Dazza,
I hope you're not right about using their aquisitions for their own devices. I've had *way* too much software that was pulled from the market because the company wanted the technology unavailable to competitors.
I find it hard to believe they'd do that with Poser considering the user base, but you never know. And software like AS (with a *much* smaller user base) might be that kind of victim.
(I'm still stinging over the end of a $3K 3D facial recognition software product that a cell-phone company bought and pulled off the market that put an end to our updates -- we still use it, but it won't run on anything other than Windows 2000 and keeping it up and running on that old machine is a full-time job).
Poser, Anime and Manga sold to Smith Micro
Moderators: Víctor Paredes, Belgarath, slowtiger
Of course they may just do both - keep development and selling the consumer products, as well as leveraging the technology for their own uses for cellphone content tools/services. Not an unreasonable proposition...mkelley wrote:Dazza,
I hope you're not right about using their aquisitions for their own devices. I've had *way* too much software that was pulled from the market because the company wanted the technology unavailable to competitors.
I find it hard to believe they'd do that with Poser considering the user base, but you never know. And software like AS (with a *much* smaller user base) might be that kind of victim.
(I'm still stinging over the end of a $3K 3D facial recognition software product that a cell-phone company bought and pulled off the market that put an end to our updates -- we still use it, but it won't run on anything other than Windows 2000 and keeping it up and running on that old machine is a full-time job).
This was sad news.
I'm guessing that SmithMicro was after Poser and got Moho thrown in at the deal.
And I also think that we will se another year pass by before we see any update, it will take some time for them to get their organisation together and to familiarize themselves with the software.
And I'm also guessing that they will try to steer the software toward creating content for mobil devices, i.e. concentrating on crappy lossy formats and evolving the gui in the direction of flash.
I would like some comment from Mike, is he still involved?
Call me a bitter pessimist if you like...
I'm guessing that SmithMicro was after Poser and got Moho thrown in at the deal.
And I also think that we will se another year pass by before we see any update, it will take some time for them to get their organisation together and to familiarize themselves with the software.
And I'm also guessing that they will try to steer the software toward creating content for mobil devices, i.e. concentrating on crappy lossy formats and evolving the gui in the direction of flash.
I would like some comment from Mike, is he still involved?
Call me a bitter pessimist if you like...
Last night Iwent to bed, fat, dumb, and happy. This morning I woke up and found I have no bed!
I fear we are in the clutches of MBA (Myopic Business Acuity) types. I have the same feeling when a company is sold, that I've worked for, and the new manager has a meeting and tells everyone that he plan no changes in how things are. The next thing I know, I'm standing in the unemployment line.
3D is more popular than 2D animation and e-frontier has been pushing it since they bought MOHO. I feel 2D animation will become just a popular in the future. But I fear there is a vast desert to cross and some of us won't live long enought to make it.
Hope see all of you on the otherside.
FCSnow
I fear we are in the clutches of MBA (Myopic Business Acuity) types. I have the same feeling when a company is sold, that I've worked for, and the new manager has a meeting and tells everyone that he plan no changes in how things are. The next thing I know, I'm standing in the unemployment line.
3D is more popular than 2D animation and e-frontier has been pushing it since they bought MOHO. I feel 2D animation will become just a popular in the future. But I fear there is a vast desert to cross and some of us won't live long enought to make it.
Hope see all of you on the otherside.
FCSnow
Precise Planning And Timing
Never Suceeds Like Dump Luck.
Never Suceeds Like Dump Luck.
I think 2D is becoming more popular. Think about, it is faster to create a series of "webisodes" for internet or cell phone streaming in 2D than 3D. Look at all the 2D applications popping up. The style of 2D can compress better as well for faster download.
Imagine Smith Micro took AS of the market for creating "their own content". They would need to hire a bunch of people to create the content. It would be better to sell it to us, the consumers, and we create the content. Content is king.
What is telling to me is their cell phone video codec products. They have a lot invested in that area and that type of content is very popular at the moment. A product like AS capable of producing that content could sell like hot cakes. They have those codecs in their product line up. They could be included in a future version of AS and now you have an instant cell phone video export package. No futzing around with other applications to recompress your AS animations. You want DVD? Export to DVD. Want a cell phone video format? Export to that directly. Look what Apple did with iMovie, straight conversion and upload directly to your YouTube account from within iMovie.
Smith Micro could leverage their cell phone video compression knowledge and products and establish a "channel" for that type of content with AS as the creation tool.
I also think Anime Studio's scripting features could be an alternative to Flash possibly. As I have noted before Lua and Actionscript are very similar. I have been able to convert Actionscript to Lua for use in AS, while not "quickly" reasonably quickly. I have a set of regex snippets to do 90% of the conversion. I can imagine that an SWF export from AS could potentially convert embedded Lua scripts to Actionscript with some additions to the application.
Adobe tried this and I suppose it failed. It might be worth another shot though.
--------
I have another "theory". This "sale" seemed to happen "very quickly". Think about for a moment, efrontier selling off nearly all of their products? Or is it all of them? Do they have anything left? Was Vue included in that deal?
