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Free Photoshop book!

14 May, 2008 (19:06) | Photoshop | By: Butch

Just a quickie here, and then I need to get back to work: For the next 30 days, Sitepoint is giving away PDF copies of The Photoshop Anthology. I just downloaded this, and it’s a damn fine Photoshop book, particularly for the price! Check it out!

FCAP, Mutants & Masterminds, and a Blog

18 April, 2008 (12:47) | Products, RPGs, ZNG.com | By: Butch

Hey all! We’re pretty well settled in here at the new place, so I thought I’d hop back on to let you know what I’ve got in store for the next few months.

FCAP

First, I’ve come to a decision about the Fantasy Cartography book. (Don’t worry, it’s not bad!) I finally realized that I really enjoy doing the podcast and I really don’t enjoy working on a full-length tutorial book. Rather than abandon the book altogether, though, I’m going to do something that a lot of you suggested right from the outset of the podcast: I’m going to do the FCAP “book” as a video series instead.

Here’s why:

  1. As I pointed out, I really enjoy doing the podcast a lot more than writing the same thing.
  2. After doing both, I think video is a better format for showing off Photoshop techniques than print all around.
  3. It’s going to be a heck of a lot cheaper! For the same cost to print one copy of a full-color book (because, frankly, I don’t think it would work in b&w), before I’d even see a dime of profit, I can offer a DVD chock full of videos, map templates, custom brushes, and example files AND get a healthy payout to boot.

One thing the DVD will NOT be is a compilation of the podcasts. The will contain the same material you’ve seen so far in the podcasts, re-recorded in a much higher resolution and (particularly when compared to the earlier episodes) with better sound.

So what does that mean for the podcast? The FCAP podcast will continue, though they’ll probably be shorter for awhile!

Two Books & A Blog

Meanwhile, I’m also going to be working on a couple of new M&M Superlink books, A Dirty Dozen and New Troy: City Under Siege. The former is a villain collection, and since it’s relatively short I hope to have out within a couple of months. The latter is a city setting book that I’ve been dying to do for a long time now, and will take awhile to complete, I’m sure!

As part of the work on these two new books, I’ve started a design blog over at Blogger, Butch’s Zombie Brains. It’s going to be pretty specific to those two books, and much “bloggier” than I like to make ZombieNirvana.com, hence the new page. Keeping the design blog will not only allow me to put up a lot of previews and get feedback from the fans, but will also keep me motivated and honest about how the work is progressing!

Starting next week, I’ll be working on the Superlink stuff and updating the blog on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and working on the FCAP videos Tuesdays and Thursdays for as long as my voice holds out!

So that’s the skinny! Sorry to any of you who were looking forward to a print copy of FCAP, but at least with the DVD you’ll be getting more of what you’ve already come to enjoy!

Moved!

29 March, 2008 (15:04) | ZNG.com | By: Butch

Hey Zombie fans! We’ve successfully made the move down to lovely Carrollton, Texas! Although we still don’t have our own DSL at the moment, I’ve got some on-and-off access til then. I can’t guarantee speedy responses to emails and comments for another week or so, at least, though, but I’ll try to pop on whenever I’m able!

Moving!

20 March, 2008 (12:33) | ZNG.com | By: Butch

After many delays and a lot of headaches, my family and I are finally moving this weekend. I’m not sure how long it’ll take us to get our internet access ready to go once we’ve moved, so responses to comments and emails may be sporadic or non-existent for a week or two! I’ll let you all know when we’re settled back in, but until then, thanks for your patience!

On this day…

19 February, 2008 (15:29) | Photoshop | By: Butch

On Feb. 19, 1990, Photoshop 1.0 shipped! Folks over at PhotoshopNews.com have shared their “where were you when” stories. Me? I was in college at the time, attending the University of Oklahoma. I had just switched over from pursuing a degree in architecture to a BFA in graphic design. It would still be a couple of years before I was really exposed to it, though, as I was still deeply into a lot of other traditional fine arts courses like painting and life drawing at the time. The most important of which was probably my painting class, because that’s where I met my wife… and as it so happens, February of 1990 is when we first started dating. So on this day in 1990, I can say with a reasonable amount of accuracy that if I wasn’t with her I was certainly thinking about her!

Photoshop 1.0 wasn’t even a blip on my radar, funnily enough; 2.0 was where I first jumped on board, and 3.0 was the first copy my wife and I purchased. We still have it in the original box.