sow@cad.luth.se (Sven-Ove Westberg) (01/30/88)
Some articles has stated that a lot of the old computer graphics
animation companys now is defunkt, Robert Able, MAGI, Digital Effects,
Information Internationals and Cranston Csuri. One article also
mentioned that it has been layoffs at Pixar. What about Digital
Productions?
I want to know why the companys now is defunct? Ok, I know that
you always can say "lack of money". But I want to know what technology
they used, hardware and software. Did they have a lot of old expensive
hardware? Did they just made a bankruptcy too get rid of old
equipment and liabilities? What are the emloyes working with
today?
Who is in the business today? What are they producing. Personally
I am sick and tired of all this flying logos, simple image mappings
and all other common tricks whithout any creativity.
I would very much appreciate articles similar to "Paul Heckberts,
Works article" on this topic. We have too learn from the mistakes
also, not only from all this fancy published images.
Did anyone know what the hedgehog said when he step down from
the scrubbing brush? :-) :-)
Sven-Ove Westberg, CAD, University of Lulea, S-951 87 Lulea, Sweden.
Tel: +46-920-91677 (work) +46-920-48390 (home)
UUCP: {uunet,mcvax}!enea!cad.luth.se!sow
Internet: sow@cad.luth.setrainor@CS.UCLA.EDU (02/01/88)
In article <957@luth.luth.se> Sven-Ove Westberg <sow@cad.luth.se> writes: >Some articles has stated that a lot of the old computer graphics >animation companys now is defunkt, Robert Able, MAGI, Digital Effects, >Information Internationals and Cranston Csuri. One article also >mentioned that it has been layoffs at Pixar. What about Digital >Productions? You forgot to mention Omnibus. In the past, the WEB between production companies has been very twisted. Someone should write a book -- there is so much stuff. I am not very familiar with the companies back east, and so I won't write the big article here. I will say, though, that from my experience graphics companies do not do enough LONG RANGE PLANNING. Short term gains can be very high, and they fuel poor decisions, especially with respect to growth. ``Hello, I'm from THE NETWORK. Want the contract for our fall season? We will give you a lot of MONEY.'' There is insane competition between companies for major jobs, and there are a lot of EGOS. Much of the business is done at the personal level and there is plenty of speculation and hype flying around. Small companies seem to do much better. If you take it easy, invest modestly in equipment, don't get greedy, and don't try to build an empire, you'll do just fine. The sad thing is that a lot of nice people have to find new jobs when companies go under -- the graphics shuffle. douglas j. trainor [][] trainor@cs.ucla.edu [][] ...!{ihnp4,randvax,sch-loki,ucbvax}!ucla-cs!trainor
leech@polk.cs.unc.edu (Jonathan Leech) (02/02/88)
Expires: Sender: Followup-To: Distribution: Keywords: In article <10974@shemp.UCLA.EDU> trainor@CS.UCLA.EDU (Vulture of Light) writes: >In article <957@luth.luth.se> Sven-Ove Westberg <sow@cad.luth.se> writes: >>Some articles has stated that a lot of the old computer graphics >>animation companys now is defunkt... >>What about Digital Productions? The original principals founded Whitney-Demos productions after Omnibus acquired DP (which went down the loo together with Omnibus). > You forgot to mention Omnibus... >I will say, though, that from my experience graphics companies do not do >enough LONG RANGE PLANNING. Omnibus' acquisition of DP and Abel probably had a lot to do with their going under (overextended financially), though since I wasn't working for them by that time, I'm just speculating. Also, many of the capabilities that used to be available only on large machines with custom software have been brought down to the price level where end users don't *need* to go to a production house, they can do it inhouse. Jon Leech (leech@cs.unc.edu) __@/ ``After all, the best part of a holiday is perhaps not so much to be resting yourself as to see all the other fellows busy working.'' - Kenneth Grahame, _The Wind in the Willows_
slim@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Slim Whitman) (02/03/88)
As a former member of Cranston Csuri, I may be able to answer some questions
regarding companies. Digital Productions as well as Robert Abel was bought
by Omnibus and then all three went down the tubes last summer. As far as I
know the only major companies left doing "commercial" animation are Pacific
Data Images and Fantastic Animation Machine ( there are plenty others that
are much smaller as well as larger ones outside the U.S. ).
As well as I can tell, the primary reason Cranston Csuri went out of business
was that they were top heavy ( too much management ). The number of people
actually doing animation or software production was about half of the actual
employees of the company. In addition, except for network intro packages and
station image packages, each work was "custom" and therefore not a repeatable
product. This led to reduced profits especially when one considers the number
of people involved on a project and the fact that advertising firms tend to
want significant modifications to the commercial.
The above is my opinion and may not be true in every case.
Hope I could help.
-scott whitman
--
Scott Whitman, Department of Computer and Information Science
The Ohio State University; 2036 Neil Ave. Columbus OH USA 43210-1277
slim@ohio-state.{arpa,csnet} or ...!cbosgd!osu-cis!slimtrainor@CS.UCLA.EDU (02/03/88)
slim@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Slim Whitman) writes: > >As well as I can tell, the primary reason Cranston Csuri went out of business >was that they were top heavy ( too much management ). The number of people >actually doing animation or software production was about half of the actual >employees of the company. Ditto on the top heavy for Omnibus, as a former member of Omnibus Computer Graphics... Omnibus gets my vote for the ballsiest power play though -- right near the end, whew! douglas
trainor@CS.UCLA.EDU (02/03/88)
Does anyone (particularly from NYIT) know how all those Japanese computer graphics houses that started up a few years ago are doing? douglas