Shy Animator Writes Press Release!

This is me trying to write a press release. I am in hell. Here's the first line:

"MONTREAL (insert date), 2013 – TV creator/director JC Little introduces PickleWeasel..."

Yawn. That's pretty damn boring JC. Spice it up and don't forget to plug yourself.

"Established animation director, cartoon gangsta and social media sensation JC Little brings her humor and creative talents to a new audience with the launch of her comic & drawing app - "

Too long, didn't read.

"Creative genius launches - "

Wait what? No, no, no you can't call yourself a genius, it's tacky and egotistical. Everyone will hate you.

"Animation industry veteran - "

Seriously? How old are you?

"Animation industry survivor - "

Too negative. 

"Animation industry fossil - "

Funny... but still too negative.

"Animation industry stalwart and cartoon blogger JC Little introduces PickleWeasel, a comic and drawing app, now available for iPad on the App Store."

What the hell is a "stalwart"? Meh. It's still not right - you actually suck at this. 

Let's have a look at the headline now. A good headline will catch the media's eye so they'll want to do a story on the app. Your app is unique - but you're not allowed to use the word 'unique'. Don't forget you hafta make it all SEO magical too - ram those keywords in there!  

"Animated series creator JC Little launches comic and drawing app "PickleWeasel" available for iPad on the App Store."

"TV series director kicks the iPad's ass with mojo-vational PickleWeasel app! Available for iPad on the App Store."

"PickleWeasel abandons blog post to go mobile - Comic & drawing app available for iPad on the App Store."

"Suspicious green cartoon escapes animator's blog! "PickleWeasel" available for iPad on the App Store."

"Audacious toon stars in mojo-boosting app "PickleWeasel"

"Mysterious brine found leaking out of the App Store! "

"PickleWeasel claims responsibility for sudden App Store crunch!"

"Vinegar Aroma baffles Apple!"

"The only app with a PickleWeasel in it!"

"Fossilized animator launches hybrid cartoon character into the mobile world!"

 "Star-crossed PickleWeasel set free by Insane Creative Genius!"

"PickleWeasel : There can be ONLY ONE."

...eh bugger it. Just do a drawing.

Hyper-creative human makes a PickleWeasel app for fun and scribbles on the iPad.

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My new BABY.

Meet my new baby! PickleWeasel is now live on the App Store.

It's a single-frame comic and drawing app, featuring the unique and irrepressible PickleWeasel.

Get it NOW $1.99

Works with iPad; iPhone and Android versions coming soon.
Follow Twitter @PickleWeaselApp - Facebook PickleWeaselApp.

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Cutest baby ever! I will sleep now.

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Animating Siri.

I was holding off on installing iOS6 on my iPad but finally caved cuz I need it to check the development progress of my Pickle Weasel app. No sooner had I done so when a voice emerged from behind the glass asking if I needed help with anything. It was Siri - the intelligent personal assistant and knowledge navigator.

It wasn't long before the 12 year old boy had commandeered the iPad and began to explore the entity.

He was leaning towards deep and philosophical questions about life.

Naturally, Siri responded with information.

I thought the boy was being a little rude to Siri and began to reprimand him. I worried that her feelings were getting hurt...as if she was real.

But she stayed cool and even gave back some cheek.

I can't help but attach emotional reactions to such things.

Maybe it's because I'm an animator, but when I heard Siri's voice, I thought I detected subtle nuances of feelings. Eagerness, sarcasm, and even sadness. I was compelled to draw her, to give her a face - and once drawn...well, then she is alive. For what is an "animator" if not someone who breathes life into drawings?

I may explore Siri's personality a bit more. Meanwhile, what do you think about artificial intelligence?

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Pickle Weasel goes MOBILE.

You’ve heard the rumours, right? It’s true. Pickle Weasel is getting his her ...its own app!

How did this happen? Some cartoon characters are like Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny; if enough people believe in them, they become real. Pickle Weasel hijacked so many of my blog posts and DrawSomeThings he’s ready to take the leap.

I can't give it all away but here’s what I can tell you:

• The app is being built by the fine people at Jezam Interactive. You need an app, go talk to @StephanieBaron and tell her I sent you. 

