Massive Black: Volume 1 Announced

Ballistic Publishing and Massive Black issued a press release today announcing the availability of Massive Black: Volume 1, the first in a series of books packed with artwork from Dragon Age: Origins, Hellgate: London, and many other titles.

BALLISTIC PUBLISHING AND MASSIVE BLACK ANNOUNCES MASSIVE BLACK: Volume 1

Adelaide, South Australia – 15th January 2009

Ballistic Publishing and Massive Black, Inc. are pleased to announce Massive Black: Volume 1, a spectacular collection of art produced for high-profile entertainment, internally developed universes, and the personal art from the industry’s leading entertainment art studio.

Founded in 2002 by a group of passionate developers, Massive Black has grown to become a powerhouse of the entertainment industry particularly in the areas of concept art, illustration, 3D, animation and intellectual property development. During its six-year history, the company has worked on 210 projects, generating a staggering 30,000 pieces of concept art for games, film, television, graphic novels, toys, and advertising.

Massive Black: Volume 1 provides a glimpse of the work created at the company including professional game work for id software, Sega, Atari, THQ/Volition, BioWare, Codemasters Software, Deep Silver, Vicious Cycle Software, EA, and Pandemic Studios. Notable game projects featured in the book include ‘˜Saboteur’, ‘˜Red Faction: Guerilla’, ‘˜Golden Axe: Beast Rider’, ‘˜Iron Man’, ‘˜Hellgate: London’, ‘˜Dragon Age: Origins’, ‘˜Maelstrom’, ‘˜Ride to Hell’, ‘˜Dead Head Fred’, and ‘˜Severity’.

Massive Black: Volume 1 brings together more than 700 pieces of artwork by the Massive Black team from studios in North America and Asia. A foreword by Oddworld’s Lorne Lanning provides an entertaining view of his dealings with Massive Black and his thoughts on what makes it such a unique artist-focused company, while Jason Manley (co-founder of Massive Black) recounts the formation of the company with partners Justin (Coro) Kauffman, and Chris Hatala.

(The driving force with the Massive Black book was to get some of the 30,000+ pieces of artwork created in the last six years out there,) according to co-founder Jason Manley. (We have always wanted to do the kind of art book that was worth having out on the table. With so much work to share, and the worlds of Massive Black Entertainment well under way, we felt that it was finally time to do that. We looked at various options to produce the book and Ballistic Publishing was our top choice due to their great expertise getting the best results in print.)

Massive Black: Volume 1 also features an exclusive first look at three ground-breaking worlds developed by Massive Black Entertainment. These three chapters show remarkable behind-the-scenes content like character and environment studies (sketches and full renders), storyboards, composited scenes, and beautifully detailed animation work. The new properties include: ‘MothHead and BeeHive’, an episodic legend which explores a visionary world following interesting creatures on a journey to self-discovery; ‘Transient’, a race against time for homeless Bob to save humanity from extra-dimensional evils; and ‘˜Degenesis’, an award-winning RPG set on a post-apocalyptic Earth where the seed of universal life has rained from the sky in a devastating meteor storm that twisted both fate and future.

(All the projects that we’re currently developing at Massive Black Entertainment are centered around great ideas, and definitely come from what we know how to do best,) explains Justin (Coro) Kauffman. (I think it gives us a pretty unique slant on things which we’re excited about.)

Pricing and Availability
Massive Black: Volume 1 will be available in a slipcased edition (USD$59.00). More details about the books and availability can be found on the Ballistic Publishing website at: http://www.ballisticpublishing.com/books/massiveblack/

Publication Details:
‘¢ ISBN: 978-1-921002-60-1 (Slipcased)
‘¢ Pages: 192 pages
‘¢ Dimensions: 220 x 297mm
‘¢ Editors: Kemp Remillard, Jason Manley, Justin Coro Kaufman, Melissa Lee, Dan Staton, Chris Hatala, Daniel Wade

Exclusive Massive Black: Volume 1 exclusive limited offer The first 300 customers to buy Massive Black: Volume 1 will receive a free download of Justin “Coro” Kaufman’s “El Coro: Weapon Design” tutorial video from Massive Black DVD. “Coro” has worked on literally hundreds of game titles in his career as an Art Director and Concept Artist. This experience has made him someone who clearly understands that the goal of a concept artist is to provide a very specific visual solution for a client or game. The video tutorial has plenty of information about painting techniques and design philosophy, and always focuses on producing a deliverable asset. The intermediate level tutorial runs over 60 minutes in length.

Customers will receive an email containing download information from Massive Black within three working days from the acceptance of their order for Massive Black: Volume 1.

About Massive Black
Massive Black is a multi-divisional company based in the South of Market area of San Francisco which supports the entertainment industry with vibrant content and new intellectual property. With satellite studios in Shanghai and Bangkok, Massive Black is ideally located in areas known for art, culture, and enterprise. The teams have come together, through natural discourse and shared interest, to form one of the most successful entertainment development and outsourcing studios in the industry. This unique collection of talent and ability has culminated in a fine-tuned group of professional artists able to aid and enhance any project. Massive Black’s separate intellectual property development arm; Massive Black Entertainment designs, produces, licenses, and creates rich and beautiful entertainment for the global market.

About The CGSociety and Ballistic Media
Ballistic media operates two major divisions The CGSociety and Ballistic Publishing. The CGSociety is the world’s largest society of professional digital artists and provider of forums, portfolios, training, job and event services for the digital arts industry. Ballistic Publishing is the leading, independent publisher of books for the digital arts industry. Dedicated to publications of the highest quality celebrating the talents of digital artists worldwide, Ballistic has set the benchmark as a quality boutique publisher. Ballistic Media is based in Adelaide, South Australia, with offices in Melbourne (Victoria, Australia) and Tampa (Florida, USA).