I'm launching a book, and my studio's in trouble...

Ah, so you want to learn anatomy? Well, it's going to be a long and arduous journey, but if you turn with me to PAY what's this boring anatomy, more like snoring anatomy, am I right? — That's what you CAN DO WITH REAL ANATOMY. EPIC ANATOMY. All right, the real guy can step in. You're welcome. Job done. All right. God, that guy's really weird. But he does have a point, though, and that is that anatomy should not ever be lame and boring. Which is why I've made Epic Anatomy. I am so excited because in this video, I finally get to share the amazing book that we've made and everything that's gone into it. why it's unlike any anatomy book you've ever seen before. But also, I need to have a bit of a serious talk with you later in the video about why this product matters so much to me and my studio right now and how you can help. So stay tuned for later in this video for an unfortunate reality check. But I want to start off with the good news. I have just launched Epic Anatomy on Kickstarter. This is a big deal to me and my studio. We're so excited. put so much work into it and we have endeavored to make the ultimate anatomy book. We've had two main goals in mind. One, the ultimate anatomy book has to be informative. Anatomy is complex and there is so much to learn and you need as much of that information as possible about the form and function of muscles and skeletons and fat and the connectivity of it all, how they work, how they function, and how to draw them. And two, it has to be fun. Now, that's an area that I see most anatomy resources lacking because anatomy is so indepth on a technical level. That tends to be the core focus and that can often be a really dry and uninspiring learning experience. But from my experience and everyone I've ever met, the more fun you have learning something, the more you want to learn it and the more memorable it is. We've almost finished all 144 pages of Epic Anatomy. The hard work is done and we need your help to publish this book and it is absolutely jam-packed with information and with fun. Start with information, shall we? The information we include covers using basic shapes and perspective to create the construction of your figures, understanding the skeleton in as much detail as you could need, and venturing into fun ways that you can play with your skeleton's proportions. Then of course deep dives into muscles, their form and function and the mechanical and aesthetic properties of every muscle and group of muscles. So you can learn in depth and in a memorable way how to draw the musculature of the human body from memory from your imagination and in any pose and perspective that you could want. Then we go beyond muscles into faces and how the muscles of the face function and the effect they have on the extremes of your character's expressions. And then on to things like skin and fat. often areas overlooked in covering anatomy. Specifically, how the skin folds around the movement of the body and stretches or squashes with your anatomy and how and where fat builds up and how to apply this knowledge to your own illustrations to create unique or realistic or characterful characters along with a bunch more cool stuff from veins to burns and scars. Suffice it to say, it is jam-packed full of information. But how have we endeavored to make epic anatomy as fun as possible? Well, as you've probably seen from some of these illustrations so far, we put a ton of work into creating a stylized illustrative approach that's appealing and clear to the reader and which translates complicated information directly into an approachable comic book style brought to life by the incredibly hardworking and wonderfully talented Alicia Lowry. But we've taken Epic Anatomy a whole lot further than just cool drawings because a good chunk of Epic Anatomy is a full-fledged graphic novel. And I don't want to just tell you about it. I want to show you. So, I'm excited to debut to you the opening graphic novel chapter of Epic Anatomy with a sprinkling of video post-prouction magic to help bring it to life. — Somewhere far away, hidden deep in a mountain laboratory, a sinister plot was forming. — Insufferable fools for world domination. I FORGE UNBREAKABLE ARMOR. I DESIGN POWERFUL WEAPONS. YET YOU CONTINUE TO FAIL ME FOR THE LAST TIME. YOU'RE ALL FIRED, — SIR. Does this mean you're finally giving up on this mad crusade for world domination? Never. Quite the opposite, in fact. While you were busy failing your last mission, I've been working on designs for your new replacements. You see, it wasn't the equipment that failed me. It was the buffoons who wielded it. I realized that if I couldn't hire competent helpers, I WOULD HAVE TO CREATE MY OWN. — That That's your design?

