UPDATE: Goal met! The second book will now be fully funded and I will aim to achieve the goals I laid out below. Please feel free to donate more to fund other projects (seen at end of the post) or just to support my work in general. Thank you so much to all who donated!
Original Post:
Today I’m starting a donation drive for my Tellius Recollection: Volume 2 translation project. The book is a art/design book for Radiant Dawn that will feature character art, profiles, and design work never before seen. A lot of Fire Emblem fans (myself included) are looking forward to learning more about what is otherwise quite an obscure game, as well as getting access to higher resolution art!
Please help spread the word!
Read the details below, or skip to the TL:DR in the next section to see the summary. Or, go straight to donating!
The Details:
Tellius Recollection Vol. 1 (Path of Radiance)’s translation project is nearing an end. It was a lot of work, but I thank everyone who pitched in to help where they could. However, not all is done yet –as Tellius Recollection Vol. 2 (Radiant Dawn) comes out November 25th!
I wanted to take a different approach this time: I aim to buy a second copy of the book with the intention of unbinding it and separating the pages. Doing this will allow pages to be scanned completely and individually, which in turn will ensure clean scans. Unlike before, they will be saved directly to higher quality formats (PNG, as opposed to JPEG) –but at the cost of the book itself. This will aid those who want to crop the official artworks (and concept work) for informational or archiving purposes, among other uses. It will also save time on cleaning images when it comes to translating them to look presentable.
Being short on money however, I thought to ask readers for donations. The target cost is not too much: approximately ~50 USD. That covers the book and import cost. I am not nor will not be asking for any payment for labor or for the translation itself (I will happily do for the community regardless!) But I am a little short on funds to acquire another book to achieve this objective of cleaner material and process. That is where I may need your help.
I will still be importing at least one copy, but as I am reluctant to tear up a collector’s item, I would have to rely on the sort of scans I did for the FE9 book if that goal is not met. You can see on some of the pages the limitations (the black spine line that causes pages to blur and ruins the edge of some artworks, the blur sometimes caused by the book moving during the scanning process, etc). These are limitations that can be worked around, but make life more difficult when it comes to adding a cleaning process and having to cut off some of the official artworks throughout the book.
For example, if you look at Marcia’s page from FE9, the wing of the pegasus was an unfortunate and unavoidable consequence of the current bound-book scanning method. (The image was in worst shape from the initial scan, which I had to put some time into editing to make as presentable as possible). There are many other examples of such limitations you may spot on the compilation post.
If we go over the target amount (I will update when it is met), I will either refund or spend it toward acquiring other FE design books (FE9, FE6/7) to do the same for them, or toward a translation program to aid the quality of translations for this site. Please specify in your notes if you wish to donate toward any of these other projects specifically, or if you would rather have a refund, and I will gladly give it back.
I will keep updating with every donation that comes in and answer any questions for maximum transparency.
In the end, I hope to make these translations and scans look as official as they can possibly be! It will benefit the donor as they will pay just a little bit for higher quality. I have no source of income at the moment, so any and all donations really help me out.
TL:DR:
What is it:
- A full translation/scanlation of every character profile and concept artwork plus other pages (more details upon release, but will be similar to how the Tellius Recollectio Vol 1 project was).
- Target amount: Just 50 USD for the FE10 book (book + shipping). If I wish to get a professional to unbind it, it may cost a little more, but I plan on doing it myself to save on cost.
- Book releases Nov 25th, it will take 1-2 days to arrive.
Why:
- Radiant Dawn lacks high resolution character artwork to this day, so I thought this may be a good way to give that to the community while translating. But… I wouldn’t want to butcher my only copy!
- Donation money will help me purchase a copy I would feel less guilty about butchering to scan.
Objectives:
- Any additional fund can be refunded or spent toward the FE6+7 character book, or the FE9 artbook (or other books). Leftovers can be put toward a professional translation assisting program if donor is willing.
- The copy of the coming FE10 artbook will be separated from its binding and scanned page by page for maximum quality.
- This will allow high quality scans in a PNG format that will be available by request, and will aid in the final translation’s quality. The site will have JPEG format to preserve space but high quality will be offered as a bulk download when complete.
- Provide images without JPEG artifacts and edited for optimal use to crop for high resolution Radiant Dawn artwork –something the current FE wikis and fandom lacks that I hope to finally give.
- Easy access to any page of the book in digital format, that would normally take many hours of labor simplified by the lack of having to worry about the book’s spine.
- Please note I aim to scan and translate this book regardless of donations. This is by no means obligatory, but it will aid in overall quality as I will be limited to trying to scan with the massive spine in the way of my single copy.
- Your name credited as special thanks if you so wish! (Please include in donation note : ) )
(Ironically the TL;DR may be longer than the actual details…)
HOW TO DONATE:
If you have Paypal, then simply use this donate.me link.
If you do not wish to use PayPal but debit/credit cards, then use this button!:
RAISED SO FAR: $ 61.10 / 50
UPDATE: Goal met! The second book will now be fully funded and I will aim to achieve the goals I laid out below. Please feel free to donate more to fund other projects (seen below) or just to support my work in general. Thank you so much to all who donated!
50 USD = FE10 Book /Tellius Recollection Vol 2.(This project)FULLY FUNDED
For additional/future projects, if donations go above the goal and the donors are not interested in a refund:
+$11.10 so far!
- +50 USD = FE9 Book / Tellius Recollection Vol 1 (Will acquire second copy to scan up for better scans if needed)
- +75 USD = FE 6 + 7 Character Book (hard item to find, but found a second copy to acquire)
- +595 USD (The ultimate stretch, acquiring a CAT (Computer Assisted Translation) program to help with translation quality. This is by no means a requirement for this project, but a goal none the less).
If you have any trouble, or questions, and even requests, please email me (contact info on “Contact” page).
Please note I will still be attempting to scan and translate the book regardless of donations. This money’s purpose is to acquire a second book for quality purposes. This disclaimer is to avoid any confusion, such as for people who may read it as “if the donation is not met this project will not go.” That is not the case!
Thanks to everyone who donated in the past and allowed me to acquire such books to translate! I hope what I do is enough to give back for your kindness. Every bit of donation (no matter how small) helps keep me going and doing what I love to do: translate FE info!
