Vision Riders Entertainment Blog - Vision Riders

The Blog Smells Funny

nospam@example.com (Dale Johnson) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 10:25:29 -0700

Q: Is Swordmaster Odyssey dead?

Heavens no! It will probably be a few more weeks before I get back to it, though. Right now my focus is on getting the initial in-game art for AetherFall together, which is no small feat. Once I get a hold on the style I want, and get into the groove of producing it, things should lighten up quite a bit on that end.

Q: Is Sketchbook Monday dead?

No, I just keep putting it off.

Q: Is My Brother dead?

No, my brother is still alive and well ~~unfortunately~~, and so is My Brother. However, there likely won't be any work on it until next year. The project has not been canceled, just delayed in favor of AetherFall.

Q: Is Procyon dead.

Yes. As explained before, the project was axed due to major story problems, made even worse by a horde of technical problems.

What's Up With Vision Riders?

nospam@example.com (Dale Johnson) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:20:34 -0700

Sorry it took me so long to get around to this post, things have been a bit harsh lately.

If you're reading this, it's probably because you've already noticed that Vision Riders as a whole--including Swordmaster Odyssey--has been on hiatus lately. Here's the deal: for the past two years Vision Riders has been my full-time job. Before that, I'd worked freelance jobs here and there when I could land them, but I wanted to see if I could make a living working on my own stuff. For now, the unfortunate answers seems to be "no". Money that I thought I would be able to put towards Vision Riders ending up having to go elsewhere, as life has an annoying tendancy to be unpredictable, which only compounded the problems I've had trying to get animation going--which was the whole reason Vision Riders was started in the first place!

At the moment Vision Riders as a company, a web site, and a creative entity, teeters on the edge of non-existance. However, while I may no longer be able to devote my full time to it, I want Vision Riders to continue because I enjoy it, even if I can only pursue it part-time or as a hobby. We'll have to see how that goes. For now, Swordmaster Odyssey is set to return next week, but everything involving animation has basically been put on indefinite hold. I'll see if I can't get Vision Riders in the air again and will be actively looking into alternate business models, namely ones that don't focus on animation. At least, not in the short term.

Reconstruction

nospam@example.com (Dale Johnson) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 10:43:54 -0700

The main Vision Riders site is in serious need of a major overhaul. It's just so cold and corporate. Think I'll bump that up on my list of things to do for next week.

Two Years

nospam@example.com (Dale Johnson) — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 09:27:59 -0700

Happy second birthday, Vision Riders!

I can't lie and say that the future is going to be bright and happy for you, but here's to my sincere wish that it will be! ^_^

January 2009 Digital Download Pack

nospam@example.com (Dale Johnson) — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 13:55:34 -0700

This month's digital download pack is finally up for those who want it, and includes a 720p .wmv version of the clip from My Brother.

Merry Christmas 2008!

nospam@example.com (Dale Johnson) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:20:45 -0700

Merry Christmas, everyone!

This is the wallpaper that will be included in December's download pack here soon. Their eyes are bigger than they really should be (if I'd caught it when I should have, I could have fixed it), but otherwise it came out surprisingly well. The characters pictured are (from left to right) the kid from My Brother, Jessie from Swordmaster Odyssey, and Iccari from... well, he's not really from anything yet.

Line art was done with a #2 pencil (I should have gotten my pens out so I'd get more line variation), and everything else was done in Photoshop CS.

This wallpaper's download pack should be up by Friday.

Digital Download Packs

nospam@example.com (Dale Johnson) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 10:40:16 -0700

We are proud to introduce our new digital download packs! Released each month, every download pack contains a desktop wallpaper (in both 16:10 widescreen and 4:3 formats) along with other extras. The extras range from additional images to exclussive commentary to music files, and each pack retails at an even $1.

Although these replace the old Swordmaster Odyssey download packs, don't worry. You'll be able to buy the high-resolution versions of the webcomic along with commentary again in the near future.

Sales from these download packs help support our hosting costs and allow us to continue creating new and entertaining content for our site! Hosting the site and creating Swordmaster Odyssey and our other upcoming projects is not cheap, so please consider supporting us by buying a download pack to enjoy.

Thank you for your consideration!

Concerning the Store

nospam@example.com (Dale Johnson) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 08:48:53 -0700

You may have noticed that you can't buy anything from the Vision Riders Store right now. The digital download sales for individual chapters of Swordmaster Odyssey have been pretty dismal thus far, so we decided to halt production of them. They'll be replaced with a full "books" of chapters in the future. Hopefully this will prove to be a better deal for you, since that seems to be what most people want instead of downloading the chapters one at a time. The new digital download packs will include new commentary that's easier to follow and, hopefully, more insightful.

If you've already purchased one of the digital download packs, you'll get a discount on the Book 1 download pack when it comes out. Just email your original order number to us and wait for instructions.

As a side effect of low sales numbers and the removal of the old download packs, we've had to bring back banner ads on the Swordmaster Odyssey page. They're annoying, I know, but they do generate a small amount of income that can help pay for hosting the site.

I would like to do T-shirts in the near future--if only because I want one! If you have any suggestions for what kind of T-shirt you'd be interested in, feel free to contact us or simply leave a comment on the blog.

By the way, I hope to have time on Thursday to talk a little bit about our upcoming project, "Procyon".

No Sketchbook Monday This Week

nospam@example.com (Dale Johnson) — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 07:56:20 -0700

You've probably already figured it out, but I won't be doing a Sketchbook Monday this week. The feature should resume as normal next week.

One Year Already?

nospam@example.com (Dale Johnson) — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 17:12:18 -0700

Where has the time gone? Vision Riders is now one year old!

Who knows what the future holds?

Christmas is Over

nospam@example.com (Dale Johnson) — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 13:42:38 -0700

Yes, I know that the Christmas image is still up on the homepage. I'll replace it this coming week with something else.

Delayed!

nospam@example.com (Dale Johnson) — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 11:18:52 -0700

No Sketchbook Monday this week. Sorry. I'll have sketches up next week, though.

Just One More Day

nospam@example.com (Dale Johnson) — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 12:41:02 -0700

Though today is indeed Monday, Sketchook Monday will have to wait until tomorrow. I am currently in the middle of animating a scene, and the scanner is thus tied up doing pencil tests. I can't alter the settings mid-test to scan something else because then the later frames will be off.

Maybe I'll show the finished test here as well? Or maybe not...

And We're Live

nospam@example.com (Dale Johnson) — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 08:34:30 -0700

The Vision Riders Store is now open at:

http://www.visionridersstore.com

The first download pack is up, and the second one will be availible starting September 28th. Whew... Getting that thing up was quite a workout. And I still have more work that must be done today! :o

Internet Woes

nospam@example.com (Dale Johnson) — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 09:55:22 -0700

Due to issues with our internet providor, we will likely be somewhat slow to update for the next two weeks. Don't worry, however, we don't plan to skip any SMOdyssey updates (although they may be late).