What Was That??

[William b. Hand]

What just happened?

[AfroLaxMan]

oh, sweet, I was paranoid my *family* decided to dis-own me.

not just me, then. i feel better.

[Kortez]

I got really scared for a moment... but now I'm filled with love and happiness :)

[Redder]

Scandalous!

[Fozzybar]

panic

[RONIN]

This was brought up in the Thunderdome thread but with the "scare" I think it should be brought up again. Jason runs the BEST, and FREE, art communities on the web. We have all benefited from this site and he has NEVER asked for anything in return. If someone sets up an account, or gives info to send, I'm sure some members can spare a few bucks to assist in keeping this site up, and FREE, with some of the financial burden taken off of Jason.

Hope I'm not overstepping bounds but I really do appreciate this site and would hate to see it go away.

[otis]

I thought that they were putting up the new site...

[egerie]

This was done this morning about 2 minutes after my computer finished booting up :

http://mysite.directlink.net/thierry/CONCEPTARTCOM_ISDOWN.gif

[jester]

egerie, I can't remember posing for you :D This is exactly what I have looked like!

Jester

[van]

Hah! Great little cat character.

[Signature]

Lol great drawing egerie.

[jkior]

I'd be happy to donate, if that's the problem. Really appreciate the great community you've got here.

~jkior

[Marie]

Heck, I rarely have posted yet, but I come here everyday and "lurk" Yesterday when trying to get my daily fix... I realized how much this sites means to me... so donate? yes, yes I will.

[Cashmere]

AAAHHH !! :eek: , egerie, don't remember me that tremendous "host message" anymore !!

(Nice cat !)

So... the problem was the growing of Conceptart ... this is a good news! ;)

[morbidhumor]

I think most members would be more than happy to contribute or buy ConceptArt coffee mugs etc.
Anything to not see that stupid message again (I almost panicked).

[Kortez]

Let's talk Cafepress people!

"I love CA.org" mugs would sell out faster than Jason Manley can say "draw from life"! i'm telling you

And also the idea of selling custom titles for like a 5 buck donation has always fascinated me.

Why not just set it up! Anyone can do it... but we need artwork people. Let's make this less of a hazzle for Jason, Andrew and Davi...


oh and btw. http://www.cafepress.com/conceptart was available so I snatched it... just to make sure ;)

[Madman!]

mugs and maybe some mouse pads stuff like that is a good idea I would buy those. But why not stick together like a mini sketchbook of original art from some of the top guys. Stuff they have already done and choose like 5 peices from each artist and make a mini book 50 pages. I think something like that would go for big bucks on an auction and do those like yearly it probably would cover the cost of hosting alone. I don't know just throwing out ideas.

[AfroLaxMan]

and stickers.

everybody loves stickers!!!

http://www.oldhouseproductions.com/images/dump/sticker.jpg

[Kortez]

Originally posted by AfroLaxMan
and stickers.

everybody loves stickers!!!

http://www.oldhouseproductions.com/images/dump/sticker.jpg

that's what I'm talking about!!! ;)

also "I took part in the dsg and all I got was this lousy t-shirt.... and a really, really mean crit :( "

;)

[Beatnik]

That cat's expression rules ;)

The first thing I thought was that I was the one with the suspended account because my DSG's sucked so bad :bash: :p

I'd be happy to donate a couple bucks here and there too if that would help any. I bet the results would be amazing if a paypal account was set up for donations.

[Signature]

"I love CA.org" mugs would sell out faster than Jason Manley can say "draw from life"! i'm telling you
Bwahahaha ... "draw from life" ... ouch VERY GOOD ONE! Still recovering ...

I'd change the host (again!?) ... the sachost prices are WAY too high
(if the standard prices apply to Conceptart.org)
and the bandwidth limits sound like bad jokes!

Then I might buy a sticker or mug ... if that's at all possible in Germany

I haven't read the announcement when I wrote that.

[William b. Hand]

Kortez has nailed it.

I think the ideas about mugs/t-shirts is spot-on. Having a published work that features ConceptArt pics is a great one, but much more involved and less reliable. I've never bought as many T-shirts as I have since going online this year.
They're highly desirable, a breeze to process through cafŽpress.com, and multiple designs could be featured without any outlay.

