Eric J. Moreels
Feb 9, 2002, 03:34 am
<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/logos/mimlogo.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/logos/mimlogot.jpg" align=left alt="Marvel In Motion logo"></a>Fans of the unveiling of Wolverine's past in Origin will soon be treated to a multimedia translation of the popular mini-series thanks to Marvel In Motion.
Marvel In Motion is, according to their official Web site at MarvelInMotion.com (http://www.marvelinmotion.com/), "the cutting edge multimedia collectable trading ecard series you’ve been waiting for. Every month Marvel In Motion will reveal a new character in the CD ROM format with never before seen computer animation, sound effects, special effects, music and narration. Also each MIM ecard will feature downloadable screen savers, downloadable desk top backgrounds and hotlinks to the Marvel Comics and MIM web site."
"As a special extra Marvel In Motion introduces the moving comic book. Each MIM ecard will feature selected chapters of a comic book saga complete with music, SFX, computer animation and narration. But what happens at the end? You won’t know until you collect all five in the series and watch the Marvel In Motion moving comic books come to their thrilling conclusions."
X-Fan caught up with Marvel In Motion producer Damien Harvey to find out more about the Origin Moving Comic Books.
X-FAN: How did the Marvel In Motion concept come to be?
<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/misc/wolvpart1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/misc/wolvpart1t.jpg" align=right alt="Origin Part I MIM CD preview"></a>DAMIEN HARVEY: The original concept of the multimedia trading CD (Marvel In Motion) came from Marvel. A quick background: In June of 2001 our company was producing Drag Racing CD's for various teams on the National Hot Rod Association racing circuit. During that time we noticed that one of the racing teams that we had produced a CD for, announced that their Funny Car would be painted in a Spider-Man scheme for the last 3 races of the season. Seeing that, we immediately sent the racing CD to Marvel headquarters in New York City. They informed us that the image of Spider-Man had been purchased from Marvel so a die-cast collectable company could use the racing team to promote the sale of their Spider-Man Funny Car models. They thanked us for our inquiry and that was it! But to show you that persistence pays, 3 days later we received an email from the VP at Marvel stating that "after reviewing our presentation it was some of the best multimedia they had seen" and would we be interested in becoming the licensees for their new idea; interactive trading cards?
X-FAN: Could you describe the process of translating a Marvel comic to a MIM CD?
<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/misc/Origin Main Pt 1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/misc/Origin Main Pt 1t.jpg" align=left alt="Origin Part I Menu Screen capture"></a>DH: This past fall, 2001, the creative team at Marvel In Motion spent several months discussing concepts and designing lay outs for the MIM CD ROM's. Before we began to create the multimedia scripting we agreed to a few constants: First the look, feel and sound of each CD would reflect the nature of the character or the series we were producing. Second, we would design each CD with the characteristics of film, but in the interactive format. For example, on all CD's a constant sound track would be included, each button would have Sound FX, Voice Over narration would be added where needed, and 3D graphics would be built to give added detail to various weapons in the Marvel Universe. Note: Wolverine's adamantium skeletal structure will debut in 3D wire frame as part of the X-Men series later this year.
When we approach the production of the Marvel In Motion Moving Comic Book a special feature we are including on all MIM CD ROM’s, we choose a series of Marvel Comic books that will become the MIM Moving Comic Books to best match the line of characters we are producing CD's for. In the case of Spider-Man - whose CD's include Spiderman, Silver Sable, Venom, Prowler, and a card to be named later, we chose the Amazing Spiderman #298-302 Visionaries series. For Origin, the Moving Books are obviously Parts I-IV.
<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/misc/Origin Main Pt 1 Bio (6).jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/misc/Origin Main Pt 1 Bio (6)t.jpg" align=right alt="Origin Part I Bio Intro Screen capture"></a>When we started production of Origin Part I, I gathered my art designers, Matt Dundon and Scott Martin, the Moving Comic Book multimedia programmer Jeff Carr, our Executive Producer Andy Ribble and our in-house long time comic book fanatic Jeff Dernbach (who also serves as our Marvel In Motion Web site administrator and writes the MIM newsletter) to discuss how to approach the design of the presentation. We generally start by printing out the comics from the original art files supplied to us by Marvel and use these large format prints as story boards to break down the story. I number each illustration in the comic as a scene and then we decide on what images we can effectively "pull apart" in Photoshop in order to create the layers that the programmer will give motion to. While the art designers are separating the artwork, I work with a professional sound studio to locate Sound FX and cast the voices we will use in the production. While all of this is happening, our CD ROM multimedia programmer, Lauren Madar, scripts the interactive navigation, creates the screen-savers and downloadable desktop art, activates the hotlinks to the Web sites, and programs the Bios section.
As you can tell this is a complex process that is very much like producing a film. It's a lot of hard work and it's a lot of fun!
