Archive for the ‘Tools’ Category

Amazon Fumbles Android

September 21st, 2011 Clint

They may have really messed up with their Android tablet strategy.

Back in March, I postulated the KindleDroid, a potentially massive move by Amazon into the tablet world. But if the rumours from TechCrunch are accurate then Amazon has missed the bull’s-eye… they may not even be on the paper.

I was hoping for a 10” with almost no bezel and it looks like we’ll have to make do with a 7” and wait until next year for the bigger display. That isn’t a deal breaker.

It is also a regular capacitive touch, backlit LCD with all the visual goodness and power consuming badness that goes with it. This too is not a deal breaker as long as the battery lasts at least ten hours… although the 50 that I guessed at for a colour e-ink display would have been nice. What would be really nice is if they bring some Touchco love to the tablet and give us pressure sensitivity and optional stylus goodness.

The word is that the Kindle Fire will sell it for $250- which is pretty damn nice considering that I was guessing at $100 less than the cheapest iPad 2 and this is $250 less… half the price of the least expensive product from Apple! I am sure that Apple won’t just roll over and let them have that big a price advantage but given the big problem I bring up below, they can probably get by with cutting the entry level iPad 2 by $100 not $250.

I don’t think they have to beat the $249 price tag of the Amazon Kindle because Amazon has crippled the device and fractured the Android market to boot.

That is the deal breaker- they’ve forked Android.

Amazon looks to be building their tablet on an obsolete version of the Android OS with a layer of proprietary Amazon bolted onto it that will ghettoize their customers.

There is very little they could have done to mess up the tablet but this is at the top of the list. The HP TouchPad and RIM PlayBook screwed up by trying to force yet another tablet OS on the user. Right now we have Apple’s iOS and Android and any different OS has to be a massive improvement or it is screwing the customer- not just different for difference sake. The Amazon tablet looks to be different simply for the sake of locking the customer in.

I’m not saying that it will backfire on them hard, but it should if the customer is even a little bit more savvy than Amazon gives them credit for.

I am sure that Amazon crunched the numbers pretty hard to figure out how much they would sell through a captive KindleDroid and how much that would allow them to subsidize the per unit sales price. My bet is that they figured that forking Android OS and locking the customer in was the only way for them to wiggle the price down to $250. They may think that this will allow them to corner a bigger percentage of the market and that was justification enough for them spend millions of dollars crippling the system.

Problem #1: It will only run apps that are specifically coded for an old, forked version of the Android OS with their additions. I am sure the app developers are overjoyed that, if they want their apps to run on the Amazon tablet, they will have to rewrite their old apps and dual stream the coding of their new apps. The Amazon customer will get a subset of available apps unless they take advantage of “Problem #2”.

Problem #2: It will take a whole day or three for the hackers to jailbreak the Amazon Kindle so that it will run an up to date version of the Android OS. How much money are they going to lose with tens of thousands of people buying the subsidized tablet just to set it free with the current version of Android OS?

It would have cost a fraction of what they spent if Amazon had just skinned and integrated their system on top of a fully functional and up to date version of the Android OS. There would be no fracturing of the market and no incentive to root their tablet.

Amazon gives great service and they are set to become even better- so it puzzles me why they thought they had a need to try and lock their customers away from any competing services?

Jeff, if you still have any influence in the boardroom, you might want to tell the bean counters that they are screwing your customers- trading long term growth for short term profits.

Unless of course you feel that both iOS and Android OS are doomed by the full OS with tablet integration? We will get Windows 8 next year and unless Apple has bought into their own marketing (it’s happened), they will do at least as good a job as Microsoft integrating a touch interface into the next integer upgrade of the MacOS.

Amazon’s strategy might make sense as a rear guard action against the next three to five years of market near-chaos as the limited capability tablet OS is subsumed back into the full OS. It isn’t in the best interests of the customer but Amazon might think it will help them better weather the storm.

I may well end up buying both the Amazon Kindle and the iPad 2 (or 3) just to ensure that my e-books work as cleanly as possible on both platforms.

That in itself is an indictment of how Amazon and Apple are treating their sheep customers.

