W3C consortium. Over time, it will, but right now designing in HTML5 means to gamble with user's installed software, because you never can be sure wether a certain browser may or may not support a certain feature. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5 for the dirty details.)

I should have said "being developed as a standard", rather than being owned by a single corporation. Many browsers support various levels of compliance to HTML5 without the need for dealing with a plugin, but it is still very experimental.