I have been experimenting with MotionComics and MADEFIRE platform for quite some time now. Now that Madefire has opened the gates for the creators to flood in the medium, time has come to start talking more and more on the nuts and bolts of the process.
Well, there are roughly two ways to approach the medium when making comics: Τhe "pimped comics" approach, and the "other" approach. (I am claiming stake to both obviously catchy terms).
Both have their merits and disadvantages.
Naturally, my first try on the medium was the "pimped comics" approach: I designed the comic as I would for print, panels and all, and then figured a way to enhance each panel with motion gizmos.
While a conservative approach, this helps comics fans and readers to "understand" instantly the MotionBook: "ok, it IS comics, yeah, and definitely a proper experience of reading one in digital form, no cheapo scans and clunky navigation". You can see this motionbook here:
On my second attempt, it became clear to me that this approach still suffered from scale issues (a panel page might work ok with iPad but it diminishes to near non-existence in iPhones), plus there is the rather hidden in plain sight truth that all the comics vocabulary was born out of the printed static paper confines and necessities. The promise of the MotionBook to abolish up-down left-right rule had to be tested. Panels have no longer reason of existence. I experimented with in-panel movement, plus using image elements and props as devices to move within time and space. You can see this approach on this story here: https://www.deviantart.com/derveniotis/art/UGH-Basic-Instincts-Episode-1-469949290 (full version is for sale, but you can still take an idea from the sample pages).
This is the beginning of a genuinely new format, but it will take time to take root. Readers will stand understandably undecided for a while: "ok, this is no longer the comic book I knew, neither a proper animation, where shall I place it in my carefully constructed OCD universe?"
Τhe guest is on for the ones who will successfully wrap their heads around this concept. There is an opening for the "Godfathers" and "Citizen Kanes" of this new medium, the ones who will once again enchant people with immersing Storytelling, the Reason Behind It All.
(Which means all you newcomer wannabes must immediately move on from Parallax one-page tests and start telling the best stories you can tell).