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Google+ & Anonymity

September 5th, 2011 Clint

google-plus-plus

Even though they aren’t actually verifying that “John Doe” is your real name, there has been much hue and cry over Google+ requiring people to use a real names. This is a concern that Google could address while making their offering more versatile and valuable.

I would suggest a tiered system where the current honour system of "please use a real name" users are "Google+", properly verified users are "Google++" and anonymous users are tagged "Google-". These would have overlapping sites, utility and functions that could be mixed and matched to best suit what the user is looking for.

The users and creators inside Google’s social site could have the ability to limit their contact and interaction to the level that best suits them. There is no reason that it couldn’t be as fine grained as you want with some parts open to every level and the adjacent area limited to Google++ or Google-.

Real name policies lead to a far more civil and useful site than the boorish name calling and self aggrandizing BS hammered out by people hiding behind anonymity to say things that they would never say to anyone’s face. There is a reason a lot of sites that allow anonymous posting give those users the nom de plume of "Anonymous Coward". You might try and say that people are more honest when masked but it always seemed to be the mean spirited and destructive few that drive out the thoughtful and constructive many.

Wherever possible I sign up with the closest variation to Clint Johnson and try to include links back this eponymous website.

I understand that there are places and circumstances where anonymity means life and death but that doesn’t mean we need to hide everywhere and at all times.

Posted in Internet, Tools Tags: , No Comments »

Amazon KindleDroid? When Not If.

March 21st, 2011 Clint

Amazon isn’t releasing hard numbers but have said that the Kindle is now the highest selling item at Amazon. Industry estimates are that they sold about five to six million units last year and that so far this year it is actually outpacing projections so might well top ten million units in 2011. Those rather nebulous numbers mean that we will probably see Amazon sell almost half as many “tablets” as the much hyped Apple this year.

That is with a device that is pretty much relegated to e-reading only; what would happen if Amazon’s next generation Kindle is a full on Android tablet? How about one that is sized between the Kindle 3 and the DX while dropping the physical keyboard and thinning the bezel to allow it a 10“ screen?

First off, why would they want to do that?

Well, Apple is being a real dick with their new “if you want to sell anything through your own app, you need to give us a cut” policy. In the future, when Amazon sells an eBook through their own Kindle app, without ever sending an electron through Apple’s App Store, Apple wants a kickback because… uhhh… ummm… they want more money? It is probably a combination of an overt money grab and a covert herding of iOS users away from Amazon and to iBooks.

Extorting money from our customers? There’s an app for that.

So Amazon doesn’t want to gouge their customers for Apple or lose money if they stick to a level pricing for all devices. They won’t abandon the iOS field but they should want to give a viable option to the iPad.

Another reason is that, while the Kindle is selling well enough right now, it will start to lose sales as full featured tablets gain on it in price, readability and battery life while maintaining a large edge in utility. As more and more people get used to carrying tablets around with them all the time it becomes annoying to carry around a second device just for reading – although a few hundred thousand people do just that, they would probably prefer not to.

Then there is the rich media consumption, you can’t watch video on the Kindle and Amazon really wants to stream you video.

What do they need to add for a KindleDroid?

The primary bit of gear that is holding them back is the display. The Kindle uses a reflective, gray scale E Ink display that is really easy on the eyes and sips power at a tiny fraction of what an LCD does. The same company that makes the current display has recently introduced the “E Ink Triton Imaging Film” display… that is not adequate for motion of touch control. Amazon would have to switch to another source and that would be Qualcomm with their Mirasol technology. It does motion closer to LCDs and they are touting even lower power consumption than the greyscale e-ink displays.

mirasol

The processor also needs to be bumped up. The current CPU is inadequate for some of the more demanding apps and that needs to be addressed. They can stay inside the same processor family and simply move up from the Freescale i.MX353 to something from the i.MX 6 series… they don’t even have to go to the top, the i.MX6Solo should be able to do everything they need.

The Kindle uses a custom Linux OS so it shouldn’t take much to transition to the likewise custom Linux called Android.

Having only 4GB of memory is not a problem when it can hold thousands of books. It is a problem when you want to load up a few dozen apps and store a few full length videos on it. It needs at least 16GB built in and an SDHC card reader to let you bump that up to whatever level you need and/or can afford.

