Preview: What's in the Works?

In my last post, I mentioned a project I'm currently working on that's not Ninja Mouse. Well here it is:

That's right, the next project is about boats.

But not just any boats - big metal boats with giant guns.

But not just any big metal boats with giant guns - the first big metal boats with giant guns.

I'm creating these images through a workflow similar to that of Ninja Mouse: 3D models, rendering, and then photoshopping.

The text is nearing completion, which means the whole thing should be done in I have no idea. 

-JCT

What's next for Ninja Mouse?

Another question I get asked a lot is, "When's the sequel to Ninja Mouse coming out?"

Let it be officially known here first: there is going to be a sequel to Ninja Mouse, and I am working on it now.

But there are a few caveats.

One of them is that the next title I release will probably not be the sequel to Ninja Mouse. Instead, it will be completely unrelated. I'll be dropping a preview of it soon, but for now, I'm only willing to say that it is completely unrelated to Ninja Mouse. The slowly growing fan base of Ninja Mouse may not like to hear that, but I have to get this other project out.

Another caveat is that the sequel to Ninja Mouse is going to be in black and white. I'll explain why in more detail in a future post about the publishing scene in general, but essentially it has to do with distribution. I know the color was one of the best parts about Ninja Mouse: Haiku, but I'm pretty sure (nay, confident) that I can pull off a pretty sweet aesthetic in black and white too. Just trust me.

Anyway, hopefully the next sentence will make up for the previous two caveats:

The sequel to Ninja Mouse is going to be a full-fledged graphic novel, somewhere between 150 and 200 pages. It will be a story, and an epic one at that. What's even better is that the story is mostly done. It will have dialogue and conflict and character arcs and all that other good stuff you need for a good story. It will stick to all the themes and elements of the original, and the overall tone will mostly be in tact. It's just going to be a little bit more epic-y.

So trust me on two things: it's gonna be a while, but it's coming; and, it's gonna be sweet.

-JCT

How I use Class Dojo

Class Dojo is an amazing tool that I've been using in my classroom for several years. You can find out more about it here, but basically it's a positive behavior reinforcement system and parent-teacher communication tool. According to their Twitter profile, Class Dojo is "the positive feedback platform connecting teachers, parents and students" and it "helps kids develop the behaviors and skills they need for success." There are a lot of ways to use the app. With several important behaviors already added in by default, it's pretty much ready to use once you enter the names of your students.

What About Things that aren't Behavior?

With a little creativity, you can use the app to track things beside behavior. Something I've had the most success with, and that parents really seem to love, is tracking homework completion with Class Dojo. I've created a behavior for each category of homework - reading, math, spelling, social studies, science (even returning signed forms) - and students earn points when they complete it. I check their homework, then they walk up to the Smart Board and give themselves their own homework points. I highly recommend using Class Dojo with a Smart Board and giving students the opportunity to award themselves points, which helps them take ownership of the system and invest in it. 

Negative Points?

Although I've used negative points in the past, I've abandoned that practice and have no intention of using them again. I've noticed slightly better results without negative points (read: better overall class behavior), and, for example, I've noticed that awarding an "on task" point to an on-task student gets off-task students back on task better than taking away points for being off task. As far as homework is concerned, parents know that their students are completing their homework because they see the points in their child's weekly report. If they don't see a homework point on a given day, that means an assignment was missed.

What do you with the points?

In our class, each point is worth $0.01. At the end of each quarter, I total the points our class earned and then spend that much money on books for our class library. This is usually somewhere around a hundred dollars, and it's a fast way to grow our library. The student with the most points for the quarter then gets to choose one of the new books and keep it. This is another reason I've abandoned the use of negative points - it would lessen the amount of books I can add to our library.

If you're not using Class Dojo, give it some thought. I've only had positive experiences with it, and students and parents love it. If you're already using it, consider tracking something besides behavior. It's a great tool and great way to communicate with parents.

What will teachers and librarian do with donated copies of Ninja Mouse?

Or, why would anyone request more than one copy?

Teachers and librarians might need several copies of the same book for any of several reasons. The first, and perhaps most obvious, is that schools and classrooms have more than one student. It's possible that more than one student wants to read a book at the same time. This is possible with multiple copies.

Second, and perhaps just as obvious, books get damaged. Even books that are well-cared for get damaged. A teacher or librarian might need more than one copy to replace an original down the road. I have a method for protecting the books that I buy for own classroom that involves cardboard and packing tape, but it takes about 15 minutes to wrap a book in this way. To wrap 500 books (which is a low estimate of books I've purchased for my classroom) would take 125 hours. Multiple copies help with a book's longevity.

The biggest reason a teacher might need several copies of the same book, however, is guided reading. Guided reading is exactly what it sounds like - teachers work in a small group of students on a particular reading skill (identifying the main idea, for example) using a common text. It's necessary for each student to have their own copy of the text for guided reading. Although it wasn't created with this in mind, Ninja Mouse is particularly applicable to guided reading because of it's short length and relatively challenging vocabulary.

So, trust that donated copies of Ninja Mouse will be used thoroughly.

Cheers.

JCT

How I Make Ninja Mouse

A question I get asked a lot is, "How do you make the illustrations for Ninja Mouse?" or "You drew that?"

You may or may not be disappointed to know that no paper is used in the creation of any of the art until printing. Everything is digital, and I use a wide variety of software (read: convoluted workflow) to create the illustrations.

Each illustration begins in a program called DAZ Studio, which is a free 3D design application. Ninja Mouse is based on the base mesh of the free Genesis 3D figure which I shape and morph both within DAZ Studio and in a second application called ZBrush, a digital sculpting and texturing tool. Once I pose Ninja Mouse, I render out a JPEG at the resolution of 5400 x 6000 pixels. Using a combination of Photoshop filters and the drawing tools from yet another program called Manga Studio, I create the line art of the figure, cleaning up jagged lines, adding details, eliminating unwanted lines, and drawing the head on a Wacom tablet. Once I have the finished line art, I color the image using the digital markers in Manga Studio.

(Here's a shot of Ninja Mouse in DAZ Studio
back when I was using a simple 3D primitive for his head.)

Most of the backgrounds are created from 3D models, some free and some purchased. The backgrounds are composed in the same program, DAZ Studio, rendered at the obscene 6K resolution, and then sent to Photoshop. Once in Photoshop, I use a mix of native Photoshop filters and filters from a plugin called Filter Forge, as well as a combination of Photoshop layer styles and blend modes to create the background look I want.

Once I have a background and the Ninja Mouse illustration to go with it, I composite the images in Photoshop, adding details with Photoshop brushes, adding shadows with the copy function and perspective tools, and correcting color.

At this point, each single image is somewhere between 250 and 500 megabytes. To put that into perspective, a full Blu-ray movie is usually under 2 gigabytes (2000 megabytes.) The high image resolution is necessary because the images are designed to be printed.

The final product is created inside Adobe Indesign CC. (Frustratingly, Indesign required me to install it in Japanese in order to use Japanese characters, which brought with it a whole new learning curve. The menus are still in English, or at least romaji, but still...) This is where I layout the book and font.

Anyway, that's the process. I'm beginning to streamline it now for future Ninja Mouse work, but this process at least gave me a decent grasp on several vital applications.

So no, I didn't exactly draw that; I illustrated it.

-JCT

So I think I'm going to do this actually

Starting now, I am going to blog. Call it a New Year's resolution of sorts. I will try to update this thing at least once a week.

There, that wasn't so hard.