Demibooks: iPad App Development Solution

Soon to be released first app in artEpants series, Duck Takes A Ride

One on my dreams for many years has been to animate great master art works. Not all of them of course.  It still sounds rather ambitious. In fact when I started my work in animation over 20 years ago, the very first projects I worked on were animating my own art. It was a natural segue into the kids educational media that was to become the heart of my animation career. The culmination of that work was my wonderful relationship with HBO Family and the series of interstitials I worked on with them and the bilingual animated DVD I produced after that experience.

 

                         sample from "I Want to Be" series for HBO Family

Fast forward to today's technology landscape and iPads have significantly changed the way children access media. This has been a very exciting development that drew me back into the media production after spending a number of years focusing on my own fine art work. What followed was the search for the right tools for this new landscape of tablet delivered interactive media. Flash was the obvious choice for me because of my long history as a user and teacher of the software.  My skills as a programmer are limited and the requirements for iOS development with Flash were limited for me IF I wanted to be directly involved in the programing.

First Flash Project: ABC Art programmed in Flash with associate Heather Larkin

At first I didn't really understand why it was so important for me to be doing the programming.  I was working with my good friend Heather Larkin, talented animator and skilled programmer.  In our months of exchanging files I realized that my creative process for developing was really limited by not completely understanding how the code was written. I realized it would actually facilitate the creative process to think in code as I was conceptualizing my project.

Enter Demibooks with it's suite of app development software.

Demibooks

I read a post by Lisa Goldman of Women in Animation about Demibooks Composer. Demibooks had done a presentation for the group. I checked out their site and was very intrigued. 

What Demibooks offers is a book related format for developing iOS apps that allows for the inclusion of both animation and video but that has simplified the programming for even kids to use. (a theory I will test this summer) Predefined scripts are available in easily accessible language.

They also distribute books made on Composer through their own curated store, Demibooks Storytime.

 

The biggest initial stumbling block for me was that the iPad is the production tool.  I am used to working on my Mac Pro tower with 2 monitors, etc. This just seemed wrong. However, it didn't take long for me to realize the one major payoff for this arrangement. With the tap of one button I am proofing my app real time on my iPad.  None of the foolishness of Provisioning Certificates, etc that were required when I was working with Flash.

After about 6 months of working with Composer and getting to know the company and developing community I am very happy to have my eggs in this basket. Demibooks has been extremely responsive to users questions and requests. There is a forum through GetSatisfaction for communicating with other users and the Demibooks staff.

First in my app series Duck Takes A Ride as seen in production mode on Composer Studio

As I mentioned previously, an understanding of the capabilities of the software and how it "thinks" are really pivotal in using it to best advantage. I have reached a comfort level now where I can explore possibilities that will enhance my creative process. It's very much like a puzzle or understanding a system. The more simple processes are combined the potential grows exponentially.

Interest in Demibooks is growing fast. Lynda.com did a documentary about Stacey Williams, illustrator, publisher and educator about her work with Demibooks and her e-publishing course at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD).

I am indebted to the crew at Demibooks for what they have made available to media producers. They have been accessible and very responsive to adding functionality that their users would like. The upgrades I have seen since I have been working with Composer have been frequent and significant. The new app Composer Share, which allows me to send a Read Only version of my working document to beta testers and clients is a huge plus and really necessary for the software to be a viable production tool.

If you are working in Composer Studio, please share your experiences.