Princess Thafi Returns!

Several month's back our late COO, Andy, blogged about the decision to cut a character from the upcoming Wii U game Of Mages & Pages: Remnants of Iniquity.
In the aftermath of Andy's passing, I came up with an idea of a way to bring her back in a different capacity.  Princess Thafi will actually first appear in the upcoming Midieville shorts that we are creating to bridge the story gap from the old Midieville shorts and the new Of Mages & Pages games.

I'm not going to reveal how she comes about, other than to say that she will NOT be the damsel in distress she originally was thought up as.  However, I am sharing with you brand new concept art from S. LaDon Ware of what Princess Thafi may look like in the cartoons/games.

~Jason

Midieville Returns

With all the excitement about our upcoming Nintnendo Wii-U game Of Mages & Pages we have decided to continue our story of Midieville.  The latest saga will bridge the gap between the Spellbook saga, and the story in the game.  If you remember the "Duel" episode that we released a few years back that featured Marvin challenging Naaj to a wizard's duel, this is actually the first episode of the ten part story.  You can watch that episode here. Take a good look at the art because it's all changing when the new episodes start rolling out!  We will begin debuting new episodes prior to the release of our game.  Keep checking in with our Blog, Facebook page, and Twitter feed to stay up to date on all the Of Mages & Pages news.

~Andy

Batman 75th

Greetings 3twins fans,

I believe Jason posted quite some time ago about how the 60s Batman TV show influenced young Andy and Jason to come up with Hatman & Indigo.  We would come home from school and watch re-runs of Adam West, as Batman, as he would save the day with the Boy Wonder.  This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Batman.  It's interesting to look back and see all the changes in the Batman stories, as well as the many mediums it has used.  Adam West's Batman from the 1960s was not the first televised serial, Batman has been on the small screen since the 1940s.

Along with live action television, Batman also has graced our tv sets with many animated incarnations including the Super-friends, Batman the animated series, Brave and the Bold, and the newest cartoon Beware the Batman, just to name a few.  I'm sure most of our readers are also familiar with the Silver Screen Batman films from the 90s and the more recent Dark Knight movies.

All that doesn't even touch the vast collection of comics featuring Batman. I love the darker Frank Miller Dark Knight comics, but also the lighter Batman '66 that is currently available online by Kevin Smith and Ralph Garman.  I urge you to look into an incarnation of the Bat that you are not familiar with, and soak up a bit of what the Dark Knight has to offer.

~Andy

SECRET [Unfinished] Star Fetched Episode 2!!!!!

So, our most popular show is the one with the least published episodes.  Star Fetched is actually our oldest property with an early screenplay dating back to 1999.  We have tons of scripts for that show, but just haven't had the time to make more episodes.

BUT!!!! I stumbled upon an unfinished Episode 2 recently. Since we are working so hard on the game, we cannot realistically release any new comics or cartoons for the rest of the year.  In light of that, I thought I would be super duper nice and just let you all take a taste of the second episode of Star Fetched!

This only has rough blocking for the first couple scenes, then nothing but scene numbers. However, the audio was fully edited with sound effects and all.  So, enjoy, and don't say, I never gave you anything!

~Jason

Changes and Updates to 3twins.net

As some of you may have noticed, we are making changes to 3twins.net. The most noticeable change is the first page you see is now Hatman & Indigo comics. This allows for easy access to all the exciting adventures of Hatman and Indigo. Our familiar home page is still located under the Home link at the top of every page.

The most recent change to the website is our new and improved Midieville cartoon menu. Although the old one was fun and interactive, it was difficult to navigate. This improved menu is organized in easy to follow volumes of the current 30 Midieville episodes. We are working on streamlining all our menus to have the same feel, so look for similar changes to Hatman & Indigo comics menu in the coming months.

Please post your comments on our changes, we always strive to make our fans happy!

Thanks for the feedback,

Andy

The mouse has no voice

It may be somewhat old news to some of you out there, but I first found out a couple of days ago that Wayne Allwine, voice actor who played Mickey Mouse since 1977 passed away on May 18th 2009.

As you are aware, we at 3twins aren't just writers, artists, dreamers and animators, we are also voice actors. Much of who our characters are comes first from the voice we give them. I personally have always had a skill with various voices. As far back as I can remember, I was bothering my parents or cracking up my grandparents and friends with my impressions and accents. And now I get to do that as part of my job which is the best perk!

So, you can see why this news would sadden me on many levels. As an avid fan of animation, Mickey-phile, and fellow voice person I worry what will become of the worlds most famous mouse. From what I've read the fairly new preschool show, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, is most likely going to cease and The Disney company has not replaced Mickey's voice.

It is my personal opinion that Disney has become too "preteen" in the last decade or so. I grew up enamored by such cartoon blocks as "The Disney Afternoon" and the reruns of old Mickey, Donald, and Goofy shorts. I fear that it may be a while before the "big wigs" at Disney return to those types of shows featuring their cornerstone characters.

I encourage you to click on the link I attached to the crying mickey photo (or this paragraph), it is part 1 of a 3 part interview with Wayne, his wife Russi (who does the voice of Minnie interestingly enough) and Leonard Maltin. Apparently this interview can be found on a DVD set of Mickey shorts, Mickey Mouse: In Living Color vol2.

I raise my Mickey coffee mug in sad farewell to a man who brought an icon to life for 32 years!

-Jason

More sneek peeks into Ion Bunny 4

I previously wrote about Ion Bunny 4 and how he will square off against the Mad Hatter once more, but what I failed to mention was that unlike our previous issues of Ion Bunny, which have all been penciled and inked by Steve Surine, this one will be penciled and inked by our new artist, Brittany Bankert. To the side is a concept sketch she did of Ion Bunny and his alter-ego, Ian Bunay. We're excited about this new style for Ion Bunny since it lends itself really well to the "cute, yet not cuddly" nature of the "hare raising" electro-phile.

Stay tuned for periodic updates on all things 3twins...

-Jason

Star Fetch Episode 2: Pre-Production/Production

It takes a long time to bring a story into a fully animated version. Take Star Fetched episode 1 for example. It took Jason and I almost a year to finish the five minute episode. Everything you see in the show had to be created. Jason made most of the objects and characters.

The script was completed several years ago, but it needed to be edited. After that we had our actors record their voices for the characters. I then took all the audio and put it together so each character played against one another, kind of like a radio drama. Next we took the audio and matched the character's movements and mouths. That was the most time consuming part of the animation process. It can also get quite boring, listening to the same line over and over, trying to determine what mouth shapes should go with what syllables.

The final step was to make any of the visual effects. It wouldn't be very interesting just to watch five minutes of characters talking to themselves, so we put in exterior views of the ships, and showed the story that Bob and Jonas relayed.

Now after almost five months, we're still in the early stages with episode 2. This episode will be longer by more than 50%, so it will take us quite some time to complete it. Thankfully we learned quite a few things animating episode 1 as well as the several Midieville shorts we created in 2007 and 2008.

If you have any questions (or suggestions) about the animation process, please comment.

Thanks,

Andy