Yogurt the Ogre - A Magical Tale in Mudd Hollow - iPad App

Our good friends at Pdoink have released their first iPad app based on their 2011 Moonbeam Children’s Book Gold Award winning title - A Magical Tale in Mudd Hollow. 

To some of our regular readers the book might sound familiar and you'd be absolutely correct. Five months ago Raymond our animator/motion-graphic designer extraordinaire created an animated video of A Magical Tale in Mudd Hollow and Sparkle Beach, a short bedtime story also included in the book. In case you haven't seen them, here they are once again. 

It was an absolute honor for us to see Pdoink’s first iPad app come to life, which was developed by our good friends at e-axis. We have formed a strong collaboration and look forward to taking great stories to new heights. 

The iPad app is great for kids 3 to 7. This engaging adventure has it all and lets children enjoy and explore A Magical Tale in Mudd Hollow however they want and using all of their senses - read, record and watch stories as well as play games. This is definitely a must have for all kids and best of all, it's FREE! So the only thing you guys have to do is...

1. Enjoy the app and download it from iTunes here.

2. Give the app a great rating on iTunes. There is also an option for you to ‘like’ it.

3. Tell everyone you know about the app and ask them to download, enjoy and tell their friends.

Cheers, 

Josh 

Pdoink in Action

I came to Silverpoint Media Inc. in March. For my very first project, I had to design and animate two Pdoink stories. I was first briefed according to what the client had requested and then I was left to make the stories come to life. My co-worker, Josh, had already completed the first animation for book one, thus I was left to finish books two and three. When I saw the first animation my mind went, pardon the expression, "bananas"! I thought to myself, I really want to bring this book to life.   

To complete this task, I had to really capture both the essence and message of each page. I ended up reading the full book eight to ten times by the time the project was finished. However, as I discovered, creating movement for the pictures and text was no easy task. Since it was a book that had to be printed, the images were all combined to one. To create any sort of animation or movement, I had to: select what I wanted to animate in Photoshop, cut around it, fill in the empty spaces, and then draw the missing piece. Furthermore, I had to keep in mind that the pictures had to be seamless in order to match the artist/illustrator's style. 

The subtle movements of zooming in and out, fading texts, and background music, and a hundred layers later - all created in After Effects - create a totally different experience than the printed book. The viewer, whether it be mom or dad or son or daughter, will feel engaged with the characters from the book and this will in turn make the stories of Pdoink more memorable for the entire family.

Ray

Pdoink - Perry's Playground

Recently we had the pleasure to work with a truely optimistic, jovial, and passionate group of people at Pdoink. Pdoink is a thoughtful, playful, and creative company that strives to tell positive and fun stories that can be shared with the whole family.

 

Last month, co-founders David Rendimonti and Lawrence Hourihan asked us guys at Silverpoint Media, if we could bring to life a bedtime story found in their latest book; Yogurt the Ogre: The Big Tale of the Not-So-Tidy Whale. The bedtime story is called Perry's Playground. It tells of a young boy named Perry and his friends, so eager to have fun and go wild, they forget to include others, and in the process ruins recess for their classmates.

To bring life to the illustrations we used Final Cut Pro and After Effects to create movement and text that would convey the characterisitics and feelings of the story. Essentially, by scaling or panning the images, we were able to create a sense of action. We applied this to the text as well. Another awesome aspect of this project was we were able to work closely with world-renouned typographer Paul Sych in creating the animations and layouts of the text. Learned alot to say the least. 

However we didnt leave it at that. To add yet another level to the video, we decided to obtain the acting chops of Keith's daughter Ana and wife Snejana. We filmed them at Pie in the Sky Studios here in Toronto, using our always handy Canon 5d and 7ds for footage that would be used as the backbone of the entire Perry's Playground piece. Granted it was the first time for moi to direct a child, but Ana was as cute as a button and as responsive as a seasoned actress. I see big things in the future.

The end product was a fun-filled piece which I really enjoyed working on. It brought me back to the days of Reading Rainbow and digitial storybook telling. With the newfound popularity of ebooks and the growing technological intellect of young children, I see the trend of digital storybooks becoming more and more popular and relevent to the younger generations. We know for sure, you will definitely see more coming out of the Silverpoint Media studio. LeVar Burton would be proud! 

Make sure you go pick up your copy of this fantastic book Yogurt the Ogre: The Big Tale of the Not-So-Tidy Whale here, or at your local bookstore. And look out for a future digital storybook of Yogurt's not-So-tidy tale, coming soon!

Cheers,

Josh