It has been a long and difficult journey for the Celflux Animated Series, and we’ve gone through many growing changes, but we can finally announce that the first episode of Celflux The Animated Series will premiere at The Animae Caribe Animation Festival 2019. It will also be featured at Carifesta 2019.

We want to thank the Animae Caribe organizing committee for creating the opportunity for us to showcase our labour of love. Be sure to drop by and say hello if you visit the Animae Caribe Festival and Carifesta Village this year. For more information on dates and times, visit the respective websites or check their social media pages.

Animae Caribe: http://www.animaecaribe.com/
Carifesta: https://carifesta.net/

We’re looking forward to having a great time.

Everard J. McBain Jr.

Everard is the Creative Director and CEO of GemGfx. GemGfx is a multidisciplinary design consultancy based in Trinidad and Tobago. He has been involved in the field of Graphic Design for over 14 years. He is also the art director and co-author of the graphic novel Celflux which he created along with his wife Dixie Ann Archer-McBain.

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At a hidden laboratory deep in the wastelands of Yoro, a lonely figure resigns himself to a fate he did not choose but one that he realizes is inevitable. Dr Louis De Planq, former Chief Scientist and head of research of the Keepers, reflects on his life and the choices he has made that have brought him to this place. In the face of great peril, he has done all that he can do and now must leave the rest up to the uncertainty of fate.

Let us know what you think. As always if you think it’s cool, feel free to share.

Dr. Louis DePlanq voiced by the legendary writer/actor Stephen Jared
Music by Kevin McLeod

Everard J. McBain Jr.

Everard is the Creative Director and CEO of GemGfx. GemGfx is a multidisciplinary design consultancy based in Trinidad and Tobago. He has been involved in the field of Graphic Design for over 14 years. He is also the art director and co-author of the graphic novel Celflux which he created along with his wife Dixie Ann Archer-McBain.

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This rejection made him even more determined. He wanted to prove to the casting director that he could, in fact, become an actor. He went home and worked on his accent by mimicking famous radio announcers. He returned months later to the same theatre to audition again and landed a role in a play called ‘Days of Our Youth.’ This was the beginning of what would go on to be a legendary career lasting more than 50 years. His name is Sidney Poitier and he is the first African-American to win an Academy Award for Best Actor, receiving the honour in 1964 for his performance in ‘Lilies of the Field.’ Sidney Poitier’s story is one of many examples of someone who, if you had seen them early in their life, showed no sign that they would go on to become a success.

Sir Sidney Poitier, KBE is a Bahamian-American actor, film director, author, and diplomat. In 1964, Poitier became the first Bahamian and first black actor to win an Academy Award for Best Actor.

Many of us have heard the old childhood story of the Tortoise and the Hare.

Tortoise and The Hare. The creative work of Ben Courneya. bencourneya.com

The Tortoise and The Hare is one of Asop’s Fables and tells the story of a Hare who makes fun of a slow-moving Tortoise. Having had enough of the Hare’s arrogance, the Tortoise challenges him to a race. The hare speeds off leaving the tortoise behind. Confident of winning, he takes a nap midway through the race. The Hare wakes up, however, to find that the Tortoise, crawling slowly but steadily, has won the race. If someone observing the race at the beginning were to bet on who would win, they obviously would have said the Hare. They would have lost the bet. The message is clear. It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. The life of the indie creator is no different. I want to share with you three keys to a strong finish.

Don’t Focus On What Others Are Doing

If the Tortoise had taken the time to focus on what the Hare was doing, he probably would not have won the race. Firstly, if the Tortoise had looked at the distance the Hare had gained at the beginning of the race, he probably would have gotten discouraged, given up early, and went home thinking he had no chance of winning. Secondly, if the Tortoise had looked at the Hare sleeping, he might have thought to himself “maybe I can take a nap to.” But he didn’t. He kept a slow and steady pace and arrived at the finish line first.

In today’s social media-driven environment it’s easy for the independent creator to become distracted by the apparent successes of other creators. It’s easy to become discouraged when your own project that you’re working so hard on doesn’t receive the recognition, awards or accolades that others do. It’s very important that you don’t measure your own success by the apparent success of others. It’s one thing to be inspired by another’s success. It’s an entirely different thing to be envious of another’s success. You have to be careful as an indie creator to stay focussed on your own project and goals. Keep your head down and keep working on your own project.

