#On-Line Publishing
22 messages in this thread
We've recently begun a Multimedia On-Line Publishing effort.
You can download and review the player and first two interactive
modules available in our section of the Computer Art Forum (GO
COMART, section 16). VMPLAY.ZIP is the Windows player and VMPLAY.SEA
is the Mac player.
Material will be publishing via cross platform Interactive
Modules which are accessed via the player application. Modules may
contain 24 bit images, sound, text, and any combination. We're
looking for cyber-pioneers to help provide content for the following
types of modules:
Graphic Novels
Children's Stories
Games (authored in Director)
Illustrated Poetry
Virtual Art Galleries
Interactive Fiction
Comics
If you feel you have material suitable for this medium, we'd
like to hear from you. Confidentiality of your material is guaranteed
and we are only looking for limited on-line distribution rights (and
this may be an excellent talent search for our commercial CD ROM
projects <g>).
Stop by our production area (section 16) of the Computer Art Forum to
see what we're all about: Quality, original multimedia fiction with
extraordinary art, writing, music, and design.
Bill Irvine
President/Art Director
Visionary Media, Inc.
CIS: On-Line Publishing: GO COMART, Section 16 – Visionary Media
Tech Support Forum: GO VISMEDIA
Bill,
This is the AMIGA Arts forum. What, no support for the Amiga in
your publishing effort? Why are you even advertising in this section?
Sheesh! You've got major nerve!
Aah, he probably used the infamous CI$ "Find Art" command, and
just broadsided every forum that turned up.
But that's okay: I sent him a letter, a BIT more vitriolic than
yours, using the infamous AutoPilot's "Save as CMail" feature
(hehehe)….
Mr Challeron-
Yes, your e-mail was full of "more vitriolic" narrow
assumptions.
I decided to post a message in this forum because I respect
the art many fine artists have creating on the Amiga platform. Just
because I cannot create cross platfrom MM for this machine, should I
ignore it's talented users?
Should you, as a member of this forum, discourage commercial
CD ROM multimedia producers from poking about, looking for content
contributors? I don't think so. However, your attitude and
narrow-minded comments may do just that!
I did not search via the word "art." I knew of this forum and
it's many talented people for quite some time.
Bill Irvine
President/Art Director
Visionary Media, Inc.
CIS: GO COMART, Section 16 – Visionary Media
All right, I'll play stupid; by your own admission:
> Just because I cannot create cross platfrom MM for this machine, should
> I ignore it's talented users?
So how are you planning to collect material from "it's talented
users", if you can't support their computer's format?
> Should you, as a member of this forum, discourage commercial CD ROM
> multimedia producers from poking about, looking for content
> contributors? I don't think so. However, your attitude and narrow-minded
> comments may do just that!
Oh, gee, I'm sorry: I would expect a "commercial CD ROM multimedia
producer" to understand that we have no problem with the ISO 9660
format; and I'm sure _somebody_ out here would be willing to help you
develop a player based on Interplay or Scala. As I recall, _you_
were the one that came onto an Amiga forum with the "narrow-minded"
view that you can only support Mac and PC formats; a lot of us feel
that's an insult.
And as you replied to Matt,
> Some of our contracted artists and one of our employees are Amiga
> users. If we could figure out how to do it, we would.
Gee, you'd better hire more Mac and PC artists, huh?…
I may be a sarcastic a$$hole, but I'm not "confrontational": I have
no qualms about answering ads from Sega looking for "Amiga artists",
because Sega has the ability to convert _our_ filetypes into _their_
filetypes. If I sent you a box full of floppies (converted to PC
disk format, which Sega doesn't even request) loaded with IFF, ANIM,
8SVX, or even DIFF files, could you use them? If one of us out here
sent you an assembled multimedia presentation in Scala, could you
"publish" it?
Of course, I'm sure my vitriolic narrow-mindedness has turned you
away from all Amiga users, now and forevermore; well Godspeed, Mr.
Irvine: By focusing on the "Microsoft market", you run the risk of
being rolled over by the Microsoft juggernaut…. I hear they're
really picking up steam in this new Multimedia market they
created….
"If I could draw, I wouldn't NEED the danged computer!" Mr. C
Mr. Challeron-
Excuse me for intruding on your domain.
I won't be back.
Bill Irvine
President/Art Director
Visionary Media, Inc.
