Progress report
3 months ago
– Thu, Oct 03, 2024 at 06:49:37 AM
Hi everyone!
The last couple of weeks have brought a wave of good news and development that I'd like to share with you all. Let's get into it!
Digital version
I am up to date replying to everyone who's had issues, so pretty much everyone who pledged through Kickstarter should have access by now. If you don't, 95% of the problems can be resolved if you just try to login here using your kickstarter e-mail and using the "Lost your password" option:
https://colorfulkrakenstudio.com/my-account/lost-password/
The other issue some of you are having is after logging in, you can't find the tutorials anywhere. You should be able to access the tutorials from the Volumes included in your pledge in this page. If you aren't logged in, it will ask you to pay, so remember to login before trying to access each tutorial:
https://colorfulkrakenstudio.com/all-tutorials/
If none of that doesn't seem to do the trick, let me know and I'll help you as best as I can. Please keep in mind if you pledged through BackerKit you don't have access yet, because those pledges have not been processed. I'll have a solution for you as soon as I can, but now I'm 95% focused on finishing the content of the actual physical books and the other 5% on fixing issues, replying to e-mails, accounting, and all that other stuff that needs to be done.
Shipping addresses
A number of you have asked about address changes, how you can provide or update your address, etc. This will be done through BackerKit in a few weeks, no need to worry about it just yet. You will receive notifications to join the BackerKit with plenty of time to adjust anything you need before shipping.
Actual progress
Volumes 2 and 3 advance steadily with Vol.2 almost done now and Vol.3 getting there at a decent pace.
Volume 1 has advanced a lot in the last couple of weeks though! I finally received the plastic samples from Archon Studio, and they are AMAZING, beyond my already high expectations of quality. The level of detail is incredible, very sharp and easy to paint, and the design and scale of the models mean that they should feel right at home next to some of the figures from your favourite games. Below you can see all the different assembly versions of the models and a couple of shots next to other models so you can get a good idea of the actual size, scale, and level of detail:
Painting
Because we finally received the models, we have had the chance to start developing the painting tutorials for Volume 1.
Here are some of the results of the first difficulty level we have designed for you. These are all meant for your first painting sessions ever, and assume you have never ever painted before, so we get into everything from brush selection to detailed explanations of some simple techniques, paint choices and dilution, and everything you need to get started if you have never painted a miniature before.
These models were painted by David Arroba and Jaime de Garnica with complete beginners in mind, to help you get started in this wonderful art of miniature painting. Here you can see David hard at work on one of the models:
Once you are all done with that and have learned some brush control and a basic understanding of how to work with your paints, we have designed two more groups of tutorials. In some cases, such as the model on the right side, we will take the miniature from "day one" and teach you how you can improve the results applying more advanced techniques; whereas in other cases such as the model on the right we teach different approaches from the ground up so you can find which techniques and painting styles work best for you (no right or wrong here, just a matter of finding what you like best and what is more comfortable for each one of you).
David, Jaime and myself are all incredibly excited to have the opportunity to share these tutorials with you all, we feel that they will be very useful both for folks who want to get into miniature painting from the ground up and for folks who may be more advanced but want to revise the fundamentals and learn a few new tricks and approaches along the way.
There will be 12 complete tutorials in the book, three for each "difficulty level", which means we haven't shown you any examples of the top level just yet. Our idea is that these tutorials, combined with all the chapters teaching the basic theory behind this art, all the tools and techniques, and everything else you need to know to paint miniatures; will enable you to learn and develop your craft.
You will need to keep in mind miniature painting is at its core a physical skill that requires repetition to get your hands used to the actual motions you need to perform (no magic tricks here!), so if you haven't painted any models before it may take some time before you reach the level of painting that we will show in the highest difficulty levels of the book. We will make it as easy as possible though!
This is all I have for today, I hope I can bring you more exciting news soon with the wrap up of Volume 2 and hopefully the delivery of the last couple of tutorials from the last artists that need to send me stuff so I can wrap up their sections of the books.
In the meantime, I hope you are enjoying the digital version, and I look forward to seeing some of your models painted with our tutorials.
