Miniature Painting CD

[Modderrhu]

Originally posted by Kaple
The full Version will be around 700 mb\'s. The reason the demo is so big, is because of the \'engine\' running the program.

Originally posted by Mosch
I don\'t like the menu, it has a slightly confusing navigation
...
The whole \"engine\" seems unnecessarily bloated, with shiny buttons and stylish effects - of course that\'s a personal thing, but I have no use for things like this. Gimme a list any day

Yeah, I have to agree with Mosch here. What engine is being used here? Something like Shockwave? Hmm, hopelessly inefficient and inapplicable to a commercial release like this. These multimedia engines have their place, but not in distributed software. There is absolutely no reason to provide a Spartan interface, but things should work like people expect them too. Maybe I\'m just old-school (been programming since the XT), but this just strikes me as being lazy and inefficient, even in these days of broadband, gobs of memory and processing power. Is it too much to ask that bigger screens show more content at once, rather than that white border? Function and usability has been sacrificed to make things look pretty.

Okay, so those are my opinions regarding the programming, but; not the content. It\'s worth grappling with the inane interface to get to the superb content.

 

[No Such Agency]

Moderrhu: brutal and blunt but some very good points! I haven\'t seen the demo myself, but it\'s very true that pointlessly confusing and bloated, but \"stylish\" menus and navigation get on a lot of people\'s nerves. I would use a web-browser & HTML interface myself but we are so used to free web content that I would understand people\'s reluctance to essentially pay for a \"website\" on a CD...

Nevertheless, something like this sells to painters dedicated to improving their style - and will sell on the basis of the CONTENT, not \"flash\". I have no doubt the content is excellent, I\'ll have to check out the demo tonight.

Also, menu music is ok (we accept it for DVD\'s after all) as long as it\'s *really* obvious how to turn it off. Websites with music are another story...

 

[Grumb]

I liked the content, not sure about the interface. Hopefully the final will be a little cleaner. Definitely interested in owning a copy though!!! :bouncy:

 

[Modderrhu]

Originally posted by No Such Agency
Moderrhu: brutal and blunt but some very good points! I haven\'t seen the demo myself, but it\'s very true that pointlessly confusing and bloated, but \"stylish\" menus and navigation get on a lot of people\'s nerves. I would use a web-browser & HTML interface myself but we are so used to free web content that I would understand people\'s reluctance to essentially pay for a \"website\" on a CD...

Yes, I must admit a nerve gets hit every time I see that sort of interface, and it makes me nasty. Know what? My first thought was, \"why didn\'t they use compiled HTML instead?\". Less bloat with a familiar and far more co-operative interface. But you\'re right again about people spending less freely at what might be perceived to be a hashed-out job.

Originally posted by No Such Agency
Nevertheless, something like this sells to painters dedicated to improving their style - and will sell on the basis of the CONTENT, not \"flash\". I have no doubt the content is excellent, I\'ll have to check out the demo tonight.

The very reason I will still buy it. However, it has already quite put Mosch off. Hey, it\'s his prerogative not to disregard packaging in favour of content. Then again, consider your previous comments on HTML, that buyers might be put off by it... packaging is indeed important to the buyer.

Originally posted by No Such Agency
Also, menu music is ok (we accept it for DVD\'s after all) as long as it\'s *really* obvious how to turn it off. Websites with music are another story...

My computer plays music for me while I am painting - my choice of music. Need I say more?

 

[Kaple]

I appreciate the honest feedback.

Here is some explanation on the process that made os do how we did.

On the software:

The Cd runs using a program called Director. We are not a million dollar game/software evolving company with a staff of programmers. Therefore we chose a program with some flexibility, and that is guaranteed to run on all computers without patching (as for example many games need). The downside to this is that it makes it a bit more \'heavy\'

On the interface:

This was simply tested on real persons. With me sitting behind and watching how people used it and taking notes. This involved a lot of tweaking around and testing again, until we received positive feedback and I could see that people used it intuitively.

