Case studies!?

[craig deeley]

Rambling a little...

I haven't been watching this sort of thing...
Dynamic Auto-Painter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJU9RuD-98U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjvDRqOryNI&annotation_id=annota...
I received spam for this product today...
This one plays and has terminology that looks familiar.
Is there a lot of this sort of software?

I remember Xaos tools (last looked at that software back in the 90's):
http://www.xaostools.com/

I never really had a good use for these mega filter and smudge tools - tho they produce cool effects by altering photos and the like...

I was instantly seduced by SA when I first tried it (V2.5ish) - because I could hand paint with it!
With results that were more organic and messy than any other application could come close to. More than just a filter generator!!
What a great app. but - I tripped over it - not because all the artists I knew were using it - but because I like to stay up on Mac art and animation applications... and saw it reviewed in Macworld or somewhere.

What every so often bugs me tho - is I still seldom hear about SA - even in the news I check (digitally).

SA needs more reviews and glowing accolades! It needs some of those Adobe style power user (tho I never heard of any of the actual people) articles on how the tool is a major part of a work flow - and how the clients swoon loving the results and everyone makes the big bucks because of the tool!

SA needs some power user case studies!

I suppose I should volunteer one from my perspective ; )

[johndalton]

You've always been able to duplicate the xaos tools kind of effects in Studio Artist since version 1. That include the photoshop plug in they had as well as their very expensive pandemonium system. It's a very small subset of what Studio Artist is able to do. Set the path length to 1 and work with image source brushes, so you're just laying down image brush nibs.

I'd love to see more review and power user articles as well. The whole nature of the PR industry associated with mac graphics software and digital art in general has changed pretty radically over the last 10 years. Unfortunately the number of publications, and the quality of the existing ones, has really deteriorated over the years. Look at publications like EFX magazine, which was a killer graphics and digital art focused magazine, which no longer exists. Or digital fine art magazine, which again no longer exists. And online places like DMN which used to do a lot of articles on Studio Artist have refocused over the years and become pretty irrelevant to companies like ours.

Synthetik also had a much more active involvement at various industry trade shows in years past. But we've cut that back pretty dramatically for several reasons. Most of those trade shows have either vanished, or become largely irrelevant, while at the same time the costs associated with exhibiting at these kinds of shows has skyrocketed. Since we're now based in Hawaii as opposed to San Francisco that also works to limit our access or ability to participate in these kinds of events to a pretty large extent. I do know David Biedny is going to be featuring Studio Artist in a talk about 'secret treasures' he's giving at MacWorld 2010 in San Francisco. That's probably also the last MacWorld, so again the nature of those kinds of shows has changed dramatically over the years.

We could be a lot more proactive about this kind of thing than we have over the last 2 years. And with the focus of information distribution in society moving to a more distributed web based blog model there are probably many graphics information blogs that we could try to focus more on. Feel free to suggest any places we should be posting information about Studio Artist. Or even better, do it yourself.

[Jean Detheux]

I've been using SA (1.1) since 200-2001, and have given a large number of talks since, be they hands-on workshops, seminars, formal lectures, even a "course" at SIGGRAPH in New Orleans last August. I've also written a fair number of articles in which I always stress the importance of Studio Artist in the work I do (calling it a paradigm shift).
But I also find that most people are in it for the "how to" fallacy, the idea that "I can do something 'like that' without having to change the way I am."
Husserl said it best: "To acquire a certain kind of knowledge, you have to become a certain kind of person."
It used to be "paint by number," is it going to be "paint by pressing buttons?"
It's always what one can do with what one has on hand, so even with more bells and whistles in the toolbox, if one has fallen for the "grass is always greener on the other side" syndrome, one will not be able to make the most of what is available, be it improved or not.
I've taught and practiced drawing long enough to trust that "being able to draw" has very little to do with "how to draw," and very much to do with one's awareness of how one sees.

[Paul Perlow]

I originally discovered Studio Artist through DMN. I am grateful that I did then because there are not many places like it these days and now its almost a waste of time to read it. Through the years I recommended Studio Artist to quite a few people in top positions in companies only to find they seemed uninterested. It seems that people are "labeled" out, only looking for the Gucci labels. The new build of SA will help make it look more attractive for many people who never get beyond appearances. I recommend it every semester to my students and even have lobbied the head of the department to let me teach a course for SA. But people remain entrenched in labeled products. There is one place that could be a boon for SA...Design-Tools is a great monthly run by Jay Nelson. I met him years ago and he is a great guy. If you contact him mention my name. We have kept in touch and his publication is the real deal for recommending exceptional software.

http://www.design-tools.com/

[Jean Detheux]

