From p.lucauclair at heliosmulti.com Mon Jan 2 08:07:20 2006 From: p.lucauclair at heliosmulti.com (Pierre-Luc Auclair) Date: Mon, 02 Jan 2006 02:07:20 -0500 Subject: [Bf-marketing] Corporate Identity In-Reply-To: <43A973F2.1010707@heliosmulti.com> References: <43A2E73F.2060005@heliosmulti.com> <8f0314bb202e1e33a63ff5d2416b4aef@blender.org> <43A973F2.1010707@heliosmulti.com> Message-ID: <43B8D128.8000106@heliosmulti.com> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From letterrip at gmail.com Mon Jan 2 11:18:02 2006 From: letterrip at gmail.com (Tom M) Date: Mon, 2 Jan 2006 01:18:02 -0900 Subject: [Bf-marketing] Fwd: PR Interview 3d-test In-Reply-To: <1d018ef33b823f778e0d48f064f061bb@blender.org> References: <1d018ef33b823f778e0d48f064f061bb@blender.org> Message-ID: <584fe5640601020218l491bb6f9p7ce8ceb1d91e8cb6@mail.gmail.com> Hi, thank you for your interest in the latest Blender release, please let me know if there are any further questions I can help you with. Also let me know if you need any images or other additional materials. Tom Musgrove > > =======INTERVIEW 3D-TEST========= > > > > Q1. Version 2.4 is now available, what are the main new features? All aspects of the animation system were completely refactored greatly improving the power , flexibility, and ease of use of the entire animation process including rigging, constraints, weight painting, morph targets, and animation cycles. The addition of a fluid dynamics was tremendously well recieved by the animation community, with dedicated users of more traditional animation packages such as Lightwave and Cinema4D adding Blender to their workflow and pipeline. Another area of keen interest has been the particle based hair system which has allowed users to create realistic fur and hair. There has also been the addition of a modifier stack, which greatly improves the power of the modeling system. Additionally the bullet physics library has been better exposed so that physics simulations can be easily baked to animation curves, for usage in the animation system. There have been a number of other significant improvements including improvements in the mesh editing tools such as improved loop and subdivide tools, and 'organic extrusion'. 'Live LSCM unwrapping' which greatly improves the ease of use and speed of unwrapping a mesh. Greatly improved text editing and creation tools, a number of interface improvements, as well as a large improvements in the Python API such as the addition of the fast Mesh module. For complete details you are encouraged to see the release notes http://www.blender3d.org/cms/Blender_2_40.598.0.html > > Q2. Is Blender easy to learn? Blender has historically had a steep learning curve - even more so than other 3D applications. With the addition of a quick start guide to help new users get over the 'first five minutes' and standard features such as a 3d manipulator, the Blender learning curve is much easier to climb. By reading the quick start guide, and then following a few tutorials and reading through the manual a user should be able to learn Blender at a comparable rate to other full featured 3D software. Users of other 3D software should be able to learn Blender fairly quickly provided they read the quickstart guide first. > Q3. A quick look to Blender's gallery show that Blender is capable to produce very nice > images. Is Blender as productive as other competitive commercial products? Blender has an extremely fast work flow 'one hand on the keyboard, one hand on the mouse' and makes extensive use of keybindings. However users used to programs such as 3ds Max which have a rich modeling toolset will find some things they are missing in Blender. A user who can adapt themselves to the Blender workflow can likely be as productive or moreso than they can in other 3d applications. > > Q4. Is Blender capable of managing big scenes with millions of > > polygons? The renderer can handle millions of polygons. For managing large scenes you can use bounding box display if you are on a machine with limited ram. To render large scenes it is recommended that the user 'render by parts'. > Q5. Blender seems to be a great tool for realtime 3d, what are the export formats supplied by blender? Blender has exporters for Collada, 3DS, OBJ, LWO, x3d, md2, vrml, Cal3d, and XSI bundled. Potential users are encouraged to check the website to ensure that the format they are interested in using supports all of the features they need. there are also external exporters for Ogre 3D and a number of other formats Currently the exporters and importers have not caught up with the changes in the Blender python API. Those individuals who have immediate need for animation export should either use 2.37a or wait till the exporter they need has caught up (probably within a few months). > > Q6. Do you plan to add a backing texture command? Is that a typo - and you meant texture baking? If so, there are currently two scripts that do texture baking. texbaker which is bundled with Blender, and BRayBaker 3 http://www.alienhelpdesk.com/index.php?id=22 which will likely be bundled with the next release. Currently both scripts are fairly time consuming, and it is likely that the script will be reimplemented in C in the future, but it is not an immediate plan in the short term. > > Q7. In the field of animation, Blender introduces key features in the 2.4 release. Is it possible to export in realtime animations like bones, fluids, physics? I'm not quite sure what you mean by 'export in realtime' fluids and physics animation can be 'baked' and then imported to a different package and rendered - for instance lightwave and Cinema4d users have exported fluid dynamics in order to render in their prefered environment. > > Q8. Is it possible to customize UI (shortcuts, toolbars, layout...)? The layout of the viewports is highly customizable - shortcuts and toolbars are currently only customizable via the sourcecode - which for the average user means 'not customizable'. A refactor of the code to allow fully customized keybindings, menus, toolbars, panels, etc. is planned for after the Orange project finishes. (In 3 months time or so). > > Q9. What is the status of Blender plugin for realtime 3D? If you are refering to the browser plugins, they are currently not maintained. There have been some mentions of programmers working on the code, but nothing has yet been made public. > > Q10. Blender is free and open. How is it possible to keep a software > > free and maintain it's developpement? The Blender Foundation is supported by donations http://www.blender3d.org/cms/Payment_methods.517.0.html as well as income via the 'Blender Store' http://www.blender3d.org/e-shop/ which sells Blender manuals, game engine kits, and some merchandise. Ton keeps the overhead extremely low, with himself as the only full time employee. Ton is the only individual funded by the Foundation to code on Blender. Other coders are either pure volunteers who have a love of 3D and programming, individuals who make use of Blender in a production environment and contribute back changes that they make that were needed or useful for their own work, or academics who use Blender as a platform for their research projects. From letterrip at gmail.com Mon Jan 2 12:31:57 2006 From: letterrip at gmail.com (Tom M) Date: Mon, 2 Jan 2006 02:31:57 -0900 Subject: [Bf-marketing] Re: Media request In-Reply-To: References: <431E8146-A1B7-4F53-B6FE-0F1C1C9AED56@channelle.co.uk> Message-ID: <584fe5640601020331v5b732b03y16d1021120f62803@mail.gmail.com> Ton - did you already send this off? If not, you didn't include his address in the forward... LetterRip On 12/30/05, Ton Roosendaal wrote: > Hi guys, > > Let's see if it works when I forward press inquiries to this list... > saves me a lot of time! > > I would suggest that - if you want to reply - you just notify this > list, and (later on) cc the list with the reply as sent. > When nobody does, I might do it on january 3rd anyway! > > Best wishes for 2006! > > -Ton- From chocolade at extrapuur.nl Mon Jan 2 12:39:51 2006 From: chocolade at extrapuur.nl (Ewout Fernhout) Date: Mon, 2 Jan 2006 12:39:51 +0100 Subject: [Bf-marketing] Corporate Identity In-Reply-To: <43B8D128.8000106@heliosmulti.com> References: <43A2E73F.2060005@heliosmulti.com> <8f0314bb202e1e33a63ff5d2416b4aef@blender.org> <43A973F2.1010707@heliosmulti.com> <43B8D128.8000106@heliosmulti.com> Message-ID: <6dca447b0601020339p7fc50abfm321caa934c051929@mail.gmail.com> Pierre-Luc, Don't go too wild on the it! Although it never hurts to read in on the subject :o) Blender already has a world class identity, it just lacks the guidelines and conformity. Our task is (IMO) to sort out which colors to use (this will be cutting down on the colors currently in use), and to make sure there are good templates. We won't re-do the whole Blender identity. Ewout p.s. I still haven't recieved any mail from you personally, don't hesitate to send questions or anything else. On 1/2/06, Pierre-Luc Auclair wrote: > Ok, so as I was thinking about this stuff about a week ago, I realized that > I didn't have the knowledge to do that. So I bought a book on the subject, > and now I'm halfway through. I am much more enlightened now as to how it > must be done. I'll sum my ideas in a sentence and just say that it'll take a > lot of work, dedication, patience and careful planning and organization to > get everything top-level. > > I am determined to provide Blender a world class identity, nothing else. > > I'll post more stuff this week after reviewing the subject long and large. > To me this is both a way to get recognition and earning a name, so I will > stick to nothing but the highest standards of quality. > > Can't wait to work with you guys, read you later this week, > > Pierre-Luc Auclair > > _______________________________________________ > Bf-marketing mailing list > Bf-marketing at blender.org > http://projects.