Killzone 2 War. Perfected. Game Flipz Book

Here's my Dragonfly Game Flipz book of new Killzone 2 TV spot.

To celebrate the release of Killzone 2, I've posted a FREE DOWNLOAD of my Dragonfly Game Flipz book based on the excellent Killzone: War. Perfected. TV commercial. Here is a chance for Killzone fans (and all gamers) who said they wanted one to have a Dragonfly Game Flipz, to get one. So, pass the word to friends and Killzone fan sites.
Just go to my website, www.dragonflyent.net, and click on the cover image in the upper left hand corner to download the PDF file. Read the instruction on the 11th and 12th page. Basically print it out and assemble it. As a bonus, I've included a choice of ISA, or Helghast cover art.

The video shows a test printing and it has some mistakes the will be fixed, but I couldn't resist posting this now, with the Killzone 2 game being released Friday, Feb.27. I just picked up the Brady Games Killzone 2 game guide book from my local GameStop. My Dragonfly Game Flipz books would have been a nice bonus for pre-order customers, but I quess it wasn't meant to be. This Killzone Game Flipz joins the Halo Flame Thrower Game Flipz book as a free download. I may do more from time to time, my main focus will turn tomy own projects. Look for them soon.

If, you have any problems making the flip book, leave a comment on the video page. Let me know what you think.

It is ironic that I won't be playing Killzone 2, because I don't have a PS3, yet. But, when I do watch your back, I'll have you in my gunsites.

Enjoy.

Ruby, Ruby, Rubi

This past week I ordered, and recieved, the latest installment of one of my favorite Sci-Fi characters, Ruby, the Galactic Gumshoe. You may not have heard of Ruby, she's the main character in a series of audio adventures, basically "radio plays" produced by ZBS Foundation since the early 80's. Here's how I described her in a pitch outline I prepared awhile ago (more on that later):

Ruby, Galactic Gumshoe, follows the adventures of a “smart, saucy, and sassy” futuristic detective on the planet Summa Null in the 25th century. In this ultra modern setting of media overkill and out of control commercialization, Ruby, Galactic Gumshoe, accompanied by the eccentric archaeologist, T.J. Teru, and the lovable thief Rodant Kapoor (pronounced Roe-dent), weaves her way through a bizarre mix of hi-tech, mystical and humorous adventures.

Ruby’s world is laced with fantastic locations such as Magnifico, the City of Malls, Kismet, the inflatable nomadic city, and populated with a kaleidoscope of offbeat characters. These include Angel Lips, a sexy android. Moliere, chief of the “pun” loving Mole People, who love to dance the tango. Monet, an Aurorean, a race that “lives for aesthetics”. And/Or, the “techie” from the Digital Circus, an renegade underground performance group. And many, many, more.

In her trusty “talking” air car, Mustapha, Ruby navigates across a vibrant world of Scuzzies (cyber-punks), Slimeys (genetically engineered assassins) and a host of other alien oddball characters. Case after case finds Ruby matching wits with Techo Witches, Zoot Mutants and “dark forces” from this and “other” dimensions fighting for the hearts, minds, souls, and pocket books of the masses.


Ruby is “one tough cookie”. Self-confident and independent, she’s a neo-classic gum shoe, like a Sam Spade meets Han Solo in a female form. Highly intelligent and resourceful, Ruby is still basically a woman of action. Armed with her sharp mind and rapier wit, Ruby is more than a match for any human or alien foe who crosses her path. But Ruby also possesses a special gift; she can slow down time. This comes in handy when you need to dodge a laser blast or the swing of a bad guy’s energy-blade, allowing her to sidestep danger and returns the favor with a blast from her “Smith-Asahi Godzilla Blaster” with a signature response, “here’s a kiss for ya”.