CIS: On-Line Publishing: GO COMART, Section 16 – Visionary Media
Tech Support Forum: GO VISMEDIA
>Mr. Challeron-
>
>Excuse me for intruding on your domain.
>
>I won't be back.
Please don't feel offended by a select few who feel they speak for
every Amiga user. This is NOT his domain, although he may want to
think it is. I do not agree with `Mr. Challeron'. If you have work
for artists and are willing to work with Amiga users, `More power to
you!'.
It would be nice to have your software available to the Amiga
community but just because it isn't I don't see any reason to act
like Mr. Challeron did.
I invite you to continue to visit the Amiga forums and ignore
emotionally distraught messages.
Dear Mr. C.
What is to be gained by all of this anger? You have driven away a man
who was here in order to offer some compensation to our artists. What
you have done has not helped the Amiga, and it has not helped our
forum members. In fact, many of our members who have art work to
sell have been hurt by it.
So – would you please be more thoughtful? Thanks.
What anger? All I did — outside of what was admittedly my
initial sarcasm — was ask him how he expected to _get_ any artwork
from a format he didn't _support_.
I'm sorry; I don't have a bridgeboard _or_ an Emplant: I have no
way to use his product, _unless_ he decides to support _my_ format;
and by the same token, I can't provide _him_ any support with any of
my abilities as an animator or a writer. Why is that so hard for
anyone to understand?
And why does it make _me_ the bad guy? I'm trying _my_ d@mndest
to support a format that everybody and his grandmother is turning
their backs on — even _here_, for God's sake, where the Order Of The
Day seems to be that, IF there is a New Amiga, it had d@mn well
better be a PC/Mac clone. I don't personally happen to believe that:
I think a New Amiga would do a lot better as a low-bucks SGI-clone;
but every time I mention _that_ around here, it falls on the deaf
ears of everyone _else_ who thinks There Is No Future But Microsoft.
_That_, Betty, makes me angry. Now, however, having seen that
_I'm_ the one who's out in left field, I'll spare you all any more of
my sarcasm, and abandon these fora altogether; I'm sure I'll find out
in due time whether or not there really is a future for the Amiga. In
the meantime, I'll hold onto _my_ dream….
"If I could draw, I wouldn't NEED the danged computer!" Mr. C
I'm sorry if this has caused discomfort. However, there is no
authoring tool we can use which allows cross platfrom binary file
compatibility between Amiga, Mac and Windows. Once we bring this
effort to the WWW, we must also ignore the UNIX platform for the same
reasons.
Some of our contracted artists and one of our employees are
Amiga users. If we could figure out how to do it, we would. In the
same vien… a couple of our artists don't even have computers!
Bill Irvine
President/Art Director
Visionary Media, Inc.
CIS: GO COMART, Section 16 – Visionary Media
PMJI, but I vaguely recall the author of the nifty Amiga authoring
tool Helm mentioning that he is wrapping up a Windows version (and
maybe a Mac version, too). Knowing how thorough he is, I suspect
WinHelm (if that's what he calls it) would offer cross-platform
interoperability with Amiga files. Unfortunately, I don't have the
author's name or address handy, but maybe someone else could chime
in.
Ron-
We use Macromedia Director for our authoring needs. It offers
binary file compatibility between Mac, Windows, and 3DO. Since
Director and most all other authoring systems are complicated pieces
of software (and expensive <g>) they require a serious time
investment to learn and master. So it's best for us to find one
system that meets our needs, then stick with it. After months of
research, Director is that system that best suits our style.
Bill Irvine
President/Art Director
Visionary Media, Inc.
Bill,
Does Director support 3DO yet? I thought that was still in the works.
Also, isn't there support for CDi (or am I getting them mixed up)?
Andrew
ICAM — ActiveMedia Development / IICS "InforMedia" Newsletter Editor
Gliding in from Toronto on AutoPilot…
The Director 3DO player has just been released from the
information I have. I've spoken with someone involved in the BETA
testing of the software, and while he could not go into specifics
because of his BETA agreement, he did indicate he's sold on using
Director for his commercial 3DO titles. Granted, Director 3DO does
not take advantage of the system's built-in 3D chip-set, so the types
of titles created will not be your average arcade game… which is
fine by us too <g>
There's no directo CD-i porting system, though I've heard of
some success using 3rd party CD-i emulation boards in Macs and some
3rd part porting software for Director/Mac to CD-i. Though I confess
of not paying too much attention to CD-i yet and I have no specifics,
just rumors and reports of rumors <VBG>.