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-marketing > > > From postmaster at hamsterking.com Mon Jan 2 18:48:24 2006 From: postmaster at hamsterking.com (Tommy Helgevold) Date: Mon, 2 Jan 2006 17:48:24 +0000 Subject: [Bf-marketing] Blender growth in Denmark - steadily and surely. Message-ID: <200601021748.25010.postmaster@hamsterking.com> Hi fellow marketeers ;) I just wanted to inform you about an observation I?ve made in the Danish Blender user forums the last past 2 years. It?s normal for most new 3d users to have a certain fallout/falloff rate where some of them simply "give up learning 3d" because 3d is too hard for them or they just didnt catch the interest in learning our trade. Well... For 2-3 years ago I requested a forum for Blender users in the Danish well known and established 3d-site for 3Dstudio max users because of all the "newbies" that wanted to play with 3d for free. Since I also went from 3dstudio max to Blender - I?ve maintained that forum and even written Danish user guides to Blender. This have had a certain success rate I think is worth some observation. I?ve noticed in the forums that people who had tried Cinema 4D, 3dstudio Max, XSI and MAYA often went over to the "other-side" and landed on one of the the 4 well known programs of their choice - and the switching where pretty often and consistent. BUT... With the Blender users the story was quite different: Most new Blender users to the forum - stayed with Blender all the way, yes - some of these users have been with us since the start of the Danish Blender forum and new users are coming around all the time. It?s also noteworthy that there are in fact more registered Blender users than Maya users now in Denmark, not only did that show up in a recent Poll made in the forums - but also noticeable when one observes the number of forum messages in there. Max is still the "forum-leader" but Blender now has 12 % coverage and is the SECOND largest user-3d-activity in Denmark. The forums: www.3dmaxer.dk (Danish language) my "now-old" Guide: http://www.hamsterking.com/blender/blender.htm (also in Danish) So what can we learn from this? - Blender users stay with Blender - Other 3d Platform users switches a lot (not happy?) - Blender newbies learn faster than initially though, especially those new to 3d! - Blender users develop 3d skills and finds "other ways" easier than those with abundance of tools? Anyway - I just though I?d write a little about this observation. Happy new year, Tommy Helgevold (Aka JoOngle) From rcampos at fusemail.com Mon Jan 2 18:44:54 2006 From: rcampos at fusemail.com (Rui Campos) Date: Mon, 2 Jan 2006 11:44:54 -0600 (CST) Subject: [Bf-marketing] Blender growth in Denmark - steadily and surely. In-Reply-To: <200601021748.25010.postmaster@hamsterking.com> References: <200601021748.25010.postmaster@hamsterking.com> Message-ID: <25296.193.126.242.162.1136223894.fusewebmail-27055@www.fusemail.com> Hi. This is very good to read, perhaps it can be used in a marketing campaign ? Possibly with some more accurate data. On a note I already see lots of users using Blender in their workflow with the new 2.40 version. Several scripts are now floating around for exporting fluids animation to other applications such as XSI and Cinema 4D. After Blender gets a full featured export / import with animation such as Collada or using FBX's SDK (FBX, OBJ, 3DS and Collada) we will see even much more users using it. -- Rui -- ----- Original Message ----- > Hi fellow marketeers ;) > > I just wanted to inform you about an observation I?ve made > in the Danish Blender user forums the last past 2 years. > > It?s normal for most new 3d users to have a certain fallout/falloff rate > where > some of them simply "give up learning 3d" because 3d is too hard for them > or they just didnt catch the interest in learning our trade. > > Well... > > For 2-3 years ago I requested a forum for Blender users in the Danish well > known and established 3d-site for 3Dstudio max users because of all the > "newbies" that wanted to play with 3d for free. Since I also went from > 3dstudio max to Blender - I?ve maintained that forum and even written > Danish > user guides to Blender. This have had a certain success rate I think is > worth > some observation. > > I?ve noticed in the forums that people who had tried Cinema 4D, 3dstudio > Max, > XSI and MAYA often went over to the "other-side" and landed on one of the > the 4 well known programs of their choice - and the switching where pretty > often and consistent. > > BUT... > > With the Blender users the story was quite different: > > Most new Blender users to the forum - stayed with Blender all the way, yes > - > some of these users have been with us since the start of the Danish > Blender > forum and new users are coming around all the time. It?s also noteworthy > that > there are in fact more registered Blender users than Maya users now in > Denmark, > not only did that show up in a recent Poll made in the forums - but also > noticeable when one observes the number of forum messages in there. > Max is still the "forum-leader" but Blender now has 12 % coverage and is > the SECOND largest user-3d-activity in Denmark. > > The forums: www.3dmaxer.dk (Danish language) > my "now-old" Guide: http://www.hamsterking.com/blender/blender.htm (also > in > Danish) > > So what can we learn from this? > > - Blender users stay with Blender > - Other 3d Platform users switches a lot (not happy?) > - Blender newbies learn faster than initially though, especially those new > to > 3d! > - Blender users develop 3d skills and finds "other ways" easier than > those with abundance of tools? > > Anyway - I just though I?d write a little about this observation. > > Happy new year, > Tommy Helgevold > (Aka JoOngle) > > _______________________________________________ > Bf-marketing mailing list > Bf-marketing at blender.org > http://projects.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-marketing > > From p.lucauclair at heliosmulti.com Mon Jan 2 20:36:59 2006 From: p.lucauclair at heliosmulti.com (Pierre-Luc Auclair) Date: Mon, 02 Jan 2006 14:36:59 -0500 Subject: [Bf-marketing] Corporate Identity In-Reply-To: <6dca447b0601020339p7fc50abfm321caa934c051929@mail.gmail.com> References: <43A2E73F.2060005@heliosmulti.com> <8f0314bb202e1e33a63ff5d2416b4aef@blender.org> <43A973F2.1010707@heliosmulti.com> <43B8D128.8000106@heliosmulti.com> <6dca447b0601020339p7fc50abfm321caa934c051929@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <43B980DB.8060603@heliosmulti.com> Well, as you probably know an identity is not just about color guidelines and good templates. In fact it's mostly a mid-term goal, it doesn't have to be decided until we know all we wanna do first. Here's what I think lacks. Blender should really have a tagline, I have no idea what yet but something along the lines of Nike's "Just Do It" or HP's "Invent". I also think that Blender should take a new approach. First, Blender should feel more people driven right at the time you . The homepage should encourage enterprises and individuals to get into "Blend In" to Blender ;-) . Right now there is the "Get Involved" link, we should have a section for Enterprises too. I think studios (either movie, game, etc.) could really help, and that why I think they should have good support to get them started coding. On that point I believe we should maybe do a partnership with one or two enterprises but I don't wanna get into it right now. The homepage could also have some kind of teasing stuff to get people interested. If people see cool stuff, they'll be more ported into working their asses off to learn instead of bitching the