Don’t Listen To What Others Are Saying

It’s important that I make a distinction here. When I say don’t listen to what others are saying I’m not talking about advice or constructive criticism. It’s critical as an independent creator for you to get good advice and constructive criticism about your project. This is how you can grow as a creator and perfect your project. What I’m talking about are those individuals that would seek to discourage you from working on your project or try to stop you from achieving your goal. In most cases, it’s easy to spot such individuals. However, there are some who are more subtle. I call them the “Gasslighters”. Those who seek to sow seeds of doubt and make you question your own belief in your project. Those types are especially dangerous. Always remember, not everyone who talks to you about your project has your best interest in mind. That’s not being negative, that’s just a reality.

Walter Elias Disney was an American entrepreneur, animator, voice actor and film producer. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons.

In 1919 the Kansas City Star newspaper fired a young graphic artist because they said he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” That graphic artist was an unknown individual by the name of Walt Disney. Walt Disney went on to affect generations with his “imagination and ideas”. If he had listened to the words of the newspaper’s editor he might have chosen another career path and we would not have ever known about the tremendous creative legacy that is Walt Disney. Today Disney is one of the world’s largest companies with a tremendous number of creative projects under its belt.

Don’t Look at The Small Picture

Not many people are familiar with the name George Mallory.

George Herbert Leigh Mallory was an English mountaineer who took part in the first three British expeditions to Mount Everest, in the early 1920s.

He was actually the first person to scale Mt. Everest. The reason many people don’t remember him is, unfortunately, he perished on the top of the mountain and never made it back down. Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were actually the first to successfully ascend and descend Mt. Everest. I’ve said it before and it’s worth repeating. If the life of the independent creator were to be compared to a race it would not be a sprint, but a marathon. You have to look at the big picture and think about the long game. You have to be in this for the long haul and not seeking quick success. If you do, you might end up burning yourself out and perishing on top of the mountain.

Sir Edmund Percival Hillary (20 July 1919 – 11 January 2008) was a New Zealand mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953, Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers confirmed to have reached the summit of Mount Everest. They were part of the ninth British expedition to Everest, led by John Hunt.

I recently saw news of a project that I was following that took off at a blinding speed. The project creators were getting a lot of attention, winning awards, and receiving a lot of praise from large sections of the creative community. Just two and a half years after they launched the project they announced that they were stopping work on it and closing it down. In this creative journey, you have to pace yourself. Your motivation can’t be making money or acquiring fame. You have to be driven by the love you have for your project because for a long time while working on your project you won’t make a dime and no one will give a damn about it. Again, that’s not being negative, that’s just the reality. Many independent creators can tell you stories about the sleepless nights, the empty pockets and the empty bellies while trying to work on a project. Robert Kirkman, the creator of the hugely successful Walking Dead, spoke in an interview about his own experience as an indie creator before he became successful.

The following is an excerpt from an interview with Robert Kirman on the show Speakeasy by Made Man. Watch the full interview here:

“I think if I had known more I would not have made it… My stupidity or I’ll say my ignorance, technically it was ignorance, my ignorance kept me going.”

Unless you’re looking at the big picture you’ll perish on top of the mountain. Or in most cases, on the way up. So stay focused on your goal and keep that slow and steady pace and you’ll get there.

Conclusion.

I’m not very into motivational speeches, but I thought I would write this type of post this time around. As many of you know we recently concluded our first ever crowdfunding campaign for the Celflux Animated Short. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful and did not reach our funding goal. Of course, we were disappointed as we were hoping that folks would have backed us. It would be easy at this point to look around and see all the other successful projects and become discouraged and think maybe we should quit because no one wanted to support us. But that’s not what we’re about. Trust me when I tell you we are in this for the long haul and we’re just getting started.