The “nice to have” items like gyroscopic sensors, GPS, front and back facing cameras… if they can get them in there while keeping the price down then I say go for it. If it pushes the price well above the iPad then drop them until the next generation.

What can’t it lose?

There are a lot of people who own both an iPad or Android Tablet and a Kindle. They use the tablets for all the browsing, games, videos and the creativity-lite that they can handle while using the Kindle for reading. They prefer that the batteries last for days and that it is easier on the eyes for extended reading- especially outside.

People praise the iPad for lasting ten hours on a charge… the Kindle DX will run for well over a hundred hours and that means you don’t have to constantly be looking for an outlet to charge your ereader. I’m not saying that the KindleDroid needs to last 150 hours on a charge… but it can’t only last 10 hours. The closer it gets to 50 hours the better. The Mirasol display and the i.MX6Solo have a real shot at deliver an adequate user experience while getting it into that ballpark. Video playback and games will erode most of that battery life down from the Kindle DX’s 170 hours but there is hope that it can still last several times longer than the iPad.

The Kindle 3 sells for only $139 while the Kindle DX costs $379… they don’t want to lose the pricing edge over the iPad but it can’t stay as wide when you are adding a lot of new hardware. The iPad starts at $499 and it would be great if the KindleDroid could come out at $399… but I would buy it if it was the same $499 (or even a bit above) but came with a near 50 hour battery life.

What signs are there for KindleDroid development?

As of March 21, 2011, a search at Lab126 (Amazon’s eReader development team)  with the keyword “android” returns job openings for seven software engineers and three managers. I think that ten job openings are seven or eight too many for just an Android app.

Last year, they bought a small company called Touchco that was developing multi-touch screens… and folded it into Lab126. I really like that this technology has multiple levels of pressure sensitivity and can use styli for accurate touch as well as our clumsy big fingers for general interface control. A Manga Studio app would be great but is not possible without a pressure sensitive stylus.

Amazon Studios and Instant Video for Premium Members means there will be a pile of content that needs a place to go. What with Netflix getting into the content creation racket with House of Cards, how long will it take for Amazon to do the same?* Once they have a series in production, not being able to play the show on their own tablet would be problematic.

Also, how can you own the Internet Movie Database without taking advantage of deep linking content streaming right from the site? You have people looking up movies, television shows, actors, directors and… don’t you need a one click button to watch it on your Amazon Premium account enable tablet as well as you desktop/laptop/TV?

Within the next few days, Amazon will be opening the Amazon Appstore to deliver apps to the Android platform. Now would you do that if you didn’t have any device that actually ran the Android OS? That would be like selling ebooks without an ereader.

So they have tons of content to sell through a more capable tablet and they are hiring engineers who know the Android platform… I may be getting a KindleDroid for next Christmas.

android1

  *Jeff- we need to sit down with Tom Hanks and Morgan Freeman to talk about a dramatic series set in the current civilian space race as Amazon’s first original series. I’ve got a first draft of the pilot done and we can get it into development for this fall if we get right on it… just puttin’ it out there.  
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When is Celtx Going to Get Act Breaks?

March 10th, 2010 Clint

 Celtx-Act-Breaks

Celtx doesn’t do act breaks inside its script structure. The stageplay format allows it but that isn’t usable for teleplays and there is no “teleplay” format available that has the act structure baked in like it should.

I really appreciate what the great team over in St. John’s has done here but I wish they understood that all broadcast (and most cable) television lives and dies by the act break.

The structure of a television show, the arc and the flow of action, is dictated by the act breaks and it is quite possibly the single most important element of a teleplay. Your act out is what brings the viewer back from the commercial break and you had better make it good. Feature films have it easy, once the customer has travelled to the theatre, paid their money and taken their seat… it take a powerfully bad show to have them get up and walk out. I’ve only done it twice. Television shows are an entirely different beast and every time there is a commercial break there is an opportunity for the audience to pick up the remote and surf away.

When you break a television show – you do it by the acts. When you write it – you write within the acts. When you rewrite it – you rewrite to serve the acts… with special attention to the hour and half hour when more new shows are starting up on a hundred other channels. If you hand in a spec television script that has no act breaks, or incorrectly plotted act breaks, you better hope that they don’t mind retraining you for the job because that is what they will be thinking as they read the script.

