Reply-To: <stephen@sv2studios.com>
From: "Stephen van Vuuren" <stephen@sv2studios.com>
To: "'After Effects Mail List'" <AE-List@media-motion.tv>
References: <list-4685502@media-motion.tv>
In-Reply-To: <list-4685502@media-motion.tv>
Subject: RE: [AE] iMac and AE
Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2012 02:59:36 -0400
Organization: SV2 Studios
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> You seem to always read my points back to me as lectures, combined with a
discernible lack of comity. I can see how Mr. Obama would find it annoying
when Thurston Howell III does it to him.

Email is dry, my apologies - we can't get virtual beverages and nice bar
tech soon enough. Next GSCA I will buy you a round or three.

> When are we NOT working within the limitations of our tools, be it tempera
and fresh plaster on the ceiling of a church, or sitting at a computer of
any particular date? To think otherwise is ridiculous, and artistically
dishonest.

I was not talking about that at all - my fav Orson Welles quote is "The
enemy of art is the absence of limitations". What I was referring to
purchasing tools for reasons other than the effectiveness per dollar.
(everything from brand loyalty to cosmetic appeal to many other factors).
That often results in people's work being comprised from having the wrong or
inadequate tools, not the inherent beauty of the limitations of any tool.
It's age old human story since the first flint arrow.

> And yes, back in 1997 I saw a company go out of business trying to finish
a TV series using Mental Ray on SGI, against my advice, because their group
art director felt it looked slightly better. Is that the kind of thing you
mean?

Exactly - or just take SGI itself. I've just watched a local production
company lose out because they confused having "the most expensive tools"
plus capable skills and years of experience. However, they have lost most of
their business via competition with same or even lesser skills, but much
better price performance for clients.

Emotion is the biggest baggage when making decisions about tech. In my
experience over the past decades, those that have emotion clouding their
tech purchases often spend too much, miss the changes and chasing rabbits,
but a scientific approach reaps benefits. Again, Google is an ideal model
for leveraging tech and ignoring conventional wisdom. Well worth reading
their stuff.

And I practice what I preach. The conventional infrastructure costs for a
150 Tb film project would normally require vast personal wealth or
investors/compromise/loss of control. For an out of the box film like mine,
that would be the kiss of death. But leveraging this approach, my  costs
have been 1/10th or less of conventional and the way is now clear and in
place for the film to be completed.

But my point is I think you don't have to be financially desperate to look
at optimizing price/performance and never letting tools get in the way.

stephen van vuuren
336.202.4777

http://www.sv2dcp.com/
http://www.sv2studios.com/
http://www.outsideinthemovie.com/

A film is - or should be - more like music than like fiction. It should be a
progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what's behind the emotion, the
meaning, all that comes later.
-Stanley Kubrick