interface. The E-Shop could also use a bit of accentuation, simply having some kind of "Support Blender" link with an explanation of what needs to be paid to keep running would not hurt. I don't want marketing to interfere with Blender's development, that must be the same for you. We should just sell ourselves the best we can to attract more devs to keep up with the pace of modern software. I feel we should have a historic section to show people where Blender's coming from. Also, as I said when talking about giving a more humane face, Contact should be split. Giving only one email link in the "foundation(at)blender(dot)org" isn't very serious. Blender, I feel, is at a stage where it has either to show it can be as professional as any software out there or stay a "low-level" software in people's mind. If the software isn't up par for now for a few tasks, we should at least let them know it's being worked on and incite people to join that way too. A few dev journals maitained by the marketing crew showing what's up behind the walls to keep people on the edge in the dead times between version. It also helps showing there's people behind Blender and that something is actually in the works (in here we all know there is, but average joe visiting Blender can't figure out. I firmly think we should work on the sense of belonging to Blender, best may to spread Blender is word to mouth. If we could get some viral marketing going on, maybe series of fun little videos realized with Blender with the help of different "feature animators". Things of a few seconds, good humour. What I say here is still in the early stage. It'll require a lot more thinking, and I'm sure we can find more original ways to get people interested and involved. If someone could tell me what's been done it would be nice. Ton, I'm sure you have things to say on that since it's your stuff. Pierre-Luc --- Ewout Fernhout wrote: >Pierre-Luc, >Don't go too wild on the it! Although it never hurts to read in on the >subject :o) > >Blender already has a world class identity, it just lacks the >guidelines and conformity. Our task is (IMO) to sort out which colors >to use (this will be cutting down on the colors currently in use), and >to make sure there are good templates. We won't re-do the whole >Blender identity. > >Ewout > >p.s. I still haven't recieved any mail from you personally, don't >hesitate to send questions or anything else. > >On 1/2/06, Pierre-Luc Auclair wrote: > > From chocolade at extrapuur.nl Mon Jan 2 21:14:42 2006 From: chocolade at extrapuur.nl (Ewout Fernhout) Date: Mon, 2 Jan 2006 21:14:42 +0100 Subject: [Bf-marketing] Corporate Identity In-Reply-To: <43B980DB.8060603@heliosmulti.com> References: <43A2E73F.2060005@heliosmulti.com> <8f0314bb202e1e33a63ff5d2416b4aef@blender.org> <43A973F2.1010707@heliosmulti.com> <43B8D128.8000106@heliosmulti.com> <6dca447b0601020339p7fc50abfm321caa934c051929@mail.gmail.com> <43B980DB.8060603@heliosmulti.com> Message-ID: <6dca447b0601021214x1d5dcaedtbda237d9eac46107@mail.gmail.com> Well if you look at it that way, yes I agree. That was not what I meant anyway. If you're willing to put that much time and energy in this project, then I'm all for it. The problem up until now has been that there's nobody that has the time/experience to maintain a certain quality/output. Next week I have an evaluation of a corporate identity I did one and a half year ago for a students' association. I can tell you; the biggest problem was not the ideas & the philosophy we had (at all!), but having all of it executed. The students' association is very much like a community in a way: both rely on volunteers. Even with 7 full time board members and a committee (of 5) especially devoted to the graphical communications and a website committee (5) it was hard to reach the goals we had set initially. It's just not as easy as when you can pay people to do stuff. I will try not to sound too negative (because I really think you have some very valuable ideas!), but here's my opinion > Blender should really have a tagline good point, it even used to have one IIRC: "Presume Nothing". There's a whole thread with candidates at elysiun: http://elysiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=45900 > I also think that Blender should take a new approach. First, Blender > should feel more people driven right at the time you . The homepage > should encourage enterprises and individuals to get into "Blend In" to > Blender ;-) . Right now there is the "Get Involved" link, we should have > a section for Enterprises too. I think studios (either movie, game, > etc.) could really help, and that why I think they should have good > support to get them started coding. On that point I believe we should > maybe do a partnership with one or two enterprises but I don't wanna get > into it right now. I'm not sure what you want here, some kind of community? Do you have examples of things like this? > The homepage could also have some kind of teasing stuff to get people > interested. If people see cool stuff, they'll be more ported into > working their asses off to learn instead of bitching the interface. The > E-Shop could also use a bit of accentuation, simply having some kind of > "Support Blender" link with an explanation of what needs to be paid to > keep running would not hurt. Hmmm this sounds a bit like begging... I think those who feel that they need to contribute something to Blender will do that some way or the other. Personally I felt that Orange was a *very* nice way to "sponsor" Blender that was/is very rewarding. This aspect of buying the Orange DVD's could have been emphasised a tiny bit more I think, although it's a fine line. > I feel we should have a historic section to show people where Blender's > coming from. like this, http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/Manual/PartI/Introduction but on the blender site I guess? Might be a nice addition to the "About Blender" section indeed. > Also, as I said when talking about giving a more humane face, Contact > should be split. Giving only one email link in the > "foundation(at)blender(dot)org" isn't very serious. Very true! Just like the absent Press Kit page, which is highly prioritised in Samo & my plans. > Blender, I feel, is at a stage where it has either to show it can be as > professional as any software out there or stay a "low-level" software in > people's mind. If the software isn't up par for now for a few tasks, we > should at least let them know it's being worked on and incite people to > join that way too. > A few dev journals maitained by the marketing crew showing what's up > behind the walls to keep people on the edge in the dead times between > version. It also helps showing there's people behind Blender and that > something is actually in the works (in here we all know there is, but > average joe visiting Blender can't figure out. This is where I have my doubts. We can try though. Basically you need more people maintaining these things. Also, with the planned 2 month release-cycle, this won't contribute much relative to the cost of maintenance. What we do miss is a release promotion team (thank god we have Tom!!!), and I think we can get this off the ground too. I'll be the first to apply :o) > I firmly think we should work on the sense of belonging to Blender, > best may to spread Blender is word to mouth. If we could get some viral > marketing going on, maybe series of fun little videos realized with > Blender with the help of different "feature animators". Things of a few > seconds, good humour. Viral/buzz marketing has been a hit since a few years now, but it's very hard to realise; you need very clever, well thought out ideas. Again, this is a time-consuming thing and you need devoted people, and more importantly, you need someone devoted to mentoring them. Bottom-line: we need to look for ways to improve Blender's Identity *without* creating more work! That's a challenge in itself, but it will give a good foundation: that way you're not relying on all these other wild ideas (no offence!), while they're a nice addition when they actually happen. But please let's focus on the foundation first, then add bells & whistles (I see a nice analogy with Blender here!) Ewout From letterrip at gmail.com Mon Jan 2 21:15:16 2006 From: letterrip at gmail.com (Tom M) Date: Mon, 2 Jan 2006 11:15:16 -0900 Subject: [Bf-marketing] Corporate Identity In-Reply-To: <43B980DB.8060603@heliosmulti.com> References: <43A2E73F.2060005@heliosmulti.com> <8f0314bb202e1e33a63ff5d2416b4aef@blender.org> <43A973F2.1010707@heliosmulti.com> <43B8D128.8000106@heliosmulti.com> <6dca447b0601020339p7fc50abfm321caa934c051929@mail.gmail.com> <43B980DB.8060603@heliosmulti.com> Message-ID: <584fe5640601021215h7fc4cf14p37ffdb2dcb5bfcb0@mail.gmail.com> Regarding