It has been one of my (maybe only?) peeves with Celtx from the beginning that there are no built in act breaks for teleplays. The use of ‘ALT-RETURN" allows me to insert a manual page break so it is functional if inelegant.

I guess the reason is that working writers use Final Draft while wannabe writers use Celtx… and there are far more wannabe feature writers than wannabe TV writers. Celtx might be taken more seriously by working writers if it was understood that there are a thousand pages of TV written by working TV writers for every page written by working feature writers.

And yes, despite having being hired to write one feature film, I still consider myself to be one of the wannabes and I will be right up until it pays the rent… I’d like to take Celtx with me on that journey but it isn’t ready to work in television yet.

Posted in Casual Creation, Reviews, Television, Tools, Writing No Comments »

Testing the Milestone’s Camera

March 2nd, 2010 Clint

image

Just seeing if the app will let me take a picture while in the middle of a post.

Just the view from my apartment, looking out at the Lionsgate Bridge.

It seems to work fine what with the sweet Android multitasking (the iPhone being a single tasking simpleton).

The Milestone has a 5 megapixel camera – better than my first digital camera both in resolution and quality… and higher resolution but lower quality than my second. You can’t expect the current crop of phones to better even a decade old dslr – but in another five years, you bet.

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Android and the WordPress App

March 2nd, 2010 Clint

image

The Android OS is the first viable alternative to the iPhone and seeing as how my ancient dumb phone was acting up and the battery life was getting to be a problem- I decide to take Telus up on the just released to Canada Motorola Milestone.

I have spent the weekend with it and it is now indispensible. This is actually being composed on it right now using the very handy WordPress app and the not so handy slide out keyboard. It is better for longer form input than the on screen keyboard- and is getting better with use. Still, not too many sententences make it through without at least one error.

I’ll have to see if this app is better than just using the browser interface. This app is specifically designed for the small screen but the Milestone has an 854 x 480 screen that is pretty darn nice when using the web.

For testing, I’ve embedded a picture… a photo I took in Mykonos a while back (with a Canon DSLR not this phone) and rendered it out as a painting for use as a wallpaper.

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… And We’ll Throw in an iPad!

February 23rd, 2010 Clint

My family makes made an income from the forest industry for a long time, generations actually. The last thing I want to do is talk down the price of wood in an already decimated market- but printing news on mashed up trees is really expensive.

ipad2

Let’s just go through it with The New York Times because its costs, circulation and subscription numbers are easy to find… and because Apple has the spiffy graphic of the iPad with the NYT already in it.

The New York Times almost assuredly spends well over $400 per year on the paper and printing of a years subscription worth of newspapers… I’m going to leave the delivery of the dead tree version out of the equation because I’ll just use it to wash the online delivery costs off the table.

They in turn charge less than $300 for for this and make up the difference, then the profit, with ad sales.

It would actually be in the Grey Lady’s best financial interest to offer a two year subscription to an iPad Edition for $600 and throw in the iPad for “free”. This is actually less than their NYT Kindle Edition that costs $336 for one year.

Kindle-NYTimes

I couldn’t find a picture of the Kindle DX with the NYT on it and didn’t feel like ‘shopping up something that bland, so I went with the smaller Kindle… but even the DX doesn’t bring the sexy like the iPad. This makes me unhappy since Jeff Bezos builds space ships, which makes him approximately 42,583% cooler than Steve Jobs will ever be… at least outside the influence of his Reality Distortion Field.

Steve-VS-Jeff

Where was I? Oh yeah. The NYT could surely get a discount off the Apples MSR of $400 if they purchased a half million of them. They have over 800,000 subscribers for the two year option so I don’t think ordering 500,000 iPads would be too optimistic with half coming up for renewal in any given year – and the new subscribers that would be drawn in by the “Subscribe and we’ll throw in an iPad!” deal.

The biggest problem might be Apple getting production high enough to meet demand.

Apple may be a closed ecosystem that won’t let their products play outside of their own sandbox- but I’m also pretty sure that the publisher could cut some kind of deal with Apple for distribution through iTunes to cost less than the current hundreds of trucks handing out stacks of paper to a kid on a bicycle to roll up and throw in a puddle at your front door?