So a few folks have asked me what does this mean and what’s next for Celflux. We have been working on Celflux since 2013 without any support and in seclusion. Just like Robert Kirkman I work during the day and come home to work on Celflux late into the night. In five years we have grown from a team of just my wife and me to a team of 17 talented individuals who believe in Celflux and have given their all to see the project come to life. We’ve also been encouraged by many fans who have liked, shared and told others about Celflux and helped us get the word out. So again I say, we are just getting started. The failure of our crowdfunding campaign gives us lessons we will learn from. We know that we have a lot more work to do to build the awareness of the Celflux brand and find an audience that would be passionate about the project. People with whom the characters and the story of Celflux would resonate. So we have our work cut out for us and with a slow and steady pace, not looking at what others are doing, or listening to what others are saying we will get to the finish line and Celflux will become a success. Without a doubt, the fun would be in the act of working towards that goal.

So I just want to encourage my fellow independent creators out there stay focused. As we say in Trinidad. “The journey now start.” Come journey with us.

Everard J. McBain Jr.

Everard is the Creative Director and CEO of GemGfx. GemGfx is a multidisciplinary design consultancy based in Trinidad and Tobago. He has been involved in the field of Graphic Design for over 14 years. He is also the art director and co-author of the graphic novel Celflux which he created along with his wife Dixie Ann Archer-McBain.

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Due to the overwhelming success of the Black Panther movie and because Marvel recently announced that they have moved up the release of Avengers Infinity War to April 27th (our launch date), we have decided to push back the launch date of our crowdfunding campaign. It is believed that much of Avengers Infinity War takes place in Wakanda and we acknowledge that nothing else will be happening on April 27th. Our new launch date is May 25th, 2018. This means you have more time to sign up early and grab the early bird bonuses. Thanks to all those who have already signed up. Mark the date and spread the word. Are you excited about the Celflux Animated Short?

Greetings Celflux fans.

What a ride this Celflux journey has been. Those who have been with us from the beginning know that it’s a labour of love. The late nights, the sacrifices, all worth it because we are passionate about this little project of ours. It’s hard to believe that it’s been four years since we started working on issue number one. We’ve learned a lot and our little project has grown quite a bit. Today, we are three issues down and also working on an animated short. So we believe the time has come for us to take a leap of faith to the next step of our journey.

As you guys know Celflux is a totally independent project by Dixie Ann and I. For three years it’s been a team of two. Everything you see in the pages of Celflux was put together by just us two. Both of us write the story and I’m responsible for all the visuals. When we decided to work on the animated short it was the same. We both came up with the story and I taught myself how to animate to deliver the visuals. At this point, we needed some help. We needed to bring our characters to life by giving them voices. We were extremely lucky to find an awesome group of voice actors who came on board and lent their voices to our characters. Our team went from two to fifteen. This included a talented musician who also came on board to give the short an original score. We are totally indebted to them all because each person that came on board did so because they saw our vision and fell in love with Celflux. They all lent of their time, talent, energy and equipment to help us make the short a reality. We’ve released our first trailer check it out below:

The Next Step

Ever since day one we’ve have avoided crowdfunding. There are a few reasons for this.

Firstly, as we said Celflux has been a labour of love. Making money from it has never been our motivation. Those who follow us on social media know that we don’t push sales because it’s not our priority. Anyone who is passionate about what they are creating can identify with this. You just want to create and you find a way to do it. You don’t concentrate on monetizing it. Many might say that’s not a good thing. They might be right, but it’s the reality. Don’t get me wrong money has its place. However, historically, the desire to make money has never been a good motivator for anything. We’ve got enough of that in the world.

Secondly, Crowdfunding is somewhat of a litmus test to determine who are your real supporters. Most projects have a lot of followers, but you are not sure how many of those are loyal fans. Crowdfunding helps give you a clear picture, really quickly, about how much real support you have. Not too long ago I was introduced to the 1% rule of internet culture. It’s the philosophy that states that 90% of the participants of any internet community only view content (they are called lurkers), 9% of the participants actually participate by commenting, liking, sharing etc., and 1% of the participants are actually invested, emotionally and otherwise, in seeing you succeed. I’ve seen quite a few crowdfunding campaigns fail that had large numbers following them. Large following numbers does not necessarily translate to a large amount of support. So we’ve stayed away from crowdfunding because we really did not know if we had enough real support. But I guess the only way to know is to make that leap.

