Project Description

The "I only have a few seconds" version

• A series of iPad books designed to train kids to visualize and use their imagination when reading.

• Three age appropriate versions for every story - from toddlers to young adults.
  
  
• Each page has high quality illustration, music and a brief scene of feature quality animation.

• Text, narration and character dialogue in multiple languages .

• Created by top industry professionals - Chris Derochie, Den Beauvais, Mike Tate and Manjit Bedi
  
  
• A percentage of the Indiegogo funds and sales of the books will be given to charities that support Juvenile literacy.
  
  
• Every little bit helps, so please donate even $5 and ask your friends to do the same - we really need your support!

The "Tell me more but be brief" version

I'm on a quest to get kids interested in reading again! 

There's a lot of great stories out there for kids - my concern is for the kids that have been left out due to underdeveloped visualization skills.

I'm creating a series of electronic books that are accessible to children of all ages - books that are designed to improve the reader's imaginative skills, which I believe will make reading a more enjoyable experience for them.  I'm a father of 4 and I've been in the animation industry for close to 30 years - I know how to entertain kids and I understand how difficult it can be to instill a love of reading in them.

I believe that the joy of reading is completely dependent on one's ability to visualize.  A child with a vivid imagination can feel completely immersed in a story - they feel like they are right there in the environment that they are reading about, complete with sights, sounds, smells and emotions. To a child with a poorly developed imagination, the same story is experienced like a poorly drawn picture book.

Kids can only improve their imagination by using it on a regular basis. My plan is to create a series of books that kickstart a child's imagination without taking it over completely, by using a combination of high quality illustrations, music and a short sequence of Disney quality animation (with dialogue) on every page.

The illustration shows them what the characters and setting look like; the music sets the emotional tone and the animation shows them how the characters move, sound and behave. The environmental sounds in the animation let them know what it sounds like to really be there. Unlike a movie, which would serve all of this up for the viewer continuously, thereby hijacking their imagination, the animation in my books will illustrate one single event on that page - it's up to the reader to imagine all the other events on the rest of the page.  All I have done is given them something to latch onto so they don't have to come up with it all themselves if their imagination is not ready for that.

Each story is offered in multiple languages and in three different age appropriate versions within the one book app - from toddlers to young adults.

I've teamed up with fantasy illustrator Den Beauvais to create our first book - The Reluctant Dragon. We're going for a style similar to the Ladybird books of the 1960's - detailed, yet not too polished, with warmth and heart  

We will be giving a percentage of the money we collect from the Indiegogo campaign and a percentage from all of our book sales to charities that support juvenile literacy. 

The "Long-winded" version - If you want more details and you've got the time

Raise your hand if you have a kid or know a kid that doesn't like to read. Yeah, that's what I thought - a sea of hands…

My friends and I are creating a series of books unlike any children's books ever created! These books are designed to help kids of all ages develop their imagination skills and give them a love of reading. 

We start with the basic ingredient of all great entertainment - a good story, well told. Our first several books are classic stories, known and loved by millions of people - stories that appeal to a wide age range, so young adults will be as interested as preschoolers.  The reader can choose their age level on the first page and it serves up the story in a version that is appropriate for them. Young adults can read the story as it was originally written, which may include archaic language and complex descriptions of setting and character. There is a version for children in the 7-12 range that simplifies the language and shortens the length of each page. The young children's version reduces the story down to a few simple lines per page.

There is high quality artwork on every page in the style of the old Ladybird books that were made in the 1960's. Our aim is to create illustrations with heart and great appeal without getting too caught up in fine detail. Den Beauvais is illustrating our first book, The Reluctant Dragon and his approach is exactly the look we are trying to achieve. His colours and lighting are dynamic and realistic while the detailing of faces and textures is kept minimal.