Now, the consolidation of print, radio, movies and television into media giants actually work to make this even more viable. While The New York Times only owns about two dozen other newspapers, they could sell bundles of the NYT+Local or they could allow you to add on subscriptions for a nominal fee.

They could also do replacement advertisements for the regions that they have newspaper department in place. A local ad in the New York Times has little value for the advertiser when the person reads it in Boston. The NYT could offer the advertisers in their Boston Globe a deal to “localize” the New York Times iPad edition by inserting their local Boston ad in place of a local New York ad.

You’d have to leave the Fords and Cokes out of this since national advertisers would have a legitimate beef if their ad got pulled in a market where they actually service customers; but the Copacabana wouldn’t be too concerned about running its “Grand Opening at 760 8th Avenue” advertisement in Boston.

 

How does this play out for Canada?

shaw-communications Shaw Communication just got the okay from the bureaucrats to purchase the controlling interest in Canwest Global Communications so lets take that through the MBA mindgrinder.

You don’t want to get me on a rant about letting the state, who couldn’t make money with a whorehouse in a goldrush, make business decisions for anything more complex than a neighbourhood lemonade stand… nix that, your average ten year old would have a better handle on that.

So let’s stick to Shaw and how they can best use the iPad. It is a moving target, with deals being struck in all directions- but right now, with this purchase, they look to be acquiring 13 daily newspapers across the country and another 26 community papers.

Those 39 newspapers right there would make it almost an autopilot move for them to offer that free iPad with a two year subscription to one daily newspaper+your community paper. It would be quite short sighted of them not to.

It gets even better for them when we start looking into their other holdings and how they can be leveraged on a computer supplied and set up by Shaw.

Canwest Global has at least 11 portal websites, 12 localized Global websites and another 12 portals for their bigger specialty channels. It doesn’t take much business acumen to see the benefit these 35 (wholly or in part) advertisement driven websites would get from a Shaw iPad that had them integrated into the Homescreen.

Then there are the television holdings themselves. The flagship broadcaster is Global which reaches pretty much 100% of the televisions in Canada. Now add to that the 21 specialty channels that run on cable that is in a good part owned by Shaw.

Will Shaw see the potential of using the iPad as a portable media player and DVR for a nominal fee on their monthly cable bill? Could it replace, in part, the DVRs that they are offering right now at a discount with long term contracts? How many more pay-per-views could they sell to the mobile crowd killing time on the Sky Train?

Vertical and horizontal integration would make the iPad a massive force multiplier to a media conglomeration like Shaw – or are they going to let this opportunity slide on by for another five to ten years?

If they aren’t going to do it, over on 777 Jarvis sits Rogers Communications.

rogers-communications

Everything I pointed out for SHAW works for Rogers and their 70 consumer magazines, 51 radio stations, couple dozen TV stations, handful of internet portals, massive mobile network and their own cable distribution system.

Just thinkin’ out loud, maybe Rogers could sell off the Blue Jays for the estimated $286 million and use the money to bring in a fleet of transport trucks full of iPads? It strikes me as a better use of resources for a media and distribution company.

061215_toronto_blue_jays_logo

Posted in Distribution, Internet, Selling, Socio-Economics, Tools 1 Comment »

Testing Scrippet

February 23rd, 2010 Clint

John August, who has a truly great website on screenwriting, started up a project to allow for quasi- proper formatting of screenplays in a blog. Scrippet isn’t entirely accurate with its layout but it is plenty good enough to give examples and to post short scripts or excerpts online and have them look like a proper script.

Since I’ve been using Windows Live Writer to do most of my postings to this site, I figured I’d create the post there and see if it survived the trip over.

This left the format in a mess. Scrippet couldn’t seem to figure out what the elements were and left it jumbled. But, hitting the “edit” button I have at the top of the post, I simply opened it in my WordPress Dashboard, selected HTML view and then, without actually changing anything, clicked on “Update”. This allowed Srippet to parse the text properly.

That means a different workflow when I want to post formated screenplay properly-ish but it is a lot easier than trial and error hand coding the HTML. This is a handy little plugin for us screenwriters and I’d like to thank John August for originating the project and Nima Yousefi who it seems is spearheading it right now.

The following is the opening of my Lovecraftian redemptive horror film.