Thirdly, fear of failure. This is basic. No one wants to fail. No one wants to be seen failing. But most can tell you that if you never try, you will never know. Better to try and fail, than to fail to try.

Fourthly, not having a good enough track record. When we started out in 2013 we came out of nowhere. Nobody knew us from Adam. We were just a couple working on a book. Who would support newcomers and strangers? Not many folks would. So we had to take the time and build the awareness of the Celflux brand so to speak. Make people aware of Okira and her team. Let people get to know about the project and the folks behind it. While Celflux is far from being a household name, we believe that Celflux is a lot more known now than when we first started. People can also see that we’re dedicated to this project for the long haul otherwise we would have let it go a long time ago. Folks can see our progress and are aware of the quality of the characters and project as a whole.

So these are the reasons we’ve avoided crowdfunding in the past. Today we are overcoming all those fears and taking Celflux to the next step. We’re talking the Celflux Animated Short to Indiegogo.

Sign up and see the first of three chapters for FREE!

Release Date & Breakdown

The Celflux Animated Short will be one hour long. It will be made up of three twenty minute chapters/episodes. The episode titles are; I. Assault II. Alone III. Awakened.

We will be releasing the first twenty-minute chapter “Assault” on 25.05.18. At the same time, we will be launching our first ever crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. Everyone who signs up early will get to see the first chapter for free. You can sign up on our Indiegogo pre-launch page.

Sign up and see the first of three chapters for FREE!

For our crowdfunding campaign, we’ll be offering all three chapters on one DVD or digital download along with lots of other perks. We’ve got comics, posters and more. We’ll be giving more details in the coming weeks. Help us spread the word by sharing the news with your friends. With your help, we’ll be able to make the Celflux project a success. Thanks to all who have supported Celflux thus far and we’re looking forward to great things in the future.

Everard J. McBain Jr.

Everard is the Creative Director and CEO of GemGfx. GemGfx is a multidisciplinary design consultancy based in Trinidad and Tobago. He has been involved in the field of Graphic Design for over 14 years. He is also the art director and co-author of the graphic novel Celflux which he created along with his wife Dixie Ann Archer-McBain.

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We here at Celflux are continually humbled and thankful for the doors that continue to open for our small indie project. Most of our updates these days are about our current project the Celflux Animated short. However, our graphic novel is still very much in production. Other independent creators can testify that because of limited time, people and resources things move a bit slower. Nevertheless, you do what you can and grab opportunities as they come along.

One such opportunity has arisen for our graphic novel. We recently published Celflux issue no.3 and entered it into CODE’s Burt Award Caribbean Literature. In collaboration with Canadian organization CODE, the Bocas Lit Fest manages CODE’s Burt Award for Caribbean Literature, a literary award that recognizes literary works by Caribbean authors for Young Adults.

Now in its fifth year, the Burt Award for Caribbean Literature recognizes up to three English-language literary works for young adults (aged 12 through 18) written by Caribbean authors.

This year, the winning title will be awarded $10,000 CDN, and two finalists will be awarded $2,000 CDN each.

Publishers of winning titles will be awarded a guaranteed purchase of up to 2,500 copies, which will be donated to schools, libraries, and literacy organizations throughout the region. To date, more than 15,000 copies of winning books have made their way into the hands of Caribbean youth.

We are excited to just be a part of such a prestigious event and that Celflux would be considered of good enough quality to be accepted into the festival. We want to thank the Bocas Lit Fest and CODE for their consideration.

You can grab your copy of Celflux on Amazon just follow this link: Celflux

Remember to check out the Celflux trailer our release date is 27.04.18. Details to follow:

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Indie Sketch Pad is a new creative initiative from Dixie Ann Archer-McBain and I. It’s going to be a bi-weekly video blog that deals with all the topics that are dear to us. From art to anime. 80s toons to tutorials. We’ll be covering it all.

Subscribers will have the opportunity to come alongside us as we work on our current project the Celflux Animated Short. We’ll also be giving away free commissions.

Subscribe today and also follow the Indie Sketch Pad page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IndieSketchPad/

Learn more about the Celflux Animated Short. http://bit.ly/celfluxfilm

If you would like to support us you can do so on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/gemgfx

Thanks to The Passion HiFi for the music in our promo. Check him out at https://soundcloud.com/freehiphopbeatsforyou

Everard J. McBain Jr.

