Artists Jim Kay and Olivia Lomenech Gill discuss their animated digital books

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is out now as a Kindle in Motion moving illustrated book, following on from last year’s release of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone illustrated by Jim Kay.

We spoke to Olivia Lomenech Gill and Jim Kay about their techniques and what they think of their artwork being brought to life in this new format.

Dragons snorting smoke and flapping their wings… A Crup cheerfully wagging its forked tail… A Hidebehind eerily materialising in a forest… A Fire Crab shooting flames out of its bottom… All these creatures and many more can be seen moving in the Kindle in Motion edition of J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them which is out now.

Olivia Lomenech Gill’s evocative illustrations have been transferred from page to digital device and lovingly turned into moving drawings, in the same way that Jim Kay’s artwork for Philosopher’s Stone was animated for a Kindle in Motion edition last year. The result is a reference book for magical creatures that all but comes to life in your hands.

This is the first time Olivia, who also illustrates books for Michael Morpurgo, has seen any of her work animated using this technology. She’s pretty thrilled about the experience, too, mainly because of the way she usually works. ‘I spend a lot of my time in the studio on my own,’ she says in our interview, ‘and the one frustrating thing for me – though I still work a lot with storytelling – is that the images are always static. It’s a kind of technical hitch of working as an artist!’

All that has changed now, though. We interviewed Olivia alongside Jim to see how both artists feel about seeing their static art given another dimension, and also what they make of each other’s artwork. As you can see, both artists get along famously and are really pleased with the end results.

You can take a peek behind the scenes of the making of Jim’s Kindle in Motion edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Here’s a look at the team who worked on it: Belief Studios in Seattle.

The Kindle in Motion version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is out now, and you can buy the Kindle in Motion edition of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them  here in the UK and here in the US.