As always, thank you for your incredible patience and support, and for enabling me and all the painters involved to create these books that, to be 100% honest, have evolved into something well beyond my initial expectations.
Helio
Digital version status, pledge manager, BackerKit, progress report
4 months ago
– Fri, Sep 06, 2024 at 05:59:26 AM
Hi everyone!
Over the last few weeks I've been working away at providing you with access to my website that contains the digital version of the currently released tutorials from Volumes 2 and 3. This includes every backer from Kickstarter, but not BackerKit as those payments are not yet processed.
Digital version status
At this point, I've created accounts for all backers and solved all access issues that you've notified. If you haven't received your access info or you have problems accessing the website and I haven't sorted them out yet, it must be because either there was a problem with my e-mail server sending you the notification (possible), the e-mail was caught in your spam folder (likely), or I have somehow missed your e-mail telling me about the issue (unlikely, but can happen, especially since I've had e-mail server issues lately).
So if you are a Kickstarter backer and you don't have access credentials to the website yet, please reach out via e-mail at [email protected] using your Kickstarter e-mail or specifying your kickstarter e-mail in your message and I will get back to you as soon as possible.
You'll notice there's only a bunch of tutorials up at this point. I will be uploading more and more over the next few weeks, and incorporating any feedback you may want to send my way, until we have every tutorial available in the website.
BackerKit and pledge manager
As I said before, BackerKit late pledgers haven't yet received their access. I'm working with my suppliers on getting everything ready to launch the pledge manager for everyone and start locking everyone's orders, once that's done I'll work with the website guys to send access to the website to everyone from BackerKit as well.
Progress
I don't have a lot to show you in the way of new content just now, as I'm still waiting for the last couple of bits (at this point, I'm debating whether I should keep the last couple of tutorials secret until you receive the books so they are a surprise, or show them when they are done, let me know your thoughts!).
But I do have this, which is the sprue layout being produced by Archon just now. Milling the tool will take a bit of time, then they will ship physical plastic production samples to me, and if everything looks good there, we will use those same samples to create the tutorials for Volume 1 and approve the final production for fulfillment. I'm beyond excited about this particular milestone to be honest!
As always, thank you so much for your patience and support, and see you in the next update (unless you are having trouble with the website access, then e-mail me and I'll get back to you as soon as I possibly can!)
Helio
Digital access imminent!
5 months ago
– Sun, Aug 04, 2024 at 06:41:05 AM
Hi everyone!
Short and sweet update this time around. During the next couple of weeks, I will be sending out batches of 400 e-mails each day to invite everyone into the new website, where you will be able to access the tutorials from the books you have backed. Just a few notes to keep in mind:
- Not every tutorial is in there just yet. I will be updating the content over the next few weeks and months, as an example only two tutorials from volume 3 and none from volume 1 are available just yet. I will be completing volume 2 first, then 3, and then volume 1 last because of the issues I mentioned in the previous update.
- A few of them still need to have the colour selection updated to Vallejo, I will take care of that in due time too. While I do this, I'm keeping tabs on all the colour equivalences we are finding and will likely post it on the website once it's all said and done, in case you may want to use colours from other ranges that happen to be on the table.
- You will receive the instructions to access the website within the next two weeks, to the same e-mail address you used to back the project. Please wait at least until August 19th to tell me you haven't received your access information, because I can only send 400 e-mails a day due to server restrictions, so some of you will take just a bit longer than others to receive your access instructions.
- Access to these tutorials will be 100% free for backers until the physical books are delivered. After that, there will be a couple of options to retain the access, either a symbolic payment or helping out with reviews or social media. I understand this may not be what everyone expected, but please keep in mind your pledges were for physical books only, and typically when the digital version costs extra. I have decided to provide free access for a limited time because I don't feel good with the production delay and I think it's only fair that you can see at least part of
Also, a couple of you kindly pointed out I could print the figures to speed up the development of volume 1, rather than wait for the plastic production proofs. Unfortunately, this is not an option for a few reasons:
- To be able to develop the best possible tutorials, I need David and Jaime to work together, and due to the prior delays, September is the first month when all three of us are available at the same time. The original plan was very different, but alas, here we are, and the most important thing for me is not to compromise the quality of the tutorials for any reason.
