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App on iPad enlivens animal tales, drawings of Poland man
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Tom Antonishak of Poland has turned his books about bald eagles and pandas into apps for the iPad.
POLAND
More than 15 years ago, a local artist sketched the life cycle of a bald eagle and wrote a short story to accompany the drawings. Now technology and software are bringing the tale to life.
Tom Antonishak, 62, of Poland, wrote “Life of an Eagle” from an eagle’s perspective and released it last summer as an application, or app, for the iPad. The story follows the eagle as it hatches, learns to fly and sees its habitat threatened by a lumber company.
“I wrote the story back then, and I just put it away,” Antonishak said.
When he started experimenting with the iPhone and iPad, he thought of using apps for the eagle’s story. He kept the story in sketch form and later added audio narration.
His friend, Dale Wildman, a Cincinnati-based author, edited “Life of an Eagle” and their next collaboration was “My Life as a Panda,” released around Christmas.
“The panda book took a lot longer, and it was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” Antonishak said.
As in his work developing iPhone apps, Antonishak taught himself how to create an iPad app using online tutorials. For both the eagle and panda books, Antonishak had to submit them to Apple, which reviews all apps before placing them in the online App Store.
Wildman said this was his first time publishing using an app.
“It’s all tremendous, the progress and technology. I often feel like Fred Flintstone in a George Jetson world,” he said in reference to cartoon characters in the 1960s from the stone age to a space-age future century.
For the panda app, Wildman, 57, and a native of North Bloomfield, Ohio, researched giant pandas and wrote the story before Antonishak created the illustrations, which were in color unlike the eagle app.
“I didn’t know pandas were as rare as they are. There are about 1,600 pandas in the wild ... compared to 7 billion people,” Wildman said.
He and Antonishak both said they would like to develop ties with a conservation organizations, such as the World Wildlife Fund.
“I like animals, but I hadn’t given a whole lot of thought to endangered species. It’s a real cause,” Wildman said, adding that gorillas or elephants are likely future subjects.
The books cost $1.99 each and can be found by going to the App Store and searching “The Art Department.”