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

If there’s anything a career in TV, Film, Games, and Commercials has taught me, it would be how to create a good process.

Goals and dreams are great. We need targets to aim at.  Still they can possibly lead to discouragement if we don’t have a good process in place, especially if we haven’t built enjoyment into our processes.

[DISCLAIMER: Since writing this post, I have left Funded Today to continue my freelance animation career. The video and page design divisions are now in the hands of my talented, former teammates. Please do not interperet this article as an endorsement of Funded Today’s services. I encourage you to do thorough research before hiring any company to assist with your crowdfunding campaign. Thanks!]

When I started this video division with Funded Today, I had no idea what the process of running a business would look like. Yet I had two thoughts: 1. Having a mentors like Funded Today’s co-founders, Zach Smith and Thomas Alvord [which are two of the many mentors I’ve had in this challenging journey] could help me take care of what I lacked, and 2. I knew how to make a great video, so that would be the first step in my process.

So I made the first few videos and any time I wasn’t sure how to manage the business aspect, I turned to the leadership at Funded Today, and together we learned what to do and what not to do. Once they suggested I hire a few people, I did just that. I figured out processes to help client interaction, to help raise quality, to help make the most of our time. Those processes are under continual refinement.

When it came to advertising our own services, we spent extra time to create this video [edit: which I would now do so much differently]:

You can see the creative services salespage here, to see the successful handful projects we’ve created so far – one of which turned an $8,000+ campaign into a $184,000 campaign.

So how can all of this apply to those of you reading this post? Let’s simplify the process above into 4 easy steps.

1. Start with what you know.

2. Find a mentor who has had your desired success.

3. Create processes that help you produce great work.

4. Continually refine these processes.

When it comes to processes, the simpler the better. You don’t want to waste precious time you could spend building other parts of your business. Zach, Thomas, and I [discussed] plans and hope to eventually turn this into a feature film production business [edit: these plans me sharing my own aspirations and since leaving Funded Today, I continue pursue them in my own animation business], and that’s part of a life-long goal I can tell you more about later. The point is, success in life is a process – and we are all fully capable of succeeding if we can simply learn from great mentors and break the overall process (life) into smaller, more actionable processes.

As always, I can wait to hear from you in the comments and see the great things you’ll create!

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 powered up on unemployment! Anyone who has been “unemployed” for a month or more is familiar with the difficulties. When the going got tough, I would google “How to Survive Unemployment” and found plenty of articles. But I quickly realized I’d rather THRIVE than just SURVIVE. I’ve always marveled as the metaphor of pressure turning coal into diamonds, but it get’s abstract when you want to power-up yourself and become a diamond.  I’m not made of coal.  And rocks merely survive, plants merely flourish, animals follow instinct. What do human’s do? How can be become dazzling as diamonds? Hopefully we realize that unemployment (or any tough period) isn’t the end of the story, but a beginning of what could be one of the best periods of our life.

40+ Hours a Week

If we want a job, finding a job is now our full-time job. This is common knowledge. But for me the power up came when I contacted studio recruiters, found our what they want me to be, and worked 40 hours a week pushing myself to meet their expectations. In my case, this meant meeting deadlines and pushing each new animation to a higher level than the last.

Collaborate!

That’s my new favorite word, and a true power-up. For me, the more collaboration the better, so I found several people who dreamed of vocal acting and recorded with them. I consulted with other artists and even people from other disciplines while building projects. I asked for opinions and feedback on my work and relished the opportunity to improve. Working with people is the most fulfilling! It’s the thing I miss most about working in a studio. So any time I can collaborate, I relish it. [Update : Though brief, I’ve had the fortunate opportunity to work as a generalist with Maxwell Products on some animated marketing videos, with Farr’s Fresh on some character designs & poses, with my great friend Chris Oatley at his awesome online academy, etc. These experiences have renewed my conviction that collaboration is the way to go!]

Make a Progression Plan

Success comes from making goals and reaching them – common knowledge again. So why aren’t we all millionaires and Olympians? We could all reach that level of greatness simply by discovering their footsteps, adapting their plan to our situation, finding mentors, and following through. Practice will make “perfect” if our goal is to improve with each repetition. But here’s the WARNING: We will likely doubt our abilities to reach greatness.  As great artists before me, I more I stick through those times of “can I really do this?” the more I meet people’s enthusiasm toward my work. Planning has equipped me to explore continually greater heights. Download my Free Power-Up Worksheet to begin your own progression plan.

Re-energize For Productivity

Time management transformed my abilities not only at Rhythm & Hues, but also in the many months since. I am so passionate on the subject that I chose it as my upcoming guest post on paperwingspodcast.com. But if we aren’t careful, time management may become wasteful.  When planning our time, we can choose two types of activities : those that take energy and those that re-energize. Mixing in re-energizers can maximize productivity. For example, for a few months I sketched about 3000 facial expression from Mark Simon’s book as a way to pass the time playblasting my animation. Because animation takes a long time to perfect, the quick, successful (or even non-successful) sketches gave me a boost of accomplishment and made my facial animation better to boot!

Eating Healthy, Meditation (prayer/pondering/whatever-you-call-it), sunshine and exercise are also great energizers. Oh and I love to read – that’s one of my favorite energizers when I have time. But we have to be careful. While many people consider internet surfing to be a re-energizer, it sucks my energy away. So I personally highly limit the amount of time I spend on the internet. And because of this, I have more energy and more successes. In short, some activities might appear to re-energize when they actually do the opposite.

The End Of My Story

Though I have not yet reached the end, and employment will be a new beginning, I am having the time of my life. My demo reel is night-and-day different, I have climbed personal mountains, and because of these things I am confident I will be so much more valuable to the next studio. My new digital picture book has excited collaborators every step of the way and is positioned to sell successfully. And hopefully, my words help someone else out there, hoping to power-up during unemployment or any difficult period of life. I can’t wait to hear about YOUR successes!

It’s possible for the middle of the story to be just as amazing as the beginning and end, even if unemployment is in the title. It all depends on how we write.

Download the Power-Up Worksheet
Please share your success stories in the comments

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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