- 3D prints are typically a little bit more crisp in detail than plastic production. While this is not something crucial for big name companies showing high quality paintjobs (it can even be an advantage!), I feel for beginners it could be a little frustrating to attempt a paintjob on a model that may not be exactly the same as the one shown in the tutorial. As an example, sharper edges are easier to edge highlight with fine lines, and we don't want to create unrealistic expectations using models that may be easier to paint in some of these instances. I hope that makes sense!
- Last but not least, we will be showing several copies of each model in the book, to compare different techniques, showcase different levels of painting, etc. So it's not like we can make do with one print of each model, we would need several high quality prints which would get fairly costly in the end compared to using plastic production models which at that point would be almost free in comparison.
In terms of content development, I have received a couple of missing bits, and some of those have even made it into the website already, so you'll be able to enjoy them soon. This makes me really happy and hopeful that I will have all the remaining material sent by the artists soon!
Additionally, after reading your comments about the pledge manager, I will be getting it ready as soon as I can, hopefully within the next couple of weeks. It will be open for a relatively long time until we are getting ready for printing and shipping, so no worries if you don't want to complete it just yet!
And as a final note for this update, I know there's a few of you who have written Kickstarter messages with different subjects. Unfortunately, I haven't had time to get back to you last week, but this week I will answer all messages and solve all outstanding issues and requests you may have.
July status report
5 months ago
– Sat, Jul 20, 2024 at 07:30:30 AM
Hello everyone!
Once again I have let too much time pass between updates, I'm sorry about that. Everytime I start to write a new update, I'm almost always at a point when I'm waiting for something to be delivered soon-ish and wanting to be able to provide that bit of good news, and everytime it simply takes longer than anticipated, creating this loop of frustration for everyone. I may have to simply post whatever news I have regularly, instead of waiting to try and make a "big update".
As a side note on the personal side, my first experience with Kickstarter was being a backer of the original Kingdom Death Monster campaign, so I kind of got used to super infrequent (months or even years at a time!) yet content loaded updates, so in my head I have kind of normalised this even though it should not be considered normal or healthy by any means. You probably didn't need to know this, but I have been doing such a bad job at keeping you updated that I feel I owe you some form of explanation (please don't take it as an excuse, I don't want to justify myself for something I'm doing badly, just give you some context so you know where I'm coming from and what things I'm doing to improve on this front).
Onwards to the update itself!
Volumes 2 and 3
I have advanced a fair bit with the layout, still not done with either volume though. The bad news is I still have not received all the content I need from the artists, the good news is only one of them remains unresponsive so I'm really confident we will be able to wrap these up very nicely.
Volume 1 and miniatures
The factory has already started working on the models and they have already completed the modifications needed to produce them in hard plastic. The great news is that this time around, the quality of the modifications is great and the differences with the original models are barely noticeable. The not-so-great news is that their current production and tooling timeline is quite busy and has been for the last couple of months, so they will only be able to produce our miniatures in September.
This means that we will only be able to start producing the tutorials for Volume 1 in September, which is a significant delay from our original plans. At the very least, since this is now a "hard plan" with specific dates, I have been able to discuss it with Adrián, the graphic designer of everything you've seen so far, and we have agreed to reserve some time then to expedite the process as much as possible once we have all the materials at hand.
Timeline
I expect to finish Volumes 2 and 3 right around the time David and Jaime will be tackling the bulk of Volume 1's tutorials, which will allow me to wrap up Volume 1 around September - October. This means that we should be able to print the books in October and get them delivered before the end of the year, I will keep you updated if this estimation changes.
Pledge manager
I have been a little bit hesitant to launch the pledge manager to avoid creating additional frustration, I didn't want anyone thinking fulfillment would be imminent after completing the surveys, but I realise I may have accomplished exactly the opposite. Please let me know how you feel about this in the comments and if a decent amount of you would feel better if the pledge manager was already out, I will launch it as soon as I can.
