Stone Soup: Designer Staircase Sampler
Feb 20, 2015 20:40:00 GMT -9
squirmydad, bravesirkevin, and 3 more like this
Post by oldschooldm on Feb 20, 2015 20:40:00 GMT -9
Hey gang! I've got a project idea.
The TL, DR version:
My Popup Staircase Designs (and cutfiles) + Your (designers) textures = My first OpenBookshelf product :
"OldSchoolDM's Popup Terrain: Designer Staircase Sampler"
The (very) long version of this idea will be in several posts.
Dear awesome paper terrain designers,
You may have seen my latest fixation with making fold-flat terrain - specifically popup staircases. I'm already freely giving the folks here on Cardboard Warriors the cutfiles and outlines of my designs. You are free to use them however you wish, no matter what you think about the rest of this proposal.
If you've followed that thread, you've also noticed that, as a texture designer, I suck - there are at least 3 reasons:
1) I'm not aesthetically gifted, 2) I'm too slow/under skilled with Photoshop/GIMP, and 3) I'm just remixing Google Image Search results with, at best, questionable legal rights to the material. This is why I'm not distributing the models with textures (nor planning on making more myself.)
When I tried mixing textures from Fat Dragon Games and World Works Games onto my models (as an experiment) magic happened!
You guys ROCK at terrain textures - it's what you do! And many of you already have staircases that you could adapt easily to my models.
I'm a Photoshop oaf, and I moved the FDG and WWG textures each into that page in less than 30 minutes. You could probably do it in 10.
That's what I'm asking for - adapt your textures to one or more of my staircase templates and let me use it. I want to bundle them all as PDF layers into a single sampler kit for sale on OneBookShelf. I'd create the templates, edit the submissions, do all the layout, create the instructions, and do product placement.
In exchange you get:
1) To place your company information (Logo and Contact Info) on each layer with your texture on it.
2) Use the work you do for any other purpose (upgrade an existing set, sell as part of a expansion, post for free, whatever!)
3) Be called out in a special contributors layer on the first model page.
4) Have my final test-build of your textured staircase be photographed and featured in my promotional postings.
5) You may name your layers - subject to editor approval
6) Have a thank-you mention and link to your product (compatible model?) in the READ.ME
What about the money, you ask?
This is an experiment, and a learning experience for me, and as part of that I do intend to charge a price for the set, ranging from pay-what-you-want, up to perhaps $5. I often give advice on these things, but this would be me getting some first hand experience. I have no idea how much money this will make, if any - but for the sake of simplicity and not making any promises I can't be sure I'll be able to keep, I'm not offering any direct financial compensation for your efforts here.
Besides, whatever I sales I make will just stay in the shop and I'll use it to buy products (I have a long wishlist!), circulating it back into the community anyway.
I named this thread Stone Soup on purpose. Please join the effort only if you think it's cool and want to promote your product/line/skillz. Some of you have been looking for a way to repay some of the paper-karma I've accumulated with you - this would be that chance.
I'd really like to see as many diverse versions of art-styles and room-styles as possible. Inked Adventures by BilliamBabble Inked Adventures is very different from Mystic Mountains Productions by jjensen is different from Fat Dragon Games by fatdragontom. But, in my dream world, we'd also get contributions from Lord Zsezse Works by BSGTony (lordzsezse) and Brave Adventures and Kev's lounge by bravesirkevin and Dave Graffam Games by Dave and Fantasy Paper Miniature by eddnic and Grey Matter Games by kiladecus and PERMES by mesper and One Monk/Mayhem in Paper by squirmydad and Darkfast Dungeons by okumarts and The Feisty Friar by WWG (maybe mproteau (Paper Realms) could work something out) and Finger and Toes by glennwilliams and Temporum Oblitus by aaron and even one from the 'retired' Christopher Roe. I can dream can't I?
[There was no order implied in that list, and if you were left out - don't feel bad - I want you in there too - it just takes a long time to look up all those IDs and stuff...]
