Haste makes waste +Nothing ventured, nothing gained+Time will tell and +Where there's life, there's hope!
about 3 years ago
– Thu, Jan 12, 2023 at 03:43:24 AM
Happy new year to all of you !
I wish you all the best for 2023 !!
This year will be the final last for this ambitious project.. But I'm more careful with the schedule now because I made the mistake to think it would be over a long ago before I understood that my desires are not the reality.
I can't say exactly when it will be finished...
For the resaons I already explained, Denys has already worked six full months on the project so everything he did since month 2 is over the prime budget. That 's why I had to extend the bill with my own money in order to give the project more working time. And my own money is only what I make every month which is, for now, not a lot.. so now I'm working to get more cash to pay the extra time and finish the adventure with seriousness to provide a quality work.
I'm selling news artworks to make some money. Money for this project, money to make the mold of the Demon Mask of Hayama, money to get a new computer, money to enlarge my studio and facilitate my work, money, money...I am not a exactly a venal person- if only I was, everything will be easier- however, the situation has become really complex here in France, well, especially for precarious people like us.
The scenario is done.
Denys has to do the cover and the ready-to-play characters before I ll send the whole layout to Chasoium for validation. Then we will send to all of you the PDF ! After this, NPC CARDS and black and white scenarios remain to be done. Normally, in order to translate the color layout in black white we have to check every illustration and work on the balance of greys, contrasts, brightness, etc..but we will probalbly skip this part to prevent two more months of waiting.
If we had used AI for this project, of course everything would have been faster. But for now AI isn't intuive enough to replace the real art.
AI would definetly change deeply our way to create toutgh ..But that's the subject of another discussion.
Not to exonerate me but.. as Guillermo del Toro says "I feel that your ambitions should always exceed the budget. "
Best,
Delphes
Work work work work work work work
over 3 years ago
– Sat, Nov 19, 2022 at 08:01:52 AM
Hi there,
I've been wanting to write to you for a couple of weeks. I'm swamped under my crazy three jobs timetable, but I apologize, any amount of time I'm busy shouldn't prevent me from updating, even if it's a short message.
Good news : Denys has finished all the handouts ! He worked all September and October on the project. Full time. Each piece needed on average three days to be created and formatted in our computer. Our apple is 10 years old which is about 85 years in Human age. Like an old guy, our GrandApple had a lot of experiences and has lived and storaged many good stories and adventures but now, he no longer has the energy of his youth. Despite many chirurgical interventions and a stent, he would need a high-tech pacemaker now to function faster, a huge random access memory. Sometimes Denys waits three full hours to generate a picture. And the more you work on the computer, the slower he gets...
Sometimes I hear a scream in the studio : it's Denys venting his frustration. I guess you know the feeling..
We don't have -yet- the finances to buy a new machine so we'll make do with what we have.
Last things to finish: NPC cards, B&W version and the cover of the book.
The color conversion will lead to changes in exposure in particular that will need some time to be balanced.
Currently, it's very difficult to estimate the time left for those last parts. After this is done we'll submit it to Chaosium for approval. I know it's painful not to know when this awaiting will end and to have to wait again. We are doing as fast as we can in the actual context :
me working on three day jobs to pay the bills so Denys could finish the monstrous Idol of Chtulhu.
Trust me : we're are not stingy with our time nor saving our money. We are loyals to our artistic exigences and our promises.
Here is one handout to help you waiting.
All the best,
Delphes
Keep the faith !
September
over 3 years ago
– Mon, Sep 12, 2022 at 01:42:31 AM
Hi everybody !
Yes, we're still on board to finish this epic adventure. After all those difficulties encountered and all the struggles we have won, we would never moved on. We want to see it happening as much as you do.
Denys has made some changes on the layout following Matthew Sanderson's expertise. For now, we keep on the schedule !
One of the last of my battles would be to send those sculptures safe and sound. !'m studying the best way to pack the idols because the wings are very fragile. I would need to find a way to balance strengh and lightweight. The shipping prices have raised substantially so we don't want to take any risk of damages during the shipping. I think it would take a full hour for each parcel to wrap all these babies correctly.
I still have to assemble all the technicals instructions and find a way to make it clear and simple to use.
For those who ordered the Henry Wilcox bas relief I thought you would appreciate to see it (even if my pic do not do items justice)
I hope you"re all doing well.
Best,
Delphes
A delivery date you can trust
almost 4 years ago
– Mon, May 30, 2022 at 11:48:14 PM
Time passes and the Idol of Cthulhu is still not finished.
Brian asked for a delivery date you can trust.
I sincerely hoped the final work would happen faster but I rushed it apparently.
It goes slowly because we're doing it in addition to our current work. We thought it would be easier because we had our own little experience of keeper/proper, but making a 70 pages script in a book with a nice design isn't that easy. Denys is still working on the layout on the NPC cards. I also didn't finish my part : cleaning the new runes I have printed on the sculptures (I have to do that by hand on each individual sculpture), and writing the instruction manual.
If we had enough financial resources to work full time on The Idol of Cthulhu it would have been faster, but we have two jobs each.
Matthew Sanderson got back home after his terrible hospitalization and managed to look at our book design. He has annotated the file and checked the formatting of the text to help us make the necessary changes to tighten things up to conform with standard formatting conventions.
His corrections will improve the efficiency of reading and pleasure to run the module.
As for the art, Matthew really appreciates that the book has one style of art throughout the whole scenario (as in numerous RPG books, different people and styles are coexisting and sometimes it could give a feeling of disjunction). He also appreciated the attention to details, size and rhythms of pictures that alleviate the reading among the large blocks of text.
A delivery date we can trust now? I saw that the book design was finished so I thought we were almost done; But I didn't paid enough attention to the small things that was left to do and require a lot of time as well on paper props which are A LOT. On the second paper prop, Denys spend 32 hours of work to complete. He is working on an old computer from 2012 that can be slow sometimes.
I'm an optimistic person but I also admit that I rushed my desire to finish this project so badly that I wasn't enough conservative and prudent. I thought we could make it faster because I wanted to make it faster. I know it's not a solution and the determination isn't enough : I need to have the resources to make things happen.
With our day jobs and our several current charges, with the time needed for Chaosium's approval (at least 30 days), and Drive-thru validation and printing the realistic delivery would be Christmas.
I hope you will understand. Thank you all for your patience.
Delphes
Matt is home !
almost 4 years ago
– Mon, May 02, 2022 at 02:27:30 PM
Hey there !
Matthew Sanderson has got back home after his terrible journey at the Hospital. He's getting better but it's still taking quite a lot out of energy to recover - He planned on going through the scenario this weekend, but was too tired to do it.. He will get through it by Friday and should be able to have a response next weekend. He will highlight and annotate the PDF before sending it back. Then we 'll see if there are some improvements to make.
Meanwhile, after a month of Covid, Denys is continuing the work on the paper props.
I had upgraded my work on the runes of the sculpture but it's not totally finished ( I shared the covid with Denys and that was sooo exhausting).
I still have the technical notice to finish.
Best wishes,
Delphes