Problems with prior partner
It's not something I want to dwell on too much butI would like to cover this briefly as I've seen it mentioned in the comments section and I want you to hear the official version from me: when I started the project, I reached an agreement with a paint company to distribute the books after Kickstarter if we wrote the majority of tutorials using their paints. Once they saw the project succeed on Kickstarter, they didn't agree on the pricing and some of the product design and wanted to change some things in ways that didn't feel reasonable to me, so we parted ways. I then discussed the project with Acrylicos Vallejo and they liked it so I'm working with them to distribute the books once fulfillment of the Kickstarter campaign is completed.
This situation did cause me a lot of stress and a few delays, but in the end I think it's been for the best as I've found a new partner with whom I align better and whose product and network are better for what I want to do in the future, so the collaboration will be more productive in the long run.
New website
As a couple of you have pointed out in the comments, my old website isn't working properly and shows something in a different language I'm not familiar with in Google searches. I don't know why this has happened, it's likely a virus or something similar. I'm not particularly worried about it because the new website will be launched soon, and since it's done by a professional company instead of haphazardly put together by me, it should run a lot better.
Just like I promised in the last update, you will be getting free access to the first few tutorials through the website, we are almost ready to launch it but we still need to complete some testing with a few of the plugins so I can't give you an exact date yet, it will probably be a couple of weeks or so. After that, you will have access to all the new tutorials from the books that we upload to the website as we work through adapting the content of all three volumes to this digital platform.
Here's a couple of screnshots of the type of content you will find on the website after launch:
As you can see, it's fairly similar to the design of the books but with a few elements removed to make responsiveness and navigation a little bit easier.
You will receive an e-mail with a username and password to access, which you will be able to change from your dashboard within the website itself, and everyone else will be able to purchase the individual tutorials or a pack of each volume for about 25 euro per book.
My plan is to grant you all free access to the books you have backed until they are physically delivered, and then offer a couple of different options to retain that access forever, either by posting some reviews on the tutorials you may have followed by then, or by paying a small symbolic fee.
I know this is not what some of you were expecting in terms of the digital version of the books, but I'm afraid this is the best I can do right now, here's why:
- I have settled for a website with restricted access rather than an app because I don't want to invade your phones with an app that you need to keep udated and such, and the development was a lot easier to do and required much less time and involvement from my part, allowing me to work more time on the physical books which is the main part of the project.
- Even more importantly, I didn't opt for a pdf version because from the start of the project I wanted the books to be sold through retail stores to reach as many people as possible. It's not even about the money, because sales through a big distributor who then sells to regional distributors, retailers, and in turn end customers have really slim margins after considering the royalties and production costs. It's about the reach and access to so many different folks around the world who may otherwise have no other way of getting the books, and giving them a painting experience as close to everyone else's as possible. But what does all of that have to do with pdfs you may ask? I have discussed it with a few distributors and potential partners, and for one reason or another, pretty much no distributor wants to pick up the books if we do a pdf edition, it's a bit no for them. The reasons vary in nature, but the bottom line is always the same: pdf edition = no big distributors interested, which would leave only smaller retailers as an option; and since it's just me running this and I'm located in Spain, it would make it super difficult to get the books to pretty much any retailer outside of Spain.
Final note
Reading some of your comments has made me realised that I may not have communicated some things about the project very clearly, or maybe the scope of the entire thing has lead some of you to believe the scale of my company is bigger than it actually is.
Even though there's a ton of artists involved, from the painters and sculptors to the graphic designer and the video editor, Colorful Kraken Studio does not have any employees, it's just me, Helio, running everything by myself and putting together the books as best as I possibly can. This is why I've had to bring in a company to help me out with the new website, because the sheer volume of work to get everything done had became overwhelming. This is also why at times it may look like I have disappeared, because as I focus on moving forward on some aspect of the project and get things done on one front, I have at times neglected other areas, especially communicating with you all.
All my experience as a project manager has always been managing the work of other people, and while I believe I am really good at doing that, I've come to find out that I'm not that good at managing my own workload, moving forward I will try to bring outside help to keep me in check and help out with some things so I can make sure no areas of the project are neglected.