I don't know why it's not already being done, frankly. And the idea that we'd be supporting the site is fabulous! I hope this is taken seriously and pursued. Think of how much talent is at-the-ready to donate marketable imagery to this cause!

I will.

Jason? Andrew? Davi? What do ya think?

[Elwell]

Originally posted by Kortez

"I took part in the dsg and all I got was this lousy t-shirt.... and a really, really mean crit :( "


:rofl:

[Erik]

Great idea Kortez!

[gekitsu]

that cafepress thing sounds like a sweet idea :)

umm, what about a coffee mug for the concept artist's office: "i get paid for drawing shit"

or a large rectangular sticker to put somewhere you see it often: "draw from life!"

t-shirt: "will draw concepts for food"

not to mention posters of coro paintings, manley goodness and andrew spods. (i think of a poster with some hundred of andrews spods and a huge punchline that reads "get off ye lazy ass and draw!")

[BadMange]

Sticker idea:
Got Hi-Tec C?
Got Wacom?
Got Sketchbook?

If mugs were made, I personally would just like it to be plain, and say Concept Art.org forums or something simple. I don't like cutesy stuff like "World's Greatest Dad," etc. Maybe that's because I'm not anyone's dad (that I know about)...

Does anyone know how much bandwidth CA uses per month? They need to go to WebHostingTalk.com forums and post what hosting solutions they need. Hosts will make them offers for a LOT less than they're paying now. They may even want to check out reseller accts for a ton of storage/bandwidth, and can host others for $$ too. Just a thought...

-Bad Mange

[buffaloe]

Have any of you guys ever been on www.cgtalk.com ? They recently published a book with all cgart in it that members of the site submitted. The result is is a nice, 200 page book with absolutely beautiful prints. They just sold out of all the 999 limited edition hardcover books (which I think sold for around $100) Not to mention all the softcover and hardcover books they're selling. I think it would be great if this site did a similar project in which members submit works, and a panel of judges would choose the pieces to go into the book, then sell it! I, for one, would definately buy one! The artwork here is amazing!

[RONIN]

Now this is getting good. The "CA Store" idea has really evolved to a really doable idea. I hope that Jason and the other mods are really taking this idea under consideration. The CA book idea is fantastic, I'd love to get some of the images I've seen here in a GOOD quality book with info about the artist etc.

[bRyaN]

I personally would love to buy CA.org merchandise...

I tell people about this site all the time, if i had a shirt...it would save my breath...

[R_M]

anything to keep this circus on the road.

[amphex]

i think a CA store might be too big of a risk..but if its cheap to print cool shirts, and wouldnt really matter if they didnt sell em all, then thatd be cool.

I dont think you guys understand, though, that we are not even half as big as CGTalk..if Conceptart.org made a book, maybe 15% of the people that come here would buy it. For CGTalk, thats still alot of money coming in, but I dont know about here...

[William b. Hand]

amphex, I agree with what you say about a book a la CGTalk...
But for T-Shirts and Mugs and certain "etc." items, CafŽPress require zer¿ outlay. They do everything on a piece-by-piece basis, take a cut of the profits, and send you the rest. I can't vouch for the quality of their transfer process, because I haven't purchased a shirt from them yet... But, again... No overhead, no outlay except for imagery and ideas ( which we have in abundance ), and if someone buys your stuff then you recieve a check in the mail.

I forget the taxation set-up, but I expect you'd need to keep records so you know how much of that's going to the gov't.

I think it's a no-lose situation. Anyone out there have personal experience with this company?

[Kortez]

Well, a friend of mine ran a shop with his photos on stuff... says it ran smooth like hell.

[morbidhumor]

My second favorite website and forum http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/ had similar money problems last year and I don't think they realized the response they would get when they asked thier users to help out.
They sold daily forum banner ads to thier users for 100$ a piece I think. Most people just used them as a way to donate and put up somthing funny regarding thier fave shows. Others would promote thier tv related site. Later they went to cheaper rotating banners.
I'm not sure that idea would be plausable here but they also sell mugs, t-shirts, tote bags etc. with variations of thier mascot on them.
You might try e-mailing Glark (the site co-owner) and ask him for advice.

