Writing book one had a surprising effect on my own life, but writing these sequels impacted my mind, body, and spirit in ways I didn’t even know were possible. I’ve emerged the process stronger and more resilient both mentally and physically and the story continues to be a reminder of what strengthens, heals, and builds me further!

That result would have been sufficient reason to create this project. To add to this success, In even a difficult economy, we were were able to fund the printing of book through Backerkit!

The trilogy continues to be available for pre-order here:

An additional transformation came in the visual art process:

I made a vow in this project (and beyond) to completely avoid using generative A.I. even in my search for inspiration and reference (which was a challenge when searching through saturated online image websites – we’re looking at you, Pinterest!). Scrolling past all ai-generated images, even when one seemed to resemble the vision in my mind, resulted in some surprising and fun creative decisions. 

Because of this, I made great strides as an artist and even found ways to do illustrations twice as fast, then three times as fast, all by combining real-world skills in inventive ways.

Here are screenshots documenting the process on one of the most challenging illustrations:

Additionally, Contributing my animation skills to Spice Frontier’s pilot episode has truly pushed my skills to a new level.

Recently, we surpassed 1 million views, which in an internet world buried in algorithms, is a remarkable accomplishment!

Go Steamroller Studios!!! It’s easy to see that this studio does premium work, however, the real reason I love working at Steamroller is the way we treat the people!

Here’s my animation work, the full episode, and some treadmill dance reference for your enjoyment!

And more and more information is being released about Steamroller’s original I.P. “Spice Frontier.” It’s a high quality project and again, one of the best collaborative experiences I’ve had in this industry.

Here are the bits of news I can share so far:

Enjoy and I’ll have more news for you soon.
~Scott Wiser

Prince of Egypt and Brave Director Brenda Chapman gaved it the following glowing review: “How beautiful, poignant and lyrical!! Well done!! I enjoyed it immensely! I needed that nice moment to stop and enjoy something so enchanting!”

Several others have said: “Amazing!” “Inspiring!” “Beautiful.” “Moving.”

If you are also inspired by the film, please share it with as many others as you can. And now, without further into, here is: Layers: An Animated Short!

Along-side Layers, I’ve also developed another illustrated-novel/feature about a timid woman who buys a private island to be alone, only to discover it is already inhabited by circus people.

I would love to have your support in the Kickstarter campaign, and thanks in advance for engaging with my content!

I’ll get into buttons and functions at the end of the post, but here is my overall process:

1. With my video reference up in the corner of my Photoshop document, I drew out the rough poses in red, laying the foundation. Of course, this didn’t feel alive yet, but it provided a great road map for the animation.

2. Utilizing the onion skin features in the Timeline Window’s dropdown menu, I drew the in-between drawings and refined the original drawings. I spent a lot of time here pushing everything until the animation felt solid to my eye. Animation is a skill that takes years to master, so I can’t stress the importance of this phase enough. Because my drawings here are rough, I found myself making even more adjustments later on so the animation felt right.

3. After creating my color palette, with the Animation at 30% opacity, I filled in the main blocks of color using the lasso, fill, and a hard brush. During this process, I had to watch closely as sometimes the tools produce a jagged edge that needed refining. I often switched between this dark background and white in the layers panel depending on which color I was blocking in.

4. In the longest part of the process, I rendered each feature (eyes, nose, cheek, hair, etc.) in its own separate video group. This method was useful as I often reused the same element over multiple frames using the transform tools. And I could often use the base color blocks to wand select and speed up my process. I also manually added motion to the hands to enhance the animation. To add the final touches, I used After Effects because I was able to throw in the diamonds at the end with speed and precision. I mixed the sounds in Premiere.

The Nitty Gritty:

At the beginning of the process, you have to choose what kind of animation you want to do, I chose “Create Video Timeline” because the Frame animation is older to Photoshop and I find it’s less useful for my needs. Right away, in the Timeline Window, I make sure to go into the drop down menu and set the frame rate to 24 frames per second.

The drop-down menu also contains the onion skinning features that are so crucial to hand drawn animation. By selecting the settings option herein, you can tell Photoshop how many frames before and after you want to see as you draw your in-betweens. You also have a few display modes that can help as your animation becomes more detailed.

