Cyberpunk Animals

Hello all!

Y'all. How is it already May.

Very sorry about the survey delay - I wasn't home for pretty much all of March and most of April and some detail somewhere in the survey got super scuffed. I'm still not entirely sure what happened?

But!

Everyone besides pay over time backers should have gotten their surveys by now! I'm actually pretty upset at how late the surveys got released so I will be adding a small freebie in everyone's physical orders as an apology and a big thank you for your patience! You all were so kind, I really am grateful and I never want to squander the kindness and faith you all put in me, my art, and my campaigns!

I'll have more details below if you're interested but if not, no worries! If you encounter any issues with your survey, please use BackerKit Support to send a help ticket - all support requests get forwarded directly to me and I can see your questions faster!

The Delayed Ita Bag

Some returning backers might remember that there was originally supposed to be an ita bag as part of the Cyberpunk Animals campaign. I delayed the bag because I could already tell Pintopia was going to be a lot to handle during my move, and I was super right to do so!

But now, the bag is finally ready to show off! Introducing the Ita Holster!

It goes on your hip! Or shoulder! It's very versatile! This bag will be part of the upcoming Bag Bazaar event starting on May 12th. I'll have better photos for the actual campaign, including showing it in practical use! There will also be a small selection of pins, an acryllic carabiner, a strap, and a luggage tag - all designed to match the bag.

Follow the campaign here!

(But also, absolutely NO pressure to back. There's a ton going on. Just wanted to make you all aware since this was originally supposed to be part of Pintopia!)


We're Back On Track

This winter/spring stretch of time has been very tough! Don't worry, I'm okay! It feels very silly to say that the delays were because it took me this long to move in and get my office space set up, but yes, it took me this long to move in and get my office space set up. Moving all my furniture, merchandise, and other assets out of my multiple storage units and into my new place was an actual nightmare, and I didn't take time off from work to get it all done. I asked other artists who have recently moved how they handled it, and most of them told me they had to take 3-4 months off to make it work! So.... oops. I also had 4 conventions in Marchi/April plus a secret 5th one I just got back from, so I was barely home to get things done. 

I think I really should've skipped Pintopia this year, but what's done is done and I am going to do everything I can to fulfil this set!! It really means a lot that you all were so excited for it - I've been wanting to do something in the cyberpunk aesthetic for a while! 

Thanks everyone for being so proactive in getting the surveys done. I'll order the pins as soon as I get counts in, finalize the cityscape banner art, and we'll be all okay!!

Thank you for being here and for the kind messages you've been sending while I was stuck in moving hell! I was so scared of letting everyone down, and the encouragement helped so very much.

Cheers,
Lachlan

Hey all,

Thank you for your patience. Surveys are going out this week pending BackerKit approval. I admittedly got bogged down with finalizing artwork for the final unlocked stretch goals amidst everything else I had going on. 

Smoke tests will go out first, then the rest of the surveys will be sent 24 hours later. Some of the art (mostly the cityscape pin banner) will be not quite finalized. I need a smidge more time on it to really make it perfect. 

Once 75% of surveys are turned in I'll do the final tally and order the pins. From there it's about 50 days from ordering to arriving at my doorstep. We are still on track for summer fulfilment and I have taken all of June and some of July off to take care of that!

Sorry it took me so long - it seems hard to believe but I'm still working on getting everything moved in to the new place on top of dealing with a full convention schedule. I'll make sure things move a bit smoother from here on out. 

Another update will come this week with pin art updates as soon as I get manu approval!

Cheers,
Lachlan

Hey all,

WOW, what a final day! Backerkit campaigns don't usually jump this much in the last 48 hours (at least not upwards) so this was a very nice surprise! Thank you!!

Some last minute housekeeping:

As for the remaining designs!
The migraines came back unfortunately so I couldn't finish them, but you all said you would rather have sketches than nothing, so! Get ready for some shaky hand sketches!

SURVIVAL - Premium Pin
A snow leopard on a cyber moon! Why a moon? Not sure, but I was watching Treasure Planet recently so maybe I was inspired subconsciously? But as for snow leopards, they have had a tough history of survival as they once were in critical danger of going extinct. They are currently labeled as "vulnerable" but still have a long ways to go before they are considered not threatened.


CITYSCAPE PIN BANNER
The idea was that pins could be placed on the windows as a way to cleanly display your pin haul! It takes me much longer to render and finish illustrations than it does to finish pins, but I will post the finished product in the survey update. Banners will still be available as add ons in the survey so don't feel pressured to add it on just yet if you want to wait to see the final render. 


