Ampliterra August Progress Update
It’s been a fantastically productive month and a half since our last major project update. Let me tell you a bit about what we’ve been up to!
Art is Complete
In our last update, we had about 70% of the planned art for the book complete. I’m happy to report that all 63 of those illustrations are now done. There’s such a wonderful variety of art here from engaging characters to gorgeous landscapes and diverse spot illustrations all from eight talented artists.
Layouts
The biggest time investment lately has been in the layouts of the book. Fitting 85,000+ words and 63 illustrations cleanly into page format is a huge task and our layout artist, Jam, has been doing an excellent job. After her first pass, Sadia, our art director, and I both reviewed the draft layouts, left comments, and then had a 2 hour walkthrough call with Jam to troubleshoot tough layout choices and move towards a more final draft.
Maybe most excitingly, after that meeting we decided to add a bit more content to make everything fit nicely onto spreads. We’ll be adding two brand new characters, a handful of key locations, and four additional spot illustrations from Sadia bringing the total count to 67!
It’s been very fun to dive back into the text to write these new characters…after all, I wrote most of this text over a year-and-a-half ago! Both of these bonus characters are really fun – I think you’ll enjoy meeting them.
One of the feared giant electric eels of the Wave Wreaker Shoals near Vindurheim. Illus. Sadia Bies
So where does that put us on our timeline?
Thus far, everything is on track with our original estimate. I’m working on those text additions this week, Sadia is working on the extra spot illustrations next week, and Jam is already partway through the next layout draft. I’m expecting that those layouts will likely be done in the next few weeks.
We have to make a few more decisions before we are ready to lock in a release date including finalizing our marketing plan and choosing a printing partner (foreshadowing?!?). Once we have that, though, you’ll be the first to know!
A relatively short update this week, I know, but now I have to get back to writing these new sections.
Until next time!
Austin
