Blog

PARADIGM SHIFT: CHINATOWN is now in production!

I’ve started work on a new PARADIGM SHIFT animated short! 

It’s been pretty quiet on the PARADIGM SHIFT front since Restless Sleep came out last year. In part, that’s because I was hired to create a couple of animated pieces for the Storiaverse App. But that doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten about Kate & Mike. Oh, no.

Over the last year, I’ve been laying the groundwork for a new, more ambitious project: PARADIGM SHIFT – Chinatown, which will bring the pivotal scene where Kate’s werewolf powers manifest to life in full-color animated glory! Featuring all the elements for a great action film—action-packed kung fu fights, chase scenes, a beautiful Chicago setting, a brand new soundtrack, and best of all—a full voice cast!

We’ve just launched a Kickstarter to fund the project!

Presenting: “PARADIGM SHIFT—Restless Sleep” My first animated short film!

Hey, y’all! I made a movie!

Classic werewolf tale meets paranormal mystery in this new animated short!

Detective Kate McAllister is in for a rough night. While investigating a strange murder, she discovers she has a connection to the killer that is stronger than she could possibly imagine!

Based on the cult werewolf detective comic series PARADIGM SHIFT!

PARADIGM SHIFT—Restless Sleep is my first animated film. It as was created in Blender with characters rigged using DAZ Studio’s Genesis 8 platform. Composited in Adobe After Effects and edited in Adobe Premiere. I also composed and performed the music using Apple’s Logic Pro. The whole project took me just over a year to complete.

Sound design by Alexander Danner (www.twentysevenletters.com) and voices provided by Alexander Danner and Jordan Stillman.

Additional assets provided by:

DAZ 3D:
Catara by D.Master
Everyday 2 by Aeon Soul
Flak Vest by The AntFarm
Genesis Starter Essentials by DAZ Originals
Genesis 3 Male by DAZ Originals
Genesis 8 Female by DAZ Originals
Genesis 8 Male by DAZ Originals
Genesis 8 Starter Essentials by DAZ Originals
Genesis 8 Female Mega Wardrobe by outoftouch
Girls Baseball Style Jacket by DAZ Originals + fefecoolyellow
The Guy 7 by DAZ Originals
H&C Police uniform by IH Kang
HnC Leather Jacket Outfit by IH Kang
H&C Business Suit A by IH Kang
H&C Weekend Casual Suit by IH Kang
H&C Dress Shirt Outfit by IH Kang
Jax for the Guy 7 by DAZ Originals + Jessaii
Killian for the Guy 7 by DAZ Originals + Jessaii
Michael 4 Skeleton by DAZ Originals
Michael 4 Internal Organs by DAZ Originals + noggin + shaunahowell
Police Officer Outfit by Toyen
Riviera Noon Outfit by DAZ Originals + 4blueyes
Torn Clothes by smay

3D WAREHOUSE:
1998 Honda Civic LX by Cartoon + Comotor
2000 Chevy Impala by Paul B. + bmrct + csi guy
2005 Honda Accord by Kevin N.
2002 Dodge Neon Sedan by Paul B.
Chevy Z71 Suburban by Kyle
Chicago CTA Elevated Train by W P.
Glock 17 by CFD 9437
Honda Element by ZXT
Lamp#1 by Graham
Maple Nightstand by archangel
Toyota Corolla Sedan by Joce
Unmarked Cars by Paul B.
Wooden Bookcase by waveydavey

3D Textures.me:
Brick Wall 012 by Katsukagi

HDRMaps:
Gdansk Shipyard Buildings (modified) by HDRMaps.com (CC-BY)

I’m working on a PARADIGM SHIFT movie!

I’m making the very first Paradigm Shift animated short! Go ahead. Watch the trailer. I’ll wait. 🙂

I’m calling it Restless Sleep, and I can’t begin to tell you how thrilled I am to be working on it! I love comics, but I can now tell you that I love making animation even more. This project has me firing on all cylinders in the best possible way by bringing all the skillsets I have to bear on it—writing, design, illustration, 3D, computer & programming skills, video editing, and music!

Bringing my characters to life through animation has been a lifelong dream, and now I have the time and technology to actually do it! It all started when I started poking around with Blender during a fit of writer’s block, and with the help from free and paid models from DAZ Studio, before I knew it, I had a fully posable and transformable version of Kate, just begging to be brought to life! And even better, using Blender’s powerful shader engine I could make her look like an actual cel-shaded cartoon.

It’s about 7 minutes long, including a werewolf transformation sequence I’ve always wanted to see animated. I’m currently in the final stages of post-production on the film. I’m hoping to have it finished and ready to release this summer. Where and when are still up in the air, but there will be an online release at the very least

In the coming weeks and months I plan to give you some behind the scenes looks into the creative process behind bringing Kate and friends to the screen!

North Shore Children’s Museum murals!

I’ve just spent the last 3 weeks or so creating these murals for Peabody’s new North Shore Children’s Museum—a permanent version of CuriousCity, a pop-up that happened in 2019.