The Split At Playhead button is also crucial. The first time you use it, the frames will appear on different layers. With “Enable Auto-Grouping Of Clips” checked in the drop-down menu, you can drag the upper clip down next to the lower and create a video group. Each time I use this tool I ask myself, “Do I need a clear layer for my next drawing or will I re-use part of this current drawing?” If it’s the former, I split the clip before drawing. If it’s the latter, I wait until I’m finished to split the clip.

Conclusion:

Hopefully, this post was enjoyable and helpful. As this was a test for my upcoming short film, I currently feel I need to make more discoveries to speed up and improve my process for digital, hand-drawn animation.  If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to comment.  Enjoy!

I’ll talk about the things I learned below, but I first need to thank those scholarhippers who made this possible for me. Thanks to the Cartoon Talent Network who not only provided funding for this event but also gave me a free 3-day pass to their amazing expo – which I’ve attended the past 3 years. Every time I go to that event, it changes my life. Thanks to CSU Summer Arts, who also gave me a scholarship and connected me to people of diverse artistic disciplines. For those interested in next year’s animation course, it will actually be sponsored by Nickelodeon and focus on pitching animated tv series. And last, but not least, I’d like to thank my current employer Weber State Campus Store, who were just supportive all around as I pursued this adventure. We’ll soon have some exciting content to share from there as well.

It is impossible to convey everything I learned in this experience, but I’ll try to pass on the gems. The first surprise for me was exposure to the other disciplines. I’m already someone who seeks out diverse artistic experience, but from the moment we attended the performance by PUSH Physical Theater I knew I was among some unique, high caliber artists.

The Second surprise was collaborating with Todd Waring, a successful broadway, film, AND TV actor. He was an amazing teacher and really worked to understand our process. Through him, I understood acting on a MUCH deeper level. We created our shots in what began as a very random creation process, but the more we worked on bringing everything back to the character we’ve been creating, we discovered some awesome ideas. When Todd left, I almost teared up. The experience was THAT amazing.  I fortunately took good notes and kept a thorough record in my journal.

The Third surprise was Rex Grignon (check out his awesome sculptures). This guy worked on the original Toy Story, helped pioneer Dreamworks’ CG department, recently directed animation in Madagascar 3, and is a dedicated, humble teacher. I hope to work with him again and look forward to his mentorship in the future.  The most exciting collaborative moment we had was at the very end. I had an hour left and he wanted to try out a big change to my animation. We dove in and in 5 minutes raised my shot to a new level! He told me he’ll never forget how our group handled that final countdown crunch time. We were whistling, enthusiastic, and engaged. I was still moving about the room collaborating on others shots till the end. It was bliss – the kind of experience I’ve craved as I animated alone for the past two years. Rex was a joy to work with and I couldn’t thank him enough. He has the spirit of TRUE collaboration! He likes to learn and grow, but the LOVES to give.

I was also surprised by the impact of physical activity on our animation. We played a lot of Frisbee and some volleyball as a break from animation. I can’t articulate how this affected our team of animators. All I can say is that I definitely need to incorporate fun physical activity into my workflow. The results are immeasurable.

And the the last surprises I’ll share now are the great animators I worked with. Our lunch conversations were an outpouring of knowledge and passion for animation. We all grew substantially as both people and animators. I’m going to ask them to comment below so you can engage them in conversation and check out their work.

And now, my animation. When I look at this shot I feel excited for the future, for the greater animated shots coming soon! Setting aside some of the projects I promised  you (which I WILL finish), I’m now going to polish my reel with the abilities I gained in working with Rex.

Here’s the animation we made:

I can’t wait to share more of this journey with you and chat with you in the comments below. Talk soon!

Voting ended January 29th, 2013. The animated shot-in-progress and future shots can be found in a new post here.

It just so happened that you chose the project I most hoped to develop. Because of your votes and comments, I know how to make this a dynamic, even more enjoyable story. I considered story votes first, followed by design votes, and even took mentions into a small account.  Vanishing Ink (Day 1) took 1st place for story (13 votes) and had 17 votes overall. Days 3 & 4 tied in votes (7 ) for story but for design, Half (Day 3) had most votes of any image, taking 2nd place (15 total votes).  And down by 2 total votes, Cirque Du Solitude took 3rd place (12 total votes). After that, the stories placed in the following order:

Day 6) Sun, Moon, and Stars (8 votes)
Day 10) Super Corporate (7 votes)
Day 8) A Painter’s Touch (5 votes)
Day 7) Miss Perfection (4 votes)
Day 2) Mr. Hat Maker (4 votes)
Day 9) Flowers For India (3 votes)
Day 5) I Do (3 votes)

Thanks again for your overwhelming enthusiasm. Updates coming soon!

