CompuServe Thread

#R2 ?

13 messages in this thread
#71232From: merlin farmerDec 13, 1993 5:08 PM
Murph, Never been to a SIG show, would love to make one sometime, but since my business is so new I haven't the time or money to attend yet. I may make the one in Florida, dunno fer sure, kinda depends on the next quarter. Yeah, I think it would be a gas to meet some of the folks on the forum. Hell I think it would be a trip just to shoot the S&*% with someone that new what they were talking about besides talking to myself all the bloody time. The divorce is neither confirmed nor final. been married 8 years. Not too bummed about loosing a woman that doesn't love me anymore, but I have a 20 month old son that I don't think I can handle not raising or loving on a daily basis. He LOVES animation and midi. man if he don't see two monitors happening and hear stereo at the same time he thinks the computer is broken. heh, what a guy. Can't say for sure what she is gonna do. I guess it is up to her cuz I ain't signing nothin'. I am willing to live with miss misery until my son is grown or old enough to know whats going on. I think I am getting burned here, some kind of legal kidnapping crap. Talk about abuse. Oh, well, enough of that. Hundreds of dollars in demo tapes is ALOT just for the tapes. I have never dupped and sent out the AUTODESK SIG tape. I almost did once but chickened out because my luck the client would want something like the singing mouse on the piano and well, my work isn't PYROS or STEIN like YET so I have just been sending out my little demo of 3 miniutes. Sounds like you have a heck of a package to send out. I think if you talk to a potential client over the phone and they are interested in the info pack, just make certain that they know they have to pay the shipping, (which would almost cover your costs right?) You can't pay for everything, I mean we aren't IBM or somebody that needs the 10,000,000 dollar a year write off. Yeah, the broadcasting stations are hard to work with. There is a "fear" factor involved, as well as arrogant ego. Pretty hard to show someone (who is suppose to know the field) a piece of work that blows away anything their own production crew can do and for less dollars when they have to answer to someone else in particular. I imagine most of the production managers have hidden the tapes I sent them so their boss don't see it for fear of their boss saying "Well, why can't you come up with that!" I happen to have came across the address of one of the local station OWNERS and and thinking of sending them a demo just to check out the reaction. Another local station turned me down because they said they have a TOASTER. Well, I have watched that station and about all they use the TOASTER for is titling and page turning, and they JUST started doing that, HEHHEHHEH, they had the TOASTER for over a year and a half. Man that guy is a slowwwwwwww learner. Not that I have ever used a TOASTER but if I had one you can rest for sure I'd be doing a hell of alot more than just titling and page turning. I just recently gained access to a TOASTER but had'nt had the chance to play with it yet. I only wanna use it because it is tied in with an A/B roll system and I have editing I need to do. The guy that owns it isn't an animator either, he is a photographer, so we are gonna swap out work. He also has better cameras than I have. What you say is so true about the A/B/Cs. I too ran into B. Nobody knows what they want untill you give them something then the sparks fly and you have to do re-work. Sure wish I could generate those ideas in a client with out doing a bunch of work first. I have been easy going so far because I am still getting established, but there will come a time mind you, that I will crack and say, NOPE, not without another check! You know, funny thing about this 3DS stuff, seems alot of these forum folks are and or were technical people and musicians whom have migrated and combined talents to do this animation thing. Interesting. Of course it does take a multitude of talent to do quality animation. I have seen a few guys on here that run 3DS and don't really know DOS or the machine. Whew! I bet that is tough! So ya play the ol Harp eh? Great, that was my first instrument prior to the flute, I probably play the harp best, mostly blues and boogie stuff, then flute, (all in the Tull sense) and guitar lastly. Haven't played flute in a while and has been even longer for guitar but I still grab my harp now an then. Sony Boy Williamson stuff on the harp and John Lee Hooker stuff on the guitar. The flute is great, Tull Style is the only style of flute I can play. Can't play real classical