On the graphics:

We chose a simple feel, with important stuff being in big buttons.
The point was to have the pictures in centrum, as they are the thing people learn the most from.
To not make it to dull we gave it a matt metallic look. Again we used testpersons to find out what people liked, and when enough is enough. Compared to many other designs I personally think we ended with something a bit simple, but that was what the most people liked.

- The music in the final version can off course be turned completely off. And the program will remember this setting, so you don\'t have to turn it off each time you start it up. We added music create more atmosphere, but we are off course aware of the fact that people listen to their own music. I would also personally get freaked if someone decided what I should listen to when I painted...

- The video tutorial is only a small part of the final version, which will be more detailed. But to keep the demo from getting to big we edited a \'demo-video\'. In the final version the \'video-overlay\' button will be active, to enable the user to change the quality.
The reason we used quicktime is mainly that you can navigate frame-by-frame with that. This enables you to find exact frames and see them again.

- Rune Kappel

 

[Trevor]

I thought it looked very professional
But the music was driving me mad lol lucky there is an off button

The video tutorial is only a small part of the final version, which will be more detailed.

Yeah, I worked this out, but even the edited version was pretty good.

 

[Modderrhu]

Originally posted by Kaple
The Cd runs using a program called Director. We are not a million dollar game/software evolving company with a staff of programmers. Therefore we chose a program with some flexibility, and that is guaranteed to run on all computers without patching (as for example many games need). The downside to this is that it makes it a bit more \'heavy\'

It\'s easy to see that my previous posts give the impression that I know nothing of the costs of software development, I know it all too well, but for the mote of modesty I may yet retain, I think it\'s time for me to shut up. And also for consideration for the user testing that has been done. However, I stick with what I have already said, and, unfortunately, Director does not pass that flexibility onto the user. The look is fine, the feel suffers terribly.

But please, Rune, even though I dislike the interface a lot, it\'s no reflection on the quality of the content which I looked at. That remains stellar.

 

[Mosch]

Orginal gepostet von Modderrhu

Originally posted by No Such Agency
Nevertheless, something like this sells to painters dedicated to improving their style - and will sell on the basis of the CONTENT, not \"flash\". I have no doubt the content is excellent, I\'ll have to check out the demo tonight.

The very reason I will still buy it. However, it has already quite put Mosch off. Hey, it\'s his prerogative not to disregard packaging in favour of content. Then again, consider your previous comments on HTML, that buyers might be put off by it... packaging is indeed important to the buyer.

To clarify: What actually put me of is the price of 35€ when I am really only want to see Kaple\'s blending technique as a video. The menu and all the other points I have mentioned just reinforced this decision.
However, I DO think that the price is OK - if you want to see all the stuff on the CD. I don\'t want to see pictures of the finished miniatures, I don\'t need the word list, I don\'t want to hear about colour theory or things so basic that even I have got them down

 

[supervike]

To me, its the format that makes this an interesting tool.

I have plenty of \'paint guides\' with step by step pics and they all have value, but to have steps explained and then have live footage to reinforce those techniques, makes this such a stellar idea.

 

[Modderrhu]

Originally posted by Mosch
To clarify: What actually put me of is the price of 35€ when I am really only want to see Kaple\'s blending technique as a video.

Apologies if I got the incorrect impression, Mosch. You bring up another interesting point though...

I bet the content of this CD is copyrighted, and in the demo, the video is a separate Quicktime file - there\'s no content protection on videos. There might be on the actual text and pics, I\'ve not tried to get into the content. Some food for thought, Rune?

 

[Starfall]

Rune, it looks like there won\'t be any video of how you paint NMM... I hope there\'s at least a picture tutorial in the (demo-restricted) \"advanced techniques\"-area?

 

[Jarrett]

Boy, some of you guys are tough customers! What\'s wrong with the interface? I found it easy to navigate and very clean, well laid-out and professional. I\'m super impressed, Rune I\'ll probably buy one, especially if the videos are longer.

Question: how are the videos made? ie with a camera, a camcorder or...? What make and model?

