© JKR/Pottermore Ltd.™ Warner Bros.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, with actual moving illustrations by Olivia Lomenech Gill, is available from today – following on from last year’s release of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone illustrated by Jim Kay.
Newt Scamander’s bestiary of magical creatures, illustrated by Olivia Lomenech Gill, has been brought to life thanks to Pottermore Publishing and the clever people behind Kindle in Motion, who take artworks and use all sorts of mind-bending technology involving computer layers and 3D to animate them.
The digital books are, in the words of Jim Kay, a ‘joy’, and it’s hard to disagree when you see everything from an owl to an Erumpent to a Niffler start wriggling around your screen. We’ve already seen the moving images in action with Jim’s iconic artwork for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone last year – remember the cover, with the Hogwarts Express surrounded by billowing smoke and an owl flapping away in the air above the station?
Pottermore brought Olivia Lomenech Gill and Jim Kay together to have a discussion about the new versions of their work. We’ll be posting the full interview with them next week, but until then, here’s a little teaser of what to expect:
Whether it’s animating the chaos and bustle of Jim’s Diagon Alley in Philosopher’s Stone, or showing what happens when a man turns into a werewolf in Fantastic Beasts (Olivia’s favourite animation), the technology behind these Kindle in Motion editions is pretty staggering. Here’s a little look behind the scenes of Philosopher’s Stone from the team responsible for making Jim’s illustrations take on new life. They’re not wrong in calling themselves puppeteers: this is some seriously clever 21st-century artistry.
If you fancy swiping through Fantastic Beasts and marvelling at the sight of a griffin having a good old wing-flap or a Snallygaster clacking its beak, then 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.