Still interested? Read on, as there are more details:
The pseudo legalese:
- You are free to use the staircase template I've created for this project and you will own the rights to whatever you create with them, including anything you contribute to this product.
- You grant me Randy Farmer, a royalty-free non-exclusive licence to use your contribution in this product, and any future related product (for example, if this work was bundled into another set.)
- You may attach your company logo and contact information to the page you contribute, but it may be relocated on the page by the editor = me (for example, to avoid cutfile issues or overlapping another logo.)
- You must specify any licensing language required for the READ.ME file.
- I (the editor) have final say on what contributions are included in the set, and how they are layed out (position, size, and PDF layer number)
My hope is for each designer to contribute at least one staircase adaptation to the project (and no more than one-per-staircase model.) Remember this is intended to be a sampler, not the end-all super wizzy model. Flat, complete layers - not even switchable walls or floors. Feel free to make those if you like for your product lines, but please only one submission per style for this sampler at most.
The Lazy Designer's alternative:
If you want in, but are too lazy to convert the textures yourself, grant me the same right-to-use detailed above and if we run short of submissions I might convert them myself. Instead of all the benefits listed earlier, you only get a copyright notice and the licence statement in the READ.ME. The idea here is to care enough about your product to do this little promo. No dedication, no photos, no detail links.
---
I will create separate threads about the mechanics of contribution (supplying a PNG and a layered PSD to make adapting your textures as easy as possible) and one on submissions that are not intended for (or don't qualify for) the kit, allowing this effort to continue on forever. This thread can be for discussing the business details of the project.
I could only propose this because the community here is so strong and support each other so deeply. You've help me go from being a novice builder to a contest-winner, to innovator, and now designer! Thanks, no matter how this turns out.
Let me make something clear - this call-to-action is 100% optional. I won't think any less of you if you don't want to do it. After all, I am asking you to contribute non-0 work time to this effort. I'll still love and buy and build and gush about your models.
So - What do you think? Are you in, or do you have more questions and thoughts?
OldSchoolDM [Randy Farmer]
The TL, DR version:
My Popup Staircase Designs (and cutfiles) + Your (designers) textures = My first OpenBookshelf product :
"OldSchoolDM's Popup Terrain: Designer Staircase Sampler"
The (very) long version of this idea will be in several posts.
Dear awesome paper terrain designers,
You may have seen my latest fixation with making fold-flat terrain - specifically popup staircases. I'm already freely giving the folks here on Cardboard Warriors the cutfiles and outlines of my designs. You are free to use them however you wish, no matter what you think about the rest of this proposal.
If you've followed that thread, you've also noticed that, as a texture designer, I suck - there are at least 3 reasons:
1) I'm not aesthetically gifted, 2) I'm too slow/under skilled with Photoshop/GIMP, and 3) I'm just remixing Google Image Search results with, at best, questionable legal rights to the material. This is why I'm not distributing the models with textures (nor planning on making more myself.)
When I tried mixing textures from Fat Dragon Games and World Works Games onto my models (as an experiment) magic happened!
You guys ROCK at terrain textures - it's what you do! And many of you already have staircases that you could adapt easily to my models.
I'm a Photoshop oaf, and I moved the FDG and WWG textures each into that page in less than 30 minutes. You could probably do it in 10.
That's what I'm asking for - adapt your textures to one or more of my staircase templates and let me use it. I want to bundle them all as PDF layers into a single sampler kit for sale on OneBookShelf. I'd create the templates, edit the submissions, do all the layout, create the instructions, and do product placement.
In exchange you get:
1) To place your company information (Logo and Contact Info) on each layer with your texture on it.
2) Use the work you do for any other purpose (upgrade an existing set, sell as part of a expansion, post for free, whatever!)
3) Be called out in a special contributors layer on the first model page.
4) Have my final test-build of your textured staircase be photographed and featured in my promotional postings.
