Hi folks! Largent here!

The Sea Anemone model came together very quickly and on January 28th (which just so happened to be my birthday), Stian delivered the final model! He did an incredible job of turning my wannabe ship plans into 3D!

It took me over a month to draw up the plans for the 3D ship Flemm would be using in the cartoon. I completed them on January 14th and sent them off to Stian so that he could begin modeling.

It didn’t take him nearly as long to create the model as it had taken for me to design it! On the 16th, Stian let me know that he was beginning the model and just two days later, I got to see the first glimpse of his work!

That was early in the morning on the 18th. By late that evening, Stian sent me two more renders with even more of the ship!

It was a marvel to see it take shape so quickly! Next week, Stian delivers the final model!

Hey, everybody! Largent here with some more behind-the-scenes stuff on our animated version of The Wannabe Pirates that I’m still slaving away on!

One of the centerpieces of the movie is Flemm’s sailing ship, The Sea Anemone. (Some of you may have noticed it sailing behind McCrary in his Jamaica photo!)

The Sea Anemone would become the first time that I sought outside help on the project, since I knew that it was important that the model be of as high quality as I could afford on an artist’s wage. So I turned to an extremely talented modeler in Norway named Stian Wahlvåg. You can see some of his excellent work on his website, Another Generation Entertainment Project.

But first, we needed to design the darn thing. McCrary had a basic idea of the look and made some quick sketches. I then set about creating detailed drawings that Stian would use to do the modeling:

One of the key things was to try to simplify the ship design to fit the cartoon style of The Wannabe Pirates. Not being a draftsman, it was quite a challenge. I poured over images of old sailing ships and after a few false starts had the plans for The Sea Anemone all finished and sent them off to Stian to do his magic.

Next week, the ship starts to take shape!

McCrary here! Hope all is well wherever you are.  I have two purposes in writing this blog.  The first is to get that picture of me in Jamaica off my computer screen when I check out the website.  Yikes!  I was hoping Largent would write something, but since he didn’t…

Second, and the more important reasons, is to give our readers a heads up on the new storyline we will begin next Tuesday—”The Wannabe Pirates and Henry Morgan’s Treasure.”  If you’ve read any of the first blogs, you may notice that that was the title of a home movie some friends of mine and I made some years ago.  We are adapting the storyline for the strip, and its going to be a big story, and I hope you’ll enjoy it.

BTW, we are starting to do some advertising of the strip next week, so hopefully we will gain some new readers and begin to enlarge our little wannabe community.  Thanks for joining us!

As I write this, I am in the lush and beautiful country of Jamaica on a mission trip. I arrived a little less than a week ago, and will be here until the end of the May. I have been excited about this trip as an opportunity to preach, but also, on a personal level, because of the role Jamaica played in the history of piracy in the Caribbean. Although I doubt I will be able to make it to Port Royal (or rather, the small fishing village that is left of it after the earthquake of 1692), it is still remarkable to stand on the beach and look out at the same water that islanders centuries ago looked out on and saw Spanish galleons, loaded with American gold, or small, fast brigs flying pirate colors!

I am busy writing ideas for strips for our next story (which will be a big one) entitled “The Wannabe Pirates and Henry Morgan’s Treasure.” Connection to Jamaica? Henry Morgan, one of the most famed and notorious pirates to ever sail, was also one of the early governors of Jamaica.

So, sit back and keep reading our strip, mon! Comments are always welcomed (hey, we enjoy feedback), so drop us a line. As the Jamaicans would say, “No worries, mate!” Oops, that’s the wrong laid back country! Iree, Iree, mon!

McCrary!