Just a quick note: I have got some more artwork up on the Download page: We are also currently taking auditions for Voice Actors and applications for Artist Interns (Mostly Blender 3D art skills, but also some 2D and audio).
I have just created the… As mentioned before, the content is not complete (and yes, I’m even behind where I said I was going to be, but I’m starting to catch up now). But I have versions of the Concept Art Poster in SVG, PDF, and various wallpaper/desktop sizes. I’ve also got the first 44 pages of the Artbook, including all of the character modelsheets, and the introduction which talks about the planned series format, business model, production schedule, and so on. The original SVG model sheets for each character are also available. More will be coming very soon! Also… Please check that your name is listed correctly in the backer credits.
I am working very hard on this right now! 🙂 I have laid-out / typeset 44 pages of the “Pre-Production Art Book & Writer’s Guide”, which includes an introduction addressing series format and production schedule, and all of the character model sheets. The model sheets and some of the plans will be printed in color, by the way, as I found a print-on-demand publisher who can print a book with just a few color pages (as opposed to charging the color rate for the whole book). To make up the cost difference from pure black and white, I’ll be printing the text parts of the book a bit smaller in two-column “journal” format (still nicely readable, I think).
Today I sent out the rest of the survey forms to those of you who are getting physical rewards. The actual rewards will probably be ready to go out in about two weeks. I’m starting to work on typesetting and publications stuff, although I still have some of my part owing on the original art. I made a small error in the surveys — I had originally intended to create a separate blank for how you’d like your name to appear in the credits. But I forgot to include this question. So, if you want your name to appear differently than in the “Name” part of your address (or if you wish to remain anonymous), please send me a private message with the name you want us to use.
We’re breaking a lot of new territory on the project, at least for us, and this isn’t the first and probably not the last time I’ll misjudge the schedule. I had estimated model-sheet production based on Daniel’s time on the concept sheets, but he’s doing a much higher quality of work on the model sheets, and it takes some time (and unlike some of us, Daniel has a full-time day job to keep up with, too). I suspect I could’ve gotten my part done on time, but I have to admit, an extra month makes me feel a little less stressed, too.
I know we’ve been very quiet for awhile now — progress was a bit slow at first while we sorted out some workflow problems, but we are making pretty good progress now. I am currently drawing and revising the colony floorplan. It’s amazing how many inconsistencies had crept in before this revision, and a lot of my current work is just resolving conflicts. I’m also adding a lot more detail that had previously existed only inside my head, so this has been a very good exercise for getting things down on paper where we can refer to it. A lot of what we’re producing for this Kickstarter Pre-Production project is the “story bible” that we’ll use to keep stories, directing, and design consistent throughout the series.
Posters I got the concept art posters back from the printers today, and they look really nice. As I mentioned earlier, I printed enough for all backers, because they really didn’t cost much after the first 10 or so which were already spoken for. So, if you’ve received a survey notice, be sure to fill in your address so I can send you the poster. For those of you who selected “no reward”, I sent out a regular email — I’d still like to send you a poster. Just email me (i.e. at “digitante at gmail dot com”) an address to which you’d like me to send it.
Thanks to the support of some very generous backers, we are now able to commission Daniel Fu for the character design artwork. Work will start in January!
I wrote a column for Free Software Magazine about the free software infrastructure I set up on our server to support Lunatics. You might find it interesting: Creating a Project Website for “Lunatics” with Apache, Zope, Plone, MediaWiki, Trac, Subversion, and the Cloud Too
Hello everybody! Today, I started work on following through with the posters (the “Concept Art” posters). I’ve queried our two logo sponsors and received a logo from one of them. I also checked the cost of the poster printing. I’ve also had a chance to run over the final numbers and make sure that the overheads have all been accounted for. It turns out that when all the costs and overheads are calculated, we have about $1836, which is very nice: that will cover not only the $1600 for Daniel, but $100 incentive for Rosalyn on the script writing work, and still leave a bit for contingencies.
Wow! That was really, really exciting! May all of our cliff-hangers be this good. We cleared 100% with just 8 MINUTES to spare thanks to some last minute heroics from some of you — you know who you are. Thank you and Happy Holidarys! (I will post again tomorrow after I get some sleep). Terry Hancock
