Subject: RE: 'Clients' stealing our work...
From: Andrew Hofman <[email-masked]>
To: Multiple recipients of list <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 20 Dec 1995 13:04:37 -0500

>>lightwave ([email-masked]) wrote:
>>
>> l> I'm still trying to resolve this situation but I've pretty much written
>> l> it off as another learning experience.... =(
>>
>>Next time write the word SPECIMEN all over the screen ! :-)
>>
>>Frank Aalbers
>
>Hyia --
>
>

I recently got a couple demo reels from a stock footage house. They had two
lines of text placed within the top and bottom of the letterbox region. This
put them too far within the picture to be masked without ruining the
footage. The top line stated "Copyright 1995" and the name of the company.
The bottom line showed the name of the collection on the tape. The font was
not huge but readable. Although a little distracting at first, I stopped
noticing it after a while. And even from the start it hardly got in the way
of my properly screening the footage. The only mistake I think they made was
in not making the text semitransparent.

When I do this with my animations, I have the top line read something like
"For Demo Use Only." I am not ambiguous about saying this!!! ("Specimen" is
pretty unambiguous but it sounds like something you do into a plastic
beaker.) The lower line says "Copyright 1995 Andrew Hofman." No matter who
the client is, I own that animation until it's paid for, so it's my damn
copyright! I make the text semitransparent but still unmistakably readable.
Also, I usually submit works-in progress on VHS. Submitting a demo clip as a
production-quality master is incredibly rare. Most clients can see more than
well enough what to expect from a VHS. The ones who want better are either
long-time clients, extremely high-end, or trying to rip you off. Use your
own judgement. If you're concerned that VHS will make your colors bleed and
not do the demo justice, get a waveform/vector scope and check your colors
because they're probably illegal. Granted, VHS still means a loss of
clarity, and as the creator, I hate it. But your client has never seen the
direct digital output to compare it with, so suck in that gut and tough it out.

I somethimes render test animations with the copyright message already in
place. With foreground alpha keying, the same image can be used as both an
alpha and the visible text itself. Foreground Dissolve permits transparent
text. If I think the "scratch" animation will end up being the finished
version, I'll render it with no copyright, then re-render it as a background
sequence with text alpha keyed over it. That means I still have the
text-free version on disk, ready to go upon client approval. Another option
is to record the finished version to master tape, then run that through a
Toaster or DVE with text partially dissolved over it and on to VHS. Now
you've got a VHS burn, and a master ready and waiting to slap into their hand.

   ************************************************
   * Andy Hofman       |    LumaQuest Productions *            
   * [email-masked]  |             3D Animation *
   * 513-643-7333      |  Dual Raptor 3 Rendering *
   ************************************************