Everard is the Creative Director and CEO of GemGfx. GemGfx is a multidisciplinary design consultancy based in Trinidad and Tobago. He has been involved in the field of Graphic Design for over 14 years. He is also the art director and co-author of the graphic novel Celflux which he created along with his wife Dixie Ann Archer-McBain.

ww.gemgfx.com

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Black Panther

The Black Panther (T’Challa) was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and penciler Jack Kirby. He first appeared in Fantastic Four #52 (July 1966). Black Panther the movie is set to be released in 2018. That makes the character fifty-two years old. Fun fact. When the Black Panther character was created, Chadwick Boseman, the actor that portrays him in the movie, wasn’t born yet. It’s a sobering thought, isn’t it?

Fun fact. When the Black Panther character was created, Chadwick Boseman, the actor that portrays him in the movie, wasn’t born yet.

The character was originally called Coal Tiger, but Stan Lee decided on Black Panther. Many people mistakenly thought that the character was a reference to the then Black Panther party, so they briefly changed the name to The Black Leopard. But no one liked the name so it went back to Black Panther. But I digress. The point is, that it took a number of years for Black Panther to move from a sketch on Jack Kirby’s desk to a feature length movie. Something to think about. Of course, this may be a bit extreme and Black Panther has had a measure of success in comic books as well as cartoon adaptations. Also, I’m sure there are examples of projects that achieved success in fairly shorter amounts of time. However, these are the exception rather than the rule and it’s easy to find numerous other examples of creators who had to wait a long time and go through a journey of sorts, for their projects to achieve any measure of success.

This is a concept art sketch of the original Black Panther character by Jack Kirby. The character was first called Coal Tiger

Valerian

Valerian and the City of A Thousand Planets is a fantastic sci-fi ride with mind blowing special effects by the great folks at Weta Digital.

It is based on a novel created by writer Pierre Christin and artist Jean-Claude Mézières and it was first published in Pilote magazine in 1967. It was then called Valérian and Laureline. So it took 50 years to get its movie adaptation. The movie was even marketed with that tagline “Valerian Featurette: A Movie a Lifetime in the Making”. It didn’t receive very good reviews, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it has not instantly become a sci-fi classic. The point is, it took a long time for the creation to go from book to movie. If its creators weren’t marathon runners they would have given up the idea a long time ago.

Valérian and Laureline as drawn by Jean-Claude Mézières

Blade Runner

An example of a title that wasn’t initially well received and had to wait a long time to achieve a measure of success is one of my favourite movies of all time. Blade Runner.

The posters for Blade Runner 1982 (left) and Blade Runner 2049 (right)

Blade Runner (1982) is a science fiction film, released in 1982, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos.

It was written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, and is a loose adaptation of a 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. The movie cost about 28 million and only made about 6.5 million in its opening weekend. Part of the reason for this is that on the same weekend the movie was released two other huge movies were also playing. They were Star Trek: Wrath of Khan and the juggernaut knows as E.T: Extra Terrestrial. So no one had any time for Blade Runner. How many of us indie creators can identify with that. You share your work and it’s overshadowed by other amazing work that’s out there. Blade Runner, however, went on to enjoy a renaissance of sorts during the 80s as people found it on VHS. The show went on to take its place in the sci-fi canon and today is one of the most influential movies ever. Now a new Blade Runner movie is set to be released in 2017 and it stars Ryan Gosling and the star of the original blade runner Harrison Ford.

Celflux

I’ve written about how Celflux began before but it’s worth mentioning here again. The characters of Celflux have been with me for a long time. I had the idea way back in secondary school. It is only after Dixie Ann and I got married that we decided to work on publishing the book. This was in 2013. Now four years later and with the help of an awesome voice team and composer, we are set to independently release the Celflux Animated Short. It is possible that the film can become an instant success. That would be great! But reality teaches me that it might be years before people really start hearing about Celflux. The point is I have to be prepared for that and just keep moving forward.

Okira. The leader of the Celflux Team.

