An interesting question on how to create the science and technology for science fiction stories pops up regularly on one of the online groups I am part of. A lot of writers seem to be unsure just how to approach science and technology. Their uncertainty is understandable — when yourContinue Reading
I’ve loved black-and-white photographs for decades. In the hands (and eyes) of a master photographer, black-and-white can tell you a completely different story than the same image in color. However, as color became cheaper to print and with the demise of black-and-white film (except perhaps as specialty processing for professionals)Continue Reading
When I began doing news photography in the 1970s, black and white images were what we worked with. Film was developed in a darkroom — a small basement room that stank of chemicals at the first newspaper where I worked — and prints were hand processed. Color was difficult toContinue Reading
Creating strong scenes is an essential skill for writers. Over the years, I’ve struggled with writing scenes but it was only when I began to study the structure of comic books and graphic novels that I saw a simple framework for structuring scenes. My first efforts were done in aContinue Reading
A video recording of the Motion Graphics: Easy Animation for Visual Storytelling webinar and sample materials (including actual motion graphics developed in Photoshop) are available from Daz3d at https://www.daz3d.com/motion-graphics–easy-animation-for-visual-storytelling.Continue Reading
This is an updated version of my diagram on story structure. I’ve pulled together information on story structure from a number of different sources to identify aspects of story structure that are common to many of them. This chart includes information on story structure from Aristotle’s three-act structure, Freytag’s five-actContinue Reading
Open domain, Creative Commons, and stock photographs are a great resource for transmedia creators. Millions of photos can be downloaded and used in videos, motion graphics, and comics. Using the photographs as they are will work for some photo comics, but other visual styles can be created using filters toContinue Reading
I recently ran across an interesting article on the use of spatial visualization to create and explore transmedia narratives. Sur Naik’s article “Sailing Through Transmedia Landscapes” is an interesting take on work done by Gary Hayes. I was surprised (and honored) to find some of my own work adapted toContinue Reading
Almost a decade ago, I was smitten when I discovered transmedia storytelling. My deep fascination continues to this day. I’m a writer at heart — I’ve done it professionally for more than 40 years — but I have also been a photographer for the same length of time. The integrationContinue Reading
Photoshop and other image processing software can give transmedia creators tremendous flexibility when creating illustrations for their work. The use of 3D models in the creation of comic book and graphic novel art is becoming increasingly common as 3D software becomes more sophisticated and less expensive. The image was createdContinue Reading