That is all for now, I hope you have a great weekend and possibly enjoy some summer holidays!
Helio
Colorful Kraken Studio
Progress report
7 months ago
– Fri, May 31, 2024 at 03:55:12 AM
Hi everyone!
As you may have read in the comments section, I have recently moved houses, which has brought a couple more complications than I initially expected, but I'm finally set up to resume working normally, even if it's in a temporary desk until I can get everything sorted properly. Moving on to the project, let's get into it:
Volumes 2 and 3
I have continued working on the layout, I'm very advanced with Volume 2 and less so with Volume 3, slowly and surely getting there. The good news I have almost everything I need to wrap these up, the not-so-great news is we have a couple of artists that are not getting back to me regarding the last bits I need to finish their tutorials, some of the corrections, or some extra photos that we need.
I hope they will write back to me in the next few weeks, but if not I will need to figure out alternative ways to produce what we need, either by painting and photographing it myself or hiring somebody else to wrap up the tutorials that need extra bits. I'm not too worried because none these are not key aspects, mainly just group photos of finished miniatures so that you can see models "in context", not just by themselves, I do have 92-96% of the material for the main part of all tutorials themselves either already in layout or ready for layout.
Volume 1, miniatures, and paint set
David has chosen the 12 colours we will use for the painting of all tutorials in the book, so that you are easy to follow them with a limited investment if you want to use exact colour matches. I'm now working with Acrylicos Vallejo to get the paint set produced at the same time as the books.
On the miniatures front, I have chosen a EU factory with a lot of experience producing and manufacturing their own HIPS miniatures, my only concern at the moment is they are a bit slow to respond but I believe once we get started the process will be smoother and relatively fast.
Once both those things are ready, David and Jaime will work on the painting tutorials themselves which should go fairly quickly.
Translations
Spanish: I will be doing it myself, I will start once I'm done with the English layout.
French: Seyni N'Diaye is working on it, once I finish each tutorial I send it his way and he translates it so it should be fairly easy to get in layout once we are all done.
Italian: I'm not entirely sure whether or not I told you this; but Matteo Di Diomede, the owner of Mindwork Games, an amazing painter and one of the authors from Volume 3; agreed to a licensing deal with me to publish the books in Italian. I'm really excited about this one because Matteo is a good friend, but even more importantly for the work at hand, he's got an incredible eye for quality, as you can see from the work he does at Mindwork Games. They are about to launch a campaign (I think later today!) to fund large scale resin figures, art prints, and a new paint line, and from what I've been able to test out they are not the best for beginners but they are incredible for intermediates who want to push the quality of their work and explore new styles:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/artofbrom/the-art-of-brom-0
Pledge manager
I'm almost ready to launch it, I expect it will be ready within a month at most, relatively close to me finishing the layout of Volumes 2 and 3. It will include everything in the campaign, plus a paint set from Acrylicos Vallejo, a brush set from Artis Opus, a wet palette from Mindwork Games, and another more affordable option for brushes.
Timeline
I expect Volume 2 to be ready in June and Volume 3 a few weeks after that, but the timeline for Volume 1 is a bit more complex as it depends on the plastic factory I've chosen. As soon as I get a clear answer from them I will update you on this front.
This means the books will not be shipped in June, which I'm really sorry about, and here's what I'm doing about it:
New website
I've hired a company to create a new website for the brand and I plan on uploading the book tutorials to a closed section of the website once they are ready. You will be able to access that section using your kickstarter e-mail, and thus access the tutorials in a digital format well before you receive the printed books, as a small way of compensating you for the delay on the physical front. Once the physical books are shipped, we will close this section of the website and consider different ways of offering access at a reduced cost for backers of the campaign, and at a higher price point for everyone else.
And this is all for now! Please excuse the lack of graphic content on this update, as I mentioned I have just finished the temporary setup for my computer so I haven't had a lot of time to work on graphics, but I will try to publish another update soon so I can show you what I've been up to!
Cheers,
Helio