Each page also turns into a short animated sequence in the same style as the illustrations. The animation is of extremely high quality but short in duration. It brings to life one action on the page, it's not as simple as an interactive book or a motion comic, nor as complex as a short film turned into a book. The whole point is to give the kids some help in visualizing the rest of the page but not to take over their imagination completely. We want to empower the children; urge them to read the rest of the page and use what they saw in the animation and illustration to help them visualize the characters and the environment in their head while reading. This will help develop their imagination and visualization skills, not just their recall of visuals that they have seen - they will be creating 90% of the visuals for themselves.

There are many other features to this app, such as multiple languages (written and spoken), the ability to record your own narration and share it between devices; a complete, symphonic soundtrack and much more!

We are actually creating 3 versions for each book - what I have been describing is what we call the deluxe app. We are also creating a lite version of the app that will not have the painted illustrations, animation or music. It will feature pen and ink illustrations in a classical style that I am creating myself. We are also producing an iBooks version that will use the pen and ink illustrations and only one version of the story - the young children's version. The iBooks version is very fast to produce and will be used to promote the full version.

The Problem and the Solution

Kids today don't seem to have the same ability to use their imagination as they did a generation ago.  I'm not a scientist, nor am I a sociologist - but I am a father of four and I know a lot of parents that tell the same story. They want their kids to develop a love of reading, yet they keep running up against the same wall - books don't hold their kid's interest as much as other forms of entertainment do.

Here's the problem as I see it:

I grew up in the 70's. When we went out to play, we took our bikes or a couple of toys and we went out with our siblings or friends to invent worlds and scenarios in our minds. Sand dunes became alien worlds and a living room became an arena for Evil Kenevil to perform in. We developed our imaginations the same way we developed our muscles - by USING them! We had television as a distraction, but our parents were always at hand to regulate our use, so we didn't turn into "vegetables".  I don't hold with that notion - television can educate and inform but there is a problem with television and all of the other easily accessible forms of entertainment today.  TV, games, movies and internet videos all share one common feature - they are all the product of a single person's vision; usually the director. What you see is their imagination. The problem with kids watching too much of this kind of entertainment is that they don't have to use their own imagination at all. Later on, if they re-enact what they saw, they are using their memory more than their imagination.  How much time do kids spend actually creating things in their mind that are their own? Much less than when I was growing up! If they don't use it, they won't develop it…

When you read a book, you're able to imagine every character, setting, and event  your own way - it will always be perfectly attuned to your own tastes. However, if your imagination is stunted, your ability to visualize all the complexity in the book will be extremely limited. If children don't develop their imagination, how will they be able to see the characters moving and acting in their minds? How will they immerse themselves in the world's landscape - the smells and sounds; the feel of the deck moving under their feet; the summer wind from an alien world in their face? 

Kids lose interest in books because their imagination lets them down. The solution to this is not to read more books, it's to have them do an imagination workout!

That's where our iPad books come in - they will bridge the gap between books and visual medium. Books with pictures are great - they help kids get an overall understanding of what things look like in part of the story but that's only one piece of information that they need. What I propose is to create a book that gives kids more to work with but allows them to use this information to imagine the rest of the book for themselves.

For example, on page 14 of our first book,The Reluctant Dragon,  (shown at the top of this page) the boy tries to explain to the dragon that he will be seen as a menace to society by the villagers, so he had better keep hidden. The dragon is so gentle natured that he can't believe that anyone would see him as an enemy or a threat. The illustration for that page portrays that setting quite well but we go one step further. If the reader touches the boy or the dragon, the image turns into a short movie clip of the dragon and boy having a short conversation, just like a movie, but it will only be one or two lines from the page, not all of it. There is music to set the mood of the situation, sound effects to give a sense of what the world sounds and feels like and the animation and voice acting will give a much more specific definition of the personality of the characters.

After the brief scene, the reader can use this as a template to help them visualize the remainder of the page as they read. Each page that they visualize for themselves helps to develop their power of visualization and increase their enjoyment of reading.

An Ongoing Gift to Charity

We will be donating a percentage of everything that we collect from this campaign and from the future sales of our books, to charities that support juvenile literacy. 

The Team

Here is a brief overview of the team - you can find more in-depth info in the FAQ at the bottom of the page.

