Subject: Re: M&M style
From: Mark Thompson <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Cc: [email-masked] (Paul Griswold)
Date: Wed, 10 Jan 1996 15:35:27 -0500

Hello Ancel, I have a few comments.......

>I have to wquote on an animation for a local chocolate company... with
>products like little round M&Ms (with&without candy coating). of course
>the little buggers have to have arms/legs face etc. and jump about and
>generally appear pleased to be dessert.
>Is anyone out there interested in giving me ballpark quotes for this
>type of animation. (12 sec) cater for packaging like M&M as well as
>basic surroundings ..table, plate...perhaps a glass. No mixing with live
>video (as yet 8-) ). basic camera moves , shadows,reflections....no
>refraction.
>
>I don't have full details yet. But I'd be interested in pricing for both
>the complete production (synced to audio track) and just the
>scene/object/image/envelope files to do the render myself. BETACAM SP
>req.
>
>I can't say anymore yet ... so please,guys, send your upper/lower limit
>estimates ASAP.

First of all, animation for a project of this sort could be hideously
complex or almost simple. Without some guidlines for budget, realism,
motion, expression, number of characters, etc., the time and expense could
vary WILDLY. Second, on this list you have a wide range of people from
high school kids hacking out of there parent's basements to high end
professionals that do this type of work regularly. Because of this,
both the price qoutes and the level of quality will vary dramatically,
even if you were to peg down the exact specifics of the work. And believe
me, if this job is for a national spot for a major candy producer, your
concern should be centered on the quality of the shop doing the work, and
not the best price you can find. Without at least some of the specifics
nailed down, there is no upper or lower limit on price.

>I HOPE that this type of query fits within this forum...if it does not
>..I guess I'll get flamed...oh well.

What I'm trying to say is, its not that your question is inappropriate
for this forum, its that it will only yield a lot of misleading or
useless data. I will say that we, Fusion Films, excel in this type of work
and remain one of the industry leaders in cost effective, high-end animation
work. But I could not ballpark this job without knowing more about it
and what your goals are. This is the nature of animation, especially
character work. If you would like to look at some of our work, check out
our web pages at http://www.mv.com/ipusers/fusion and/or give us a call
and request a demo reel. We are also featured on pages 162-163 of this
month's (December) Post magazine. There is supposed to be something on us
in the January Post as well. Anyway, give us a call and we can talk further
about your needs.

PS. You are looking for someone to bid this job to do the work, correct?
You are not asking just to find out what you should for your own work....
I hope.
  *~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
  *           Mark Thompson           http://www.mv.com/ipusers/fusion  *
  *         Fusion Films, Inc.              [email-masked]          *
  * Director of Animation and Special FX      (603) 424-1829            *
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~