flute, (must be the mustache). Have you tried digitizing any harp? I tried it once, got carried away jammin' and blowin' and I ran out of hard drive space. Ain't tried it since, had to reformat the drive. You are correct in stating that this conversation is a bit cynacal regarding 3DS work. But you know, man it's all really related. I certainly hope if someone is following the thread that they butt in and give some marketing advice, Man I can't sell the stuff. And I'll be damned if I'm gonna give it away. I need all the marketing pointers I can get. If marketing ain't part of this forum then it should be. If ya can't market it, ya are not making any money, and if you are'nt making any money, then you are'nt buying IPAS or upgrades, etc, etc. Marketing animations and graphics has GOT to be nearly as important as USING 3DS. Yeah, I could stand to hear and follow some threads from some pros regarding marketing of this stuff. This is a fantastic forum, and everyone is REAL open about style and technique and I love that. Talk about freeflow, its here! But there is a definate lack of marketing talk. Makes me wonder if there really is enough work out there to go around. ASCAP? I bet you could write those guys and get that info. I know that stuff expires. I tried to use a flute piece from an old TRAFFIC song on a commercial and the the station cautioned me, they let me do it cuz they were paying ASCAP fees, but it had'nt expired yet. I here more and more stuff in commercials. There is an outfit called WOLF or something like that who do royalty free sound, it's on a CD and cost about 70 bucks, if interested I'll try to find it somewhere in my too organized office. Murph, I think the underground biker video would really be a go! Then again, I am rich and wealthy and full of S%$# too! I have had good marketable ideas only to see them happen for someone else because I lack the knowledge of marketing or the funds to do the marketing. I wanna do an "underground" video. Have wanted to do that for sometime. The biker stratagy is GREAT! There is a CD-ROM of meshes that has a scooter on it for about $200 bucks. I have considered buying it for the scooter, hell you can make a hundred scooters from the basic scooter they have on the CD-ROM. Chop it out anyway ya wanna. Stretch a fork here, add all kinds of neat scooter stuff, The TATTOO guy is GREAT. Man yeah! have video clips of real tattoos on big fat bob type arms (and of course dainte ankles and butt cheeks) that come to LIFE via animation. YES! Digitize some biker art on fat-bob tanks and animate those. Not sure how to start Murph, I guess I need to pick up a copy of Easy Rider, (I long ago traded my rider rag for Radio Electronics) perhaps pick up a few ideas. I'll attend some local ABATE meetings and browse around. Probably storyboard AND available meshes. The people is going to be the hard part, (for me anyway). I think we will need to tie in as much recorded video as we can, lots of effects, and slip of into a virtual biker haven somewhere, then just go off with our imaginations. Need some good scooter sounds. and of course some bar sounds, (hate to get caught with a tape recorder in a biker bar) I know some good bands in the area that would give me permission to use a few clips of them (and their music) that play in biker bars. It would take alot of work but I think it could happen. In the meantime, lets start think'n of some sort of storyline to basically follow, will need a character or two. maybe 2-D characters in a 3-D virtual biker reality integrated with some real people clips (heavy video posted stuff). yeah! Ever follow the cartoon in the Last Whole Earth Catalog? Got any ol Zap Comics? Furry Freak Brothers? Read some of that maybe to help jar up a storyline. It would be nice if we could keep it clean enough so that if it is real successful it can go to market. Naw, I am looking for immediate cash. Catch ya later,,,,,,,,, Merlin G. Farmer Crystal Cave Animagix
#71350From: Jonas Ruikis [ADESK]Dec 14, 1993 10:14 AM
Hi merlin, You mention that your kid loves midi..:-) Do you know of a good SMPTE/MIDI box to put between my single frame deck and my sound card that would allow me to lay my midi tracks and wave forms onto tape? Jonas[adesk]
#71362From: Gus GrubbaDec 14, 1993 10:54 AM
PMJI but I'm looking for something like that. I have a Music Quest MIDI card (MQX-32M) that supports two MIDI ports (32 channels) and it reads and writes SMPTE. That thing controls two synths and a Multitech Reverb/Effects Processor. I would be very interested in something that would allow me to glue all that with video. I got the Video Machine thinking it would do it but it doesn't support MIDI.
