In last week's blog entry I asked you to share your ideas for products that you would like to see Digital Juice come out with in 2008. We received more than 180 comments and we got a lot of great ideas and suggestions...
Many of the requests we received are for things that we have already talked about and are already on our radar. As much as we wish we could do it all, we just can't. We are a fairly small, self-funded company and we have to pick and choose what we do and when we do it very carefully.
That being said, here are my responses to some of your requests:
Top Requests (in no particular order):
* HD Stock Footage
We got quite a few requests for "HD VideoTraxx." I don't know if we'll ever come out with "HD VideoTraxx" in specific, but the idea of us getting into HD Stock Footage in some form or fashion is an obvious need, and is something that we are working towards. To date we haven't come out with anything like this because we are waiting for the right camera.
For maximum compatibility and future proofing we'd prefer to shoot progressive, at 60 frames per second, and at a resolution of at least 1920x1080. This is a tall order and not many cameras are able to do the job. We have our fingers crossed that the RED (www.red.com) camera may be the answer. We are currently somewhere around #320 in the waiting queue to get our RED camera. We hope to have it in our studio sometime in the next few months. If all goes well, and it meets the mark, we'll be able to start producing a new line of HD Stock Footage in early 2008.
* More themed Editor's Toolkit Pro Sets
We have good news for those of you asking for more themed Editor's Toolkits. Yes! We do plan to make more themed Toolkits this year, including volumes for wedding, worship, and sports. But we also want to explore more styles and some broader themes such as "Spring", "Fall", "Summer", etc. We believe that the way we are now packaging our new Pro Toolkits will allow us to a lot more themes and styles in the future.
* SmartSound Compatibility
We floated the idea of SmartSound compatibility in one of our DJ Polls a few months back. The news is... we are currently working with the good folks at SmartSound to work out the details of how we can partner to bring SmartSound functionality to Stacktraxx songs. It's a big task and we've already determined that a simple plug-in approach isn't going to work. Each song will have to be looked at and reworked to make it compatible. At this point in time, I think there is a 'better than not' chance that we'll be able to do something in this direction in 2008.
* More Cinematic Music
We have another volume in the works right now.
* Virtual Sets
We talk about virtual sets every year and we've thought a lot about what the best approach to this might be. The reason we haven't come out with them yet is that we would want them to work for as many people as possible and we'd like to offer some level of customization to the end user. The Juicer's engine is almost to the point where we could seriously consider *something* along the lines of Virtual Sets. Stay tuned.
* Layered Jump Backs
As with Virtual Sets we look at this every year and talk a lot about what would be the best approach. Not every type of Jump Back would work well as a "layered" animation. However, the concept is a good one and would give a lot of flexibility and control to the user (which is something that we like to do!). Making that flexibility easy and accessible would be the key to the product's success. Ideally users should be able to manipulate the layers in The Juicer, in After Effects, and/or in Motion. The ability to at least turn layers on or off in the Juicer and export them separately (similar to the way our StackTraxx music works) would be a great start. The Juicer engine is capable of handling this, it's just a matter of figuring out how we would need to design the user interface and then come up with animations that would work well in layers.
The biggest concern is the size of the files. Each layer in theory would be as big or bigger than a Jump Back!
* Downloads
Many people have suggested that we offer our content for sale as downloadable files. We agree that this is a good idea, and we're working on it now. While we don't have deep enough pockets or a large enough customer base to risk converting everything to downloads in a single step, look for us to release some content as downloads this year. There are a lot of issues we need to work out with the 'model' and perhaps we'll ask for your input in a future TalkBack. You may pay a bit more per clip for individual downloads but you'll be able to get what you want, when you want it, and more often.
Winner of the Best Comment - Marc Einbinder
When I first started reading through all the comments, I wasn't sure how I was going to pick a comment winner. Many of the comments were very straightforward requests. I just figured the winner would somehow stick out and I'd know it when I saw it.
That's exactly what Marc's comment did. I picked his comment because Marc came up with a new product concept and then went on to specifically give examples of how it might be created, how it would work and how it could be used.
This doesn't mean that we're going to rush right out and make a "Spotlights" product, but I felt his comment was the most original, most specific, and most unique. It stood out from the rest. And so Marc is the winner of a $25 2008 Digital Juice Gift Certificate.
Here's Marc's comment:
"How about an MDE volume of "Spotlights" used to highlight text and/or logo elements? After seeing the MDE's in ETK Pro #19, I think an MDE volume of "Spotlights" would be real useful. Ideas for spotlights could be anything from lighthouses shining beams of light downwards to highlight text/logos in the "lower third" area of the screen, to a teddy bear holding a flash light for child themed productions, to an open jewelry box with a diamond ring shooting a light beam out from the diamond, to the statue of liberty shinning a beam of light out from her torch, which would be good in patriotic themed productions. The light beams themselves could be different shapes shuch as the regular circle, a star shape, a heart shape, etc. Also, the light beams could be of different colors as well as perhaps some having a faint stream of particles in them. Some would have light beams pointing upwards, and some pointing downwards.
A companion volume of "Spotlight Revealers" could also be created with either one spotlight shining a beam of light from one side of the screen to the other, or two spot lights (one on the left side of the screen and one on the right side) having their beams of light coming together and than reversing direction to reveal a text/logo element.
This would be good because as useful as the current MDE Revealers are, they all appear and then disappear. However, having a "spotlight revealer" where the base light remains on the screen would help to create a thematic look. You could use a regular revealer to reveal the spotlights and than they would reveal the text/logos. Think opening title sequences in video presentations where you have multiple elements to reveal such as names of people in the video presentation, production company names, marketing slogans, etc. Than, regular revealers to remove the spotlights before moving on to the main video."
Thanks for the great suggestion, Marc! And thanks to everyone who posted a comment or suggestion. We're always interested in hearing what you think and we consider every recommendation carefully. Thanks for being part of the Digital Juice community! We're looking forward to great things in 2008.