I honestly believe that Anime Studio wasn't even part of the original "package". They had planned to sell off for a while now and a 2D animation package might sweeten the deal. You don't just suddenly decide to sell off your entire product line on a whim. They must have been losing money for a while to make that kind of decision.
That's the paranoid side of my brain working of course. And it would mean that possibly Mike got "swindled" a bit. It just seems that if efrontier was in such dire straits it didn't happen in the last 6 months... and it wasn't caused by purchasing AS. Maybe purchasing AS was an attempt to increase sales to keep going and it didn't work as well as they hoped?
They sold that whole package for 6 million? Seems kind of cheap if you ask me, but I have no expertise in that area.
-vern
Imagine Smith Micro took AS of the market for creating "their own content". They would need to hire a bunch of people to create the content. It would be better to sell it to us, the consumers, and we create the content. Content is king.
What is telling to me is their cell phone video codec products. They have a lot invested in that area and that type of content is very popular at the moment. A product like AS capable of producing that content could sell like hot cakes. They have those codecs in their product line up. They could be included in a future version of AS and now you have an instant cell phone video export package. No futzing around with other applications to recompress your AS animations. You want DVD? Export to DVD. Want a cell phone video format? Export to that directly. Look what Apple did with iMovie, straight conversion and upload directly to your YouTube account from within iMovie.
Smith Micro could leverage their cell phone video compression knowledge and products and establish a "channel" for that type of content with AS as the creation tool.
I also think Anime Studio's scripting features could be an alternative to Flash possibly. As I have noted before Lua and Actionscript are very similar. I have been able to convert Actionscript to Lua for use in AS, while not "quickly" reasonably quickly. I have a set of regex snippets to do 90% of the conversion. I can imagine that an SWF export from AS could potentially convert embedded Lua scripts to Actionscript with some additions to the application.
Adobe tried this and I suppose it failed. It might be worth another shot though.
--------
I have another "theory". This "sale" seemed to happen "very quickly". Think about for a moment, efrontier selling off nearly all of their products? Or is it all of them? Do they have anything left? Was Vue included in that deal?
I honestly believe that Anime Studio wasn't even part of the original "package". They had planned to sell off for a while now and a 2D animation package might sweeten the deal. You don't just suddenly decide to sell off your entire product line on a whim. They must have been losing money for a while to make that kind of decision.
That's the paranoid side of my brain working of course. And it would mean that possibly Mike got "swindled" a bit. It just seems that if efrontier was in such dire straits it didn't happen in the last 6 months... and it wasn't caused by purchasing AS. Maybe purchasing AS was an attempt to increase sales to keep going and it didn't work as well as they hoped?
They sold that whole package for 6 million? Seems kind of cheap if you ask me, but I have no expertise in that area.
-vern
According to what I read (somewhere) e-frontier gross sales for last year were $7 Million, and the packages were sold for $56 Million to SM ? Perhaps I am wrong.
Vue is owned by e-on software. I believe that there is some kind of tie-in to e-frontier, and it works hand and glove with Poser, using Poser's native file format. There has been no suggestion that Vue is in any way involved in this deal.
DAZ must be doing cartwheels in Utah, Poser is their only opposition, and now it will surely be diminished for some time to come. The bulk of their business is producing 3d models and accesories for use in Poser and DAZ Studio.
I got an email this morning from Content Paradise which was headed 'Special Announcement, 15 November, 2007', but alas, it was only the start of their Christmas campaign to flog their Santas etc. There has been no mention of that entity being involved in the new deal either!
Vue is owned by e-on software. I believe that there is some kind of tie-in to e-frontier, and it works hand and glove with Poser, using Poser's native file format. There has been no suggestion that Vue is in any way involved in this deal.
DAZ must be doing cartwheels in Utah, Poser is their only opposition, and now it will surely be diminished for some time to come. The bulk of their business is producing 3d models and accesories for use in Poser and DAZ Studio.
I got an email this morning from Content Paradise which was headed 'Special Announcement, 15 November, 2007', but alas, it was only the start of their Christmas campaign to flog their Santas etc. There has been no mention of that entity being involved in the new deal either!
Vern wrote:
I hope Vern's vision of the future is right and I'm wrong. But it seems our futures are in the hands of people who are not consided creative ( i.e. non artists). People who make decisions based purely on an accounting legder.
Vern also Wrote:
FCSnow
It sounded creap to me also. Or was it more of a bail-out than a sell-out?They sold that whole package for 6 million? Seems kind of cheap if you ask me, but I have no expertise in that area.
I hope Vern's vision of the future is right and I'm wrong. But it seems our futures are in the hands of people who are not consided creative ( i.e. non artists). People who make decisions based purely on an accounting legder.
Vern also Wrote:
Steven King once wrote in a novel "Paranoia is perfect awareness."That's the paranoid side of my brain working of course.
FCSnow
Precise Planning And Timing
Never Suceeds Like Dump Luck.
