Physical Editions Of Megastructures Sold out; Second Printing?

Hey everyone!

So it's been quite a ride for Megastructures, the Visual Encyclopedia! The book got 1500 copies printed after a wildly successful Kickstarter, it managed to ship during a world wide pandemic and supply chain craziness, and last week the final few copies were sold on my gumroad store, which are now on their way to those last buyers.

So the question I'm most asked is will there be a second printing? So the short answer is yes, but not now.

The longer answer. First I am so happy that my little project has been received so well, and I'd love to do a second printing immediately. But right now the world of printing and shipping books is still in a very bad spot. For some reference, the price to print books of this sort has almost 2x since my first book in 2017. And the cost to ship books overseas is almost 3x what it was. As just a simple example, the cost of shipping a book to Australia is almost 2x the price of the book itself. So all of a sudden that $35 book is closer to $100. Covid really did break the world, and the covid lockdowns in China have not only made printing books erratic but costly. I assume the really big book publishers have found ways to deal with things, but for small book publishers like myself, the climate is all wrong.

So to make the economics work for both my US and international customers, we need to see the printing and shipping industry come back to earth. I'm hoping a year or two wait might be enough. And the plan is the moment I see the prices come back down, I'll do another kickstarter to fund the reprint of the book.

In the meantime, the digital version of the book, while maybe not as good as a book on the shelf, can be easily distributed and is available here for $15: 

https://artofsoulburn.gumroad.com/l/qnntu

One final huge thank you to everyone who made this book such a success. Every nice email I got, every excited person I met at a comicon, thanks for making Megastructures: The Visual Encyclopedia such a hit. I hope to continue building on the project in the future, so follow me on social media to see any and all new developments. In the meantime, onto a better future to all humankind among the stars!

http://twitter.com/ArtOfSoulburn
http://www.facebook.com/ArtOfSoulburn
http://www.instagram.com/artofsoulburn/
http://www.artstation.com/artist/ArtOfSoulburn
http://www.youtube.com/artofsoulburn

New Video: Using AI To Make A Tileable Texture

You may remember a month or so ago I did a video called "What would concept artists want from an AI tool", and one feature I didn't think about at the time was tileable textures, especially if you're using 3d as part of your concepting process. But since that video's release, AIs like DALL-E and midjourney have added the ability to do this, and I can certainly say making a texture tileable was a boring job that I have no issue seeing automated away. So here's an example of the technique using Dall-e. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjDS6GUg494 

New Video: What Is Kitbashing, a Kit, and a Prefab?

In my continuing quest to answer student questions, here's a short video explaining what kitbashing or prefabs are for film and videogames. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFGWz7r0Czc

Lightbox Expo is done!

I'm home! Lightbox Expo was a huge success, sold a ton of books and prints, met a lot of new people, and finally got to meet a ton of people who I'd only ever spoken to online. Thanks to all the organizers, had a great time, looking forward to next year!

Visit Me At Lightbox Expo 2022

Come visit my booth #606 at Lightbox Expo 2022 in Pasadena CA Oct 14-16th 2022. https://2022.lightboxexpo.com/ Signed copies of Inc and Megastructures for sale, plus fine art prints. And a special 18"x9" print of the space baroque royal palace makes its debut at the show, my print studio https://www.berkeleygiclee.com/ did a fantastic job with the colors. Come see it in person starting friday!

New Video: Job Hierarchy In The Film And Videogame Industry

Over the years I've gotten questions such as "What's a Principal Artist" or "What's the difference between a Lead or a Supervisor?" For those looking for their first job it can be tough to figure out the industry hierarchy, and for those who already have a job, it might be nice to know how other companies handle it as a way to improve your own. So this lesson will discuss a little about company hierarchies, what different job titles mean, and how having both a management path and an individual contributor path can improve the hierarchy of a company tremendously.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZu11JeTqps

Rose City Comicon Sketches

A bunch of pen & inc sketches I did while attending Rose City Comicon.