#71404From: Jonas Ruikis [ADESK]Dec 14, 1993 12:29 PM
Hi Gus, I picked up a book"let" called "Recording & Scoring with SMPTE" from a published by Alexander Publishing, written by Dan Walker and Phil Shackleton from a San Francisco Guitar Center. It's worth the $17 bucks. They refer to an external box called a SYMPTE/MIDI box. I just called the Guitar Center and they have a box called "The MIDI MAN" which handles one SYMPTE signal and a larger rack mountable system. They're going to fax me some specs. Email your fax number and I'll send you a copy. Jonas[adesk]
#71414From: Gus GrubbaDec 14, 1993 1:26 PM
Cool. The folks I get my MIDI stuff from are very friendly and knowledgeable about the MIDI aspect of things. They just don't know much about the video end of things. You might want to talk to them before buying anything as their prices are pretty competitive. They are: Sweetwater Sound, Inc. 5335 Bass Road Fort Wayne, IN 46808 (219) 432-8176
#71455From: John K. JordanDec 14, 1993 4:58 PM
Great Gus… you become an expert at the MIDI to video stuff and then I'll hire your opinion. I've got MIDI hooked to two Kurzweils, a Roland synth, and a QuadraVerb. I've always been scared off by SMPTE to video but with with the 3DS connection it may be time to get interested again. JKJ (with far more stuff than brains)
#71893From: merlin farmerDec 16, 1993 3:18 PM
Jonas, Just read this, could you send me some info on the book or the box you are referring to? Either Email or Crystal Cave Computers, Inc. 103 Barr Street Carterville, Il. 62918 VOICE (618) 985-8154 I am very interested in the book. The only "box" I ever knew about is an 8 track audio digital taperecorder that is available for a cool 5 grand thanks in advance. Ps, no fax, all I have is a worthless internal fax board, machine is always too busy to deal with faxes. Merlin
#71892From: merlin farmerDec 16, 1993 3:17 PM
Gus, I am still collecting specs and data. I am considering a design of such a device, Processor controlled and all software in ROM and of course a R/W battery backed SRAM buffer. I am having trouble collecting enough researched info (pertaining to SMPTE and MIDI.) The CPU, and ROM/SRAM is no big deal) to accomplish this at the moment but am still searching. One question though, do ALL VTRs use Audio Channel two for SMPTE? I think probably not. Making the black box universal could be a problem, perhaps streamline it for a few common VTRs. What is the most widely used SMPTE? VITC or Longitudinal? I won't be able to cough this up over night (maybe by spring) (g). I do have a design for controlling Colored Flood lights with MIDI signals (on paper, in theory, never tested), but this is quite different. If you can turn me on to some information sources I'd appreciated it. Merlin G. Farmer Crystal Cave Computers, Inc. Crystal Cave Animagix
#72099From: Gus GrubbaDec 17, 1993 10:35 AM
I'm not a good person for those questions. I know very little about it. Way too little in order to give you any good advice. Try Mike Kelley. He has done some work in those areas.
#72201From: merlin farmerDec 17, 1993 4:31 PM
Gus, Okay, thanks anyway. I'll try Mike. It's a design idea I think can be accomplished fairly easily, then I saw a message of talk of a box, depending on the price of that, it may be cheaper than a new design, and in most design cases, it is cheaper to buy a mass produced product than that of a prototype. Merlin
#71891From: merlin farmerDec 16, 1993 3:17 PM
Jonas, Sorry I took so long to get back. Was doing some research and don't have enough data to design one. If I can get all the needed data and specs I may tackle a MIDI/3DS/VTR black box design, complete with processor and ROM/SRAM. Merlin G. Farmer Crystal Cave Computers, Inc. Crystal Cave Animagix
#71829From: James M. MurphyDec 16, 1993 9:26 AM
Merlin, I've been talking to Michele and her comments on trying to get something going with TV Stations confirm my suspician that I'm barking up the wrong Satellite Dish. <g>
#71886From: merlin farmerDec 16, 1993 2:54 PM
Just read one of her replies, interesting and seems to confirm, yes, may as well howl at the moon. Merlin