Day 1). A lazy, washed up magician discovers the lines, drawn by the creators as the structure of our world, are disappearing. Will he get out there and stop it?

– Vanishing Ink

Mike Gasaway, Animation Director & my former mentor, wrote his own interesting take on this story synposis. It made this great character take a more active role is the world slowly disappearing. Read more story details and Mike’s logline here.

Day 2). When a Halloween prank goes awry when stolen, magic hats begins transforming the kids who committed the crime.

– Mr. Hat Maker

Read More About This Story

Day 3). An ancient spell splits a girl’s soul in two, leaving the girl pure and creating her opposite, the ultimate Evil.

– Half

Click To See Larger Art and Read More About This Story

Day 4). An awkward, timid woman buys a private island to get away – only to discover strange inhabitants invading her haven.

– Cirque Du Solitary

Read More About This Story

Day 5). A newlywed bride has a vision of their imminently deadly one-year anniversary and makes plans to change her fate.

– I Do.

Read More About This Story

Day 6). As the nations who inhabit the sun and moon wipe each other out, the last sun-boy and moon-girl, though worlds apart, fall in love.

– Sun, Moon, and Stars

Read More About This Story

Day 7). America’s favorite female celebrity becomes the prime suspect in the mysterious death of a homeless man.

– Miss Perfection

Read More About This Story

Day 8). An old, mute painter returns to his alma mater, the university where secret deceptions destroyed his family, and makes his revenge… by painting.

–A Painter’s Touch

Read More About This Story

Day 9). In the depths of a rigid, oppressive society, a young girl joins a free-spirited, secret society with an unhealthy obsession for all things India.

– Flowers For India

Read More About This Story

Day 10). A superstar business graduate is shoved to the bottom of a failing corporation, which drives him to super hero “delusions” and sneaking through the corridors of the skyscraper.

– Super Corporate

Read More About This Story

I first had the idea for the book when I was working on Alvin & The Chipmunks 3. I wrote the idea down followed by a sketch. It came into my head as an animated series, then a short film, then finally an innovative picture book. Here is the success story, my sources of inspiration, and a resource for your own innovations. Feel Free to skim through, explore the sections that interest you, and even purchase a copy of my book to see the results of this exciting journey.

Why not a short film?

I could list many reasons : limited time, limited resources (the story would take at least half hour do do it properly!), other projects I want to do, etc. But number one reason was my desire to maximize quality+profitability. I’ve seen too many great artists create too many great pieces without hardly receiving monetary compensation.

I’m not the first who set out to create a profitable project like Misfit Supers.  There are innovators like Jason Brubaker who created his reMIND books while working at Dreamworks, Lora Innes and her successful Dreamer comic, my former mentor (director) Mike Gasaway who create Little Mikey the Vampire Monkey and other books on his path to directing a movie, and William Joyce who led the Moonbot artists to create the wildly successful Morris Lessmore App (which doubled as an academy award winning short). And speaking of William Joyce, take a look as his creative impact on both illustration and film. You’ll see why I was inspired to choose this direction. Oh, and I can’t forget Ryan Woodward’s Bottom of the Ninth – first animated graphic novel ever – with the success of Misfit Supers I hope to explore projects like Ryan’s in the future.

Motion Pictures or Pictures Of Motion?

Even though end project would not be a short film (yet), my approach was much the same. Animation pre-production greats like Brittney Lee, Chris Oatley, and Pascal Campion produce artwork endued with all the qualities of great animation (posing, weight, balance, etc). Considering my background as an animator, I hoped to reach the same caliber of story driven art. So I filmed extensive reference footage for every possible action in the story and sketched many options per idea. I treated every composition as a scene from a film and every layout as a group of storyboards. As a result, many people have commented on its “cinematic” appeal and I even recently had a rep from an animation studio chase me down, wondering where she could get a copy to show their director.

Storyboards or Picture Books or Graphic Novels?

I’m not the first animator with interest in picture books, nor am I the first to create a picture book with comic elements. David Weisner’s award winning books are heavily influenced by graphic novels.  The Paper Wings Podcast has created a supportive community of illustrators and writers who also cross these borders. They led me the great comic theory books by Scott McLoud which led me to David Chelea’s Perspective! comic.  To better understand visual story and film language, I purchased the amazing Storyboard Secrets course by the personable Sherm Cohen – to discover that he began his successful career as comic artist. The more I learn about comics, illustration, and film, the more I realize see the power of understanding them all together  – the animation genius Hayao Myazaki is ultimate proof of this realization.