5) You may name your layers - subject to editor approval
6) Have a thank-you mention and link to your product (compatible model?) in the READ.ME
What about the money, you ask?
This is an experiment, and a learning experience for me, and as part of that I do intend to charge a price for the set, ranging from pay-what-you-want, up to perhaps $5. I often give advice on these things, but this would be me getting some first hand experience. I have no idea how much money this will make, if any - but for the sake of simplicity and not making any promises I can't be sure I'll be able to keep, I'm not offering any direct financial compensation for your efforts here.
Besides, whatever I sales I make will just stay in the shop and I'll use it to buy products (I have a long wishlist!), circulating it back into the community anyway.
I named this thread Stone Soup on purpose. Please join the effort only if you think it's cool and want to promote your product/line/skillz. Some of you have been looking for a way to repay some of the paper-karma I've accumulated with you - this would be that chance.
I'd really like to see as many diverse versions of art-styles and room-styles as possible. Inked Adventures by BilliamBabble Inked Adventures is very different from Mystic Mountains Productions by jjensen is different from Fat Dragon Games by fatdragontom. But, in my dream world, we'd also get contributions from Lord Zsezse Works by BSGTony (lordzsezse) and Brave Adventures and Kev's lounge by bravesirkevin and Dave Graffam Games by Dave and Fantasy Paper Miniature by eddnic and Grey Matter Games by kiladecus and PERMES by mesper and One Monk/Mayhem in Paper by squirmydad and Darkfast Dungeons by okumarts and The Feisty Friar by WWG (maybe mproteau (Paper Realms) could work something out) and Finger and Toes by glennwilliams and Temporum Oblitus by aaron and even one from the 'retired' Christopher Roe. I can dream can't I?
[There was no order implied in that list, and if you were left out - don't feel bad - I want you in there too - it just takes a long time to look up all those IDs and stuff...]
Still interested? Read on, as there are more details:
The pseudo legalese:
- You are free to use the staircase template I've created for this project and you will own the rights to whatever you create with them, including anything you contribute to this product.
- You grant me Randy Farmer, a royalty-free non-exclusive licence to use your contribution in this product, and any future related product (for example, if this work was bundled into another set.)
- You may attach your company logo and contact information to the page you contribute, but it may be relocated on the page by the editor = me (for example, to avoid cutfile issues or overlapping another logo.)
- You must specify any licensing language required for the READ.ME file.
- I (the editor) have final say on what contributions are included in the set, and how they are layed out (position, size, and PDF layer number)
My hope is for each designer to contribute at least one staircase adaptation to the project (and no more than one-per-staircase model.) Remember this is intended to be a sampler, not the end-all super wizzy model. Flat, complete layers - not even switchable walls or floors. Feel free to make those if you like for your product lines, but please only one submission per style for this sampler at most.
The Lazy Designer's alternative:
If you want in, but are too lazy to convert the textures yourself, grant me the same right-to-use detailed above and if we run short of submissions I might convert them myself. Instead of all the benefits listed earlier, you only get a copyright notice and the licence statement in the READ.ME. The idea here is to care enough about your product to do this little promo. No dedication, no photos, no detail links.
---
I will create separate threads about the mechanics of contribution (supplying a PNG and a layered PSD to make adapting your textures as easy as possible) and one on submissions that are not intended for (or don't qualify for) the kit, allowing this effort to continue on forever. This thread can be for discussing the business details of the project.
I could only propose this because the community here is so strong and support each other so deeply. You've help me go from being a novice builder to a contest-winner, to innovator, and now designer! Thanks, no matter how this turns out.
Let me make something clear - this call-to-action is 100% optional. I won't think any less of you if you don't want to do it. After all, I am asking you to contribute non-0 work time to this effort. I'll still love and buy and build and gush about your models.
So - What do you think? Are you in, or do you have more questions and thoughts?
OldSchoolDM [Randy Farmer]