To add to this thread: one of my papers was recently published, and it holds some material that is somewhat relevant to my angle on this: "She dances with robots"
To be clear, I am not against some info on the workings of Studio Artist being provided, god knows I can use some help with that once in a while, but I am very much at odds with an attitude that would posit that Art is created by "knowing how to."
So often, when my films are shown in festivals, I get comments along the lines of "How did you do that? I haven't got a clue how you did it!"
The fact is, I don't know either!
Whatever I know how to do does not account for what is on the screen, far far from it.
It is precisely that which escapes my control/understanding, but which I hope to be lucid enough to not interfere with, that makes for whatever "quality" my work may at times have.
Yet, time and time again, this attitude ("to do one's possible when faced with the impossible" to quote Walter Benjamin) is rarely grasped, most people want a sure thing, a "how to."
Intelligence/talent have once been defined as not being demonstrated by how much one knows, but by how well one can function when no longer knowing what to do (I fully agree with this).
SA is amazing at making that kind of attitude possible/necessary, it holds so many possibilities, I suspect even John Daltin does not come close to knowing them all.
So if we are to promote the use of Studio Artist (I am, and have been for years), I would place the emphasis on what distinguishes it so much from the likes of Painter and all, its potential for losing control and still remain creative.
It does offer the possibility of exploring areas that Photoshop and such can't even come close to!
And those areas happen to be the ones I like to be in the most, they are what my long natural media "life" brought me to the digital "for."
But, I print from Photoshop, and do many illustrations (books, posters) with the help of Painter 11.
As for posting videos on YouTube and other Vimeo, there are issues with music rights, or with festivals directors who would not appreciate to see a film made available for free on line while they are trying to entice people to pay to see it in one of their programs.
I've got an idea (it happens!): John Dalton is a musician who has published a large collection of CDs, he could make a 30 seconds excerpt available to us, a 30 seconds audio file we could do a piece with/from/for in SA, and post that as testimonies of what we can do with John's software?

[liveart]

Dynamic auto painter, twisted brush even corel painter is jumping on the band wagon adding some auto-painting features. Does anybody remember Alchemy. I bought SA 1 because it looked to be the big boy pants version of Alchemy.

I happily discuss/promote SA to my friends, colleagues and at the online art sites I frequent.

SA with v4 is so far beyond any other offering that it is hard to make comparisons. In some ways the program suffers from its strengths. I find that Art Directors are only interested in through-put, traditional artists coming to digital for the first time are daunted by complexity. In both cases 5000 presets and infinite possibilities scare as many as they excite.

There are still a few art publications that are not completely co-opted by the "majors" ImagineFX being one. Certainly the relevance of print publications and trade-shows has waned. But a product no matter how great still needs both pr and advertising. The public cannot, won't, find "hidden gems" with out a bit of help.

So where is a SA evangelist to go? I believe that Craig's post has the answer with in itself. YouTube Videos. Maybe when Synthetik is making the new training videos for v4, a few redacted.. promotional versions should be released on the YouTube community.

[Thorrific]

Perhaps in addition to this main ning SA user group there could also be SA user/promo groups on Vimeo or YouTube or Facebook or Myspace, etc, as other places to post images and videos so more people can see them and become aware of SA. I always tag my SA-made videos on those other sites with "Synthetik" and "Studio Artist (version #)" etc...

[Victor Ingrassia]

This audio review:
http://www.synthetik.com/REVIEWS/SARadionew.htm
has been on the Synthetik Software for years. This review is of a very early incarnation of Studio Artist (version 1.x I think), but still what SA could back then leaves most current apps in the dust!

~victor

[craig deeley]

The way I see it...
I personally love SA (v4 - and earlier too) as a fabulous happy/satisfying/frustrating/expanding digital art application. I use this tool for work and income related purposes.
I want to see SA "Live long and Prosper."
Both for me selfishly - because I like the application - and as a great digital tool with a really massive range of "art" options... In a time of smaller focused tools with basically just fast one trick commercial options as the core of their functionality. And I want John to continue to build on this thing and feed his crew on it too ; )

I personally dont use the auto draw features (much) but I know they are a very handy thing and represent a very commercial aspect of the app.

I also do not use the movie options or animating options - because I have never had an opportunity to explore these in a working/income related situation... I know these tools are very rock and roll too.

I work with SA as an illustrator - and am focused on the tools from an almost traditional viewpoint... Often using them in a way that borrows from traditional techniques. That would be my slant.

The question of "how do they do it?" - does come to mind as something important. If SA is understandable - it is that much more commercially viable/attractive...
Even if its just sharing stuff like: "SA can do what those other applications can do - see how!".

Sharing how-to info can be scary - if the info is what income may be based on. I may be lucky in that I can use any (digital) tool to illustrate - The content of the illustration being the selling point and the places illustration can go - limited. I am happy to share my knowhow about SA. SA as a tool I use to enhance the content of my illustrations with extra super cool dynamic effect.

SA case studies - so to speak - with intelligible descriptions of processes are something I actually crave - particularly related to animation. I recall the postings of Dave Nagel on DMN. They made features in SA approachable for me - common man stuff... The tutorials for SA helped a lot. Blogs and postings help too
Sharing videos would be great.

The more info the better!

Make your rallying cry:
"Help feed John!"

[plugsnpixels]

Over the last several years I've done my bit to help promote SA (beginning with version 2) in my Plugs 'N Pixels ezines and in issue #12 of an earlier ezine, The Canvangelist (featuring ACD Canvas), no longer published but still downloadable.

I've also got a SA page on my website, which needs to be updated...

John, I can run a feature on v4 in my upcoming ezine! Please send me an email to make arrangements.

[Chris Northcross]

One easy way to get the word out is through using social media tools a la twitter and facebook. We can create a Studio Artist Users group on facebook (though I doubt it would be as robust as the site here) and a representative of Synthetik (I'm guessing that would be you John) could create an official Synthetik/Studio Artist page.

I'm a fan of the social networking groups because of their distributive nature. Once you post something, anyone who's part of your network can receive news posts, updates, facebook message blasts, etc. and by chance people in their networks can see posts too. Its a place where you can post gallery updates, repost articles from the blog and drive traffic to this ning community. Same goes for twitter. We did a lot of work like this on the Obama campaign and the ability to echo out your message to a number of different people in a bunch of different networks was a huge part of its appeal.

As great as the ning community here is I think it can be enhanced even more by reaching out to other social networking communities.

Just a thought...