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Update #43: Download Site is Up
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Update #42: Brief Progress Report on "Lunatics" Rewards...
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Posted on May 18
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Update #41: Survey Forms Sent Out Today
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Update #40: Colonist Modelsheets Finished
Model Sheets are On Schedule
In my last post, I had to announce a one-month slip. Fortunately,
it looks like we are on track to make that goal. I can breathe a small
sigh of relief now that the drawings for our eight main characters are
done (the last three are below -- the previous update includes the other
five).
Joshua Farmer
Timothy Farmer
Allen Emerson
Progress on Writing
At the same time, Rosalyn is about halfway through her revision of the script for "No Children in Space", and she's also made a start at the script for "Earth" (the 2nd episode). There's a good chance we'll be including the "Earth" script in the writer's guide, too, since they are very different scripts -- you might think of them as a statement of intent for the series, bracketing the range of styles we're looking for. "No Children in Space" goes mostly for the "element of wonder", with a lot of musical montage and cool stuff to look at. "Earth" focuses more on character humor and dialog.
Of course, it was an intentional decision to make the first episode not rely very heavily on dialog -- for a simple production reason: we have no voice actors yet. We hope to use an early revision of "No Children in Space" as a recruiting tool, so I wanted something that would stand up reasonably well with either no voices, or temporary voices done by Rosalyn and myself. So if you're thinking "this is an hour-long music video", this is why. "Earth" will give an alternative to that.
I should probably add, that, since I've already gotten a couple of queries about voice acting, casting may not turn out to be as big of a challenge as I expected, so this may not strictly be necessary. But we're doing it anyway.
The two episodes together cover more or less the same ground as the short story, "The Arrival" which we'll also be including in the guide -- even though there's now a lot of "non-canon" material in it due to a large number of changes in characters and setting.
Set Design
I'm close to finishing the floorplan for the colony. There's still a fair amount of detail work on the "recycling/services" level. This is not really a place we expect to set a lot of scenes, but I do want to have a complete floor plan. Most shows don't do that, of course, but I figured that since about 90% of our action for the series is going to be inside this one colony set, we might as well make it complete.
What I've spent the most time over though recently is the design for the lander. There are a number of tricky conflicts between design goals and technical restrictions. In the end, I'll probably have to just guess about some things, and hope my aerospace engineering friends won't roast me too badly!
Update #39: Good News and Bad...
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.
So we're opting for quality (and sanity) and letting the schedule slip a bit, instead. This means that the Kickstart rewards will be going out in May instead of in April as originally predicted. I'm sorry about that -- and I will try to have a preview download available in April so you can see the parts that are complete by then.
However, five of the sixteen model sheets have been drawn, and I want to share a quick peek at them here. The originals are multi-layer SVG vector graphic files (Daniel has been working in Adobe Illustrator and exporting to SVG. I've been converting these to Inkscape SVG format with layers and metadata as I receive them).
The layered format means these have a lot of information in them for modelers, and yet they are very consistent. For example, here's four different layer selections taken from the "Hiromi" model sheet:
So far, we have five of the model sheets, as you can see below. I'm very happy with these, and I hope you'll enjoy them too.
Anya Titova Farmer
John Robert Lerner
Hiromi Aoki Lerner
Georgiana Lerner
Sarah Allison
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Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on December 19.
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Acknowledgment as a backer in the electronic data set, and a URL to download the data before it is publicly advertised. (All higher levels include this as well).
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FOLDED - Digital Print of main character portraits based on concept sketches by Daniel Fu. This is still the Concept Art Poster, but shipped with a single fold down the middle instead of rolling it. The shipping is therefore much cheaper, especially for international addresses. USA or WORLD shipping is included!
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Digital Print (USA ONLY) of main character portraits based on concept sketches by Daniel Fu. (Shipping for USA addresses ONLY).
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DVD-R with Data (USA ONLY): The simplest way to get a copy of all of the digital artwork created in this phase of the project. (Includes shipping to USA addresses only -- see the "WORLD" version for other addresses).
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Digital Print (WORLD) of main character portraits based on concept sketches by Daniel Fu. (Includes shipping to INTERNATIONAL addresses).
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DVD-R with Data (WORLD): The simplest way to get a copy of all of the digital artwork created in this phase of the project. (Includes shipping to INTERNATIONAL addresses).
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Character Line-Up Print - Signed by artist Daniel Fu (USA ONLY) (Includes shipping to USA addresses only -- see the "WORLD" version for other addresses).
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Character Line-Up Print - Signed by artist Daniel Fu (WORLD) (Includes shipping to INTERNATIONAL addresses).
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Pre-Production Art Book and Writer's Guide (USA ONLY), signed by director Terry Hancock and writer Rosalyn Hunter. (Includes shipping to USA addresses only -- see the "WORLD" version for other addresses).