[Jason Manley]

im so busy....we have been trying to get the new and improved conceptart.org up...no luck...its just so much work outside of my jobs that its impossible without help.

we do agree that a store thingy would help keep the site going...tis getting rather expensive to run....right now were using about a hundred and twenty gigabytes per month...but this goes up every single month as more and more users join...ive no idea how far it is going to go up in the future....we also need a boatload of server space...ive no idea where we are at right now total...maybe fifteen gigs of stuff is up there (andrews portraits...fosters stuff...paper textures...etc...etc...etc...backups of the forums database etc...)

I think the above numbers are correct....but as I said..things grow every month.

hosting is about two hundred bucks a month for what we have right now...the host has us on our own box and has been very kind to us...i have enjoyed working with them...i have no idea if we are getting a good price...but from what i know dedicated servers are not el cheapo unless we buy our own....


IF someone can help set up the mug and sticker idea i think that would be fantastic. any help with the site is always appreciated.

i dunno...the donate and post a link on the links page is a cool idea too...perhaps it would fun a server and a better connection...i dunno..it feels wierd accepting help with the funding...its been a joy to donate to the cause myself and andrew has always helped when asked.


cheers



jason

[JackSparrow]

Again do the books like what buffaloe was saying they would sell great and not only that it would give us noobies a chance to get published in a book I'd buy it and try to get into it. We should open a new thread for potential pictures to go in and see how thing shape up if any thing we'll have a new gallery area and mabey some day publish them, and I know everyone here would do killer stuff if they new it was going to be published. and I'd buy one even if I were broke come on its a sweet idea lets do it.
DO the BOOKS
DO the BOOKS
DO the BOOKS

[franz]

Jason, check the 'Server' thread on the admin forum

[Cashmere]

Now the alternatives are:

- donations
- Books
- Stickers
- T-Shirts and Mugs
- other CA merchandise
- banner ads (?)
- ....

I propose also a CD/DVD/book with tutorials, suggestions, hints, links, references... a sort of CA compendium indexed by arguments. A "CA Encyclopedia".

[geoffd]

we just don't want this forum to die. so we are willing to help out where needed and whenever we can. and jason (check your PMs and such)just send me the word and i can get you rolling with a server, with pretty much unlimited bandwidth and space for dirt cheap. :chug:

[WildSpruceMoose]

Mugs, posters, books, t-shirts, mousepads etc. sound good to me. Spiffy ^^ Ofcourse normal donations are always a good thing. Getting something in return for the donation is a good advantage if profit can be made towards the site though.

[endregan]

id buy a shirt and underwear :)

and if its thought out well enough and designed well etc, definitely a like monthly mag of whats going on at CA....would be awesome

but im just a dreamer, or am i! :)

[skrubbles]

Originally posted by gekitsu
...i think of a poster with some hundred of andrews spods and a huge punchline that reads "get off ye lazy ass and draw!"

I'd buy a poster of that in a second... there can be a new one every year :) ... though after a few years some people might have an entire wall filled with Andrew's face, but I'm willing to make the sacrifice... LOL

[JackSparrow]

That would be sweet a cd/dvd along with book, would the book contain tuts to complement the cd and if thats the case that would rock/ but I still think a gallery book of ppl's art from here would kick a$$ and along with there pic there could be a short interview about the artist and there work, you know about were they want to go with there art ex ex ex....

[Signature]

A book would be cool.

But there was a dedicated team behind Exposé.
http://www.ballisticpublishing.com/
Where's the Conceptart team?


But maybe ...
Interested in writing a book?
We are currently seeking authors and industry colleagues interested in writing books that fit in with our vision and mission. If you have the intention of writing a CG book and share the same ideals as us, please feel free to drop us a line.
Leonard Teo - Publisher and Editor
Email: leonard@ballisticpublishing.com

Who we are
Ballistic Publishing is a global publishing company created and based in Australia. We operate in the Adelaide Hills where we can be contacted:

Ballistic Media Pty Ltd
Aldgate Valley Rd
Mylor, SA 5153
Australia
Ph: +61 8 8388 5188