— How can you hope to manufacture a superhuman if you can't even silence? — But they did have a point. In order to create the perfect superhuman army, I must perfect my understanding of human anatomy. Cubot. — Yes, master. remove my clothes. And from there we enter our first lesson, the basic construction of the human body, where Cubot is particularly useful as a very geometric representation of the human form. So that is just one of our at least eight graphic novel sections which gives a narrative framing to the whole book where you can follow along with this mad scientist who must learn the intricacies of human anatomy in order to create the ultimate army of superhumans fit for world domination. which is extra fun because through the lessons, the characters and themes of this story are interconnected. Inserting helpful tips or quirky input that really brings the story and the characters to life in a way that makes learning anatomy really fun and have a reason because the characters in our story are learning and applying the information as you are too. And the result of the whole journey is a shared victory for both you and Dr. e vile because you both will have the ability to create epic humans to do your bidding in any way you wish because you'll have gathered all the tools you need to make that possible through the course of epic anatomy. We've been working on this book since 2014. So, a couple of years now, ever since I put out a community post on YouTube asking what you guys wanted to see us work on in a substantial way and overwhelmingly you told us you wanted epic anatomy. I didn't know what that was at the time, but this is what it's evolved into. a journey of several years hard work creating the best possible anatomy learning resource for you in the most fun and enjoyable learning experience that we could make. So, please go back us on Kickstarter now. If you're watching this on YouTube, the links in the description. If you're watching this on Kickstarter, it's all right there. Please read all of your information. We have a whole bunch of exciting previews for you on the page. But of course, clicking that back us button is going to be the thing that's going to help us get over the line for this project and going to be a huge support to the studio, which we really need. I need to sort of open up a little bit more and talk about the reasons why Epic Anatomy is such a crucial product launch for this studio. I wish this could just be an exciting, fun product launch, but I really feel the need to give you a bit more context as to why this really matters. Let's just say that there can be a misconception that when a YouTuber like myself releases a product or has a successful Kickstarter that it's this great victory of cash for me. But that's not the reality of the situation. First and foremost, we have a wonderful team here whose wages we have to pay and of course whose wages are important to them. The reality is as the economy has become harder for everyone with every product we release here, jobs are kind of on the line and it's harder now for all of us here than it's ever been. Long gone are the glory days when AdSense alone could support a channel like this. And our team has organically shrunk over the years. We're now a pretty small outfit, but we're a tight-knit group that work really hard on the content and the products that we produce for you. But even with ad revenue, with our Patreon, and with occasional sponsors, it's no longer enough to keep this studio sustainable. On top of that, I've only ever released products that I back 100%. And this dedication to quality comes at a cost. Both in the time required for research and development and quality control as well as the cost of the materials themselves when you make the products. I guess what I'm trying to get out in a roundabout way is Jazza Studios ain't profitable and hasn't really been for a very long time. It's become harder and harder to be able to afford to put the work in upfront to develop these products. And I've done that with Epic Anatomy. I've we've made 95% of the book and it it's almost ready to publish. But that's a big risk on my part to try and get something as complete as possible before I bring it to you means that I'm investing all of that up front in the hopes that it's successful and the jobs and the work that's gone into making it possible will be justified in the end. It's deceptive too because even like the Kickstarter goal, one assumes when the Kickstarter passes its funding goal that it's all celebrations and it's all profit from there. But that's actually not the case. Like we have to set the funding goal low enough that we think we can reach it, but by necessity quite a bit lower than what we've spent to even produce the digital version of the product because we have to try and make something back. We've already invested in making this product. I probably shouldn't have done it that way. It's taking a bigger risk. At the same time, it's a big part of having provided jobs for the people who have made this possible. I need to do everything in my power to ensure the security and the stability of the jobs of the people who I employ and who I really care about keeping in this fantastic team we have, which also makes all the content and the ambition and love that we put into these videos for you possible. Honestly, we've only really barely scraped by. And I have

less faith in my ability to reach my audience than I ever have just purely based on how YouTube has changed over the years. And since my Patreon launch a couple of years ago, patronage is down to less than half of what it was when we launched. I guess what I'm trying to say is it's really easy to assume that a successful YouTube channel from the outside is safe. This uphill battle is harder than it's ever been. And if what we produce here matters to you, whether it be the content we make or the products that we produce, I wanted to take the time to really earnestly and honestly say that if you support this product, it really does matter. It really has an impact and we are incredibly grateful. And if you don't necessarily want the book, but you do appreciate what we do here, becoming a patron is the best way you can help us out. It's the stability that we really need. I never have ever taken for granted the opportunity I've had to make a living as an artist and to bring that creative inspiration and fun to you. And I also take my responsibility as someone who provides a job and opportunities for people who work with me creatively very seriously. And I want to do everything I can to share with you how important your support is. So, if Epic Anatomy looks as cool to you as it does to us and the team who made this possible, please go support us on Kickstarter. We really appreciate it. It means so much to us and is a huge part in helping us work towards a sustainable creative future, one with humans at the helm. And second, Patreon really matters. If you're someone who's maybe been on the fence or thought about it but just sort of hasn't because you assume we're doing fine as a successful YouTube channel, I would be so grateful if you reconsidered that and jumped on board as a supporter, as a patron of the arts, for a studio uh and team of people whose only motivation is to create inspiring things and inspire creative people. It is what gives all of us here purpose and something that we all share and care about that we get to bring to you day after day. whether it be in content or products or anything else. I really hope that matters to you because it matters to us and I hope that we can keep doing it. And if we can, it'll be because of your support because that's going to give me and my team the best shot at pursuing genuine human creativity as much as possible and bringing that back to you. That's it for now. Go check it out. Links in the description and become a patron if you're willing. We'd be so grateful. But until next time, I'll see you later.