CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

This post, in general, could appear negative. Allow me to assure you that it should be viewed in a positive and interested light.

Archan wrote:First off, does anyone here know what a character bible or a conceptual bible is?

I have only a vague understanding, that is, I do not know well enough. Perhaps it would be for the best if you were to explain this more explicitly.

Archan wrote:Well (And I hope I'm not suggesting too mush of stepping out of line) I would strongly consider utilizing Bibles for pitch threads asking for artist here, and for writers whom aren't artist, a nice summary of your concept with just enough information to indicate Plot, Charaters, Genre, and setting (I've seen few people do this, but not nearly enough. Or worse, they'll utilize it but then start another thread assuming everyone has read their previous thread and that thread ends up being buried ).

Conversely, most artists are busy people, with little time to read anything more extensive. My own concept (The Fall) is far more complex than what you described (being greater than 100,000 words in totality) and has received little interest even as a work of literature.

Archan wrote:Also, include thumbs and anykind of art, because I think this would be just a better organized way as well as a stronger way to handle these projects.

But how would a person in such a position create thumbnails, or indeed any kind of art? Unless, of course, I misunderstand the concept the prior sentence was meant to convey.

Archan wrote:I think I've said enough for the moment, what I'm trying to get at though kind of soley rests on how far the Managing staff are willing to go with their ideals, or if the anime produced are just soley for the web.

My own view is considerably higher, if it matters.

Archan wrote:P.S. This is also sort of an open invitation for e-mails by particular individuals whom would like to discuss these matters more privetly and get a more, direct answer from me (As a professional)

You have used the term professional in regard to yourself rather frequently as of late, which of course begs the following question: professional in what?

First off, Mave told me about this thread and told me to respond. So here I am. *hehe*

Archan, I thought your information was great. I believe those managing a project should be as direct, cohesive and complete in their idea as possible. A conceptual bible or character bible is a good idea. Also, the writer should pretty much have a basic understanding of the beginning, middle and end of their work.

When I first present a proposal of a manga script I always have a brief summary and ask what would they desire me to send them? I already have a complete character description list - which is my character bible I would guess - which my friend who is married to a professional mangaka (meaning published) told me is the best she's seen in way of being very complete. In regard to concept I have a summary of one to two pages and then the first chapter of script, formatted according to the animation script guidelines from the most recent resources available to me. I follow the one in The Complete Book of Scriptwriting by J. Michael Straczynski.

I realize an artist is very visual and I realize they need as much description as possible - even moreso than my script. So, for my artist I make sure the character design sheet is as descriptive as possible. Also, I write my script with page numbers for the manga and panels, anywhere from full page to seven panels per page. The artist has the last word as to how they think those panels will fit when they draw. I think an artist should have the freedom to be creative to a point, as long as it doesn't ruin the overall concept of the work. It's really a matter of trust between artist and writer and the one overlooking the project.

I also think that they need to understand what is expected from them, in way of a time line. I prefer punctuality on a project. If I say I will do something I do it, and if they say they will do something I expect the same. However, things happen.

So, if you want to discuss our work via email I would love to. I admire your art very much.

Mave and I have been working on a couple of projects for around eight months now and we go by the name, "The Happy-Go-Lucky-Monkey Co." and we're looking for an artist who is good with monsters and mechanical stuff. ~_^*hinthint* We have one other artist who does backgrounds beautifully and characters. Also, I'm very picky about the art style. I would eventually like to be professional, and I expect professional quality work and a bit of a commitment to put out their best work. Also, I want to see the mangakas with me succeed and do well. I'm older and this is like a hobby, but they have their whole lives ahead of them.

For now, in the next month or so, we may have something in way of an online manga being introduced on Mave's "Kingdom Come" site. Eventually, we will have our own HGLM site and then from there, who knows. Right now, I'm writing the description for the site and the doctrinal statement and such and we're in a planning stage. I want it to be Christian based but not Christian exclusive. I'd love to see non-Christians start reading our manga and thinking, "wow this is actually good stuff and its put out by Christians!"

Hello everyone, I asked Chloe to respond to this thread, while I was typing out my own response. She can vouch for me that for some bizarre reason, my browser would not work with CAA in the middle of my typing, and she ended up responding first. Hehe ^__^

At first, I wasn’t sure whether this was relevant to me since I don't really manage a project or team and write my own manga instead. So, I guess I'll just comment from an artist's point of view.

[color=Sienna]Archan:
Thanks for explaining your view of “bibleâ€

Archan wrote:First off a character bible is a visual aid done pior to pre-production so the hired artist and staff always have a reffrence to the characters to make sure they are always drawn on model. Included in a Character bible are the following, Turnarounds, Action Poses, Head Turnarounds, Props (Weapons, decals, markings, etc), Costumes, Expression Chart, Color Treatments (Oprtional for B&W Manga, but should still be noted), Charater Bios, Demeanor, and history of all the included (and if not all a the least the main)charaters to be starring in the Manga. This bible is always in order of character or page type (Either all the pages relating to one character are located in one section, or all the pages are divided and sorted by type {Turnarounds, Props, Costumes, etc.}) Also, this bible should be readily accessable to one's production team and publically accessible if one is to interest any future artist.

