December 12

Well, I can’t believe we are into the holiday season already and although it is incredibly cliche to say it, I really don’t know where the time has gone.

It’s been a long time since I last posted something on the blog, so here are some highlights from the last few months:

X-Summit Conference 2012 –  Back in November, I attended a trans-media conference in Toronto; it is the first conference that I’ve attended representing my own business.  A quick description: the conference  ”focuses on cross-media convergence, enabling content producers to better tell their stories seamlessly across multiple platforms”.  Basically, it’s all about merging our favourite forms of media.  From video games and film, from television to graphic novels and from internet to ipads, it’s all about making these diverse platforms work together and create an unbelievable  interactive experience.

I had a great time at this conference.  I met all sorts of interesting folks who are working with media in cutting edge ways. Companies such as Stitch Media and Smokebomb are already way ahead of the game, creating content for the web with very interesting stories and interactive elements to keep viewers engaged.   I was also inspired by folks like Corey Vidal, who built a successful business by making youtube videos.  I quickly realized that this was the group of people I want to associate with and hopefully work with one day.  Interactive Ontario organized the event and it is definitely a group that I would like to be more involved with in the new year.

Rollers of the Realm!  Since September, I’ve had the great opportunity of contributing to the development of Rollers of the Realm, an awesome pinball game.  Phantom Compass, an indie gaming company based in Toronto, has started up a small team in St. Catharines to build the game for PC and iPad.  They are connecting with some of us Silicon Knight stragglers who still want to work on games.

There are several reasons I’m loving this gig. Firstly, the game is going to rock!  I love pin ball and I’m already addicted to Rollers which is a good sign of it’s future success.  Also, I love working with a small team.  Not only is communication simple, but stuff simply gets done quicker and easier.  Everyone is committed and excited about the game, so the energy is fantastic!  A huge kudos to Tony Walsh for bringing this idea to life!  I’m thrilled to be a part of it.

Innovate Niagara! I was delighted to work with the folks at nGen to create this video for the Innovate Niagara website.  It’s the first significant project I have worked on here in town, and it was a blast!  The folks at nGen are a treat to work with and I can only hope for more clients as fun and committed.  Creating a whiteboard video was a challenge to figure out technically, but luckily I had the very talented Andria and Ian to help out with video and animation.  We were also fortunate to have the infamous Jason Simpson record the voice over which adds a whole new level of professionalism to the video.

Illuminate This! Since starting my own business back in May, I’ve re-connected with my old college chum, Amber Harloff.   She is over in Creemore, running a very successful animation/video gig called Illuminate This! She has been a huge source of encouragement and advice for me as I’ve made these first tentative steps into the world of freelance.  She is a veteran entrepreneur and very talented!  Recently she hit me up for some animation work and this was our first opportunity to collaborate on a project.  And wow, what a blast!  She and I joke that we “share the same brain” because we understand each other so well!  I think this is a start to many more collaborative projects.  Check out her vimeo account or my portfolio page to see some of the work we did for the Peel School Board.

Peel School Board Overview from Amber Harloff on Vimeo.

As you can see, we’ve had a busy fall. I’m looking forward to the slower holiday season where we can reflect on our first year of business and really focus on planning for the New Year.  This is the best time to set some goals and make a plan to build something amazing and prosperous.  I have a feeling 2013 is going to be an even bigger boom for us and I’m excited for what is in store!

So, on that note, we at Image Propeller Studios would like to wish our valued clients and partners, family and friends a very happy holiday and a prosperous New Year!