Below is the copy from the 1998 DS sales brochure. One night after muchos
cervezas, I typed all 6,224 characters.
After all the ranting and raving this past couple of weeks, I felt like a
little trip down memory lane might do us all (self included) some good. The
following words still ring true for me today, and I am glad to have been a part of
DS then........and now.
Although I posted it before ( 02-22-02 ) I thought some of the newbies might
enjoy.
Rick at nakedeye.....Feeling a little misty.
1998 DS SALES BROCHURE COPY
You know, you get to this point in your life where yeah, moneyâs still
important. Itâs really important, you gotta eat, you want to go places, do things,
buy stuff, maybe raise a family. You still need to feel like youâre on the
way up, you havenât plateaued or started down the other side of the hill or
something like that, so youâve gotta keep working. But at the same time you need
to be working on something worthwhile. When you put this kind of time and
energy into a career you need to come out of it with more than a paycheck.
Once youâve been in film or video for a while, you realize the single most
important thing is that you just want your tools to work, to work together,
because you donât have the time or inclination to fool around any more. Youâve
paid you dues, youâve done the crap jobs, wrestled with clients, stayed up all
night over and over again. I mean, you can get pretty sick of it. It gets
old real fast.
Itâs hard enough getting good ideas. Once youâve got one, you want to get
it out, play around with it until youâre expressing it the best way possible,
and move on. Obviously, if youâre gonna put together something that really
flows, the last thing you need is a bunch of separate applications from a bunch
of different companies that donât talk t each other, that donât get it. Doing
all these distracting little dances to move your ideas across, and then
having to use a boatload of different procedures, protocols, interfaces and
behaviors. â Basically needing to change your entire mindset just to do the next
thing on your laundry list â thatâs a real drag.
These days, offline and online editors â and for that matter, compositors,
graphic designers and others â are morphing into a kind of hybrid: the digital
artist. Itâs a new job description thatâs been evolving over the past few
years. And ironically, the more film and video production processes become
digital, the more hands-on creative seem to be getting. This is a great time to be
alive â weâre starting to see comprehensive toolsets that let you make your
ideas real without forcing you to deconstruct them first and then put them
back together again.
Maybe thatâs the whole thing: youâre suddenly a lot more aware of time. And
not wanting to waste it any more. Itâs a total clichÃ, but itâs really true
â when youâre younger you donât care, you just donât give a damn, youâve
got all the time in the world to concentrate on whatever crazy things you want,
and that was cook, itâs nice to remember those days, but now . . . ?
If you want to go to another part of your mind, you just go. If you want to
think of something different, you just do. You donât have to ask permission
or wait in line or see how you feel about it. When youâre coming up with a
concept or a sequence or something, youâre not just thinking about the images in
it, or the sound of it, or the pacing or whatever. Youâre the thinking about
all of it. It all comes to you. And so thatâs like this really good and
really terrible place to be because youâve go this crystalline entity, this
complete idea, you know, which is great, but youâre immediately figuring out how youâ
re gonna break it into chunks to execute it, how youâre gonna get it on
screen in some form thatâs recognizable to you. And thatâs where tings start to
suck because now youâre already changing it before youâve even started: uh,
these guysâll sweeten and I can go here for the edit and use this box for some
of the effects and go across town for others and so on and so forth until you
end up with this rogue thing thatâs kind of what you had in mind. Sort of.
It doesnât matter how good you are â when you present your ideas, most
clients are gonna want some changes. Thatâs only natural. The trick is hanging on
to your creative vision while trying to make them happy. Thatâs easier said
than done. Sometimes youâd rather start from scratch than do a tweak here and
there, especially when you have to get other people and machines involved who
donât necessarily see what you do, because you can end up watering things
down. The problem is, you donât have much of a choice if your system is limited
in scope.
You still have some traditional, one-dimensional old-liners who continue to
work the way they always have. But whatâs becoming much more common is
somebody whoâs not only able to do the conceptualizing up front but is also thinking
at the very same time, about whatâs gonna happen in post and how thatâll
finish the concept. They want it all at their fingertips, demand the right gear,
know that they want to pick an choose for each different project. This is a
big change: Itâs gonna let a lot more people say a lot moe things and not have
to dance to the same old industry tune.
Your studio is your second home. Sometimes it feels like your first. So youâ
ve got to have the right kind of stuff around â not just cool equipment, but
the furniture, the art, the music, the space itself. They all need to project
you and reflect you at the same time. Itâs got to be friendly and itâs got
to be comfortable. Youâre obviously very interested in anything that will
enhance your working environment, because the more conducive it is to your
workstyle, to your lifestyle, to more creative , productive and profitable you can
be.
Technology thatâs cool is technology you donât have to think about. If itâs
truly sophisticated, if it works the way it should, after a while you donât
even notice it. you live in it. Thatâs when you can really get something done.
Introducingâ.Softimage|DS.
Softimage|DS empowers you to redfine the way video content is created, edited
and finished by providing a comprehensive set of tools in one unified,
integrated environment. Designed by people who work in production â creating,
editing and animating images and sound day after day â Softimage|DS is built by
digital artists, for digital artists.
Based on an advanced new software architecture, it is the only system that
seamlessly integrates the full range of capabilities required for end-to-end
production: picture and audio editing, composting, paint, 2D and 3D effects,
image treatment, character generation and content management â fused together with
a transparent interface and workflow. The consistency of the production
environment obviates the need for data to be transferred or translated to
different video and audio systems, significantly streamlining the production process.
Remove a scratch as soon as itâs found, change the color of an object in a
multi-layer composite, add an audio effect in real-time, you can do all of this
and more without having to move between systems or facilities.
Work with non-compressed and compressed images. Quickly and easily call upon
tools for almost any production task. Work by yourself or with others.
Softimage|DS shatters existing barriers to creativity and productivity.
Softimage|DS is a customizable, extensible work environment. Designed to
help you thrive in the multiple revolutions that are changing the industry, its
interface and capabilities can be reconfigured, adjusted and added upon as
needed to meet the specific requirements and preferences of each project or
individual.