tagline, see this thread at elysiun http://www.elysiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=45900 regarding partnerships - Ton said he isn't seeking any right now - if I/we want them - then I/we will need to do all of the work on that. I can provide more details later, but already have one potentially significant partnership lined up (note that for now - most partnerships will be pretty limited, probably to the effect of - Blender is a good editor for our game). homepage - The homepage currently is preliminary as I recall. Others here I'm sure know more about it. regarding 'development stage' - by siggraph should be a major turning point - I don't really think there will ever be a strong go/no go stage. However certain mile-stones will get major publicity for us, and we should be positioned to take advantage of it. One of the biggest milestones by far will be Siggraph and the likely presentation of the Orange movie at that time. Blender will have also hit a major development milestone at that time - the nodal materials and compositor will be done, the rendering improvements will be done, Ton will hopefully have done the event refactor allowing completely customized hotkeys, menus, panels, scripted tutorials ala zbrush, macros, and other goodness. We will be switching to a two (three with delays :) ) month release cycle with test releases monthly there really won't be much 'dead time' between significant announcements. Also there is a 'development journal' that has been done sporadically. I'll be updating the release notes weekly now, as well as updating the scripts list on a regular basis. There are also the weekly meetings for both bf-blender, as well as the bf-education lists. LetterRip From p.lucauclair at heliosmulti.com Mon Jan 2 21:55:13 2006 From: p.lucauclair at heliosmulti.com (Pierre-Luc Auclair) Date: Mon, 02 Jan 2006 15:55:13 -0500 Subject: [Bf-marketing] Corporate Identity (partnerships) In-Reply-To: <584fe5640601021215h7fc4cf14p37ffdb2dcb5bfcb0@mail.gmail.com> References: <43A2E73F.2060005@heliosmulti.com> <8f0314bb202e1e33a63ff5d2416b4aef@blender.org> <43A973F2.1010707@heliosmulti.com> <43B8D128.8000106@heliosmulti.com> <6dca447b0601020339p7fc50abfm321caa934c051929@mail.gmail.com> <43B980DB.8060603@heliosmulti.com> <584fe5640601021215h7fc4cf14p37ffdb2dcb5bfcb0@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <43B99331.70108@heliosmulti.com> If I recall well I think I already talked to you about that on IRC? I can't remember if it was you but I was talking about asking Epic to help get Blender up par to the competion when it comes to game content creation. They would get a "free" editor to publish UT2007 with, that way they get more mods, hence more players (possibly), hence more money (which is what they want in the end). We have the big advantage of being free and multiplatform. If I recall correctly, they stated a while ago that if Linux demand was high enough, they'd release linux modding tools (that means possibly Os X port maybe?) too. So in the long run, it's a win/win solution. I might miss details that might put my idea to rest but I think it's a pretty good thing if we can manage anything of the sort. Pierre-Luc Tom M wrote: >Regarding tagline, see this thread at elysiun > >http://www.elysiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=45900 > >regarding partnerships - Ton said he isn't seeking any right now - if >I/we want them - then I/we will need to do all of the work on that. I >can provide more details later, but already have one potentially >significant partnership lined up (note that for now - most >partnerships will be pretty limited, probably to the effect of - >Blender is a good editor for our game). > >homepage - The homepage currently is preliminary as I recall. Others >here I'm sure know more about it. > >regarding 'development stage' - by siggraph should be a major turning >point - I don't really think there will ever be a strong go/no go >stage. However certain mile-stones will get major publicity for us, >and we should be positioned to take advantage of it. One of the >biggest milestones by far will be Siggraph and the likely presentation >of the Orange movie at that time. Blender will have also hit a major >development milestone at that time - the nodal materials and >compositor will be done, the rendering improvements will be done, Ton >will hopefully have done the event refactor allowing completely >customized hotkeys, menus, panels, scripted tutorials ala zbrush, >macros, and other goodness. > >We will be switching to a two (three with delays :) ) month release >cycle with test releases monthly there really won't be much 'dead >time' between significant announcements. Also there is a 'development >journal' that has been done sporadically. > >I'll be updating the release notes weekly now, as well as updating the >scripts list on a regular basis. There are also the weekly meetings >for both bf-blender, as well as the bf-education lists. > >LetterRip >_______________________________________________ >Bf-marketing mailing list >Bf-marketing at blender.org >http://projects.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-marketing > > > > > > From p.lucauclair at heliosmulti.com Mon Jan 2 22:01:33 2006 From: p.lucauclair at heliosmulti.com (Pierre-Luc Auclair) Date: Mon, 02 Jan 2006 16:01:33 -0500 Subject: [Bf-marketing] Corporate Identity (partnerships) In-Reply-To: <43B99331.70108@heliosmulti.com> References: <43A2E73F.2060005@heliosmulti.com> <8f0314bb202e1e33a63ff5d2416b4aef@blender.org> <43A973F2.1010707@heliosmulti.com> <43B8D128.8000106@heliosmulti.com> <6dca447b0601020339p7fc50abfm321caa934c051929@mail.gmail.com> <43B980DB.8060603@heliosmulti.com> <584fe5640601021215h7fc4cf14p37ffdb2dcb5bfcb0@mail.gmail.com> <43B99331.70108@heliosmulti.com> Message-ID: <43B994AD.70701@heliosmulti.com> I was also forgetting... as for Ton saying he doesn't wanna get into this well that's no problem. I bet he has more cats to whip but to work on partnerships (which is the responsibility [I guess] of Marketing). Talking about responsibility, it would be good to write a doc on who decides what. And related to that, I feel big decisions should restrain to the Marketing group. Let's not make a plebiscite on every decision we make, it's the best way to lose focus we'll have established first and make everything fall apart. Pierre-Luc From fred at mentalwarp.com Mon Jan 2 22:48:35 2006 From: fred at mentalwarp.com (=?iso-8859-1?Q?Fr=E9d=E9ric?= van der Essen) Date: Mon, 2 Jan 2006 22:48:35 +0100 Subject: [Bf-marketing] Corporate Identity In-Reply-To: <43B980DB.8060603@heliosmulti.com> Message-ID: <1136238515-953ad44afdd998ac29b320d4cff736cb@mentalwarp.com> I also think blender needs some marketing, I try to promote blender at my Univ, french websites and some friends working in the pro CG-industry. so here is little stories on how well worked different approach to promote blender. It might help you :) Until not a so long time ago, when people where asking me, what is this blender exactly ?, what is the goal of the developpers ?, what is it for ?,I told them "blender aims to provide a high quality 3D tool for everyone". Because that's just what blender was in my mind. That's the OSS state of mind "hi quality for everyone". This worked a lot at the university (engineering/science) People use it more and more for arch-previz, shematics in reports,etc... It worked midly in web forums. It worked well for hobyist artists, And to my surprise it was totally counter productive for pro-artists. Professional artists can't conceive that a high quality tool can come for free and be "for everyone". They buy a lot of expensive stuff that don't work well, and people told them non stop "you didn't buy it expensive enough !!!" They want to be cool and have things that their competitors cannot buy. "You now, i use this revolutionary and expensive app that even if you were rich like me, you couldn't understand because you aren't a genius like me" Blender was this kind of thing for a moment, but now that it is "the tool for everyone" In artists mind it goes like "I deserve a better tool than something for everyone" Then there were the most complicated type of person i ever met - an "art director" Take an artist, mix it with a director and you have someone who wants something really productive, and really cool. the "when i told "for everyone" to this guy he just laughed, thinking i was some kind of crazy utopist :S With those guys, artists and boss-artists the best way i found is not to tell them anything. Blender is a "mystery" and show them what it does. Show them only the very cool things that they haven't seen in other apps. And then suddenly the guy screaming "I tried it once and it's crap" is quiet and looking with interest