Megastructure update and Inktober 2021

The Megastructure book project is coming along nicely, all of the book interior and exterior has been handed off to the printer, and next they will print a proof I have to approve before moving to the giant printing presses. 

 

Here's a template for the Megastructures Standard Edition Book Cover Jacket. When making a cover, its easy to forget all of the extra stuff that goes along with it like the spine, back cover, and flaps, but they all need to be made and considered.

 

 

And second, tomorrow is Inktober 2021, and this year will be 31 brand new spaceship sketches, many of which will end up as original artwork sent to the people who pledged for the "Megastructures" Kickstarter campaign. 

 

 

So if you want a sneak peak, follow my twitter or instagram for the month of October, links below!

 

http://twitter.com/#!/ArtOfSoulburn

http://www.instagram.com/artofsoulburn/

- Neil

Some Doodlin'

 Some sunday afternoon sketchin'. These are work in progress, will post the finals next month

Orbital Ring

I tend to play with the scale of a megastructure for visual impact, but if I was going more for realism, an orbital ring around a planet would likely be more the scale of this rough painting, like a delicate necklace.

Birch Planet Diagram

A Megastructure diagram that didn't make the cut. The Birch Planet ended up too scifi and not enough science, but if it could exist, each shell would have different time flows, slower time towards the center, faster time towards the edge

Gaea

The terrain generator Gaea by https://quadspinner.com/ is sure a lot of fun to play around with. Going for some crazy alien landscapes.

 

Megastructures Update #9 Sept 2021

Welcome to the September update on the Megastructures book project. So after the successful Kickstarter, we're making a ton of progress. Here's the major news.

1) I did a rough print of the book at Staples, which I like doing before handing the book to the official printing company. The print quality isn't great of course, but it gives me a physical object I can hold in my hand to make sure that formatting and text is the right size. Figuring this out is almost impossible on a computer screen. After the test print, I realized my main text was slightly too large, and so I made an adjustment. This is a great way to catch some of those last little issues before the more expensive / higher quality prints get made.

2) After that test, I finished my final edits and the book has been handed in to the printer. They will be printing Proofs soon, once they're approved, mass production on the book will begin.

3) I have signed with a distribution company that will be handling sending all the books out to all of you.

4) I've started on the hand drawn spaceships, 14 done so far of the 26 I need to fullfill the people who bought the spaceship drawing kickstarter tier, so just over half done.

That's the latest, next news should be once I receive the proofs, will share the results once I have them, then off to printing 1200 copies! Thanks for all the support!

- Neil

Space Habitat Size Comparison

Did these diagrams on the dimensions of various space habitats for a presentation, figured you may enjoy it too. The first one is focused on the shapes of the space habitats, this one is a direct size comparison. Yes, the O'Neill Cylinder is huge :)