Chris Derochie

Chris has been in the animation industry for 29 years. He is the producer and director on this project as well as the writer, animator and illustrator of the pen and ink drawings.
You can see Chris' past character animation work here:

2D Animation

Chris' visual effects work can be seen here:

VFX Animation

LiinkedIn - Chris Derochie

Den Beauvais

Den Beauvais is a famous fantasy, science fiction and comic book artist. He is the illustrator for the Reluctant Dragon and he will be illustrating many more books in our series.

Check out Den's other work on his website: www.denbeauvais.com

Manjit Bedi

Manjit is a talented programmer and app developer. He has worked on projects around the world for over 20 years.

Manjit's LinkedIn profile LinkedIn - Manjit Bedi

Mike Tate

Mike is a marketing and creative specialist with 35 years of experience. He is the narrator of the English version of The Reluctant Dragon as well as the voice of the Dragon and the Father for the animation. Mike is also a creative and marketing consultant on the project.

Mike's LinkedIn profile: LinkedIn - Mike Tate

Philip Derochie

Philip is an up and coming young composer. He has written soundtracks for several short films and games. He is writing the score for the Reluctant Dragon and is already in progress with the soundtrack for some of the next books - The Velveteen Rabbit and the Legend of Sleepy Hollow as well as the game, Rain and Lasers.

Examples of Philip's music: Demo reel - Philip Derochie

More About the Rewards

• Every sponsor gets access to special behind the scenes footage and artwork. Got tohttp://www.cobblestone-media.com/ and click on the Indiegogo link.
• The Deluxe version of the app should be ready by the end of November. Since almost every reward includes a free version of the app, the delivery date for fulfilling the rewards has been set to November 30th.
• The soundtrack album will be a digital download, not a physical cd. It will include a pdf booklet.
• The animation training videos will be similar (but better!) than the training videos I used to make for Animation Mentor.com. Each video will be an hour long - they will start simple and will increase in complexity.
• Video 1 - This will be about the basic theory of animation and how to get started in 3d or traditional animation.
• Video 2 - Much more in-depth theory, covering physics and body mechanics.
• Video 3 - Acting and timing for animation
• Video 4 - deep concepts like texture and  flowing composition
• The charity (or charities) that we will be partnering with hasn't been solidified yet. Once that is set and the percentage that we will give to them is decided on, we will announce it in an update.
• Rather than shipping a 3d printed sculpture, we will be sending you the 3d file that can be brought or sent to any place that offers 3d printing services. 

Where Does the Money Go?

Den is creating 40 amazing paintings for The Reluctant Dragon and that will absorb a lot of the money. On top of that, we have to pay for the following services:

• Animation, cleanup, colouring and compositing for the animated sequences on each page.
• Translators and voice actors for each language we create.
• Music for every page.
• The recording studio to record the actors in.
• The developer who will turn this into an actual working app.
• The promotional website and blog
• Sound design for the animated sequences
• App interface design
• Various software licenses
• A percentage of all that we take in from this campaign will go to a juvenile literacy charity.

Where We Currently Stand

• All character and set design is completed.
• Den has created 14 paintings and is going strong!
• Chris is well into the (digital) pen and ink illustrations.
• Philip has written all the major themes and has been writing music for each page.
• The three age level versions of the Reluctant Dragon are fully written and edited.
• The text has been translated into Chinese (traditional and simplified), Japanese, and Spanish. Many others are in progress.
• Narration for all three levels has been recorded in English and Chinese.
• The character voices for the animation have been recorded for most of the English characters.
• Our promotional website is nearly ready!

Other Ways to Help

The best way to help us is to spread the word! If you know of someone that is trying to encourage their child to read, send them to this site. Use the embed link under the video at the top of this page. If you know of someone that would be interested in one of the rewards we're offering, send them a message. Post a message on Facebook or send a tweet; repost our video or talk to your kids teachers - anything, just spread the word. The more people that know about this campaign, the better our chances of making this project a reality. Let's make this go viral and start a reading epidemic!