INT. BLAKE’S CAR – NIGHT

Headlights and wipers struggle against the downpour as the SUV makes its way down the winding backroad. The cellphone is docked and playing upbeat indie rock.

In the passenger seat, ALLISON POWELL (20s, girl next door pretty) sits with her arms crossed, staring out the windshield at the road ahead. Her eyes dart toward the driver --

Driving, BLAKE REILLY (late 20s, boy next door handsome) drums on the steering wheel with exaggerated enthusiasm.

BLAKE

Now how much fun was that?

He bobs his head to the music while Allison studiously ignores him. His grin has mischief writ large.

BLAKE

Come on, three days in Pittsburg- nothing but mathematics. It does not get any better than that.

He pumps his fist and --

Is that a hint of a smile from Allison?

Blake pokes her gently in the ribs.

BLAKE

Come on, you know you want to.

She twitches away from the poke and smiles as she shakes her head.

ALLISON

I gave my word.

Blake nods solemnly.

BLAKE

I hereby release you from you promise.

Allison grins big as she spins in her seat to point, her accusing finger almost touching Blake’s cheek.

ALLISON

Ohhh I told you so.

Blake opens his mouth to speak and Allison clamps her hand over it.

ALLISON

Oh no you don’t. I have barely begun this gloat.

(singsong)

You were wrong and I was right-

Blake pretends to bite at her fingers and as she snatches her hand back, he points to the the dash.

BLAKE

Technically, the GPS was wrong.

Posted in Internet, Tools, Writing No Comments »

…And You Sir, Are No iTablet

February 20th, 2010 Clint

The iPad looks to be a stellar eReader and top knotch hand held media player.

ipad_hero_20100127

I was thinking about getting a Kindle DX but while the Kindle lasts longer on a charge, gets eBooks a little quicker and costs a whole $10 less; it is a pale monochrome shadow of the iPad… especially since you can probably run the Kindle iPhone app without much fuss and Apple’s iBooks selection will probably be quite extensive.

Both of them are elitists who won’t play nicely with independent content producers – try to get your self published book, indie comic or movie into either one of their stores… go ahead, I dare you. It is pretty much a draw when it comes to distributing through them.

Amazon doesn’t have the decades of arrogance that Apple has built up so maybe they will come around- Apple will have to be dragged kicking and screaming to deal with the little guy. Then, once Apple gets over their bitching and moaning, they will announce to the world how awesome, cool and innovative they are to have been the first to help out the indie crowd.

I can already see the smug “Hello, I’m an Amazon. And I’m an iTune.” advertisements… then again, as I mock up the ad, that phrase plays out more in favour of Amazon than iTune.

Amazon-vs-iTunes

So as a device to play back something already created on a more capable device that hasn’t been purposefully kneecapped by its maker… the iPad is an okay, if incremental, device.

But I am so disappointed by it.

If the graphic work you do is meant to emulate fingerpainting, the the iPad just might be the tool for you. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not slamming fingerpainting, there is some damn fine artwork created with fingers.

Paper, charcoal dust and the hand. You can’t get much more basic than that.
Promo for Brushes for iPad

What I am doing is setting parameters.  If something like the above is what you do, well then the iPad just might be a useful content creation tool for you. It would be fine for concept art, quick sketches when you are away from your desk or roughing out a scene to send to your primary computer as reference. While there are creative uses for the iPad, they pale compared to what a non-crippled OS running full applications can do… and the thing isn’t all that much less expensive – nor is it much smaller (smaller would be a detriment in my mind anyway).

The crux of it is that the iPad will not run Photoshop, Painter or Manga Studio and it doesn’t have a pressure sensitive stylus input like a real tablet pc.

For 95% of creatives, there is nothing that this glorified iPod Touch can do for us that a tablet pc can’t do easier, faster, with greater control and much better output. There are caveats of course, there are always caveats. If the capacitive capable styli have fine enough resolution, and the drawing/painting apps grow up a lot… well then, that number may shrink all the way down to 90%.

Also, if you don’t already have the full applications on a desktop and can load them onto a second computer… well, then the $4000 or so it will cost to get a tablet pc and the applications will compare poorly  next to the sub $1000 it will cost to get painting with the iPad.

