Poll for demand of hollywood style effects

I have the capability to produce hollywood style special effects and render them in such a way, that they are all neatly laid out on a grid in power of two fashion, and in addition to that they will be perfectly looping.

This is perfect for LoadAnimImage, used in both BlitzMax and Blitz3D.

The alpha channel is retained, and in some cases even exploited to create absolutely stunning results.

We are not talking about the rubbish you make with "explosion generators" or silly little plugins, we are talking about photorealistic hollywood quality special effects.

I am planning to bring a product like this to market. Yes there are similar products but they are high end, often costing upwards of $200 for a paltry few effects, almost none of which ever loop correctly, nor are they in game friendly sizes and formats.

With the hollywood pack I have in mind, you would get proper special effects - the kind of stuff that makes current AAA games look a little bit cheap.

This will cost me a lot of money to bring to the table, therefore it will be priced at a sensible $39.95, this is to recoup the outlay. I, along with several industry artists are working on the pack. It of course is a matter of "you get what you pay for".

Are you interested in the pack? It will be digital distribution and be packed with at least 15 full movie quality effects from explosions to candlelight and sparks, as well as having a bonus "particles" folder full of useful particle frames for those who wish to have high quality particles.

Please leave your interest below, and if you're not interested in it or you can't afford it at that price then please be respectful and give the thread a miss. Thank you everyone!

As always with market research posts I can only speak for myself...

I already dont believe the products hype, post hollywood quality effects... ? My initial reaction would be show me an .avi and let the mocking commense...

I'm sure your pack is very good, but it's a new genre of product and therefor one that's going to take quite some selling to convince me it's necessary for me to own it.

The reason I look at commercial games is to look at how they've done the latest special effects and then reverse engineer them, i'd be highly suprised, and impressed, if there was an effect on offer in your pack that I couldn't create myself.

The only other reason to buy such a product would be if the effects on offer where easier to buy than to make them myself and I needed a particular effect - for that to occur we're talking about specific special effect and one effect to me would have to be pretty impressive if it's worth $40 of my hobby-coding time.

What part of that did you not understand? If you aren't interested then why post...

It isn't a new genre product. Similar products - stock footage - exist for $200 and upwards. Did you not read my post?

Maaaybe.. it depends what you mean by hollywood style special effects. A looping waterfall for instance, is that out of the question?

Mind posting some links so me and other people can get a clearer idea what to expect?

Seconded -- a demo (video or executable) of such a pack would be crucial for something like this.

Would I buy such a thing? Probably not, unless specific opportunities represented themselves at a point in the future that would benefit specifically from such a package...

Check out pyromania example in Blitz3D samples by Rob Cummings. I put that together from stock footage.

Depending on if I get any more enthusiasm or not, I'll go ahead with the job. The plan is to have a tilemap utility packaged with it free of charge for your own projects plus of course demos featuring the effects.

Provide a link to a demo and I may become interested.

What a guy... *blush*

>>What part of that did you not understand? If you aren't interested then why post...
What part of mine did you make up yourself, Mr Adrenaline? I never said I wouldnt buy it - only that I would need some serious convincing - and now that i've lost even more respect for you, your probably right - I should no longer post.
>>Similar products exist for $200 and upwards
They are not aimed at Blitzers

Whiskey.

Yeah, his charm makes your hand just unconsciously drift toward your credit card. He's got a point though, your post didn't express any interest, only derision. On an unrelated note, I can't remember who made this statement:

It irritates me how every time someone comes up with a good product idea/offering you get the "I could do it myself" type posers putting on the dampers. Unfortunately we're not all so clever/gifted.

Its commonly accepted that the main obstacle to completing projects is the art content. Anything that helps in this area has to be a good thing.
The quality of your work is always high so this would be something that I would definetely be interested in.

Please dont label me with that brush Smiff, I gave clear indication of my personal interest in the product and the conditions under which I would buy it - of course I factored in the do-it-myself product value to weigh against the product, but I didn't mock it for that. The only chastising I gave at all was the post-AAA game / hollywood quality hype, which I brushed aside as marketting drivel.

At least post an example.

i'm in agreement Smiff... of course a lot of things some of us can do... and there are things that some of us can't... regardless though, there is the element of not having to spend time doing it... and spend a lil money instead...

yeah... lets not let this sorta stuff become the norm... it's begginning to resemble the kiddie zoo at the FPSC forum on the DB board...

well, almost... i mean, an opinion is one thing... but...

--Mike

Then you are also in agreement with me. It's just that Smiff presented it as being contrary to what I said. I made my post in a personal context as to what it was worth to me, and me alone, because it was a marketting post.

I'm frankly a little put out that I got such a hostile response when giving OEJ the answer he requested, and i'm not too keen on the side taking since.

it's really not about me either being in agreement, or disagreement with you...

nor is it about me agreeing with Smiff for that matter...

i think that you are your stretching my words here... maybe to try and validate a point... a point, which, in my opinion... well... it's gonna need a lot of stretching to even approach being correct...

sorrrrry...

hey... it's HOLLLYYYYWOOOOD eefects!!!!

... even it only lives up to half of what it's supposed to be... ya gotta give the man points for showmanship!!!


--Mike

Prof - please don't mention Spock in front of Red - it could send him into one of his funny 'turns'.

Back on topic...

I could be interested, but would need to be able to see what I was getting before purchasing. I would be more likely to purchase when the need arose for use in a game rather than getting it straight away.

the solution... the emotion chip!!!

:)

--Mike

Can we get this back on track for a minute?

Right, One Eyed could you give me an unbiased comparison (as unbiased as is humanely possible) between your product and Particle Illusion. Thanks.

Hiya,

I've decided to put the pack on hold as I don't think there will be enough demand to satisfy making it.

It's not a particle system like particle illusion, but a collection of animstrips you'd drop into your blitz3d and blitzmax scenes, such as explosions, candle light, torch fire and so forth. This is better suited than a particle system, and a lot more realistic.

If you wanted to, you could use PI to come up with something similar. I was not offering an application, but a series of pre-rendered effects with alpha of very high quality - stock footage for games if you will...

Many thanks to those people who kindly gave their support above. Instead I will focus on cracking the casual game market for now.

As you can see I have also removed my signature as from this point I'm working on my own game. It just wasn't enough for me to make a living from doing artwork at the rock bottom prices I was offering.

This might change in the future, but until then... :)

One Eyed Jack: I wish you all the best with the game, are you going to keep a worklog? I'm always interested in reading about other peoples development experiences.

Hey thanks! I've never been big on blogs and worklogs but I will think about it after I have the game in a ready state :)

I'd be interested in an effects pack.

Another interested party here. I've been using the same two explosion anims for four years. I think they need retiring.