November 2012
// you’re reading...

Interview

Scott Christian Sava p1

By Simon Sandall ⋅ November 1, 2012 ⋅ Post a comment

READERSVOICE.COM aims to collect a few interesting reading tips. Scott Christian Sava is the creator of the epic all-ages webcomic The Dreamland Chronicles. Also there are six printed books in the series so far. The story mixes a modern realistic setting with fantasy. The main character, Alex, a student, crosses over into Dreamland as a young adult. He catches up with fantasy friends he'd known in childhood. These include Nastajia the elf princess, Paddington the rock giant, Kiwi the fairy and Felicity the catgirl. In the real world, Alex's brother Dan and friend Nicole (a psychology student) help Alex deal with the politics and other events in Dreamland and characters like the evil dragon king Nicodemus. The comic is created with 3d software. Visit thedreamlandchronicles.com.

READERSVOICE.COM: You are up to Chapter 18 and I read that you might go up to 10 books and 2000 pages in The Dreamland Chronicles. Have you planned the whole story up to the end, like George Lucas did with all his Star Wars movies before making any of them, and how much of the plot did you make up as you went along?

SCOTT CHRISTIAN SAVA: Thanks. I have 1,600 pages so far and 6 books. I have 2 more books planned (another 600 pages) and then I’m done.
I did plot out the entire story from the beginning. Just main plot points. Who does what. Where the adventure goes. Things like that.
I also have a character arc for everyone. Who they are at the beginning of the book. Who they will be at the end.
So the characters grow as well.
The rest… I write before the start of each chapter. This helps me adjust the story based on the fan reaction. And also allows me to grow as a writer and storyteller.

RV: The panels in The Dreamworld Chronicles are striking, like the floating islands, and Alex and the other characters flying on p.1333, as are things like the model created for you for the streets of Seraphopolis on p.1515. How did you go about learning how to use the 3d graphics programs required, like 3dStudio Max and Photoshop, for things like the Spiderman comic and The Dreamland Chronicles?

SCS: I got into computer animation back in 1990 working for Sega on a video game called Kid Chameleon for the Sega Genesis. I was still in art school and it was pretty much pixel by pixel animation. No 3d.
My time in games eventually led me to learn 3D software… but I never really was very good at modelling.
When I started working on the Casper film… I found out I didn’t HAVE to be good at modelling. My strength was character animation. There were people who really excelled at modelling…and it was THEIR job to provide the environments and characters for the animators to work with.
That taught me to leave the modelling to professionals…ha ha.
Spider-Man and The Dreamland Chronicles were both populated by very talented artists who designed and modeled so I didn’t have to. That’s why it looks so good. The list of credits and thank yous are in the back of each book.

– continued next page
– copyright Simon Sandall.

|