Thank you for your response]A concept bible goes as follows: Character wise a coceptual bible may only include your main characters, short bios, roles, turnarounds, one major head study, and any other information vital to the show at the least. Along with this however the following is also included, environments (BG's, Pans, Building layouts), locations (Environmental studies), veichles (If any), major vital secondary characters or machinery (Mech's, Armed personel, landmarks) as well as a summary for plots to cover one whole volume.[/quote]

Actually, there is already such on the forums for The Fall, and I am currently working on a far more advanced one (dozens of pages long, in theory). Still, I'm void in the images category.

Archan wrote:I described the Fall? Well, just to be more direct and clear, my observation was a generalization and a set example for more then one story I've read about here at this thread. I keep from setting examples from existing work here to keep from offending anyone. If you think I was soley speaking of 'The Fall", I wasn not, and apologize if you were offended as well as anyone else, and if there is a pitch out there titled "the Narrow Path", I'm really sorry, because that was just by pure chance, I was reffering to the phrase "The straight and narrow path.." not to anyones particular ideal....*sweat drop*

My statement could be interpreted several ways]but people posting and pitching ideals should include more then a paragraph (And I do see memebers here do exactly that, I'd just wish there where more...*sigh*)[/quote]

Hopefully for the sake of encouragement to you, I will explain one positively resulting example. I had (have) a manga idea called Tic Tac Toe Joe, a parody of game manga in general. After posting a somewhat short concept design (though far more than a paragraph) I had an artist within a week.

Archan wrote:Hum, is there no way for anyone here at this thread to post up thumbs? If so, thats something I would definatley think about changing seeing more and more members are prone to pitch ideals here. Thats, or they could post thumbs at their album or gallery and then post direct links to their work.

Do you mean thumbnails? If so, I do not see why they could not merely be attached to the threads.

Archan wrote:Professional in what? Pertty much alot. Storyboarding, Animatics, Animation (Both traditional and CG), Background and layout work, conceptual work, graphic work, the list keeps going.....

If your just curious about training however, I've been trained by Bill Recinos (Veteran who has worked on Disneys Beauty and the Beast, The Rescurers, Aladdin, Mulan, He-Man, Bravestar, ect) Douglas Kirk (Veteran for Dreamworks, worked on Balto, Prince of Egypt, El Dorado, ect) James Stapp (Maquette sculpture, CG modeler, Model rigger for disney and other houses {Disney's Dinosaur, Reign Of Fire, Kangaroo Jack, ect}) and a few other chaps.

Hope that clears things up more when I refer to Professional.

That will be sufficient, yes.

true_noir_chloe wrote:Thank you for bringing this subject up. I never saw it as negative at all, just realistically observant.

Now that it has been mentioned twice, this might be a good time to point out that I was actually referring to my post, not the thread...

Archan wrote:Hum, so you generally have it all written but nothing visual to share huh? Thats cool, though this bible thing would actually apply more to those whom have art, still if you do have a more detailed synopsis and such thats a great start. Have you typed out the bio's and discriptions for each character yet?

There are brief personality bios for every character, and I am slowly working on extensive descriptions. At the moment I am covering only the most core characters, but I will expand to the important secondary characters when I am able.

Archan wrote:*Laughs* So you've already written a novel then huh? Thats cool, I for one do like reading, but you might want to condense it a tad more, if only for those whom don't like to read so much.

Perhaps it would be possible to create an in-depth summary...

New question, but related to concept bibles.

I am currently recontemplating the Pilgrim's Progress project, and have sketched out the entire remaining plot. When Gypsy finishes the first issue, I would like to have an in-depth concept bible created to use in an announcements thread. So, I would greatly appreciate it if any of the other participants in this thread (or indeed anyone else) could give me a fairly detailed list of typical components of a professional concept bible.

Awwwwww,
Does this mean I'm not invited to play UC?

Personally though, I haven't seen much of artwork regarding PP because alot of the art is either not posted or scattered through-out other threads. So, with that said anything you throw together at this point would most likely suffice. But, just in case I'm not invited to respond ( ) I'll wander off in another tangin for now

Anyways, the real reason why I'm here. I realized that here I was ranting about more visuals needed and all this stress on character bibles, and I didn't even post any visual aids or examples of my own. My bad. Anywho, here are tons of links on stuff I mentioned. I highly stress everyone look through them and try tp apply what you see and learn to any type of bible that may be developing for the time being. Hope you enjoy the links.

God bless,
Archan

http://dcanimated.toonzone.net/index.htm
http://lensman.freeshell.org/images/index.html
http://www.oomu.org/lastexile-images.html
http://www.telecom-anime.com/cybersix/english/character/character.html
http://et-caetera.org/mono/
http://www.catsuka.com/interf/gengal/sketches/kor/gal.html
http://www.aicanime.com/products/mahoyugi/3d/mahochara3.html

I said participants in this thread, which indicates yourself, true_noir_chloe or Mave. If you'd like to answer the question, go ahead. At the moment I'm not going to throw anything together... I first need better pictures of some of the action and the villains.

Meanwhile, I must look at those many links...