This is literally the largest painting project I’ve ever taken on. These things are huge. The mural above is over 25 feet long, and overlooks the lobby on the second floor!

Here’s what it looks like in context:

Each of these took about a week to execute from start to finish on site. That’s not including the time spent planning them, which was an additional week leading up to the project. I designed each of these digitally, and drew them in CLIP Studio Paint. Here’s what the original designs looked like:

The overhead logo mural digital design
The thank you mural digital design
The dual mural digital design

I projecting the drawings up on the wall before painting them. I ended up using standard Behr interior paint in a set of pre-mixed colors for the major reds, greens, yellows, blues and browns, to cut down on the amount of mixing, though there was still a bit of that for the lesser-used colors. What’s really gratifying is to see the final paintings look almost identical to the digital mockups. They’re even more vibrant in person!

You can see what process looked like from start to finish in this timelapse:

I’m really excited to see this new museum happening. The new space is filled with cool rooms featuring murals by wonderful local artists like Bruce Orr and Ron LeBrasseur.

The North Shore Children’s Museum will be opening its doors to the public on October 15th, 2022. I hope you’ll come visit!

Post-Kickstarter Update + Pre-Orders

The PS Kickstarter campaign may be over, but my work has only just begun! Today, I launched a pre-order shop so people who missed the campaign can get copies, too. It will remain open until I start shipping orders next April.

This week I’m also wrapping up edits on the PS Vol. 1 & 2 collections, and they’ll be off to my proofreader this week. Both should be ready to go off to the printer after New Year’s.

The Art of Paradigm Shift is coming along, and I’ve started in a design for a new painting to use as its cover. It should be off to the printer shortly after Vols. 1 & 2.

I’ve now done 84 of the 269 ink sketches I’ve promised as a stretch goal for campaign backers. If you want to follow along, I’m posting them on Instagram.

I’ve done 84 of the 269 ink sketches I’ve promised to backers so far. I should be able to get these done by March. 😉

The PS Kickstarter has wrapped up!


I’m absolutely delighted to announce the the campaign raised an incredible $18,543 from 360 backers. I would have never believed it before I launched the campaign 4 weeks ago.

Next I’ll be putting the finishing touches on the books so I can send them off to the proofreaders. And, I’m going to be painting the cover to the new PS art book—which will also be the source for the new poster.

A few readers have expressed disappointment that the campaign didn’t reach the big “shoot the moon” stretch goal of $25K and have assumed this means the end of the road for PS. I am here to tell you that is not the case. This tremendous outpouring of support has proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that there is a demand to see more of Kate & Mike’s story, and I’d like to tell it. Once I get these books off to the printer and the holidays are over, I can start thinking about a script for the new storyline. I can’t tell you right now when you can expect to see it, but there will definitely be a PS Volume 3 at some point in the future.

But first—I have three books to get to the printer!

Kate thanks you!

PS Kickstarter update—$14K and still going!

Quick update on the PS Kickstarter. We passed the halfway mark this week, and it’s up to $14K and there’s still a couple of weeks to go!

Last week opened up the second stretch goal: a new Paradigm Shift art book that will collect all the full color prints, character studies, and werewolf designs I’ve posted over the years. Also, it will feature a version of the How to Draw Comics mini guide I printed last spring as a bonus.

If you haven’t backed the campaign yet, now’s a great time. If you order a book, you’ll not only get a copy of the new art book, but an original ink sketch like this:

Kate thinks you should back the PS Kickstarter.

SUCCESS! The PS Kickstarter is FUNDED!

Wow! I’m totally floored! The campaign launched on midnight on Tuesday and was funded by noon on Wednesday. And as of this morning, it’s well on the way to reaching the first stretch goal. I was pretty sure that the campaign would succeed, but had no idea that it would happen so fast!

I’m honored and grateful to everyone who has come out to back this comic. Thank you so much your support!

(If you haven’t had a chance to back the campaign, yet, no worries! Now we’re on to stretch goals…)

The PS Kickstarter is now LIVE!

The covers of the new volumes.

I’m excited to announce the Kickstarter for the new Paradigm Shift 20th Anniversary graphic novel collection is now live!

Kate McAllister may be one of the best detectives in Chicago, but her life is about to turn upside down.

Modern police thriller collides with classic werewolf tale in this action-packed graphic novel series. Kate and her partner are kicked off a juicy gun-running case to investigate a series of bizarre animal maulings. But as she begins to develop strange symptoms and powerful, frightening abilities, Kate realizes she may know this beast better than she could possibly imagine.

Now, her nightmares have invaded her waking life, and there’s more than just her job on the line — her humanity and the lives of everyone around her are at stake!

The story was inspired by old role-playing games, classic anime & manga, buddy cop movies, the X-Files, horror novels, and techno-thrillers to create the series. I began Paradigm Shift online in 1999 before there was word for “webcomics,” and I want to celebrate its 20th anniversary with a new gorgeous, two volume set.

Check out the Kickstarter at:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dirkitiede/paradigm-shift-a-werewolf-detective-story