All this is great stuff! ZBS Foundation has produce tons of Ruby stories, the last being Ruby 7, and other original productions. I started buying Ruby adventure on audio cassettes and immediately fell in love with them. So much so, that I tried to get the rights to produce an animated series, and I actually did secure the animation rights for about two years. But, as luck would have it I couldn't get the project sold. The first Ruby audio series was done as two minute episodes which actually aired on public radio, during rush hour drive time. I thought they were perfect for webisodes. I pitched them as such, at the height of the Web 1.0 crash. Bad timing on my part. I remember my last pitch meeting was the day after "9/11". Needless to say a lot of projects faded away at that time. My Ruby was one of them. So, the animation rights are now in the hand of other producer. But I still hold out that I'll get another chance. (Just for record, I haven't seen one bit of info from the other guy in the two years he's had the rights. I'm hoping no news is good news, because I think ZBS's Ruby deserves to be out there, even if I'm not the one doing it.) ZBS is one of my inspiring, creative heroes, so, please visit ZBS Foundation website for more info, and support them by buying their stuff.
Here's the animatic I did for my Ruby animated series pitch. It's an adaptation of the first audio episode. This is the first time it is being shown online, although the storyboard has been on my website for several years. I just never got around to posting the animatic. With picking up the latest adventure, I decided, why not! By the way, I also did a series of Dragonfly Flipz books of this short. If, I ever get the chance, I'll print that up someday. (By the way, ZBS and the media right owner has a copy of this animatic and flip books, just for the record)

Ruby, the Assassin

Some time after finishing on the Ruby pitch I came across this other Ruby, " Ruby, the Assassin" featured in demos for ATI graphic card. I be curious to know if these guys knew of the ZBS "Ruby". The episodes are very well and worth checking out.

I thought of approaching ATI and seeing if they'd be interested in having Dragonfly Flipz book adaptations done of the episodes. I still might do that.


Rubi - Wet

Just to add to the mix, here's a third "Ruby" or Rubi. This Rubi is the lead character in a new video game coming out next year called "Wet". It looks interesting in "Kill Bill, kind of way. I don't know much about it, but the trailer looked cool. (Warning: Mature content)

Three Rubys for the price of one.

Enjoy.

Thundercat CGI Movie Project finds a Director.

My good friend, Larry Houston, sent me this article from Variety, the entertainment daily. It seems video game veteran Jerry O'Flaherty, art director of Gear of Wars and Unreal tournament will direct the CGI movie of the Thundercats , the classic Rankin and Bass cartoon from the '80's. Since I like the art direction of Gears and Unreal, I'll be looking forward to seeing what he does with the T'Cats. Actually, the reason Larry sent me the article(as I've mentioned before) is that I worked on the original series, (yes, I'm that old). I was the art director for the last season and designed the secondary characters for the last thirty shows and wrote two of them "Shadowmaster" and "Well Of Doubt" (you can check them out on Season 2 - Volume 2 of the Thundercats DVD set).

Here's a clip:



I hope they bring back the Shadowmaster. It would be fun to see my character on the big screen.

So, what left to say but...THUNDERCATS...HO-O-O-O-O!!!!

P.S.

Larry Houston is a very talented animation producer/director with tons of credits, including the early X-men animated series. Please look him up and bug him to start a blog or website. He definitely has a lot to share with everyone.

Halo, Halo everywhere...and not a game to play.

The title is a lame twist on the famous "water, water, everywhere, but not a drop to drink" line (it might been from a Shakespeare play, but I'm not sure). Sadly for me I can't play Halo 3 since I don't own a XBox 360 and have no plans to buy one. Maybe when it's released for the PC (Microsoft "Games for Vista" line), I'll have a Intel Mac by that time and get a chance to play it that way, a year or two down the line.

In any case, Halo 3 was released this week and you had to have been living under rock or in a deep coma (or both) not to have been exposed to the hype and fan madness. Don't get me wrong I like Halo, very much! As a card carrying comic book, sci-fi, video gaming nerd-geek, I think it deserves all the attention it gets. Congratulations to all the creative artist, animators, game programmers and everyone connected to it, for a job well done.

So, in honor of Halo 3's release, here's a retrospective of Dragonfly Flipz concept pieces done based on the game taken from earlier posts here, or on other sites. I know my Game Flipz™ books would have been a great addition to their licensed product line, but it wasn't meant to be, I guess.

(P.S. I also wanted to test the Blogger movie upload feature to see if it's image quality was better than youtube, which sucks!)






This the alternate cover for the Halo 3 Game Flipz book. I ended up using it for the title page.