Before you jump on the iPad bandwagon because of the expensive software though, I’d suggest you check out the open source programs GIMP (to replace Photoshop) and Inkscape (a replacement for Illustrator but a poor substitute for Manga Studio) as well as the free (but not open source) version of Artweaver (to replace Painter). They all have their limitations compared to the applications they are trying to replace but they are free and they tower over the apps that you can get for the iPad.

The iPad will be fine for some light weight drawing and presentation but if you have enough discretionary cash to buy an iPad- why not spend a few more bucks on a real tool that has the full creative capabilities of a computer while still handling the playback chores with ease?

Sure you’ll have to switch to a Microsoft OS to get the most out of it but come on, the OS is just another tool and there is barely any functional difference between Windows 7 and Mac OS X. My last two jobs required full time use of the Mac and I use Windows on my own projects. Learn a few keyboard shortcuts and each OS’s UI peccadillos and you should pretty much forget which OS you’re on once you get into your actual application.

And if you are a True Believer who is not capable of abandoning your OS- well there is a little company called Axiotron who can (‘till March 2010 at least) sell you a modified Macbook for $1650 or mod your Macbook for $700 – the same as the top specced iPad will cost.

Modbook_pen_A

I had such high hopes for the iPad back when I thought it would be an iTablet. I’ve been using a six year old tablet pc running Windows XP and moving my drawing, colouring and editing to that brought about the biggest jump in productivity that I have ever had.

I’d hoped that Apple would step in and push the envelope a little, give Microsoft some competition and get them off their complacent butt.

Instead, we got the equivalent of a Newton MessagePad with a bump in graphics and some of the functionality removed.

Posted in Casual Creation, Distribution, Reviews, Tools 2 Comments »

A Little Inking in Manga Studio EX

February 19th, 2010 Clint

Ink_Christina_HendricksInking of Christina Hendricks in Manga Studio EX 4 by Clint Johnson

One of the content creation avenues that are open to the lone artisan shop is graphic novels. If you can write and draw, the only barrier is your time.

You can work with a pencil and paper. I have and it has a certain charm to it, but is it slow and doesn’t lend itself to building a library of content to be repurposed.

The computer, that amazing multi-tool of the mind, allows a huge range of tools to create. In this post, I will extol the virtues of Manga Studio EX from Smith Micro. If you want to see what really acomplished artist can do with it, check out the selection of Google Videos or check out this Rorschach cover by Dave Gibbons.

 

So you see, while it does have that big old “Manga” right there in the name, it isn’t specific to that type of comic… you don’t have to start drawing big eyes and small mouths from right to left. What it is, is a program designed specifically to create beautiful lines that simulate ink and place them on a well laid out series of panels.

While it excels in layout, inking and lettering it can kind of has to be pressed into colouring. I would probably continue to take the images out to Corel Painter or Adobe Photoshop for better control of colour.

I have it installed on both my desktop and my old Motion Computing Tablet PC but do almost all my actual drawing on the tablet. (If you’ve ever used a real tablet computer you will understand why I am so completely disappointed by the iPad – a brand new product from Apple that is an unbelievably crippled thing that can’t do ten percent of what my six year old Windows XP based Tablet PC can do.?)

With the pressure sensitive pen of the Tablet PC drawing in Manga Studio EX is almost like using a brush and ink… except when you make a mistake it is a matter of hitting undo rather than redo from scratch.

I did the above drawing of the zaftigalicious Christina Hendricks as practice and I think it turned out adequate for my purposes… now I will have to spend hundreds of hours more to get up to speed. That drawing took the better part of a day and it isn’t even a proper panel- that would probably take me two or three days right now.

Give me a few months full time with this software and I think I could start turning out a solid workman’s one or two panels a day that I would find acceptable. When I will find that time is another question altogether.

The project I am most interested in tackling is set in the sword, sorcery & singularity world I am building called Red Hellas. Since it is a full world building project where practically everything will have to be designed fresh, the art design will probably take longer than the actual drawing.

It would probably make more sense for me to start with a project like taking Space Inc. out to a comic book series aimed straight at the heart of the space advocates. The stats show that NASA’s websites passed the 18 billion hits a year a while back… and yes, that is billion with a ‘b’. If I can’t get to Tom Hanks or Morgan Freeman then I just may have to steer it away from the television to the realm of ink.

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