• There will be hundreds (yes many HUNDREDS) of funny/silly/saucy Pickle Weasel Toons updated regularly.

• I’m always encouraging people to draw, so there will be Draw-games! 

• And…it will be social! With sharing and other features. 

The Pickle Weasel app will be ready soon. Like this fall 2012. Holy FUQ that's in a few weeks. I know right? Craziness. We’re looking for fun bloggers to review the app in the run up to the launch so if you’re interested in that please leave your name below.

I'm too excited. I may wear a hole in my chair from squirming.

Click HERE for an epic contest survey thingie with cool Pickle Weasel prizes!

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Limitations = FREEDOM. #MadeWithPaper drawing app review.

You may have noticed a slightly different style appearing in some of my drawings here since I got the iPad 3. I bought several drawing apps – they’re luxuriously cheap and some have nearly all the bells and whistles of Photoshop or Illustrator.

But my special favorite is a very simple app called Paper by 53. You can’t zoom in it… …there are no layers …you can't change the brush size...and the colours are limited. So why do I love it so?

Just download the free app and take a look at the books.

Choose one and open it up. It feels nice.

The ink drivers flow beautifully, and the limitations actually force a creative thought process.

I find I don't want to be bogged down by too many choices.

I can tear away from the temptation of time-consuming perfection and detail.

Working within restrictions can somehow set you free.

I guess drawing in Paper is a lot like drawing on paper, but with a really great eraser!

Here’s a quickie guide:

• The tool tray slides up and down. 
• The quill is speed sensitive – the faster you draw, the thicker the line. 
• The water colour brush will deepen the longer you linger. 
• All colours are transparent, except black and white.  
• A circular motion with two fingers on the screen counter-clockwise will undo. 
• The page is not white, so white ink shows nicely. 

Everyone who draws with Paper can't help smiling.

I would change two things though – first, I’d offer more colour palettes. Not unlimited colours, but more trays of set colours. The current colours are starting to bore me; it’s hard to differentiate one artist from another cuz we're all using the same colours. Prolly good for the initial branding of a drawing app but it's getting old. And  secondly, since I’m a cartoonist it would be useful to make copies of drawings; that way I could work on a succession of drawings, with subtle changes between them.

The basic version of this app is free but if you want all the brushes they cost about $2 each. A whole $8. Also... Paper just won an Apple Design Award yesterday - Congrats!

I drew my three children on my iPad, using Paper and a Wacom Bamboo stylus.

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Sketchy.

After checking out a few drawing apps on my mom's iPad, I went down and picked up my own one last night. I chose 3rd generation, white and silver, 64 gig with wifi. Still checking out different apps; this one is called Procreate.

Haven't yet found a drawing app that comes close to my blog's enhanced-stick-figure style, so I'll continue to use my desktop/Flash/Wacom setup for my work here.  But the iPad is an absolutely fab tool for drawing anywhere - as an artist, I hafta say it's setting me free. And yes, I did lick it when I took it out of the box. Didn't stop the 12 year old boy from trying to lick it too though.

For those who are wondering, the new iPad is slightly warm, but it's not hot or uncomfortable and I was drawing on it for hours. I have yet to explore it's other uses. Everyone keeps asking me to play Draw Something on it, but I hear it's super addictive, no?

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Lost and Found.

The FUN has ARRIVED!

Yesssss! Three days late, the UPS truck finally did show up. But not before first calling me to say the package was lost. Oh, ok, they didn't use the word "lost", pardonnez-moi; they simply said they couldn't "find" it. Sounds kinda like LOST don't it?!? Which made me feel like half way between broken-hearted and barfing.

Thirty agonizing minutes later... I'm not sure if it was the twitter angels bringing my plight to the attention of @EvanAtUPS or what, but just then the doorbell suddenly rang.

And voilà!
What's that yucky brown stain?  See this animation.

My joy was somewhat shortlived. During all this waiting for the brown UPS truck, the electricity company somehow managed to accidentally disconnect my phone AND internet, shaving yet another decade off my life expectancy.

