Make your own amazing flipbook animations with Andymation's Flipbook Kit!
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
Hi Backers,
Happy New Year! I hope you all had a great holiday season.
I don't like spoilers, but I just can't help sharing a few of the photos and videos from our factory!
Our premium Flipbook Paper being cut and drilled:
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I'm sure this all looks so simple, but let me tell you... back when I was testing paper stocks--getting the right paper stock was not easy. lol I thoroughly tested many brands and thicknesses of paper. Most importantly I compared what each paper stock looked like when tracing it on the light pad. It is shocking how different the various brands of paper appear when held up to light. The pulp quality becomes instantly apparent. Finally I found one that was just right. It's really great. Premium quality. I'm very happy with it and think you'll love it. It has nice whiteness and the pulp quality is very fine, which makes for good tracing. I never expected to know as much as I now do about paper. ha! Maybe I should apply for a job at Dunder Mifflin.
Check out the custom drilling below. I love seeing this thing in action.
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Here is some footage of the Light Pad faceplates as they were previously machine cut:
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This is the tuck box within the kit box which holds the Light Pad. I really dig this box.
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The Meteor Flipbook being mass printed:
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I hope you enjoyed these few sneak peaks! It's awesome seeing everything come together. I have been talking to our multiple suppliers nearly every day, and they have been fantastic to work with.
We, and our suppliers, are working hard to complete manufacturing quickly. We are working with several separate suppliers to handle the various components of the Flipbook Kit. Our suppliers are working overtime to get all the manufacturing completed in time. That said, please be aware that Chinese New Year is coming very soon, which is a time in China when most factories shut down for several weeks. The workers go home, and manufacturing comes to a halt. In 2019 many factories will start shutting down near the end of January, and they will stay closed through a good portion of February. If for some reason any of our three suppliers fails to deliver their portions of the kit before CNY, there may be a three-week pause before all the kits can be inspected and loaded into the sea shipping containers. I only bring this up because our schedule is tight, and I want you all to be aware of CNY and its potential impacts on shipping. Our suppliers are doing their best to get everything finished and packed for sea shipping before CNY. If anything changes I will let you know.
Thanks guys! And thanks for sticking with me.
Andy
Hi Backers, we hope you are all having a great holiday season!
Printable Christmas / Gift Certificates:
For those of you who are planning to give Flipbook Kits as gifts--because our shipping dates were delayed beyond Christmas, we have made a certificate available, which you can print and give to your loved one in advance of the ship date. The printable certificate is available in both PDF and JPG formats at the links below:
PDF: https://www.dropbox.com/s/h14x6utfxu0tp5h/Andymation_Flipbook_Kit_Certificate.pdf
JPG: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8atji25the94c9d/Andymation_Flipbook_Kit_Certificate.jpg
FYI, for printing reference the color profile is these files is CMYK.
Manufacturing Update:
The metal injection molds for the light pad were finished recently, and light pad production is moving along.
Packaging production has begun in earnest, which includes the boxes for the Kit, boxes for the 8X Paper Pack, printed flipbooks, all paper components, and accessories.
The molds for our custom screws are still being made, and we expect to see samples soon. After samples are approved, screw production will begin in full. We are making a total of 400,000 individual screw pieces for our first run! It’s insane.
A reminder about delivery dates: We had been getting lots of emails about Christmas delivery--please note our current estimate is to begin shipping in February. For more info please see the previous Kickstarter update.
And last but not least... a sneak peek photo of the 8X Paper Pack Packaging!
We will have more photos to share in the next update.
That’s it for now. Happy Holidays!
Andy and Laurie
Lots of info in this update. Please read to the end.
First, thanks for your patience. I know many of you have been eagerly waiting an update. It has been exciting and insanely busy here. I will be posting updates much more regularly from here on out.
Great news for those of you who added the Grumpy Cloud enamel pin set! We have received our shipment of pins from our factory, and they look fantastic! The pin sets will ship along with the rest of your items as soon as all items are ready. Please note that we cannot split orders to ship pin sets separately. I love the way the pins turned out and couldn’t be happier with the quality!
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We ran into a challenge with our original paper/packaging factory and ended up having to part ways with them and find a new supplier. Our original factory fell short and was not able to meet our expectations or supply the quality brand of paper we wanted. So we started from scratch with several new factories, and the blank samples we received from our new supplier are exactly the quality we were looking for! Lots of photos below.
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We also received a printed sample of the Meteor flipbook, and it looks great!
We are finally about to start tooling (mold making) for the injection molded plastic parts! It has been a long road with many prototype iterations, and it’s a relief to be starting the tooling process. That said, getting to this point took much longer than planned. To be more detailed, as our supplier began refining the pre-production prototypes and circuit boards, it became clear that some elements of the assembly needed to be simplified and finessed before tooling could begin. And that took time.
These light pad delays have unfortunately caused a delay for our shipping schedule. I sincerely apologize for the wait, but good quality takes time and our light pad supplier had previously overestimated their speed. Mold making will take at least 1 month to finish. At that point, the factory will make “first shots” of the parts and test the assembly and fit of all components. After approval of the first shots, light pad assembly will begin in full.
While we wait for production of the light pads, our packaging factory will move forward with packaging production and assembly of paper packs and everything else in the kit. The kits will be ready and waiting--then as soon as the light pads are delivered to the packaging factory, they will add them to the kits and pack the kits for cargo shipping.
After the kits are packed for cargo shipping, they will be sent to 4 different worldwide fulfillment locations--3 international and 1 U.S. location. The 3 international fulfillment centers will handle all of the international shipping fulfillment for different regions, and all U.S. based orders will be shipped personally from our location here in Oregon.
I understand that some of you expected the kits to ship before Christmas. That was our expectation, as well. We tried extremely hard to make this happen and apologize that it didn't. This means that unfortunately due to our light pad production delays the kits will not ship before Christmas. Our current new estimate for shipping is February. I sincerely apologize for the delay. Stand by, and again thanks for patiently waiting! I think it will be worth the wait :)
Andy
Hi Backers!
We've been working hard to get everything rolling with manufacturing, and here are just a few of the things we've been up to:
We are currently working with a designer on the packaging artwork.
We added the glowing registration pegs to the Light Pad, made some improvements to the assembly, and our factory is working on the final Light Pad prototype.
We also added a heat sink to the interior of the Light Pad, which lines the back side and connects to the PCB (circuit board.) This will distribute potential heat produced by the LEDs.
Check out this screenshot of the exploded view of the Light Pad assembly!
We have been finalizing the Flipbook Kit's box shape and inner packaging construction. Our designer is currently working on the inner packaging tray which secures all of the items within the kit box.
And we received our first "white dummy" sample of the 8X Paper Pack! A "white dummy" is essentially a prototype box with no printing. Factories make these blank versions for approval before moving on to the die-cut production version with printing.
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What you see here are 4 stacks of paper, each stack containing 2 flipbook's worth of paper--for a total of 8 blank flipbooks. Also note the actual screws will be gold/brass color, and there will be more screws than what you see here. I love this layout design we came up with!
As soon as we have a sample of the main kit's box, we will share that with you too.
On another animation-related note, I also recently spent a week in San Diego for Comic Con and got to animate at the Laika Live exhibit. Here's a video about it:
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And I posted a new flipbook video on YouTube :)
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Thanks again for backing the project!!
More to come,
Andy