X-FAN: How long does it take to create a single MIM CD?
DH: Currently we have 3 CD's in progress: Origin Part I, Silver Sable and Origin Part II. It takes approximately 4 weeks to complete each one.
X-FAN: Who's been cast to provide voices for the Origin MIM CDs, and what parts will they be playing?
<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/misc/Origin Bio Pt 1 Bio A (7).jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/misc/Origin Bio Pt 1 Bio A (7)t.jpg" align=left alt="Origin Part I Bio Screen capture"></a>DH: For the Origin series we recorded the voice of Rose as she reads from her diary entries. The read was performed by a local senior in High School who will be attending a theatrical University in the fall of 2002. We felt that each Marvel In Motion moving comic book should have a combination of Voice Over narration to help the flow of the story and narration "pop ups" as they are seen in the original comic book that are read by the viewer.
X-FAN: MIM are also offering a Wolverine dotComic CD-ROM this month. What story will that disc feature?
DH: In order to generate interest for our first release Spider-Man, we designed a dotComic CD as a give-a-way with every order of the Spider-Man CD in December 2001. The dotComic CD features the Origin Part I dotComic as seen on the Marvel Web site, and also includes an Origin downloadable desktop theme and links to the MIM and Marvel Web sites.
<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/misc/wolvdotpart1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/misc/wolvdotpart1t.jpg" align=right alt="Wolverine dotComic CD preview"></a>Harvey also provided X-Fan with descriptions of the attached screenshots from the Origin Part I MIM CD.
"The three screen captures are as follows - Main Screen or Menu Screen: The lights on the mansion, the shed, and Dog sitting on the roof are the buttons to activate the different screens on the Part I CD."
"The dark screen with 'Bio' on it is the roll over when you drag your mouse across the Howlett mansion light."
"The third screen is the 'Bio' screen which will feature bios of Rose, John Howlett Jr. and Old Man Howlett. The text for the Bios will appear in the golden frame. Also in the text we are adding links when we mention a character name. When they are clicked an illustration will appear above the text in the box of the character or image in question."
<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/misc/wolvpart2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/misc/wolvpart2t.jpg" align=left alt="Origin Part II MIM CD preview"></a>Both Origin Part I and Part II, along with the Wolverine dotComic ecard CD ROM, are available for order now from the Marvel In Motion Web site at MarvelInMotion.com (http://www.marvelinmotion.com/).
Marvel In Motion are also premiering their Moving Comic Books at the 2002 American International Toy Fair (http://www.toy-tma.com/AITF/) this week in New York City.
Marvel In Motion is, according to their official Web site at MarvelInMotion.com (http://www.marvelinmotion.com/), "the cutting edge multimedia collectable trading ecard series you’ve been waiting for. Every month Marvel In Motion will reveal a new character in the CD ROM format with never before seen computer animation, sound effects, special effects, music and narration. Also each MIM ecard will feature downloadable screen savers, downloadable desk top backgrounds and hotlinks to the Marvel Comics and MIM web site."
"As a special extra Marvel In Motion introduces the moving comic book. Each MIM ecard will feature selected chapters of a comic book saga complete with music, SFX, computer animation and narration. But what happens at the end? You won’t know until you collect all five in the series and watch the Marvel In Motion moving comic books come to their thrilling conclusions."
X-Fan caught up with Marvel In Motion producer Damien Harvey to find out more about the Origin Moving Comic Books.
X-FAN: How did the Marvel In Motion concept come to be?
<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/misc/wolvpart1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/misc/wolvpart1t.jpg" align=right alt="Origin Part I MIM CD preview"></a>DAMIEN HARVEY: The original concept of the multimedia trading CD (Marvel In Motion) came from Marvel. A quick background: In June of 2001 our company was producing Drag Racing CD's for various teams on the National Hot Rod Association racing circuit. During that time we noticed that one of the racing teams that we had produced a CD for, announced that their Funny Car would be painted in a Spider-Man scheme for the last 3 races of the season. Seeing that, we immediately sent the racing CD to Marvel headquarters in New York City. They informed us that the image of Spider-Man had been purchased from Marvel so a die-cast collectable company could use the racing team to promote the sale of their Spider-Man Funny Car models. They thanked us for our inquiry and that was it! But to show you that persistence pays, 3 days later we received an email from the VP at Marvel stating that "after reviewing our presentation it was some of the best multimedia they had seen" and would we be interested in becoming the licensees for their new idea; interactive trading cards?
X-FAN: Could you describe the process of translating a Marvel comic to a MIM CD?