Never Suceeds Like Dump Luck.
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Barry Baker
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Patrick McClintock
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SmithMicro
Well, they seem to offer downloads, & manuals for all their products, so this might no be that bad. On the creative side they seem to have ZERO experience. Thank you Vern for giving us a voice. We need to be heard.
I suggest that we all write Smith Micro.
I suggest that we all write Smith Micro.
P.
I have received several email responses directly from Mike, a few very recently in regards to the scripts and tools I've been working on. I did not ask him about AS or updates or anything like that because if he had anything to say about it he would post here.Barry Baker wrote:It doesn't sound good, but I hope I'm wrong. It has been worrying me that Mike has been so completely quiet for so long. Since his announcement of an impending new version in August, I don't think anything has been heard from him. And if he is no longer developing Moho/ASP then who is?
He is probably bound by contract not to say anything.
-vern
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Lost Marble
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Hey guys, just cathing up with this conversation. I wasn't sure when the news was going to hit the wire, but it seems at least somebody heard about the deal between e frontier and Smith Micro.
Now I don't know exactly what I can and can't say. First off, I'm not an employee of either e frontier or Smith Micro, so although I knew this was coming, I don't know all the details. Without getting into the specifics, I'm an "outside developer" of Anime Studio. So for me and you, this doesn't really change anything. Smith Micro will continue selling Anime Studio, and I'll continue developing features for it. Smith Micro may not be the first name that pops into your head regarding animation and graphics, but that's the point - acquiring e froniter gives Smith Micro a boost into a new area that they want to become serious about.
Now, about those features... I know it's been frustrating to hear about new features, and then silence for a long time. For this past Siggraph, we wanted to have some new stuff to demo, and so we got some new features into shape and ready to show. But then the Smith Micro business got started. With a possible acquisition coming up, it was bad timing for e frontier to release a new version. That's an unfortunate reality of larger companies, they can't just release a new version every few months - there's announcements, marketing, press, etc. to worry about too.
So that new feature update is still here, and it's basically ready to go. I still can't tell you when it's coming, but it hasn't been dumped for sure. I'm still here too - working on Anime Studio.
-Mike
Now I don't know exactly what I can and can't say. First off, I'm not an employee of either e frontier or Smith Micro, so although I knew this was coming, I don't know all the details. Without getting into the specifics, I'm an "outside developer" of Anime Studio. So for me and you, this doesn't really change anything. Smith Micro will continue selling Anime Studio, and I'll continue developing features for it. Smith Micro may not be the first name that pops into your head regarding animation and graphics, but that's the point - acquiring e froniter gives Smith Micro a boost into a new area that they want to become serious about.
Now, about those features... I know it's been frustrating to hear about new features, and then silence for a long time. For this past Siggraph, we wanted to have some new stuff to demo, and so we got some new features into shape and ready to show. But then the Smith Micro business got started. With a possible acquisition coming up, it was bad timing for e frontier to release a new version. That's an unfortunate reality of larger companies, they can't just release a new version every few months - there's announcements, marketing, press, etc. to worry about too.
So that new feature update is still here, and it's basically ready to go. I still can't tell you when it's coming, but it hasn't been dumped for sure. I'm still here too - working on Anime Studio.
-Mike
That's how the big companies work when they're more worried about the big launch to make the big dollar. Instead of keeping there customers happy by fixing bugs or at least keeping in touch with them.That's an unfortunate reality of larger companies, they can't just release a new version every few months - there's announcements, marketing, press, etc. to worry about too.
Sorry I seem a little frustrated.
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blacksunproject
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Mike:Lost Marble wrote:Hey guys, just cathing up with this conversation. I wasn't sure when the news was going to hit the wire, but it seems at least somebody heard about the deal between e frontier and Smith Micro.
Now I don't know exactly what I can and can't say. First off, I'm not an employee of either e frontier or Smith Micro, so although I knew this was coming, I don't know all the details. Without getting into the specifics, I'm an "outside developer" of Anime Studio. So for me and you, this doesn't really change anything. Smith Micro will continue selling Anime Studio, and I'll continue developing features for it. Smith Micro may not be the first name that pops into your head regarding animation and graphics, but that's the point - acquiring e froniter gives Smith Micro a boost into a new area that they want to become serious about.
Now, about those features... I know it's been frustrating to hear about new features, and then silence for a long time. For this past Siggraph, we wanted to have some new stuff to demo, and so we got some new features into shape and ready to show. But then the Smith Micro business got started. With a possible acquisition coming up, it was bad timing for e frontier to release a new version. That's an unfortunate reality of larger companies, they can't just release a new version every few months - there's announcements, marketing, press, etc. to worry about too.
So that new feature update is still here, and it's basically ready to go. I still can't tell you when it's coming, but it hasn't been dumped for sure. I'm still here too - working on Anime Studio.
-Mike
Thank you for easing my worries.
You're a godsend.
Thanks for the good words.
I look forward to the update and future news.
All the best,
Gustavo