 

[Kaple]

Originally posted by Starfall
Rune, it looks like there won\'t be any video of how you paint NMM... I hope there\'s at least a picture tutorial in the (demo-restricted) \"advanced techniques\"-area?

The feathering (blending technique) I show in several of the videos is the same I use for blending NMM. So the point is just how to place highlights with the right colors using those techniques. And yes there is definetely tutorials about that. There is a NMM, a Gold-NMM, and a SE-NMM tutorial.

And glad that you like it Jarret. Yes - the final videos is much longer. They are recorded with 2 big Sony cameras, can\'t actually remember the name of the model. But they recorded on some tiny, advanced, digital tapes, and where pretty huge.
I sat in 2200 watts of light and painted...I think I lost 20 pounds sweating.



- Rune

I bet the content of this CD is copyrighted, and in the demo, the video is a separate Quicktime file - there\'s no content protection on videos. There might be on the actual text and pics, I\'ve not tried to get into the content. Some food for thought, Rune?

We are aware of this, and yes the CD will be copy-protected. I must admit though, that the technical details are out of my range of knowledge...

- Rune

 

[Wren]

I\'m impressed with what I saw in the demo, and will very likely pick this up. I don\'t know how many threads I\'ve seen on how many forums of people asking to see video footage of skilled painters in action, and I hope folks will appreciate that someone has attempted to answer that call. Looks like a lot of effort has gone into this.

I can appreciate that not everyone is going to be interested in every topic on the disc, but as mini painting is such a niche market as it is, I can see why it\'s logical to cover a range of techniques and painting levels. I do crosswords and logic puzzles, usually when I buy a puzzle magazine there are some way too easy puzzles at the front I rarely bother with, and a handful of demonically difficult puzzles at the back I hope to one day have a shot at. Yeah, it\'d be nice if I could get a magazine only the exact sort of puzzle and level of difficulty I personally prefer, but that\'s probably not too practical for the publisher.

 

[dauber22]

Great analogy, Wren, with the puzzle books.

I\'m sure I\'ll pick up one, possibly two (one for the dauberspawn). Looks really good, Kaple.

 

[QuietiManes]

This looks promising. Will you be able to zoom in/out of the pictures/video on the full version? I\'ve got a 19\" monitor so when I clicked on the pics there was a fair bit of detail but sometimes you want to zoom in REAL close or you\'re on a laptop or something with a tiny screen. Also being able to adjust the brightness, tint, saturation etc is quite helpful. That or putting the files in a format where they could be viewed with other programs that offer such options for those that would use them. My monitor is quite old and even though my brightness is turned all the way up it still shows rather dark so I have to crank up the brightness in windows media player or paintshop or photoshop to see the details in alot of pictures/videos.

Other little tweaks I\'d suggest would be a \"how to\" or help file that explains what you\'ll get by clicking on the pics and other options etc, if it\'s not already the full version. And perhaps changing the name of the \"click here to begin\" button to \"options\" or something along that line.

Anyway, looks like it\'ll be well worth a looksy when it\'s released.

Cheers

 

[cyril]

hi guys

I tested a almost finalised version of the CD,and this stuff just rocks,in fact i\'m sure the number of good painter will grow in the next months.
The soft was not eavy at all,the video are big enought to see how the paint is put on the mini,if you didn\'t make any progress with that CD i think you\'d better give up painting and look for another hobby.

 

[Zordana]

Lol, it\'s gonna take me 6 and a half hours to download the demo apparently. Good ole dialup.

I cant wait to check it out, though I probably won\'t be able to afford the full version unfortunately.

 

[Drake Farstrider]

Well I may have to get one of these. From all acounts, even the slightly negative ones, it seems like it will be worth it.

Any chance that you will have a tutorial on picture taking on it?

 

[albufas]

well i LOVE the idea, ive been asking for the video tutorials for a long time now.

i only have one thing to say: beware of the price not all of us have money to spend on this, i think everything more then 35$ for that product is overpriced.

think small grow fast