Here's the first pages of the Halo 3 Game Flipz book. Clip on the image to enlarge:


Here's the fake ad I did just before the official Halo laser tag toys were announced. I still think Hasbro's LazerTag product would have been a better choice. Hasbro has much better design and higher quality than Jazman, who will be making the official Halo laser tag stuff.


Here's the official Halo Laser Tag blasters coming out next month. (If the high prices I see posted for these are true, they'll be a real rip-off! I'll blog about that later, when they're released)



I actually picked up two Halo Mini-Pin sets of the weapons and some Wizkids Action Clix figures. I think they're cool, and reasonably priced. Here's a photo of the pins with my Halo Game Flipz books.

As you can see they would be a nice bundle. If you think so too, post a message to Bungie's fan board and link to this blog.

So, now that I've added my load of stuff to the Halo media overkill pile, enjoy.

Killzone 2 (E3 -2007) Game Flipz Preview - Part 3

Here another preview of the Killzone 2 (E3 - 2007). It' almost finish, I'm getting it printed tomorrow and should have a movie posted by wednesday. I had computer problem, I desktop program refused to batch convert my pages to PDF, so I had to do all 202 page one by one, that was a drag what normally takes 1O minutes, took three or so hours. But, it was still worth the effort. Here's a few more preview images.
(As always, click on the image for larger views)
Here's cover including the spine art.


Here's the bridge pages (last page on the first side (odd pages), and the first even page you when you flip the book over).


Actually the comic pages in the Preview Part 2 are no longer in the book, I had to revise the action, so that dialogue scene is now in the flipping action.

Here's an added extra I couldn't resist adding to the flip book. You might remember a post I did a while back calling for more Nerf or laser tag tie-in with FPS games, well, as I posted Halo is getting a Laser tag set this fall. In any case here my fake ad for Killzone Nerf dart blaster. The Nerf longshot is a real product, already. It just needs a cooler color scheme.



Soon, one of these toy companies, or softair BB, or even paintball marker makers will realize there's an market waiting to be tapped big time, for the tie-in items for older kids 12+. But, hell what do I know, I'm trying to sell paper flip books in a pocket, micro, wireless, video world. Well, you don't need a media player with a flip book.

Enjoy.

Killzone 2 (E3 -2007) Game Flipz Preview - Part 2

Here another sneak peek at the latest Game Flipz book, for Killzone 2, I'm working on. It's going to be a monster flip book. As I started three massive trailers were released, so I'm trying to include great action footage from each, and tell the narrative storyline of the clips. I, still hope to have it done by this friday so I can start work on preparations for the upcoming Comic Con.

Here's the Game Flipz pages. They are bridge scenes between the flipping action pages.



Enjoy.

Killzone 2 (E3 -2007) Game Flipz Preview

E3, the gaming industrial mega "show and tell" event is being held in LA, this week. Unfortunately, for people like me, anyway, it's an invitation only affair, this year, to get out the "low lifes". (You think they meant...me, too?) But, the game sites, like Gamestrailers.com and 1up.com, are flooding the web with great media coverage. Still, I miss the hot booth babes, game sound effects and music blasted to volumes to make your ears bleed, enough strobing lights to cause epileptic fits in the dead, and the smell of sweaty geeks drooling over the games and booth babes, well...may not the "drolling geeks" part.

E3 also means tons of great game trailers that I want to turn into Dragonfly Game Flipz™ Books. First on the "MUST DO" list is the new trailer for Killzone 2 game. I did one Game Flipz book of the first trailer from last year's E3. So, I have to stay current and it looks great.

Here's preview of my Dragonfly Killzone E3-2007 Game Flipz™. They're the comic layout pages before the flip pages start. I hope to finish the whole book with a week. Check out the full trailer below then my Game Flipz™ pages.



(Click on image for larger view)


As always your comments are welcomed.

Enjoy

StarCraft 2 Game Flipz Preview

This cool game trailer for the Starcraft 2 computer game was released last week or so. The original Starcraft is huge gaming favorite, especially in Korea where they have massive following, including TV coverage of tournament with big cash prizes. I had only play a demo of the first game, but I always liked the premise of the game. It's one of the few mega-game hits that are also available for the Mac. So, this weekend I picked up a box set, Starcraft - Battle Chest, which includes the original game and two expansion pack, and two strategy guides. A nice buy for only $9. So, now Starcraft will be added to my list unplayed or unfinished games, oh well.
Also Blizzard, the game developer, had some great trailers for their other other great game World of Warcraft.

