Test driving the new SurfaceProArtist dot Com TV app for Roku devices. It's a personally curated feed of our favorite artists and creative tech vloggers. The app is now available for free installation in the Roku Channel Store.
In case you haven't noticed, I'm pretty obsessive about the intersection of art and tech and I'm always on the lookout for instructional videos, speed painting examples or tech reviews from artists whose work I admire.
YouTube is filled with thousands of such videos, but I don't always want to be sitting at my desk or using a tablet as I soak in the digital goodness. Sometimes I want to lean back, relax and enjoy these videos on my home theater screen.
Hoping that at least a few of you feel the same way, I'm pleased to announce the publication of the SurfaceProArtist.com TV app for Roku devices worldwide.
The new channel is available now in the Special Interest category of the Roku Channel store. You can install it directly from your tv or by visiting https://channelstore.roku.com/details/133155/surfaceproartist.com-tv.
At launch, I've personally selected 50 recent videos from some of my favorite artist reviewers like Brad Colbow, NihongoGamer and Lawrence Mann. You'll also find some great speed painting videos from Sara Tepes, Toonbox Studios and SPA Studios among others.
You'll also find an excellent six part ZBrushCore tutorial from Steve James at Pixologic along with Doug Hills' video series for Clip Studio Paint/Manga Studio.
The goal for the channel app is to mirror the subject matter and interests I write about here. It may even provide incentive to make a few videos of my own (not likely). The selection at launch is only the beginning. I plan to add videos monthly depending on demand. Roku has sold over 10 million devices, mostly in the US, and I assume that only a tiny fraction will ever install the channel. But I'll be very happy if visibility in the app gives these artists and videomakers an opportunity to reach a different audience than their YouTube subscriber base.
I would be happy to port the app to other settop devices like the Amazon Fire TV, but Roku offers a very simple channel creation pipeline that allows any code monkey like me to be a channel publisher. The same can't be said for other platforms that require some actual coding skills.
To find out more about Roku devices, visit roku.com. And please leave your constructive feedback and suggestions in the comments section below!
