Dear Insane Children,
It’s Monday here in Shanghai… heading into another “Live Stream Week” – there will be a livestream at the usual time this week – with TONS going on.
The Asylum Team continues their work on design, art, and story for Alice: Asylum. I’m working with Alex on the narrative; the Art Team is creating illustrations of the story; Alex is cramming all of that into the Design Bible; and we’ve got some interesting Biz Dev work happening on the rights… Cross your fingers for that last bit. It could be the key to everything!
The Plushie Dreadfuls line over at Mysterious is going Bonkers. Hard to say exactly what happened but excitement for our Rabbits has recently exploded. We can hardly breed them fast enough to keep up with demand. That means we now have a small team (Yan and Jen) working on branding, planning, and other aspects of managing and growing that brand. That’s another win for Crowd Design, our Insane Children, and Patreon in general. Yay!
And we’re busy prepping materials for more Oz: Adventures meetings. With [REDACTED], we have a big meeting scheduled for the middle of this month (March 2020). Plus the TV/Film meetings being run by Radar are just starting to ramp up. Alex is building a new PPT, I’m planning our meeting strategy, etc, etc.
So… busy but good.
Animated Alice
Omri sent over the main image above where we see Alice fleeing/fighting through a battle in front of the Queen’s Castle.
Of this image, he says, “I’m coloring it in but I’m not sure on the coloring style.
we had this in Madness- this half flat kinda animation feel world but I can push this towards realism. any ideas what’s best?”
So let him know in the comments below what YOU think. Any ideas about the style to go with here? Animated? Realistic? What appeals most to you?
Raawwr The Jab Lab!
The Jab Lab sounds like the place where they are concocting the vaccine for the pandemic. But it’s actually where Hatter is retrofitting the Jabberwock to save Wonderland. I think I’ve not yet shared this image here on Patreon… If I have, I apologize.
This is a work in progress from Adam. It depicts the scene when Alice finally comes face to face with “The Champion.” She’s been told this is what will save Wonderland from The Chaos.
The idea is to create an area where Alice can see The Champion is being built – but where she can’t actually see The Champion… until it’s too late.
I said of this on Monday:
This is fantastic. I really like the idea that the Jabberwock is hidden behind some sort of symbol-covered vault door before he emerges from the process. Partly because it’s like a butterfly from its cocoon and is unexpected for the same reason – from a tiny cocoon is born this creature many times larger than imagined.
This gives us a chance to really build up the idea that what’s contained inside is noble, graceful, and looks like what everyone expects a “hero” to look like… but The Dragon emerges instead. It’s also a good metaphor for Alice aligning herself with The Dark Side in order to move forward in her transformation.
Very excited to see this illustration fully rendered. I’ve also had some thoughts recently on the manner of the ‘twist’ in the reveal of this character and this scene in general. Will share those via the narrative soon.
Ok, I’m going to continue my running… but will be back later this week with more updates. And a Live Stream!
Art Print Update
Oh, and Font Lord asked me to tell everyone who might still be waiting on Art Prints: They are on the way! And I’ll add to that – Yes, there is a backlog (especially for the 3-for-35 folks). And that backlog is entirely my fault. Despite the fact that I start work at 8 am every day and work into the evenings… I am still struggling to find time to sign, pack, and ship all the Art Prints. This is especially true with the ones that require me to hand-pick and sign one-by-one… the monthly “bulk” prints are easier because they can be done in one big batch. The ones you manually select with the 3-for-35… harder because they require individual handling.
I apologize. And ask that you please be patient. Lots of juggling going on around here… And some days I just don’t have the time (or energy) to tackle that task. Rest assured, it is very important to me and I am chipping away at it as quickly as I can. Your understanding is really appreciated.
With Busy Legs from Shanghai,
-American