On Mar 4, 2007, at 12:26 PM, mike.connolly wrote:
> So, Mel, how did it go?
>
>
(Sorry for this cut-and-paste job which I posted to another forum...)
It actually turned out pretty good. Definitely not an A-list demo
presentation, but good enough to get a few people in the audience
really excited about Shake. After the presentation, I overheard
several of them talking to each other saying that they were going to
go to their school's bookstore to purchase Academic versions of
Shake, because they could get it really cheap, and they didn't
realize how useful it was.
I basically took the approach of selling Shake as "the best plugin
for FCP you can buy". I think that showing them how to hand-roll your
own keyers and stuff would have been completely lost on this group,
so I stayed away from geekery like that.
I demonstrated the "Send to Shake" integration from FCP, using a
multilayer FCP sequence to feed a Shake Multiplane node (which was a
bit funny to me, being that I've never really used the Shake
Multiplane, since I much prefer using AE's 3D system over Shake's...I
fumbled a bit during this part, especially on my small Macbook Pro
screen). I also showed motion tracking (including offset tracking and
using keyframe assistants), and using the Tracker data from one node
to control both a Quickpaint clone tool to remove a logo from a
persons clothing, as well as to track a RotoShape using the same data.
But by far, people were most impressed with the SmoothCam node. This
is the perfect instant gratification demo you can do in Shake. I
stabilized an 1080p24 HD sequence, showing them the actual analysis
stage of the SmoothCam node, then showing them the before & after.
This part of the demo was like giving free candy to a kid...a demo-
monkey's button for "instant coolness"
Another cute thing which I consciously made a point to show was the
reason why the program is called "Shake". I removed nodes from
noodles using the silly "shake it till it breaks off" gesture. Of
course i never do this in real life, but it was still a fun thing to
show.
The one thing I had the most difficulty with was explaining the
concept of concatenation of node operations. I showed them the
difference between FCP and Shake color-correction workflows (creating
a a crunchy, desaturated bleach-bypass look), and was able to show
them how FCP's 3-way color-corrector destroys the data for good,
whereas you can dial back even the most extreme color operations back
to normal in Shake. I think they were impressed, but not nearly as
impressed as I thought they should be But I still can't figure out a
good, simple analogy which can explain what concatenation is to an
audience of complete and total compositing/color-correction newbies.
It also took awhile for them to grok the process tree paradigm. But
once I compared it to an After Effects filter or layer stack, it made
more sense to them. I compared a node tree with a stack of filters in
AE, where the effects of each filter is compounded upon each other
from a top down direction. When I showed them, however, that what
makes Shake so powerful is that you can non-linearly look at the
results of that "stack" at any point in the stack, without having to
constantly turn "eyeballs" on or off, there was an audible gasp of
understanding from most of the audience. It's probably not the most
accurate analogy to use, but I think the concept is still sound,
especially considering that a lot of these people barely use AE or
even Motion, so anything more abstract in terms of explaining nodal
"process trees" and whatnot would have whizzed right over their heads.
Sassi is right, though...I've been to NAB 4 times now, sat through
many, many many product demos, and it has always looked easy to me,
and definitely looked fun to do. I always figured, if you knew the
software inside and out, and have a passion for imparting that
knowledge to others, how hard can it be?
Well, it's definitely harder than it looks Even simple, stupid
things--like making sure that you're zoomed in close enough to
whatever area of the screen you want them to look at, so it's clearly
visible on the projector screen--were anything but second nature to
me. I found myself moving nodes and noodles around and talking
excitedly about them, not realizing that I was zoomed out too far in
the node view most of the time...simply because that's the way i'm
used to working in Shake in the "real world".
One thing that I found useful as a newbie demo-guy: Have at least one
"shill" in the audience, who can ask good questions for you at the
drop of a hat during those times when you're tongue tied, or when a
part of your demo is not working like it's supposed to, and you get a
bit derailed. Thankfully a friend of mine showed up to the meeting
and did just that It was truly a godsend, and also helped to get
other people to start asking questions as well.
So although i didn't get a standing "o", or even rip-roaring
applause, now that I've done it once, I would feel much less
hesitation in doing it again!
Thanks for everyone's advice!
Aloha,
mel
--
Mel Matsuoka
Chief Science Officer
Montaj 9 - Honolulu, HI
vox: 808.566.6825 - fax: 808.566.6821 - e-mail:
