Lucky '13 Open House

We recently had our annual Open House and it was undoubtedly one of our best. With the number 13 having an openly unlucky reputation we thought, “Why not do a twist on that? Why not give 13 a new life for a new year?”

We had custom-colored FableVision Lucky Pennies and Lucky Fable Fortune Cookies. We also had a FablePhoto Booth where guests could stop in, have their soul portraits taken, and pose with background stills by FableVisionaries.

Our lucky-themed Open House featured a fortune teller (who was totally awesome and eerily on-target for those of us who had a reading). We had a ton of people come, and so many fresh faces that we were nearly dizzy by the time everyone left. Of course we always want old FableFriends to come to these shindigs, but seeing new faces with new talents and newly-acquired curiosity about what we do here at FableVision Studios is really what it’s all about.

Metallic stars shimmered in our windows overlooking the harbor and candles glimmered on hi-top tables. There were sliders. So many delicious sliders. And our signature cocktail, as always, did not fail to amaze (how can you not be amazed by edible gold stars?). Thank you, again, to everyone who came out. We had a great time. Make '13 Your Luckiest Year Yet!

Arts and Crafts: Gingerbread House

Every once in a while, especially around Christmas, I get the urge to switch gears from the virtual world of digital art and animation that I live in every day, to the tactile world of the physical crafts. For the past three years I have adopted one of my favorite American traditions - the making of a gingerbread house. From the ground up! It's a very fun process of creativity and problem solving, especially the latter, the more you run wild with the former.

My house begins as a paper model, cut and taped together to test the design and architecture.

Next comes the dough, mixed together from the basic ingredients - flour, sugar, molasses, ginger root, lots and lots of butter, and so on. The paper model comes in handy as a guide for the cutouts:

After the pieces are baked and have cooled and hardened enough, construction can begin. It's a delicate process, requiring steady hands and a certain order of events - what gets cemented with royal icing when and where, so the house doesn't collapse as you pile the pieces on. The most fun part is picking out the candy to decorate the house with - what can serve as shingles, what can be a door, etc. And then, adding the final touches with colored frosting, squeezed out from a ziploc baggie with one corner of it cut.

I usually add an extra element text to the house - a Christmas tree, or, this year, a snowman. The snowman was the biggest challenge, as his main body parts are jawbreakers - very unyielding things! Heavy and smooth, they kept rolling off of each other before the royal icing cement could harden to keep them in place. So I called in the heavy artillery - the drill. I drilled holes in the jawbreakers where two of them would meet, grated the meeting surfaces flat so the candy would sit on top of each other (and the base) without rolling of, and inserted a partial toothpick through the holes at the meeting point, to serve as an axis that connects the jawbreakers and keeps them together.

Now that the basic structure was staying in place, I cemented everything together with royal icing, and added a few details with colored icing squeezed out of the ziploc bag.

Everything used in this process is edible - the candy pebbles, the chocolate door, the sour ribbons for curtains and the snowman's scarf, the icing, etc. Another house, another challenge, another day of fun! (you can see my houses of Christmases past here and here)

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everybody!

Didi Hatcher (Lead Animator at FableVision)

FableFun Day 2012: Gingham Style

Last week, we took a break from our writing and coding and drawing and brainstorming and ventured out of our office for our annual FableFun Day.  In the past, we have done everything from ferrying to the Harbor Islands,  canoeing down the Charles River, stuffing our faces at the Topsfield Fair and initiating our famous FableFun Day Kickball Game.  This year, we headed out to Marini Farms in Ipswich to venture into their Space Exploration Themed Corn Maze.  Marini Farms also boasts a huge "jumping pillow," which is pretty much a giant trampoline where most of us bounced for a good part of the day.  After what seemed like light years in the Corn Maze, we headed over to Bradley Palmer State Park where we played a classic game of "FableVision Sport," which consists of throwing, catching, kicking and dodging frisbees, soccer balls, dodgeballs and pretty much anything else we could find.  Of course, the more civilized of us sketched, napped and played Bananagrams. We topped off the evening with a trip to the famous Woodman's of Essex clam shack for drinks and dinner.

This FableFun day may forever live in our memories as the first every FableMusic video shoot. Jordan 2.0 is hard at work editing down the piece that we will be sure to share far and wide....

Here's to even more fun in 2013!

Explore the Mysterious World of the Maya

What do you know about the Mayans? You've probably heard some rumors about their calendar (hint: it ends on December 21, 2012), but did you know that it's only the end of the Great Cycle, which is the equivalent of almost 5,125 years?! We're guessing you didn't (we didn't either a few months ago).  That's why we are so proud to announce the launch of Mayan Mysteries, our new educational archaeology adventure game for web and iPad, built hand in hand with our partner, Dig It Games.

Mayan Mysteries uses a visually stimulating approach to teach students about ancient Maya civilization and culture through the eyes of archaeologists. Our art team worked diligently to craft historically accurate representations of Mayan culture. Everything from cacao pots to temples have been poured over to give players as accurate a view of Mayan civilization as possible.  We were so lucky to have Suzi Wilczynski, professional archaeologist and teacher as our content expert on the game.

Players join Professor Q and his twin niece and nephew on a journey through Central America, hot on the trail of Ladrone, an infamous and elusive looter in search of the mythical city of Ich'aak. The story is told of their mysterious travels through graphic novel panels, which then draw players into puzzles and mini games about the Mayans that also help uncover the clues to both the identity of Ladrone and the location of Ich'aak.

We are so excited that this unique and robust game will soon be making its way into classrooms nationwide.  And we hope everyone will play way after December 20th, right? Stay tuned for more levels to come  and for a special behind-the-scenes look at the making of Mayan Mysteries right her on the FableVision Studios blog...