at you playing with blender hair system or lscm. Then when they are convinced that blender can offer them something, they ask "can it do this ? can it do that? Let's try it" and nobody complains with the interface. If an artist think blender is the next thing to have, they will not complain with learning new way of doing things (crazy interface) If an artist think blender is a cheaper alternative to existing programs, they will complain a lot, because they just want a clone of their app. (and they will have a negative approach since they already paid a lot for their apps, so something free really can't be better) >Here's what I think lacks. Blender should really have a tagline, I have >no idea what yet but something along the lines of Nike's "Just Do It" >or HP's "Invent". This makes me think that, before determining all the concrete marketting stuff, we should first agree on what is currently wrong with blender's perception by the outside world, and more importantly agree on what are our user target, because all the stuff we are doing will depend greatly on what is our target. >The homepage could also have some kind of teasing stuff to get people >interested. If people see cool stuff, they'll be more ported into >working their asses off to learn instead of bitching the interface. IMO that's the critical point. Showing cool stuff. Showing blender's unique features greatly executed, showing interview of artists, showing great renders with interview of artist, stuff that makes the artist want blender. Many thing on blender website could be improved that way. Look at the gallery, it shows "November" with not so great renders on the top. People looking at this right now think "not only not a lot of art is produced, but it's not so great. Ordering it by favorites would solve that issue by showing greatest render first. And below there would be "newest" so that they see that art is being produced :) >A few dev journals maitained by the marketing crew showing what's up >behind the walls to keep people on the edge in the dead times between >version. It also helps showing there's people behind Blender and that >something is actually in the works (in here we all know there is, but >average joe visiting Blender can't figure out. Good idea. >I firmly think we should work on the sense of belonging to Blender, >best may to spread Blender is word to mouth. If we could get some viral >marketing going on, maybe series of fun little videos realized with >Blender with the help of different "feature animators". Things of a few >seconds, good humour. It can bite us in the back. Official work will always be considered as an insight on blender's top possibilities. If the anim is not 100% pro, people will think that blender is not able to provide pro quality. From letterrip at gmail.com Mon Jan 2 23:25:10 2006 From: letterrip at gmail.com (Tom M) Date: Mon, 2 Jan 2006 13:25:10 -0900 Subject: [Bf-marketing] Corporate Identity In-Reply-To: <1136238515-953ad44afdd998ac29b320d4cff736cb@mentalwarp.com> References: <43B980DB.8060603@heliosmulti.com> <1136238515-953ad44afdd998ac29b320d4cff736cb@mentalwarp.com> Message-ID: <584fe5640601021425n26142c7euf5c2f4adf283591b@mail.gmail.com> [QUOTE] This makes me think that, before determining all the concrete marketting stuff, we should first agree on what is currently wrong with blender's perception by the outside world, and more importantly agree on what are our user target, because all the stuff we are doing will depend greatly on what is our target.[/QUOTE] There are three or four ways to approach which markets we want to target, 1) Professional user market share - the biggest segment of professional users for 3d software is actually for 2d illustrations - second biggest segment is 3d game content creators 2) User market share - the single biggest usage of 3d modeling and animating software is in creating mod content for games - from very simple modelers such as those bundled with games such as the Sims, and level editors, GMax, to using Maya and other High end tools. 3) Potential developers - the biggest markets for potential developers are for engineering, scientific, academic and game modding. 4) Markets based on funding constraints - another important marketing is based on funding constraints - developing nations - India, China; schools; and non profits are all huge potential markets for Blender. 5) Markets we are best suited for - the reality is we are not well suited for any particular market - but are 'almost there' for quite a few. There are also niches in each market that with small improvements we could conquer. I have a strategic marketing plan that I drafted for Ton, and have done research on the above markets (ie finding school contact information, doing SWAT analysis for various niche markets, etc.) I'll put the info up in the near future... LetterRip From letterrip at gmail.com Mon Jan 2 23:53:08 2006 From: letterrip at gmail.com (Tom M) Date: Mon, 2 Jan 2006 13:53:08 -0900 Subject: [Bf-marketing] marketing misc Message-ID: <584fe5640601021453t4cd3fed2k2a07b9aa686384be@mail.gmail.com> Something I forgot to mention, I also plan on contacting the major tutorial authors and getting Blender 'certified' capable of accomplishing their tutorials. Ie contacting Jeff Lew regarding his animation tutorial etc. And possibly see about reciprocal marketing opportunities. That would accomplish two things - 1) feedback by respected professionals on Blenders suitability 2) greatly increased confidence by the public that Blender is capable of accomplishing all of the needed aspects. LetterRip From postmaster at hamsterking.com Tue Jan 3 01:39:35 2006 From: postmaster at hamsterking.com (Tommy Helgevold) Date: Tue, 3 Jan 2006 00:39:35 +0000 Subject: [Bf-marketing] marketing misc In-Reply-To: <584fe5640601021453t4cd3fed2k2a07b9aa686384be@mail.gmail.com> References: <584fe5640601021453t4cd3fed2k2a07b9aa686384be@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <200601030039.35880.postmaster@hamsterking.com> That is an absolutely excellent idea! We could also make the various authors test each others tutorials, manual entries etc. as they? d be more likely to: - Uncover bugs - Document changes (since last tutorial etc.) - Be experienced enough to actually prooftest all new features. We should also make a standard formula that our "test-subjects" would have to fill out in order to make a well documented complaint about eg. a "hole" or a missing link between features/systems. This formula should help the developers narrow down what?s repeating itself throughout the user base and what are the most common problems the users experience. The same formula could also be used on the professionals, but more directed towards their workflow? A question: Maybe we should establish some document checkpoints where certain features (basic) should be fully documented - AND - appoint a group of Blender Certificated power-users we can refer to in the community. This could form the basis of a future support crew - now supporting the "community" - tomorrow...the "professionals"? /JoOngle On Monday 02 January 2006 22:53, Tom M wrote: > Something I forgot to mention, > > I also plan on contacting the major tutorial authors and getting > Blender 'certified' capable of accomplishing their tutorials. > > Ie contacting Jeff Lew regarding his animation tutorial etc. And > possibly see about reciprocal marketing opportunities. That would > accomplish two things - 1) feedback by respected professionals on > Blenders suitability 2) greatly increased confidence by the public > that Blender is capable of accomplishing all of the needed aspects. > > LetterRip > _______________________________________________ > Bf-marketing mailing list > Bf-marketing at blender.org > http://projects.