Bill Irvine
Pres/Art Director
Visionary Media
Bill,
>> The Director 3DO player has just been released…
Thanks. Funny how I got 'em mixed up. Perhaps I was thinking of MediaMogul
which IS used for CDi development.
>> the types of titles created will not be your average arcade game…
>> which is fine by us too <g>
Agreed. BTW, what type of applications do you develop, if you don't
mind my asking.
>> I confess of not paying too much attention to CD-i yet…
Yes, it is hard to get excited about ten year old technology (which I
understand CDi is based on). However, it would seem that in the "popular"
media CDi gets more coverage than 3DO. The backing of Phillips can not be
ignored too easily.
Andrew
ICAM — ActiveMedia Development / IICS "InforMedia" Newsletter Editor
Gliding in from Toronto on AutoPilot…
Andrew-
>>>
BTW, what type of applications do you develop, if you don't mind
my asking.
<<<
Our focus is on multimeda fiction: Comic style
stories/interactive dramas on CD ROM (though we're not using typical
panel styled presentations), children's stories and children's
adventure games with detailed stories, and adult adventure games with
detailed stories. We've released 2 children's titles and have 12 more
titles under contract in various stages of development.
Right now, based on grass-roots support, 3DO is the hottest
machine. Visit a video game store, 3DO titles and machines are HOT!
HOT! HOT! A store near us can't keep the hardware in stock and rarely
has anything but rental titles available (titles that come in for
sale are sold within days). The CD-i machines are collecting dust and
the titles are moving slow…. I _LIKE_ real world marketing studies
like that. <VBG>
>> Our focus is on multimeda fiction:
Sounds interesting. I did a prototype for a children's book but
unfortunately it never got anywhere. Could you elaborate on what the
"typical panel style" would constitute,pls.
>> Right now, based on grass-roots support, 3DO is the hottest machine.
>> Visit a video game store, 3DO titles and machines are HOT! HOT!
Yes, they are being marketted in many stores and now that the prices are
dropping it looks like they may succeed. However, CDi seems to be the
platform for vertical markets which I am marginally interested in.
Andrew
ICAM — ActiveMedia Development / IICS "InforMedia" Newsletter Editor
Gliding in from Toronto on AutoPilot…
Hi Andrew,
>>>
Could you elaborate on what the
"typical panel style" would constitute,pls.
<<<
Thus far, comics on CD ROM have been not much more than slide shows of
the panel-style artwork normally seen in comic books. Our comic styled stories
are designed from the ground up for multimedia delivery, so we've done away
with speach balloons and the like.
We have no real model for producing a title though. If the
story is good and the art is awesome, we design whatever interface
best suits the title.
Re:Message 44834 from Visionary Media to ALL
This is the notice that elicited several "hate-mail" reponses from
Amiga users?!! Mr. Irvine, on behalf of what I hope are the majority
of Amiga users, I offer an apology to you and your company, Visionary
Media, Inc.
I have been as frustrated as any Amiga user by the lack of mainstream
recognition of our favorite machine, but I am embarassed to even
associate myself with it when we are represented by self-appointed
goon squads such as those who took issue with your company soliciting
artwork from Amiga artists for another platform. Please feel welcome
to tap into the rich vein of professional talent here anytime!
Sean Hannon
Ad Rats – Stamford, CT
Sean,
I missed the election…glad you weren't self appointed. <G>
But I agree. As the machine's future seemingly dims, there is much more
venom on line.
Happy Holidays and be sure and let us know about the next election! :{)
Jim
Jaywal Productions, Inc.
Sean
Thank very much for your kind support. However, it seems that every
occasion I might appear in this forum, Mr. Challeron will initiate an attack. I
have neither the time nor desire to deal with such.
I'm sorry.
Bill Irvine
President/Art Director
Visionary Media, Inc.
CIS: On-Line Publishing: GO COMART, Section 16 – Visionary Media
Tech Support Forum: GO VISMEDIA
As another of the 'silent majority' (?), I would also like to proffer
my apologies for the response you received on this forum.
I fully understand your position, and have no problems supplying art
in whatever format my client desires. To refuse to work with other
platforms would severely limit the range work I would be able to
contract.
I'm sorry that you've been driven away, but having read this thread
for the last few days, I don't blame you for bailing.