An Aereoscopic Adventure!

The Pitch:

i have always been a huge fan of art books. in fact i would say that 99 percent of my bookshelves are filled with art books ranging from animation to fashion design and everything visual in between. it was partly why i am so excited to have produced my own book, Walking Your Octopus. one of my goals with this project was to create an art book that was also an art object and this vision guided every aspect of the book's production. as we all know ebooks are becoming more and more popular and i struggled with how my book which was a celebration of all things analog might fit into the digital space. fortunately my very creative friend eric, had the solution...Aereoscope.

my friend Eric Daniels works with me at disney and is responsible not only for great art but also the ground breaking technology that brought the art to life. he helped pioneer the technique of deep canvas for tarzan as well as the graphic qualities of the recent academy award winning short, Paperman. by night he has created several apps through his company called Aerfish.

it was eric who helped visualize my idea of a victorian era lantern show and bring in a sense of depth as well as a very tactile feel to the whole project.

The Process:

first he would take one of my images:



and then painstakingly split it up into many different layers based on their perceived depth in space:




the idea is based on an old animation technique which was used on films like bambi, pinnochio and many others using what was called a multiplane camera



The Sound:

once all the illustrations were converted to acheive this effect then it was a matter of finding the voice of victoria in order to narrate the story. i really wanted the feeling of victoria reading this book as a bedtime story to the viewer and i was fortunate enough to be put in contact with the very talented helen sadler (true blood).  i think you'll hear if you pick up the app why she was the perfect choice to play the here-to-fore silent green haired heroine.


you can see the an excerpt of the finished version here:




i sure learned a lot during this process and couldn't be happier with the final result and i hope you enjoy the work that has been put into it. when you have a moment, check out the app in the app store, itunes.com/apps/walkingyouroct… and let me know what you think! make sure to rate it and tell your friends! eric and i are already planning updates as well as releasing new aereoscopic otto and victoria images. cheers!