CompuServe Messages

Scott, You probably know or have heard of Viewpoint. I started in 1982 doing stop motion animation for the courtroom. Then wrote an animation package using Movie.byu in 1984. Scraped the code in 1987 and bought an Amiga. Viewpoint was founded in 1988 to create animations for Ford, GM, etc. We bought Wavefront in 1988. Pricing has always been very difficult to figure for the courtroom. Spending $50,000 for a 15 second animation was common. In 1986-88 the Amiga brought the price down to less than $20,000 per trial. This usually included about 5 different views of a two car 10 second animation. There are just a few companies doing forensic animation that have Alias/Wavefront/Softimage/etc. most of the rest are using 3D Studio or something else. The pricing is not any easier these days. The most difficult task is working with the expert witness. He is the guy that has the opinion of how the accident happened. There are not very many of these. If the attorney doesn't use an expert, then charge more. The attorney will try to put you into the "expert" seat. You only are a "tool" for the expert. The "magical" number for attorneys is less that $5,000.00. Their client (either the defense or plantiff) can't imagine paying more than that. I think attorneys should be convince to spend 10% of their charges on Visualization. This is a start anyway …..