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-marketing From letterrip at gmail.com Tue Jan 3 09:20:09 2006 From: letterrip at gmail.com (Tom M) Date: Mon, 2 Jan 2006 23:20:09 -0900 Subject: [Bf-marketing] Press Inquiry regarding Blender Message-ID: <584fe5640601030020k4395bc99tf156199dbd829d6@mail.gmail.com> Andy if Ton has already sent you a response then that version is the official version - otherwise you can use this version. > On 29 Dec, 2005, at 12:50, Andy Channelle wrote: > > > Hi > > > > I'm putting together a news report on the release of Blender 2.40 for > > Linux Format in the UK. Would you be able to answer a couple of > > questions for me? My deadline is January 3rd. Andy, thank you for your enquiry, I'd be happy to answer any questions that you might have. > > > > 1. How has the open sourcing of Blender changed the rate and/or method > > of development? There have been a number of significant changes to both the rate of development under open source, as well as the methodolgy. Some notable changes are that development choices are much less influenced by marketing decisions. In a closed source application there is a great deal of pressure to focus development on what marketing tells you is most important. With open source there isn't a marketing department that gets to 'tell you what to do' - instead what is important to do is determined by direct communication with artists and other users; but also by patches and proposals provided by developers. If an individual has a strong enough desire for a feature that they are motivated to code it themselves - then clearly it is something that is needed or desired - and generally such patches will meet the needs of the broader user base as well. A recent example of this would be the particle guides patch by Janne Karhu, which became a significant tool for the styling of hair. Another significant difference is that large features can be quickly added from the pool of existing open source code. An example of this would be Nils Thuerey who had done fluid simulation research which he was then able to integrate with Blender for the Google Summer of Code project. An open source methodology also brings some challenges. For instance if some particular development work or adminstrative work needs to be done there is no garuntee that you will have someone available who is willing and able to take up the task during the time frame that you would like it done. > > 2. What are the key advances in the latest version of the software? All aspects of the animation system were completely refactored greatly improving the power , flexibility, and ease of use of the entire animation process including rigging, constraints, weight painting, morph targets, and animation cycles. The addition of a fluid dynamics was tremendously well recieved by the animation community, with dedicated users of more traditional animation packages such as Lightwave and Cinema4D adding Blender to their workflow and pipeline. Another area of keen interest has been the particle based hair system which has allowed users to create realistic fur and hair. There has also been the addition of a modifier stack, which greatly improves the power of the modeling system. Additionally the bullet physics library has been better exposed so that physics simulations can be easily baked to animation curves, for usage in the animation system. There have been a number of other significant improvements including improvements in the mesh editing tools such as improved loop and subdivide tools, and 'organic extrusion'. 'Live LSCM unwrapping' which greatly improves the ease of use and speed of unwrapping a mesh. Greatly improved text editing and creation tools, a number of interface improvements, as well as a large improvements in the Python API such as the addition of the fast Mesh module. For complete details you are encouraged to see the release notes http://www.blender3d.org/cms/Blender_2_40.598.0.html and the wiki release logs http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/Release_Notes We have additional images that might be of interest to you that were not included in the release logs. Thank you for your interest, and please let me know if there is anything else that I can do to be of assistance to you. Tom Musgrove From chocolade at extrapuur.nl Tue Jan 3 11:47:35 2006 From: chocolade at extrapuur.nl (Ewout Fernhout) Date: Tue, 3 Jan 2006 11:47:35 +0100 Subject: [Bf-marketing] Corporate Identity In-Reply-To: <584fe5640601021425n26142c7euf5c2f4adf283591b@mail.gmail.com> References: <43B980DB.8060603@heliosmulti.com> <1136238515-953ad44afdd998ac29b320d4cff736cb@mentalwarp.com> <584fe5640601021425n26142c7euf5c2f4adf283591b@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <6dca447b0601030247o5c12fea3r4ad4312e1a193177@mail.gmail.com> > I have a strategic marketing plan that I drafted for Ton, and have > done research on the above markets (ie finding school contact > information, doing SWAT analysis for various niche markets, etc.) > I'll put the info up in the near future... I hope you mean SWOT analysis :o) seriously, I don't know if it's a good plan to make the marketing plan and other sensitive information publically available http://projects.blender.org/pipermail/bf-marketing/ Ewout From letterrip at gmail.com Tue Jan 3 21:14:41 2006 From: letterrip at gmail.com (Tom M) Date: Tue, 3 Jan 2006 11:14:41 -0900 Subject: [Bf-marketing] Corporate Identity In-Reply-To: <6dca447b0601030247o5c12fea3r4ad4312e1a193177@mail.gmail.com> References: <43B980DB.8060603@heliosmulti.com> <1136238515-953ad44afdd998ac29b320d4cff736cb@mentalwarp.com> <584fe5640601021425n26142c7euf5c2f4adf283591b@mail.gmail.com> <6dca447b0601030247o5c12fea3r4ad4312e1a193177@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <584fe5640601031214v3fa0edep9e4a332db16d86df@mail.gmail.com> > I hope you mean SWOT analysis :o) Heheh - yep Typo, > seriously, I don't know if it's a good plan to make the marketing plan > and other sensitive information publically available Yeah now I remember why I haven't posted it to the wiki yet - no private access sections... LetterRip From letterrip at gmail.com Tue Jan 3 21:26:44 2006 From: letterrip at gmail.com (Tom M) Date: Tue, 3 Jan 2006 11:26:44 -0900 Subject: [Bf-marketing] Corporate Identity In-Reply-To: <584fe5640601031214v3fa0edep9e4a332db16d86df@mail.gmail.com> References: <43B980DB.8060603@heliosmulti.com> <1136238515-953ad44afdd998ac29b320d4cff736cb@mentalwarp.com> <584fe5640601021425n26142c7euf5c2f4adf283591b@mail.gmail.com> <6dca447b0601030247o5c12fea3r4ad4312e1a193177@mail.gmail.com> <584fe5640601031214v3fa0edep9e4a332db16d86df@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <584fe5640601031226l1620d094u63c8c55578221d04@mail.gmail.com> Hmm there are parts up, just because Ton wanted stuff posted that I'd analysed for things like the animation system posted since he was going to be working on it and wanted feedback and others to review. So here are the sections on Animation and Texturing Here are the Animation and Rigging http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/Competitive_Analysis/Animation_And_Rigging Texturing http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/Competitive_Analysis/Texturing There is plenty of miscelaneous interesting stuff on this page - this section is partially 'Toms dumping ground for stuff he is working on that doesn't have a home of its own' - ie 241 release notes will be moved :) http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/Competitive_Analysis LetterRip From ton at blender.org Wed Jan 4 23:29:36 2006 From: ton at blender.org (Ton Roosendaal) Date: Wed, 4 Jan 2006 23:29:36 +0100 Subject: [Bf-marketing] Fwd: News Link Request... Message-ID: <9e6e0d5b13bb9efe463c05ae65fa7928@blender.org> Hi, I've replied to him that I can't help soon... we also don't do banners on our website. And I don't like to add stuff like this on the frontpage either. But, what I do like to see is a section on blender.org where we can allow third parties to showcase their products. A sort of 'third party catalog' or so. There's more companies supporting blender now... anyone? :) -Ton- Begin forwarded message: > From: Early Ehlinger > Date: 2 January, 2006 20:38:49 GMT+01:00 > To: ton at blender.org, Cory King > Subject: News Link Request... > > Hi Ton, > > Early Ehlinger here, president over at ResPower.? We've been hard at > work adding Blender support to our farm and have decided on an > enthusiast-friendly pricing model - unlimited "buffet-style" rendering > from $20/month.? We just announced it today and are very excited to > bring the power of the Super/Farm to the Blender community.? We hope > that the community is receptive to using our service. > > Our lead Blender developer, Cory King, had to implement a few minor > patches to get around some unexpected NULL pointers; he'll be joining > the dev list soon to work on getting them back into the main source > trunk. > > Would it be too much to ask to have you guys post a link to our press > release or perhaps even host a copy of it? > > http://www.respower.com/news_2006_01_02_blender > NEWS: 2005-11-27 - ResPower Super/Farm? Supports Blender With > Unlimited Pricing Structure! > > Also, I'd like to purchase a banner- or button-style ad on > blender3d.org.? Is that possible?? I noticed that "Waag Society" is > listed as a Gold sponsor, but I never see their banners up.? Is that > simply because they have not renewed their sponsorship? > > -- Early Ehlinger > President, ResPower, Inc. > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Ton Roosendaal Blender Foundation ton at blender.org http://www.blender.org From p.lucauclair at heliosmulti.com Thu Jan 5 08:47:27 2006 From: p.lucauclair at heliosmulti.com (Pierre-Luc Auclair) Date: Thu, 05 Jan 2006 