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Pre-Production Art Book and Writer's Guide (WORLD), signed by director Terry Hancock and writer Rosalyn Hunter. (Includes shipping to INTERNATIONAL addresses).
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Credit Card USB Drive with Data (USA ONLY): A much classier way to get the full pre-production data set: all of the data on a customized "credit card" USB drive. (Includes shipping to USA addresses only -- see the "WORLD" version for other addresses).
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Credit Card USB Drive with Data (WORLD): A much classier way to get the full pre-production dataset: all of the data on a customized "credit card" USB drive. (Includes shipping to INTERNATIONAL addresses).
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Deluxe Combination (USA ONLY): DVD with the full data set, the signed poster, and the signed pre-production book -- saves $30 over the separate costs! (Includes shipping to USA addresses only -- see the "WORLD" version for other addresses).
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Deluxe Combination (WORLD): DVD with the full data set, the signed poster, and the signed pre-production book -- saves $50 over the separate costs! (Includes shipping to INTERNATIONAL addresses).
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Super Deluxe Combination (USA ONLY): USB drive with the full data set, the signed poster, and the signed pre-production book -- saves $31 over the separate costs! (Includes shipping to USA addresses only -- see the "WORLD" version for other addresses).
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Colony Floorplans: A pack of plan sheets signed by designer, Terry Hancock. These will be complete, detailed "in universe" floorplans of the International Space Foundation "ISF-1" lunar homestead/colony. (Includes USA or international shipping).
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Original concept art sheet for character "Allen Emerson", signed by Daniel Fu - AND - a copy of the full-color poster with the portraits of all eight main characters.. See the updates for an image of what you get. (Includes USA or international shipping). NOTE: Concept sheets are already done, so this will ship immediately after the Kickstart campaign is finished!
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Original concept art sheet for character "Josh Farmer", signed by Daniel Fu - AND - a copy of the full-color poster with the portraits of all eight main characters.. See the updates for an image of what you get. (Includes USA or international shipping). NOTE: Concept sheets are already done, so this will ship immediately after the Kickstart campaign is finished!
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Original concept art sheet for character "Tim Farmer", signed by Daniel Fu - AND - a copy of the full-color poster with the portraits of all eight main characters.. See the updates for an image of what you get. (Includes USA or international shipping). NOTE: Concept sheets are already done, so this will ship immediately after the Kickstart campaign is finished!
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Original concept art sheet for character "Sarah Allison", signed by Daniel Fu - AND - a copy of the full-color poster with the portraits of all eight main characters.. See the updates for an image of what you get. (Includes USA or international shipping). NOTE: Concept sheets are already done, so this will ship immediately after the Kickstart campaign is finished!
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Original concept art sheet for character "Rob Lerner", signed by Daniel Fu - AND - a copy of the full-color poster with the portraits of all eight main characters.. See the updates for an image of what you get. (Includes USA or international shipping). NOTE: Concept sheets are already done, so this will ship immediately after the Kickstart campaign is finished!
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Original concept art sheet for character "Hiromi Lerner", signed by Daniel Fu - AND - a copy of the full-color poster with the portraits of all eight main characters.. See the updates for an image of what you get. (Includes USA or international shipping). NOTE: Concept sheets are already done, so this will ship immediately after the Kickstart campaign is finished!
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Original concept art sheet for character "Georgiana Lerner", signed by Daniel Fu - AND - a copy of the full-color poster with the portraits of all eight main characters.. See the updates for an image of what you get. (Includes USA or international shipping). NOTE: Concept sheets are already done, so this will ship immediately after the Kickstart campaign is finished!
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Super Deluxe Combination (WORLD): USB drive with the full data set, the signed poster, and the signed pre-production book -- saves $51 over the separate costs! (Includes shipping to INTERNATIONAL addresses).
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Original concept art sheet for character "Anya Titova Farmer", signed by Daniel Fu - AND - a copy of the full-color poster with the portraits of all eight main characters. See the updates for an image of what you get. (Includes USA or international shipping). NOTE: Concept sheets are already done, so this will ship immediately after the Kickstart campaign is finished!
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If you sponsor us at this level, we will include your company name and logo under a "Sponsored By" listing on the promotional poster, the back cover of the pre-production book, and in the CD and USB cover art. Your name and logo will also appear in the title roll for the pilot episode "No Children in Space" and will be featured prominently on the download site for the data and in the index HTML page in the dataset.
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An original design/model sheet signed by Daniel Fu. Original art, suitable for framing. (Includes USA or international shipping).
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The original design/model sheet of your preferred character, signed by Daniel Fu. List first, second, and third choices in case of a conflict -- the earliest pledge will get preference. (Includes USA or international shipping).
Project By
Connected as Terry Hancock (265 friends)
Author. Regular columnist for Free Software Magazine. Director and Producer of "Lunatics" web video series. Co-owner of Anansi Spaceworks.