(Does anyone here know Oprah…?)

FAQ

Is this for iPad only?

The iPad is our first target platform but we plan to make the books available on all iOS devices as well as an android version. If pledges go beyond our budget, we will set a stretch goal that will allow us to get these other versions ready much sooner.

What languages are you planning to translate the books into?

The plan is to hit the most popular languages first, then if there is a solid demand for another language, we can produce it and offer it as an update.  So far, we have all of the following languages in some stage of development:

English

French

Spanish

Chinese (simplified and traditional)

Japanese

Hindi

Arabic

Russian

German

Portuguese

I'd love to do an Irish version as well - there wouldn't be much demand for it, but hey, I'm an Irish citizen and I'd love to keep the language alive.

Who are you guys? What have you done before?

Here are some more complete bios for the principle members of our team:

Chris Derochie

I am the producer and director on this project as well as the writer, animator and illustrator of the pen and ink drawings.

I've been in animation for over 29 years (yeah, I said 28 in the video, but that part was filmed a while ago...) and I spent many of those years in traditional animation at companies like Don Bluth Studios, Disney, and many other studios large and small. I worked on films like Thumbelina, A Goofy Movie and Help! I'm a Fish.  I ran my own animation studio, called The Forge, in Ireland for 10 years, and I have also been a visual effects animator for several years, animating on films like District  9, The Thing and the Twilight movies.  I have also done a lot of television work, like Stargate, Falling Skies and Eureka.  I'm currently the animation supervisor on the popular TV show, Once Upon a Time.

I have been nominated for an Emmy for my work on Stargate Universe. I supervised the animation on the second season of Steven Spielberg's Falling Skies, which was just nominated for a VES award (wish us luck!)

I taught animation for many years at Animation Mentor and at animation schools like The Animation Workshop in Denmark.

Den Beauvais

Den Beauvais is one of the most prolific and versatile artists in the field of Fantasy/Science Fiction today or in any venue he passionately explores. He has won numerous awards for his cover art for books, magazines, game boxes , comics books and a host of other mediums. His artwork is widely sought after by collectors and has graced classic book covers by such renowned authors as Isaac Asimov, Margaret Weis, Piers Anthony and Gordon R. Dickson.

Den has been nominated twice by his peers for the Chesley Award as the Best Paperback/Hardcover artist of the year, and he received the prestigious Eagle award for Favorite Comic Book Cover of the year for Aliens #1. His art had an essential role in launching Dark Horse comics and he has illustrated many covers for Dark Horse works, such as Predator, Star Wars, Starship Troopers, Time Cop, Ghost and more. Den also initiated the Universal Monsters graphic novel adaptation series with Dark Horse Comics, starting with his color rendition of Universal’s classic 1931 Boris Karloff Frankenstein black & white movie.

Den’s cover illustrations for PC games drew Cinematrix Studios to his door inviting him to produce concept illustrations as well as the cover packaging artwork for their game, “The Revenant.” This eventually opened a new world for Den, the world of 3D modeling, and character game modeling. His fame spread and companies like Sony Online, AOL and Disney courted him to take on important projects. Even the Canadian mint appreciated the extraordinary quality of his work and engaged him to design a historical sea serpent one dollar coin. Den’s imagination knows no borders. He has done wildlife artwork, costume designs, sculptures, woodwork, sword forging and two music albums of his own. Today, he is a highly sought after artist in the field of fantasy and Science Fiction art.

Check out Den's other work on his website: www.denbeauvais.com

Manjit Bedi

Manjit has been working extensively with the Mac and iOS operating systems over the past 4 years and has worked on over 20 apps. His iOS experience has been quite comprehensive - He has dealt with many features & frameworks in the OS like Map Kit, Core Image, Core Data, AV Foundation, UI Kit, Quartz Core. Recently, he has gained experience with Cocos2D, Box2D and  Unity 3D.

His specialties include: game design, game development, interactive TV services & games, user interfaces, videography, video editing, project management, systems analysis, connected TV, mobile development, EPUB