Check out this this trailer:


Whats really cool is the Starcraft 2 trailer reminded me of my Warrior in the Mist "suiting up" sequence. I mean, both have naked (or near naked) guy getting dressed up in battle armor by machines. Keep in mine, my Warrior in the Mist was done way back in 1992, long before Starcraft was released. Of course their video is lightyears ahead of mine in quality, thats why I like it. But, just for comparison here's Part One of Warrior in the Mist.



I was so inspired by the Starcraft 2 trailer, I've started a Dragonfly Game Flipz book of it. Here's the first comic pages before the flip book action starts. I will have it finished in a week or so and post a movie of it. as always.
(Click on the image for larger view)


Enjoy.

Dragonfly Flipz Books - Top Ten

Wow, I just wanted to thank all the people who have watched and commented on my Dragonfly Flipz Book movies online. It really has inspired me to keep at it, making them, and trying to get them mass produced.

Any way, here's the my top ten list of my movies based on your viewings counts from Gametrailers.com (GT), Youtube.com (YT)and Combined (Total)

(Click on Image for Larger View)

1. 300 the Movie Anim. Flip Book - 6881 (GT) - 6099 (YT) - 12980 (Total)
2. Final Fantasy XIII Anim. Flip Book - 4685 (GT) - 7855 (YT) - 12540 (Total)
3. Killzone (2) Animated Flip Book - 5178 (GT) - 3090 (YT) - 8268 (Total)
5. Halo 3 Animated Flip Book - 1357 (GT) - 3301 (YT) - 5262 (Total)
4. Unreal 07 Animated Flip Book - 2417 (GT) - 1357 (YT) - 3774 (Total)
6. Killzone Liberation - Ad Edit GV - 1740 (GT only,not a flip book movie)
7. Star Gladiator Flip Book - 1610 (GT) - 157 (YT) - 1767 (Total)
8. Halo (2) Animated Flip Book - 1348 (GT) - 280 (YT) - 1628 (Total)
9. Marvel Ultimate Alliance Flip Book - 1003 (GT) - 380 (YT) - 1383 (Total)
10. Killzone Liberation Ad Edit - 727 (GT Only - not a flip book movie)

(I resisted the temptation to embed all ten video in this post, so you lazy guys will have to visit my User Movies pages on Gametrailer.com and Youtube.com to view them. Follow the links at the right)

For different reasons, my top three favorites are "Killzone 2", "Unreal 07", and "300 the Movie". The Killzone 2 Flipz book was the first I used my comic page / flip book page format which really opened up all kinds of possibities and uses for my flip books. The Unreal 07 flipz book is just such a cool, dynamic, trailer, the flip book just had to be made. The '300 the Movie" flip was again done because the trailer movie is so cool and I loved the Frank Miller comic (BTW - I keep forgetting to upload my Sin City Cinema Flipz book. I'll have to do that this week). My next favorites are Final Fantasy XIII and Marvel Utimate Alliance. The FFXIII flipz book was the first I introduced the art gallery pages in, which will now be a standard feature of my books. Meet the Robinson and Afro Samurai are my most ambitious as far as page count, 144 and 200 pages respectively.

Many GT viewers have asked about buying my books. Out of respect for creators of all these properties (I'll work in the creative arts (animation)and wouldn't want someone bootlegging my stuff. Plus, I wouldn't want to be sued by some like Sony), I'm not selling these on Ebay or privately ( I was offer $530.00 for Halo 3 Flipz book from a guy who saw it on Youtube, I declined). I'm still hoping to interest the game nad movie companies into letting me make and sell them. I've contacted several and I get some response but things seem to fall by the wayside.

So, I asking for your help. If you'd like to see your favorite game or movie trailers become flip books, write the game companies, Bungie, Square-Enix, Epic, Sony, Microsoft. and others. My Flipz book would be a great item for their online stores. Down the line, I'm open to talk about a royalty arrangement. I'd pay for for production, I just need the permission from the property owners for use of the trailer videos.

Thanks, again, for your support. No matter what, I'll keep making more Dragonfly Flipz books movies, if you keep watching them I promise.

I'll keep you posted.