Book Trailer Unleashed!

| mlatimerridley
Ridley and Latimer have been turned into chibis! Ridley: I only need one eye, like Sauron… Latimer: Takoyaki (octopus balls) anyone? No.. I didn’t think so.

Well, the book trailer is done! Here it is, as we promised! It’s all our own work (animation and art).

Hope you like it!

_________________________________________________________
Product description of Legend Unleashed
 
When an infamous criminal is unleashed from his prison, it has consequences for everyone in Carwick. Temperance Levinthal in particular…
Temperance is satisfied with her ordinary life. Dealing with her eccentric, childlike parents is all the excitement she needs. That changes when Alastair Byron returns home.
After a failed matchmaking attempt by her father, sparks fly between her and Alastair-just not the good kind.
They are forced together though, when they are implicated in a grisly murder. Their search for the truth leads them to a secret world beneath Carwick, filled with werewolves, wizards and other magical faey.
However, uncovering the truth is far more dangerous than they’d ever imagined.
There are secrets within secrets.
Even Alastair may be more than he seems…
_________________________________________________________________

Ridley: It’s a stop motion animation with black silhouettes, kind of in the style of Lotte Reigner. Here’s some of the pictures below that I took while making it- and when I remembered to take them!

From drawing rough sketches of the different scenes and characters.

From cutting out the silhouettes.

From recording the animation.

The animation was carried out in my garage room (as you can see from the clutter! Go look back at the picture of the camcorder, do you see the empty Tayto box from many Christmases ago? Told you we love crisps in Ireland-see the post Irishisms, if you’re now going ‘Huh?’) Despite the chaos, this was the darkest place in the house, so the best room for animation creating! In a way, I made the light box. It’s a long frosted glass table that I got second hand (at an excellent price) and I went to Woodies (local hardware shop) to buy a light, which I placed underneath the table. It beat paying a 100 euro plus for an official A4 light box. The tripod and the camcorder aren’t mine, they were borrowed!

Latimer: At this point, please imagine me texting, and viber messaging Ridley, saying ‘how’s it going? yeah, yeah? Harder, monkey! Work harder!’, sipping my tea, crackin’ the whip. Editing on the side 🙂 (as Ridley bled real blood, I bled metaphorical editing blood).

Ridley: I recorded the frames of the animation with the programme ‘I Can Animate’, then I used Windows Movie Maker to gather the clips and create the video. Audacity was a programme I used for the music and sound effects. It’s fantastic to use, quite simple once you learn the ropes.

Latimer: I wish I could have strapped a camera to Ridley’s head while she did all of this. Because I would have loved to hear the, ‘oh dear god, noooo! what happened?’ moments. Next time, I will- I’ll document it!

Ridley: Latimer and I collaborated on it all (Latimer: she’s being nice, the animation is Ridley’s brain-baby- I was a sound-board for the story-board, music and descriptions- but really props to Ridley for this!), deciding on what worked in the animation once it was recorded, the font used on the slides and the type of music we needed to create the right ‘feel’ for the trailer.

For the parts like the chains behind the clock and blood drops, I used Deleter screen, which is used all the time by manga artists. The paper has grey tones and designs, which can be cut out and stuck onto your picture. It’s great stuff. I bought it with the trailer in mind when we were in Tokyo after we found one of the best art shops there, Sekadio in Shinjuku (Latimer: working holiday, the only way to holiday! Haha!).

 We were in heaven, except for the fact it was packed and all the aisles were really narrow! And I am a browser, I wander the aisles, which you couldn’t really do there! (Latimer: yeah, poor shop design really too narrow! and claustrophobic!)

Overall, I had an absolutely fantastic time making this. It’s my first ever video, though I’ve always had a love for animation, second only to writing! Most of my favourite movies are animated. Aardman, Pixar, Blue Sky Studio, Dreamworks-I love all their stuff. In Ireland, we’ve Brown Bag films,  Boulder Media and Cartoon Saloon to name but a few of the companies here, all of which are making waves in the animation industry!

So as you can see, I relished the chance to create this trailer and join my two great loves, writing and animation. I just really hope people like it!

38 thoughts on “Book Trailer Unleashed!”

    1. Thanks a million J.D! 🙂 Nightmare Before Christmas happens to be one of our favourite films, so absolutely chuffed to have it remind you of it in any way! In general, that was the ‘feel’ we wanted for it or tried for anyway! Though I had the music from Caspar the ghost film , ‘One Last Wish’ (the piano version), playing in my mind as I made the trailer. It’s an absolutely beautiful piece. That more or less influenced me too.

      Reply

  9. Wow, I am very impressed! The creativity on display staggers me and this is actually the first book trailer I’ve seen that I’ve liked. Well done and award yourself five cool points!

    Reply

    1. Wow, James, thanks a million! Really glad you like it! We’ll store those cool points for later, I’m sure we’ll have a few geeky fails that will put us into minus figures, we’ll need them! 🙂

      Reply

      1. Anything except those chinese and japanese ones, where they got those spiked hairs and only do fighting all day with superpowers. I mean the ones like Naruto, Dragon Ball etc.

        I love animes like Kung Fu panda, Despicable me, Megamind etc etc.. And yeah, 2D cartoons also like Cindrella and Alladin.

        Reply

        1. Oh, all those films are brilliant! Despicable Me is hilarious! Kung Fu Panda and Megamind have really touching scenes, the animation in them is superb.

          Reply

    1. Ah seriously, thanks a million, Stephanie! 🙂 And welcome to our blog! Really great to have you! I’m going to pop on over and visit you, must check out that giveaway! I’m never very lucky when it comes to winning things, but as our lottery ad here says, ‘if you’re not in, you can’t win’!

      Reply

  13. I’ve never been one for youtube book trailers, but I thought I’d give this one a shot and seeing all the hard work you’ve put into it, I can safely say I LOVE it!
    The creativity is absolutely phenomonal! Congratulations! 🙂

    Reply

    1. Wow, phenomenal!? Thank you so much!! We’ve gone round with red faces the last few days due to all the blushing from all these unbelievable comments! 🙂

      Reply

  14. Wow! Sorry for the late visit. I didn’t know I was following amazing, awesome and amusing creative artists. Thank You for showing us the process in this creation. Love the back and forth conversations.

    Reply

    1. Ah, you’re too kind!! Thanks a million!
      I’m glad you enjoyed seeing the process, it’s one of my favourite parts in posts displaying something that’s been made! Love seeing how other people produce things.

      Reply

Leave a Reply