Alpha84

Apparently I’m still aware this place still exists. I’m going to try and make sure I’m not just spending money to keep this thing here and not do anything with it. So, you’ll see more this coming year from me. From photography to sketching to hopefully completed artwork and who knows what else, I’m definitely going to push to just make cool shit. If anybody follows Nick Campell over at greyscalegorilla.com then you’ll see where this new mindset I’ll have come from.

Yes, I’m not sure what happened either but it seems that my backup didn’t work and the upgrade to the newest version of wordpress has left me having to redo everything. Luckily I know what I have to do and I’ll try and take the opportunity to improve the previous layout by tweaking a few things here and there.

I thought that v2 changed the way people looked at SatelliteSoda. We where still a good bunch of artist but somehow we just seemed more legitimate. Phase 2 was now complete.

Generally it has remained the same with some minor tweaks under the hood and paint job but the concept remains the same. And after all these years, it’s finally time to trade in the old clunker for something that reflects how we’ve evolved while retaining our objective.

Alive and kicking

We’ve changed and evolved since the inception of SatelliteSoda, and yet we’ve managed to survive, even though the people that comprise it may have changed thoughout the years. We’ve been overweight and underweight when it comes to crew size and we’ve even played musical chairs with the crew members. One thing remains the same though, and that spirit that pulls us together to form a force comparable to Voltron is alive and kicking.

I looked at the finished product and I remember thinking, I can’t wait for V3, it’s really going to make these guys proud.

Change can be good

I remember Dylan bringing the subject up that he wasn’t satisfied with v2 a couple of years ago. He grew out of it and thought that we should as well. I concured and starting working on all types of mockups, from the flashy to the spartan, and none really did it for me. Dylan was simultaneously working on a couple of concepts of his own.

And while some of the ideas that I came up with were somewhat out there, Dylan had a basic concept of what the site could be. I didn’t want to kill the soul of SS so I thought of going back to Dylan’s concepts and in true sodaylite fashion a collaboration of sorts was born.

With his basic structure in place and some tinkering of my own, a new and improved and yet familiar face came to be. Through the entire process, everyone chipped in with ideas to improve the work that was being done. Eventualy v3 came to be. It’s really like watching a child grow up in front of your eyes, yes things change but it’s just a natural evolution that’s taking place, inevitable but necessary.

Enter Sandbox

Yet due to many factors it wasn’t released and instead we released “Sandbox”, an experiment meant to push our levels of creativity by stripping everything down to just bare essentials. And guess what.

It worked.

A book is born

And with that, we set off to create as much content for our “sketchbook” which seems to be the most popular element to SatelliteSoda besides the forum. In doing so, we entered the artistic arena once again with a force to be reckoned with and came up with SatelliteSoda: Book Two. That’s right a second one, and it’s better than before. Mainly due to help from special members from the forum and our willingness to try harder.

Let the countdown begin

SDCC09 is right around the corner, so the countdown has begun until the fresh new site and new book get released. I’ll be posting previews soon and other promo material so be on the lookout for that.