02:47:27 -0500 Subject: [Bf-marketing] Fwd: News Link Request... In-Reply-To: <9e6e0d5b13bb9efe463c05ae65fa7928@blender.org> References: <9e6e0d5b13bb9efe463c05ae65fa7928@blender.org> Message-ID: <43BCCF0F.8010308@heliosmulti.com> That's taken into good note. :) > But, what I do like to see is a section on blender.org where we can > allow third parties to showcase their products. A sort of 'third > party catalog' or so. > > There's more companies supporting blender now... anyone? :) From ton at blender.org Thu Jan 5 14:10:19 2006 From: ton at blender.org (Ton Roosendaal) Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2006 14:10:19 +0100 Subject: [Bf-marketing] Corporate Identity (partnerships) In-Reply-To: <43B994AD.70701@heliosmulti.com> References: <43A2E73F.2060005@heliosmulti.com> <8f0314bb202e1e33a63ff5d2416b4aef@blender.org> <43A973F2.1010707@heliosmulti.com> <43B8D128.8000106@heliosmulti.com> <6dca447b0601020339p7fc50abfm321caa934c051929@mail.gmail.com> <43B980DB.8060603@heliosmulti.com> <584fe5640601021215h7fc4cf14p37ffdb2dcb5bfcb0@mail.gmail.com> <43B99331.70108@heliosmulti.com> <43B994AD.70701@heliosmulti.com> Message-ID: Hi, Just to clarify this partnership issue a bit; at this moment there's 'partnerships' with Montevideo (movie project), NoStarch Press (book distribution), and with the Uni-Verse consortium. Such partnerships I treat very seriously, and demand a significant portion of my time. :) What you probably discuss here won't be as far stretching as this... but looks more like what I usually call the "Blender Network", which could be called 'partnership programme' too, aimed at facilitating third parties to get into business with Blender. What we can do for professionals is; - good coverage of their offering on our website (like the current professionals section) - a listing of all opportunities with Blender we know, which can range from book publishing (could be partnering with BF), training services (we have a bf-education board for that), to tips & ideas for setting up own development/art services. - a public market place where developers/artists can offer services or companies can put up calls for contributions. This was discussed on the conference too, we need a way to verify validity of offerings. A gallery/voting system I don't like a lot, that's too easy to abuse. Three ideas to ensure quality of this market place are: 1) Get a small active moderators board who review personally each submission 2) Demand submissions to have at least a public website that clearly describes the business (including personal data, contact address, evidence of past work). 3) Make a long and detailed form online for submissions, to prevent idiots to fill it in, and to illustrate to the submitters we're very serious. (Check for example how to submit a partnership with IBM, Sun, SGI, etc). - A closed forum, only accessible for partnership members to discuss issues - I think we shouldn't ask for a membership fee (IBM/Sun/SGI/etc don't do it either). If "Blender Network" partners like to know who's really good for their services, they can send a private mail to the moderators, and that can be replied fair & straightforward based on their information. When the network grows out of simple control, this can be reviewed of course. :) -Ton- On 2 Jan, 2006, at 22:01, Pierre-Luc Auclair wrote: > I was also forgetting... as for Ton saying he doesn't wanna get into > this well that's no problem. I bet he has more cats to whip but to > work on partnerships (which is the responsibility [I guess] of > Marketing). > > Talking about responsibility, it would be good to write a doc on who > decides what. > > And related to that, I feel big decisions should restrain to the > Marketing group. Let's not make a plebiscite on every decision we > make, it's the best way to lose focus we'll have established first and > make everything fall apart. > > Pierre-Luc > _______________________________________________ > Bf-marketing mailing list > Bf-marketing at blender.org > http://projects.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-marketing > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Ton Roosendaal Blender Foundation ton at blender.org http://www.blender.org From rcampos at fusemail.com Thu Jan 5 16:01:53 2006 From: rcampos at fusemail.com (Rui Campos) Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2006 09:01:53 -0600 (CST) Subject: [Bf-marketing] Corporate Identity (partnerships) In-Reply-To: References: <43A2E73F.2060005@heliosmulti.com><8f0314bb202e1e33a63ff5d2416b4aef@bl ender.org><43A973F2.1010707@heliosmulti.com><43B8D128.8000106@heliosmu lti.com><6dca447b0601020339p7fc50abfm321caa934c051929@mail.gmail.com>< 43B980DB.8060603@heliosmulti.com><584fe5640601021215h7fc4cf14p37ffdb2d cb5bfcb0@mail.gmail.com><43B99331.70108@heliosmulti.com> <43B994AD.70701@heliosmulti.com> Message-ID: <33311.193.126.242.162.1136473313.fusewebmail-27055@www.fusemail.com> Hi Just to add my own comments on this issue. > - good coverage of their offering on our website (like the current > professionals section) > - a listing of all opportunities with Blender we know, which can range > from book publishing (could be partnering with BF), training services > (we have a bf-education board for that), to tips & ideas for setting up > own development/art services. This can also work in favor of the Blender Foundation if put up on the homepage of Blender website, a direct link to that place and have a listing of new entries. Something like "Who's using Blender" and link to this area. Some reviews would also be good, with companies using or providing services with Blender, but that means that the website needs a remodeling in order to allow a decent review page to be posted there. > - a public market place where developers/artists can offer services or > companies can put up calls for contributions. This was discussed on the > conference too, we need a way to verify validity of offerings. A > gallery/voting system I don't like a lot, that's too easy to abuse. Either do a new area on the website by hand to ensure the needs for this, or, search for an Open Source tool that may exists and focus on this issue. > Three ideas to ensure quality of this market place are: > 1) Get a small active moderators board who review personally each > submission > 2) Demand submissions to have at least a public website that clearly > describes the business (including personal data, contact address, > evidence of past work). > 3) Make a long and detailed form online for submissions, to prevent > idiots to fill it in, and to illustrate to the submitters we're very > serious. (Check for example how to submit a partnership with IBM, Sun, > SGI, etc). This makes more sense then any voting system, although voting would be good in the Gallery section of the website and allowing to order gallery items by person / date / votes . But, bear in mind that the Gallery section should not be of any influence with the "Market place" section of the website. Professionals and Companies could submit art to the Gallery (stills or animation) and so could people with no registration in the "Market place". The Gallery should serve as a Marketing area for Blender to gather new users, as a place to show off work of people/companies listed in the "Market place" and for regular Blender fans to show some of their work. Any item submitted to the Gallery should be supervised by a small board as mentioned. Any submission to the "Market place" should also be supervised by that small board and validated with website (online presence), example work and background information. > - A closed forum, only accessible for partnership members to discuss > issues Is this in the sense of the "Market place" or in the sense of real partners ? If it is related to the "Market place" it should be something built in the "Market place" section, trying to avoid people to leave that place in order to "discuss issues". > - I think we shouldn't ask for a membership fee (IBM/Sun/SGI/etc don't > do it either). If "Blender Network" partners like to know who's really > good for their services, they can send a private mail to the > moderators, and that can be replied fair & straightforward based on > their information. When the network grows out of simple control, this > can be reviewed of course. :) No membership fees, I agree on that, but I think that another thing could be created that would involve cash and helping professionals and companies, a Bounty area for Development. I know that this could be inserted in the "Marketing place", but it might be better to get a specific area for it. Any company or Professional interested in having a given feature in Blender could create a Bounty for it, specify the amount it would give for anyone interested in coding that feature