Shawn Miller
1
COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
-
Personally, between the two I think the Red scores the most points… mostly because it seems to have the flexibilty I expect out of a video camera (multiple frame rates, true aquisition CODEC, etc). Although at that price range, I probably wouldn’t even consider the Canon… I see the choice really being between the F3 (with S-Log upgrade and 4:4:4 recorder) and the Red.
Shawn
-
“I’d suggest that 3D for film or effects is predominantly PC, I think you might be surprised by the number of Mac-based 3D/motion graphics studios and freelancers.”
Funny, it never really occured to me until you said it, but I have mostly seen PCs in bigger shops and Macs (for the most part) in smaller shops (and with independent operators).
“I don’t have hard numbers, but speaking anecdotally, I know way more Mac-based AE and C4D users than PC-based ones.”
This isn’t a huge surprise, I’ve heard that the C4D user base is about 50/50 Windows and OSX.x … though, I can’t be sure how true that is. This is acutally one reason I like Maxon, they seem to be comitted to open, cross platform workflows.
“My question is this: of the Mac-based graphics shops (like mine), how many will stay on Macs?”
Yeah, that is the $64,000.00 question isn’t it. My gut tells me that people (shop owners and freelancers) will go where the performance is. I will be surprised if even half of the folks in your position stay on the Mac platform, if the hardware performance isn’t comparable to what will be available on workstation class machines in the future (let alone today).
Thanks,
Shawn
-
😐
-
“But that’s a different kettle of fish all together. An open source program like Blender encourages people who’s core interest is programming and code manipulation to “try their hand” at these skill sets. Yes, some high level artists use them as well, but it’s not equivalent to plopping down $1000 plus to purchase a personal work tool.”
Possibly, but I suspect most Blender users choose that application because it’s powerful and it’s free. Blender’s UI is quirky to be sure… but it simply does things that can’t be done with commercial software costing less than $3,000.00 US… like fluid simulations.
Truthfully Bill, I’m not sure what the rest of your point is; that there are fewer folks using 3D applications and AE than FCP? If that’s it, then I just don’t agree. The world of postproduction is much bigger than that… as I’m sure you know.
Shawn
-
“I’m not sure if Apple ever competed in that market. As much as I love Macs, you can build a PC with much better GPU power (possibly two monster cards).”
Well… that and the fact that most of the popular 3D applications were Windows/Linux only for a long time (3DS Max comes to mind). It seemed like things were turning around though. It’s unfortunate, I would have liked to have seen Apple as a bigger player in that space.
Shawn
-
“And by default the majority of those folks are on PCs.”
There may be some truth to that. When I first started doing 3D ‘stuff’, compositing and motion graphics work, it seemed that the overwhelming number of my peers were on PCs. Gradually, more and more folks migrated to OSX (after the switch to Intel processors). I always thought this was a good thing, competition and diversity keeps hardware and software developers competitive, hungry and innovative. Now, I have to wonder how many of my peers will migrate back to Windows or go to Linux (assuming Apple kill the Mac Pro).
Shawn
-
“3d compositing on an imac or mini just now. there will always be a market for high end machines that perform amazingly fast. thats a small percentage of the actual people using computers for editing.”
I think you’re severely underestimating the number of people doing this kind of work. There are millions of folks doing 3D, motion graphics and compositing work… Blender alone claims to have over 2 million downloads a year. I can’t even begin to guess how big After Effects’ user base is, but I would be willing to believe that it dwarfs the FCP user base.
Shawn
-
“craig, why are you and i the only visionaries on these forums.”
Wow……
-
If only Apple had given away Shake after they EOL’d it… sigh… 😛
-
“Do you see manufacturers coming out with huge new desktops? Would you say htey are producing more portables, or more desktops?”
AFAIK, SuperMicro and Boxx are still selling more dual processor (Xeon) workstations than smaller i7/5 desktops or laptops.. although, I understand that Boxx’ new smaller renderPros are popular.
“I can still buy a MacPro, can’t I?”
Sure, I didn’t mean to imply otherwise. I’m just saying that there will most likely always be a market for bigger more powerful computers. It seems like a lot of folks see Apple trending toward the smaller, single CPU connected to many peripheral via Thunderbolt – and a discontinuation of the MacPro. I’m just not convinced that all PC intergrators will go in the same direction.
Shawn