Be sure to check out our first trailer if you haven’t already. If you have, go ahead and watch it again.

Conclusion

If I have an unrealistic expectation of how long it’s supposed to take to achieve any measure of success, I will quickly become discouraged and despondent and look for the next stop to get off this crazy train. But if I appreciate that Rome was not built in a day, nothing good comes easy, and many great creators who went before me had the same struggle, then I’ll dig my heels in, put my shoulder to the grind and prepare myself for the long haul. A marathon runner’s training regiment is different from that of a sprinter. They’re built differently. Unlike the sprinter, the finish line for the marathon runner is not seen for most of the race and must be visualized. To finish requires a sustained effort over a long period as opposed to a burst of energy that lasts about 10 seconds. My advice to all indie creators is to maintain a steady pace and keep working on your creations. So when that opportunity of success comes along it will find you in full stride and prepared to appreciate that success. May we all learn to run that creative marathon.

Till next time.

Everard J. McBain Jr.

Everard is the Creative Director and CEO of GemGfx. GemGfx is a multidisciplinary design consultancy based in Trinidad and Tobago. He has been involved in the field of Graphic Design for over 14 years. He is also the art director and co-author of the graphic novel Celflux which he created along with his wife Dixie Ann Archer-McBain.

ww.gemgfx.com

The post The Creator’s Life is A Marathon Not A Sprint appeared first on Celflux - Graphic Novel & Animated Series.

Would you be interested in an Okira Goddess Mobile Wallpaper? If the answer is “YES!”, We have something really cool for you guys today. Download this free Okira Goddess Mobile Wallpaper for your smartphone today. It’s absolutely free and is our gift to our fans for all your loyal support.

Just click here to download.
Download “Okira-HD-wallpaper-Mobile.jpg” Okira-HD-wallpaper.jpg – Downloaded 1115 times – 277.89 KB

Remember to check out the trailer for our upcoming Celflux Animated Short and like, share and spread the word if you think it’s cool.

Till next time.

Everard J. McBain Jr.

Everard is the Creative Director and CEO of GemGfx. GemGfx is a multidisciplinary design consultancy based in Trinidad and Tobago. He has been involved in the field of Graphic Design for over 14 years. He is also the art director and co-author of the graphic novel Celflux which he created along with his wife Dixie Ann Archer-McBain.

ww.gemgfx.com

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The Early Days

I first started sitting in front of the television as early as the age of five. Jonny Quest (1964 ), Birdman (1967), The Herculoids (1968), Space Ghost (1968) and, Thundarr The Barbarian (1980) were some of my early introductions to cartoons. I fell in love with animation immediately. I loved seeing these characters with superpowers in action and I remember thinking to myself, even way back then, “Boy I wish I could do that someday.”

During the 80s I was introduced to a lot of great animated sci-fi and fantasy movie classics. Watership Down (1978), Heavy Metal (1981), The Secret of Nimh (1982), Rock and Rule (1983), Fire and Ice (1983), Starchaser The Legend of Orin (1985), Transformers The Movie (1986), Gi Joe The Movie (1987), Gandahar (1988) and, Brave Starr The Movie (1988). This is just a small list and I haven’t even touched on the Japanese animation that I discovered in the 80s and 90s. I singled these out because they had the greatest effect on me at the time. So my hope was that one day, maybe, I would be able to animate something.

Just a few of the classic sci-fi and fantasy animated movies that I came across in the 1980s.

The First Celflux Trailer

When Dixie Ann and I decided to create Celflux I wanted to create a trailer to help promote the book. The first one that I did was similar to a motion comic. Have a look at it here.

It was cool and got the job done. I simply used the images from the comic itself and put them in the video. At the end of the trailer, I did my first animated footage and it was of Samantha doing a flyby. I realised then that the next trailer that I did had to have more than just the motion comic.

When you have a burning desire to create, you find a way to make it happen.

I started this post talking about Thundercats. The reality is I’ve always loved 80s cartoon intros. Bionic Six, Thundercats, Silver Hawks, Visionaries, you name it. I loved the action and energy demonstrated during those intros. Have a look at this Visionaries Knights of the Magical Light intro.

