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!
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!
Carwicky 
M. Latimer-Ridlley,
I’m impressed. Nice work, friends.
Le Clown
Ah our friend Le Clown, we’re delighted you’re impressed! 🙂 Thank you!!
Well done… Fantastic!
My teenage son made mine, not quite so impressive as yours but I love him for it 🙂
Thanks a million Maggie. That’s so sweet that he made it for you, what a great son! 🙂
That is brilliant. For some reason it reminded me of Nightmare Before Christmas, think it was the music.
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.
Awesome work indeed! Congratulations!
Thanks a million!! You’re very kind! 😀
A lot of hard work was put into this. Awesome!
Thanks a million Daphnee! Really glad you like it! 🙂
WONDERFUL! Praying for much success in your work. Thank you for taking time to visit my blog.
BE ENCOURAGED! BE BLESSED!
Thank you so much!! Wish you all the best too!!
your blog is cool, its really cool, thanks for finding us, we now have been blessed with your sharing your brilliant imagination. You are cool
We’re glad you think we’re cool! Thanks! 🙂 Your blog is really beautiful, the colours are so vibrant with all the flower pictures!
nice
Wow what an awesome effort – very jealous!
Thanks very much David! Your blog is great, very funny! 🙂
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!
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! 🙂
U know, I am a die-hard anime fan! loved this one! 😀 😀
What anime do you watch? You have two big fans here too!! 🙂
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.
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.
Wow – I am blown away. That really is fantastic and it does look like quite good fun! Fantastic post and insight. Thanks!
New to your blog 🙂
Steph @ Stepping Out Of The Page
P.S. I also have an International Giveaway on at the moment!
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’!
It is my honor to share the One Lovely Blog Award with you. Stop by and pick it up if you like 🙂 http://wp.me/p2wxQT-9B
Wow, thanks a million Christina!! 🙂
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! 🙂
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! 🙂
Ahhh, you deserve them a lot! 🙂
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.
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.
Totally blew me away! Huge production – well done, girls! =D
From a follow anime/manga/K-drama lover (aka fantastic taste! Haha), we’re absolutely delighted you liked it! 🙂 Thanks a million!
Wow, the trailer looks impressive and sounds like tons of work. BTW…I love takoyaki 🙂
Thanks a million Alison!! Haven’t actually tried takoyaki-one day!
Brilliant trailer! Looking forward to reading the book. You have great talents. More please …..
Thank you so much!! 🙂