<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/misc/Origin Main Pt 1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/misc/Origin Main Pt 1t.jpg" align=left alt="Origin Part I Menu Screen capture"></a>DH: This past fall, 2001, the creative team at Marvel In Motion spent several months discussing concepts and designing lay outs for the MIM CD ROM's. Before we began to create the multimedia scripting we agreed to a few constants: First the look, feel and sound of each CD would reflect the nature of the character or the series we were producing. Second, we would design each CD with the characteristics of film, but in the interactive format. For example, on all CD's a constant sound track would be included, each button would have Sound FX, Voice Over narration would be added where needed, and 3D graphics would be built to give added detail to various weapons in the Marvel Universe. Note: Wolverine's adamantium skeletal structure will debut in 3D wire frame as part of the X-Men series later this year.
When we approach the production of the Marvel In Motion Moving Comic Book a special feature we are including on all MIM CD ROM’s, we choose a series of Marvel Comic books that will become the MIM Moving Comic Books to best match the line of characters we are producing CD's for. In the case of Spider-Man - whose CD's include Spiderman, Silver Sable, Venom, Prowler, and a card to be named later, we chose the Amazing Spiderman #298-302 Visionaries series. For Origin, the Moving Books are obviously Parts I-IV.
<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/misc/Origin Main Pt 1 Bio (6).jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/misc/Origin Main Pt 1 Bio (6)t.jpg" align=right alt="Origin Part I Bio Intro Screen capture"></a>When we started production of Origin Part I, I gathered my art designers, Matt Dundon and Scott Martin, the Moving Comic Book multimedia programmer Jeff Carr, our Executive Producer Andy Ribble and our in-house long time comic book fanatic Jeff Dernbach (who also serves as our Marvel In Motion Web site administrator and writes the MIM newsletter) to discuss how to approach the design of the presentation. We generally start by printing out the comics from the original art files supplied to us by Marvel and use these large format prints as story boards to break down the story. I number each illustration in the comic as a scene and then we decide on what images we can effectively "pull apart" in Photoshop in order to create the layers that the programmer will give motion to. While the art designers are separating the artwork, I work with a professional sound studio to locate Sound FX and cast the voices we will use in the production. While all of this is happening, our CD ROM multimedia programmer, Lauren Madar, scripts the interactive navigation, creates the screen-savers and downloadable desktop art, activates the hotlinks to the Web sites, and programs the Bios section.
As you can tell this is a complex process that is very much like producing a film. It's a lot of hard work and it's a lot of fun!
X-FAN: How long does it take to create a single MIM CD?
DH: Currently we have 3 CD's in progress: Origin Part I, Silver Sable and Origin Part II. It takes approximately 4 weeks to complete each one.
X-FAN: Who's been cast to provide voices for the Origin MIM CDs, and what parts will they be playing?
<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/misc/Origin Bio Pt 1 Bio A (7).jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/misc/Origin Bio Pt 1 Bio A (7)t.jpg" align=left alt="Origin Part I Bio Screen capture"></a>DH: For the Origin series we recorded the voice of Rose as she reads from her diary entries. The read was performed by a local senior in High School who will be attending a theatrical University in the fall of 2002. We felt that each Marvel In Motion moving comic book should have a combination of Voice Over narration to help the flow of the story and narration "pop ups" as they are seen in the original comic book that are read by the viewer.
X-FAN: MIM are also offering a Wolverine dotComic CD-ROM this month. What story will that disc feature?
DH: In order to generate interest for our first release Spider-Man, we designed a dotComic CD as a give-a-way with every order of the Spider-Man CD in December 2001. The dotComic CD features the Origin Part I dotComic as seen on the Marvel Web site, and also includes an Origin downloadable desktop theme and links to the MIM and Marvel Web sites.
<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/misc/wolvdotpart1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/misc/wolvdotpart1t.jpg" align=right alt="Wolverine dotComic CD preview"></a>Harvey also provided X-Fan with descriptions of the attached screenshots from the Origin Part I MIM CD.
"The three screen captures are as follows - Main Screen or Menu Screen: The lights on the mansion, the shed, and Dog sitting on the roof are the buttons to activate the different screens on the Part I CD."
"The dark screen with 'Bio' on it is the roll over when you drag your mouse across the Howlett mansion light."
"The third screen is the 'Bio' screen which will feature bios of Rose, John Howlett Jr. and Old Man Howlett. The text for the Bios will appear in the golden frame. Also in the text we are adding links when we mention a character name. When they are clicked an illustration will appear above the text in the box of the character or image in question."
<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/misc/wolvpart2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/misc/wolvpart2t.jpg" align=left alt="Origin Part II MIM CD preview"></a>Both Origin Part I and Part II, along with the Wolverine dotComic ecard CD ROM, are available for order now from the Marvel In Motion Web site at MarvelInMotion.com (http://www.marvelinmotion.com/).
Marvel In Motion are also premiering their Moving Comic Books at the 2002 American International Toy Fair (http://www.toy-tma.com/AITF/) this week in New York City.