TECHNOLOGY OF A BYGONE ERA - Mini Pin
I asked if you had any guesses on what this "technology" could be - did someone somehow guess a furby? It is from a bygone era! The furby thing is a little joke from the Pintober community. But in case jokes aren't your thing, I did prepare something else for the 10k threshold.


HACKED - Regular Pin
I kept hush until I was sure nothing was compromised, but I was actually hacked during this pin campaign. I was worried about the extent of the breach, so I decided to not log into any site with sensitive information (so BackerKit among other things) for a bit until I had more information. Luckilly, everything is okay! But it was a very terrifying week trying to figure out if anything got compromised. So naturally I made a pin to commemorate the event because I have no chill!




That's all the housekeeping!
I probably won't update again until after close to spare everyone's poor bloated email inboxes. I'll get these designs finalized over the weekend. Here's hoping the final 9 hours are kind! 

I know Pintopia has gotten a bit... overwhelming, especially since more and more projects are added every year. As funds are no doubt tight and there are so so many projects to choose from, I really really appreciate you all for being here and supporting these pins. I would definitely love to do more in the future! It was such a fun set! 

Between the hacking and migraines and pintopia bloat, I know I wasn't as active as I normally would like to be during the campaign, but I appreciate the patience and kind words from you all! For my returning backers, it's a pleasure as always to see you and it made me smile seeing your names pop up again! For the new folks, welcome! And I hope to see you again!

Cheers! Love you all,
- Lachlan 

+Hey all,

We're just before the 36 hours left mark of Cyberpunk Animals!

Just wanted to give an overview of all the unlocked designs at this point. The story section of the campaign has also been updated with the design info. This update was supposed to come out days ago but I have been plagued with migraines from the strange weather we've been getting. 

The masks are all mini pins - $10 each.
Surveillance, Virus, and Sentry are premium pins - $30 each.
The rest are regular pins - $20 each.

I have plans for some more stretch goals:
- Survival (Snow Leopard, premium pin) at 9k
- City Scape Pin Banner at 9.5k
- Technology of a Bygone Era at 10k (I'm not revealing what this is until it's unlocked - feel free to guess!)
- Watcher (Vulture, regular pin) at 11k

I'll be honest - we have been hovering around $8500 for weeks now, and we lost a lot of money today at the 48 hour mark. I'm not complaining - it's great that so many pins have gotten funded - but I'm not expecting to get any further than this point. Actually I'm more concerned that Surveillance will be unfunded more than anything. But I love to be proven wrong - never say never!

If more pins do get funded, I'll post art of them as soon as I catch the funding goal being reached. If funding happens at the twilight hour, everything will be accessible in the survey and you will be able to add on pin designs that way.

I know people have been asking about certain designs, and I'm sorry if the final designs are not what you were hoping for. I've been planning these pins for a very long time and some of them - especially Surveillance - would've been super hard to explain or even show as a wip. I hope you like the designs, and sorry if they don't meet your expectations.

I have an incentive if we surpass 300 backers for this project - everyone will get a free commemorative mini pin with their physical order!

I'm hoping to be back tomorrow with more unlocked pin designs!

Time to go back to bed - I'm still in pretty bad shape from the migraines! Anyone else at the whims of weather like me? xD

See you all very soon, and thank you for being here :)
Cheers,
- Lachlan

Hello everyone, and Happy New Year!

I am here to introduce my newest pin set which is a part of Pintopia - Cyberpunk Animals!


It's a little different from what I usually do, but there are still animals for sure! I wanted to share the follow link, incentives, and some of the designs you'll expect to see!



Campaign Incentives
Expect a few goodies for meeting certain criteria! 

This time I am collaborating with my dear friend Vipi.Ink! We've been wanting to collaborate for a long while and finally have the chance to do so! Please support their campaign as well!


Pintopia is trying out banners - smaller collections of pin campaigns - for the first time this year and I have the honour of running one! I am the admin and member of Animal Akademia which features animal science and sci fi campaigns! We, as well as every other banner, are offering pin freebies for folks who back 3 or more campaigns within the banner! To see all of the Animal Akademia campaigns, please click on the image below!



Finally, here's a look at some of the first few pins that could be unlocked for Cyberpunk Animals!









Want to see more? Follow and back the campaign to see what's next when we go live on Thursday Jan 22nd at 10 AM PST!



Cheers, and see you soon!
- Lachlan (Marachi)