Scupper Me Bilges, a Promo!

So here’s something you don’t see every day – an animated promo for a digital book! Oh, it’s been a looooong winter!

You’re a writer, you know how it goes: you work you knuckles to their knuckles writing and rewriting and reworking that novel of yours until it is precisely what you want it to be, and then you publish it because you can’t get anyone to look at it. Sad, my friend, sad.

So, how about this:

Oh, it could use some improvement, I know. It kind of harks back to the Rankin/Bass Hobbit video of the 70’s, doesn’t it?

Here’s what’s cool about this video, and something that might interest you. Beyond the obvious marketing tie-in to the Book (did you see that little marketing link there?), literally all of the software used to make this little monster was downloaded for free.

The ship is drawn in a very old version of Adobe Illustrator (version 2 while the new one is version 22), which I downloaded for free some years ago. The various PNGs required were all developed in GIMP (Gnu Image Manipulation Program), an open-source rival for PhotoShop.

And the video itself was put together in DaVinci Resolve, really cool and free software for doing stuff like making movies. If you look at their promo, and then look at this little movie of mine, try not to weep. Okay, the learning curve is a little steep…

There. I’ve done my plugs for the world. And I’ve plugged my own book.

All in all not a bad day!