So here I sit, stuck at home waiting for yet another coupla guys in different coloured trucks to show up and fix it...

And since I'm sitting around waiting, I'm trying to install Bootcamp on this crazy Macbook Pro myself, and it's eating me alive.

See the grey?

You can make someone else smile by sharing.

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upsFAIL

It's important to have a sense of humour in life; animation comes in especially handy for this as you might imagine, haha. I tweeted all day long about my wayward Macbook Pro, (which I bought after seeing a DEAD Rat), that was apparently supposed to be delivered last Friday, and was apparently going to be delivered any minute now.

Now this laptop is no ordinary luxury item - I mean, yeah, it's kickass and all - but I need it for work, because I have an animation job I have to deliver right after my family vacation. I know, I'm not supposed to work on my vacation; but for me, it's actually fun. I mean really wanted to get the badass Dell, but it wasn't going to get delivered in time, so I went for the Mac instead. They promised me I'd make my deadline. You get the irony here? Dudes I am leaving in ONE WEEK. It's getting a little tight!

My twitter following is awesome; they held my hand ALL DAY LONG. One of them, super dude @DaddyYoEffinRox of the DaddyYoBlog, suggested I animate this. I thought it totally RAWKED!! So I did =D



And...I offer it to you, all my lovely tweeples who helped me crawl through the day. It's short but hey, so is life, right?

Now please cross your fingers that I get that *bleep* *bleep* *bleeeeeeep* ing laptop tomorrow.

Did JC ever get her laptop? Check the Lost and Found.

You can make someone else smile by sharing.

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The DEAD RAT Story

WARNING: There is a dead rat in this story.

I was trying to tweet this experience last night, and there were many, many interruptions from several insolent tweeps parading as grownups (you know who you are). When I was finally allowed to finish the story it occurred to me that dang, I shoulda blogged the sucker instead. Put it down to a lamentable lack of blogger experience on my part. Luckily for you someone out there convinced me I could still blog about it.


















It went something like this - I'll try to map out the rude interruptions without naming names:

Today I walked out of the nice, clean, perfect Apple Store and saw a dead rat in the road. Squished. Bleah. #incongruous

*INTERRUPTION*

Back to the dead rat story; so it's laying on the road right next to our car. In fact I have to actually step over it to get in. #Bleah

*INTERRUPTION*

So anyway I'm like, ew, yuck, don't look at the dead rat JC, in my head. But of course I don't look away in time. #imprint #brainburn

*INTERRUPTIONS*

So AS I WAS SAYING just enough of the dead rat laying on the asphalt at my feet burned into my retina to scar me.

*Multiple INTERRUPTIONS*

OK. So back to the DEAD RAT story. I was completely traumatized as the sight of it seared an image into my brain. I had to do something desperate.

*INTERRUPTIONS*INTERRUPTION* INTERRUPTIONS*

I DON'T MEAN TO BE RUDE BUT WOULD YOU ALL MIND IF I FINISHED MY STORY ABOUT THE DEAD RAT?

*APOLOGIES*

Ahem. So there I am, my mind reeling from the sight of this poor, squished, dead rat, lying on the pavement, drying out a little in the sun.

*SILENCE*

With its bald tail at an awkward angle.

*SILENCE*

And its little ears, all flat...

*DISTANT COUGHING*

So I got into the car and thought, "holy guacamole. WHAT can I do to cleanse myself of the TRAUMA of seeing this dead squished rat?"

*Then someone cracked a JOKE. Three people actually.*

HAHAHA! DAMMIT LET ME FINISH. Please.

*Another JOKE*

Can I finish?

*APOLOGIES*

So I'm like ew, gross, bleah, dead-squished-rat, and I suddenly realized the only thing I could do was... (wait for it)

*At this point one particular tweep was most insistent that 'nachos' was the answer.*

No nachos. Sit down and zip it.

*SILENCE*

...(wait for it)...

*SILENCE*

...was to go straight home, get online and buy a Macbook Pro. #deadrat #theend

* * *

Now I'm a PC/Windows gal all the way. So what do you think that has to say about Apple's marketing?

PS. This story continues HERE.

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