So I wanted to do a trailer for Celflux with an 80s cartoon tribute feel to it. I didn’t have the skill or know-how though, so I decided to approach some animation studios to get some quotations. I got quotations of $20K and 30K for a 30-second intro. Astronomical and rightly so. Make no mistake animation is a very difficult, tedious and technical process. So I couldn’t be angry with anyone who charges those prices for their animation work. It is well deserved. I, however, did not have that kind of money. So what was I to do? I thought to myself “Perhaps crowdfunding?”. Crowdfunding is a strange creature and is not for everyone. Many people see the success of certain crowdfunding campaigns and think that it’s easy to do. We have a saying in Trinidad. “Gopaul luck, ain’t Seepaul luck.’ It means what one person will get away with, another person will not be so lucky. Therefore, we decided against that. So we didn’t have the money and couldn’t raise it. Most folks would give up on the idea at this point. But my fellow indie creators can bear witness that we don’t give up that easily. When you have a burning desire to create, you find a way to make it happen. I thought about that little boy sitting in front of the television all those years ago hoping that he would someday animate something and realised, that little boy’s time had come. I was going to teach myself how to animate, and I was going to attempt to animate the 30-second trailer myself.

Is it Possible To Animate Alone?

This is a question I had to ask myself. As I said earlier, animation is a very difficult, tedious and technical process. Hence the reason there are usually teams of people working on any given animated project. So I had to find out if it was possible for one person to do it all by themselves. I was happy to discover that the answer was a resounding YES! I found that there are hundreds of talented animators out there creating masterpieces all by themselves. The advances in technology and the availability of software has made high-quality animation possible for the single creator. There are several case studies, but the one that stands out to me was the story of Makoto Shinkai.

Makoto Shinkai left his job to work on the animated short Voices of A Distant Star

Makoto Shinkai born as Makoto Niitsu, is a Japanese director, writer, producer, animator, editor, cinematographer, voice actor, manga artist and former graphic designer. The story is told that in May 2001, Makoto quit his job at a video game company and began to work on a film called Voices of a Distant Star. As he would later say in an interview, the 20-minute film took about seven months of “real work”. The film went on to be critically acclaimed and is talked about even to this day. The work on Voices is fantastic and one is hard-pressed to believe it was all done by one person. But it was. So it was possible. I decided then to apply myself. Look at tutorials on YouTube. Learn about the animation process, frame rates, cinematography, lighting, film editing and so on. It was a learning process but I put my best foot forward. The result was the first Celflux Animated Trailer. It had a lot of room for improvement, but I was happy with it. So we put it online and set it loose. It racked up about 14K views (on Facebook) in a relatively short period of time. By no means viral, but it encouraged us that we did something worth watching.

The Celflux Animated Short.

Many folks saw the first Celflux trailer and gave us some great feedback. One of the individuals was Ms Camille Selvon Abrahams. She is the owner of Full Circle Animation Studios and the head organiser of an event called Animae Caribe that takes place annually here in Trinidad and Tobago. She saw the trailer online and extended an invitation to us to be guests at Animae Caribe. We’re eternally grateful to her for this because she gave us an opportunity to introduce Celflux to a local audience. The response to Celflux was fantastic. Our books and t-shirts sold out and everyone has some really encouraging words for us about our animated trailer. Because of the positive response to the first trailer at Animae Caribe and online, I asked Dixie Ann if she thought we should try to do an animated short film. Dixie Ann is always encouraging and convinced me that I could do it. So I again decided to do more research into the process of creating an animated short. This was going to be more involved than the first trailer. This was going to have a story, and actors, and lots of other cool stuff. So I got to work on the planning. The first thing I did was write a script. I had to learn how to do this as well. Scriptwriting is a skill. Much respect to those who do it for a living. With a few drafts and much trial and error, I was able to complete a stand-alone story featuring the characters of Celflux. The second thing I needed was voice actors. I found the Voice Acting Club and I put out a call for people willing to collaborate on the Celflux Animated Short project. To our surprise, we got quite a few responses from folks wanting to be a part of it. All of them very talented. We eventually settled on a group that we believe are not only the most talented, but the most decent, helpful and genuine individuals you would ever hope to meet. We are lucky to have them on board.