and a finish date or something alike. Obviously some rules must be applied to these Bounties, like: - Will the code have to be merged with Blender main branch ? - Will the company own right to the code for a specified number of months before it can be merged in the main branch ? - Will the bounty acceptor need a reviewer to guarantee the code quality for future merge with the main branch ? Can he state as "bounty closed" if the code doesn't meet the quality previously defined ? Of course, this needs more thinking. And, a membership payment scenario could be done once there are enough Companies and Professionals using Blender, this payment should be done to finance a "Support team" that would solve problems as requested by those who paid the support. This might fall away from the Blender Foundation "jurisdiction", meaning that it would make sense to have a company offering it, much has we see with PostgreSQL and the companies that offer support for it. Cheerz, -- Rui -- From letterrip at gmail.com Thu Jan 5 21:32:58 2006 From: letterrip at gmail.com (Tom M) Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2006 10:32:58 -1000 Subject: [Bf-marketing] Fwd: News Link Request... In-Reply-To: <9e6e0d5b13bb9efe463c05ae65fa7928@blender.org> References: <9e6e0d5b13bb9efe463c05ae65fa7928@blender.org> Message-ID: <584fe5640601051232t1ce80589icc93e519083b193a@mail.gmail.com> Ton, > I've replied to him that I can't help soon... we also don't do banners > on our website. And I don't like to add stuff like this on the > frontpage either. Ah perhaps he just means front page news item? If so would that be acceptable? Roland Hess is familiar with the CMS stuff now, I could ask him if he'd be willing to post it, and we could handle further communication on it... LetterRip From letterrip at gmail.com Fri Jan 13 06:51:17 2006 From: letterrip at gmail.com (Tom M) Date: Thu, 12 Jan 2006 19:51:17 -1000 Subject: [Bf-marketing] The Libre Graphics Meeting Message-ID: <584fe5640601122151yec91f0ck625d9afffe74e704@mail.gmail.com> who all is attending the Libre Graphics Meeting? They mention on their website that the first public showing will be there, so I assume Ton will be putting in an appearance? LetterRip From rcampos at fusemail.com Fri Jan 13 11:55:42 2006 From: rcampos at fusemail.com (Rui Campos) Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2006 04:55:42 -0600 (CST) Subject: [Bf-marketing] The Libre Graphics Meeting In-Reply-To: <584fe5640601122151yec91f0ck625d9afffe74e704@mail.gmail.com> References: <584fe5640601122151yec91f0ck625d9afffe74e704@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <31114.193.126.242.162.1137149742.fusewebmail-27055@www.fusemail.com> Although I would like to be there and eventually do a Workshop with Blender, I don't think I will be able to make it, the cash is short right now. Perhaps next year. -- Rui -- ----- Original Message ----- > who all is attending the Libre Graphics Meeting? They mention on > their website that the first public showing will be there, so I assume > Ton will be putting in an appearance? > > LetterRip > _______________________________________________ > Bf-marketing mailing list > Bf-marketing at blender.org > http://projects.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-marketing > > From letterrip at gmail.com Wed Jan 25 02:55:17 2006 From: letterrip at gmail.com (Tom M) Date: Tue, 24 Jan 2006 15:55:17 -1000 Subject: [Bf-marketing] release tomorrow Message-ID: <584fe5640601241755g51f6999ej8d1bf604d255db27@mail.gmail.com> Here is the release page, any last minute comments? I still have some images to add to the linked pages, and probably need to make changes to the physics and the misc section on the game engine. other than it should be pretty final. http://www.blender.org/cms/index.php?id=731 LetterRip From chocolade at extrapuur.nl Wed Jan 25 07:15:48 2006 From: chocolade at extrapuur.nl (Ewout Fernhout) Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2006 07:15:48 +0100 Subject: [Bf-marketing] release tomorrow In-Reply-To: <584fe5640601241755g51f6999ej8d1bf604d255db27@mail.gmail.com> References: <584fe5640601241755g51f6999ej8d1bf604d255db27@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <6dca447b0601242215vc5af727s12e0dfce59607ef@mail.gmail.com> Nice! I think I found some mistakes/typos though. intro: Blenders > Blender's Physics: A common typo: A number of fixes were made > a number ... was made Subsurf: which can give much accurate uv unwrapping. > much more? Set Chaining: make adjustment of the main > adjustments in the main? Ewout On 1/25/06, Tom M wrote: > Here is the release page, any last minute comments? I still have some > images to add to the linked pages, and probably need to make changes > to the physics and the misc section on the game engine. other than it > should be pretty final. > > http://www.blender.org/cms/index.php?id=731 > > LetterRip > _______________________________________________ > Bf-marketing mailing list > Bf-marketing at blender.org > http://projects.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-marketing > From letterrip at gmail.com Wed Jan 25 13:15:30 2006 From: letterrip at gmail.com (Tom M) Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2006 02:15:30 -1000 Subject: [Bf-marketing] release tomorrow In-Reply-To: <6dca447b0601242215vc5af727s12e0dfce59607ef@mail.gmail.com> References: <584fe5640601241755g51f6999ej8d1bf604d255db27@mail.gmail.com> <6dca447b0601242215vc5af727s12e0dfce59607ef@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <584fe5640601250415o499fd7act9f5235264c5b4a76@mail.gmail.com> > intro: > Blenders > Blender's changed > Physics: > A common typo: > A number of fixes were made > a number ... was made I know yours is more correct - but I just can't bring myself to change it, since it totally sounds wrong - so unless Harkyman changes it, it will stay :) > Subsurf: > which can give much accurate uv unwrapping. > much more? changed > Set Chaining: > make adjustment of the main > adjustments in the main? nope I think how it is, is correct. Thanks for looking, we go live in less than an hour... LetterRip From p.lucauclair at heliosmulti.com Wed Jan 25 19:56:28 2006 From: p.lucauclair at heliosmulti.com (p.lucauclair at heliosmulti.com) Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2006 13:56:28 -0500 (EST) Subject: [Bf-marketing] release tomorrow In-Reply-To: <6dca447b0601242215vc5af727s12e0dfce59607ef@mail.gmail.com> References: <584fe5640601241755g51f6999ej8d1bf604d255db27@mail.gmail.com> <6dca447b0601242215vc5af727s12e0dfce59607ef@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <32911.66.131.132.172.1138215388.squirrel@66.131.132.172> Hmm, I thought it was me who remade the QuickStart Guide. :) From chocolade at extrapuur.nl Thu Jan 26 02:12:36 2006 From: chocolade at extrapuur.nl (Ewout Fernhout) Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2006 02:12:36 +0100 Subject: [Bf-marketing] release tomorrow In-Reply-To: <32911.66.131.132.172.1138215388.squirrel@66.131.132.172> References: <584fe5640601241755g51f6999ej8d1bf604d255db27@mail.gmail.com> <6dca447b0601242215vc5af727s12e0dfce59607ef@mail.gmail.com> <32911.66.131.132.172.1138215388.squirrel@66.131.132.172> Message-ID: <6dca447b0601251712g21bed855v354e7fb04448f744@mail.gmail.com> yes, well obviously i didn't improve any of the graphics, typos/grammar, shadows (...) not that I care of not being in the credits, but I think it's rather "we" than me or you. Ewout On 1/25/06, p.lucauclair at heliosmulti.com wrote: > Hmm, I thought it was me who remade the QuickStart Guide. :) From p.lucauclair at heliosmulti.com Thu Jan 26 14:41:15 2006 From: p.lucauclair at heliosmulti.com (Pierre-Luc Auclair) Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2006 08:41:15 -0500 Subject: [Bf-marketing] release tomorrow In-Reply-To: <6dca447b0601251712g21bed855v354e7fb04448f744@mail.gmail.com> References: <584fe5640601241755g51f6999ej8d1bf604d255db27@mail.gmail.com> <6dca447b0601242215vc5af727s12e0dfce59607ef@mail.gmail.com> <32911.66.131.132.172.1138215388.squirrel@66.131.132.172> <6dca447b0601251712g21bed855v354e7fb04448f744@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <43D8D17B.20106@heliosmulti.com> Well, obviously you too (don't wanna dismiss anyone)! Ewout Fernhout wrote: >yes, well obviously i didn't improve any of the graphics, >typos/grammar, shadows (...) >not that I care of not being in the credits, but I think it's rather >"we" than me or you. > >Ewout > >On 1/25/06, p.lucauclair at heliosmulti.com wrote: > > >>Hmm, I thought it was me who remade the QuickStart Guide. :) >> >> >_______________________________________________ >Bf-marketing mailing list >Bf-marketing at blender.org >http://projects.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-marketing > > > > > >