Freewriting or Story Structure?

I like to let my imagination run wild and free as much as the next creator. But unless we can, as Brian McDonald says, “see the footprints in the grass” our stories loose their power. In fact, I used Brian McDonald’s books Invizible Ink and Golden Theme (the most empowering story books out there) to workshop my story. His books are among my favorite screenwriting books, which also include Blake Snyder’s Save The Cat! (for marketablibilty) and Robert McKee’s Story (for in depth story philosophy). I believe these books, Brian’s especially could provide a necessary foundation for any storyteller. I will soon be “running” another story marathon using their techniques to create successful stories for future projects.

Prose or Poetry?

I hoped the use of poetry would not only raise the appeal for youngest audiences, but delight seasoned readers as well.  It also hearkened back the days when I was creating my bachelors in English, Art & Communication at Weber State University. Those were some of the greatest days of my life (met my wife there!) and I believe the work I did there prepared me just as much as my work in animation. It lit my fiery passion for learning and collaboration – two of the most beautiful words in the English language.

Drawing or Painting?

To quote my great friend Chris Oatley, “Great paintings happen before the paint.” For that reason, solid drawing and character design was second only to story structure. With the aid on Tom Bancroft‘s unparalleled character design books, Mark Simon‘s facial expressions books (I’ve sketched about 1.2 books so far), and even my latest discovery of the stellar drawing videos at Proko.com, I pushed my drawings further than ever before. Building on those drawings, I gathered extensive research images and studied the techniques in James Gurney’s painting books to bring the characters to full-color life! Look at the image of the first time I sketched the characters compared to a final image … it took a TON of drawings to discover to the qualities I was searching for:

Creative or Business?

Sometimes creatives and business people seem to repel each other, but in my experience it is possible to be the best of friends. My friend Zach Smith –  entrepreneurial genius and co owner of StartDoingBusiness.com – was actually the reason I started this project. He loved my idea, showed me how it can make a profit, and has blown my expectations away – every step of the way. Another business friend, Chef Shaun Bucher, guided me through the publishing process. And finally, my pharmaceutical/business friend Nate Stout, who’s been with me since the beginning of my animation journey, has been my constant sounding board. While simultaneously creating this book, I’ve also enjoyed helping to create his skin-care business, Apotheterra.

Quit or Continue?

To tell the cold, hard truth, this project felt too ambitious at times and there were several moments where I felt like just going back to animating. But having all these amazing inspirations I’ve listed above, and support from my family, my friend David Wilson, Sam Kirkman, Lee Wiley, and others from the aforementioned Paper Wings Community, the choice to continue was easy! On October 15th 2012, we kicked a year of unemployment by sending this book to the digital publisher. In the following weeks, I’ve received hearty praise from private reviewers And in the months to come, with your help, I believe we can make Misfit Supers a huge success.

Wait? Was this a behind-the-scenes-article, a promotional piece, or just a huge thank you letter? It was all of the above, I couldn’t have reached this level of success without standing on the shoulder of giants. And I won’t be able to continue successfully without YOUR HELP.  What can you do? You can buy the book, share the news with your friends, leave questions and positive reviews in the comments below, or all of the above. Thank you for you support and here’s to the future!

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Here’s what people were saying about the Misfit Supers in early stages of development: “Scott I just read it and I really love it! [This story] has legs!” –Sam Kirkman. “This is super cut…it’s so funny…a really awesome project,” –Sarah Winifred Searle. “…A fresh take on the superhero genre.” –Henrike Dijkstra. These comments were just after reading the rough draft! And such comments put a great responsibility on my shoulder to live up to and a standard I hope to push higher.  Since then, the story & characters have grown & improved.

At this point, I have the characters designed and the story refined. From here, I am moving on to the layout stage followed by typography, color scripting, painting, and final formatting. Along the way, I will be sharing great tidbits about story, design, and overall progress as I go. Visuals will be posted under the magic-golden-ball link at the top of scottwiser.com. And updates will be posted on Twitter (ScottKWiser) and here under “News & Views”.

Thanks for the overwhelming support so far, my friends, and I will see you soon!