Demetria Bridges – Okira, Kate Sample – Samantha, Matthew Curtis – High Councillor, Sarah Brown – Genocyde, Tony Black – Raymond, Manuel Benavidez -Ahoteh, Chasity Conner – Shandrita, Tracy Pfau – Sarah, Hector Chavez – Indigo, William Harmar – Stephen, Stephen Jared – Aditional voices, George Sharperson – Aditional voices.

Gwenaël Mario Grisi the talented musician from Brussels came on board to create an original musical score for Celflux.

We want to thank Kate Sample as she was the one who brought on board Demetria Bridges who is the voice of our leading lady Okira. We also want to say thanks to Matthew Curtis as he was the one who brought on board Gwenaël Mario Grisi who would become our talented musical composer. We also want to thank Tracy Pfau who was responsible for bringing on board her husband Stephen Jared and her good friend George Sharperson. I sent them the script, and they all recorded their lines and sent them back to me. We were going to do this. For no other reason than it’s something, we wanted to do. I then had everything I needed to begin working on the next thing. A trailer.

The Celflux Secret Weapon Trailer

Like the first trailer, I had new things to learn. I needed to learn sound editing. How to match up the sound effects with the action. How to synchronise the character’s mouth movements with the voices and so on. So once again there was a learning curve. But I was following in the footsteps of all the other talented independent animators that had gone before me so it could be done. After about 5 months of work, I was able to complete and release the first trailer for the Celflux Animated Short. Have a look at the trailer here:

In April of this year, after some encouragement from one of the voice actors Tony Black, we submitted a proposal to CreativeTT. There was an open call for individual filmmakers to receive grants for film projects. The Trinidad and Tobago Creative Industries Company Limited (CreativeTT) is a wholly-owned State enterprise established by The Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago through the Ministry of Trade and Industry. CreativeTT’s mandate is to stimulate and facilitate the business development and export activities of the Creative Industries in Trinidad and Tobago to generate national wealth and, as such, the company is responsible for the strategic and business development of the three (3) niche areas and subsectors under its purview- Music, Film, Fashion. In May, we received an email from CreativeTT that told us the Celflux project was selected to receive a grant for Marketing and Distribution. We can’t really talk about our plans yet, but suffice to say we are seeking to take Celflux to the next level. You can find the official announcement by CreativeTT here.

Conclusion

So that’s the story of how the Celflux Animated Short came to be. We began working on Celflux the graphic novel in 2013, and had no idea where it would take us. Now four years later, we’re working on an animated short with a great group of voice actors and a state investor behind us. If you had told us that in 2013, we would never have believed you. I’d like to encourage my fellow independent creators out there to live that independent spirit. Follow your creative heart and do what is necessary to bring your creations into reality. Don’t let the pursuit of fame or money cloud your vision. Don’t let anything hinder your creativity. In the immortal words of Shia LaBeouf “Just do it!” You never know where your journey will take you.

Till next time. All the best.

Everard J. McBain Jr.

Everard is the Creative Director and CEO of GemGfx. GemGfx is a multidisciplinary design consultancy based in Trinidad and Tobago. He has been involved in the field of Graphic Design for over 14 years. He is also the art director and co-author of the graphic novel Celflux which he created along with his wife Dixie Ann Archer-McBain.

ww.gemgfx.com

The post Why I Taught Myself How To Animate. The Celflux Story appeared first on Celflux - Graphic Novel & Animated Series.

Johnathan Soul runs a Podcast interviewing comicbook creators & fiction writers from the African Diaspora. Wednesdays and Sundays. Visit his website at www.johnathansoul.com

Here’s the interview:

Here’s the Celflux Issue 1 Walkthrough:

Hope you enjoyed, and if you did please feel free to share.

Everard J. McBain Jr.

Everard is the Creative Director and CEO of GemGfx. GemGfx is a multidisciplinary design consultancy based in Trinidad and Tobago. He has been involved in the field of Graphic Design for over 14 years. He is also the art director and co-author of the graphic novel Celflux which he created along with his wife Dixie Ann Archer-McBain.

ww.gemgfx.com

The post Johnathan Soul Interviews Celflux appeared first on Celflux - Graphic Novel & Animated Series.