Merchandising, where the real money from the movie is made
Well yesterday was just about the most frustrating day I’ve had in months, if not years. And not client stuff, just learning new software stuff. I needed to tweak our logo — but I no longer have my old trusty 3d Studio Max. My options were 1) trueSpace 3 (full version was included in a 3d World magazine), 2) RealSoft 3D (full version was included in a 3d World magazine), or 3) Blender 3D (open source, and freely available online).
The problem with learning new 3d packages is that the interfaces vary tremendously. It’s like learning Spanish in preparation for a trip to Brazil. There are a few similarities, but actually it’s a whole different language. Of these three packages, I would have the most luck with trueSpace 3 — but it just wouldn’t install. I have no idea why. The installation froze every single time. So then it was between Blender and Realsoft.
Now, I would love to learn Blender. It looks like a terrific and powerful package, and it’s open source, which I love supporting. But it has an infamously difficult to learn interface. It’s designed to be really powerful and fast to use once you learn it…if you can. It proved too much for a single day’s efforts. So I turned to Realsoft.
Now I have to hand it to Realsoft. They have a surprisingly good package for something that was included for free on a magazine disc. It’s amazing. But there are just a few things about it that drive me freakin’ insane. For once, Ctrl-S doesn’t always seem to save the project. And two, it will crash occassionally. Not enough that I would call it a buggy program, but every now and then. But when combined with the saving problem, it led to me doing the same thing over and over and over again. It was horrible.
But, if finally came out all right, after working on it for about fourteen hours I finally had a new update for my logo. It’s the same as my old version — only larger! My old version had only been rendered in 640×480 for some reason, I have no idea why. That means it was fine for putting it online or on our portfolio cds. But not for more serious print designs. Which is why I was working on this. I finally got it rendered out to 4000×2800 — plenty big enough for even a good-sized poster! Yes!
Because I finally ordered new business cards. I’ve been putting it off because we’re going to be moving to a house in the fall. But then it hit me — nobody ever uses our street address. They only use our email address and phone number. So why put the street address on there anyway? So I finally got everything together and ordered 500 double-sided glossy cards for each of us! I love the design.
And (drumroll please) we also have official company merchandise!!! (the link is removed to protect my identity!) The idea is, I can order golf shirts to wear as ‘uniform’ shirts when I go for client meetings now. No more button down shirts! I’ve also designed a cool t-shirt (several styles of t-shirts and sweatshirts available), mugs, and a mousepad. And of course put in a large order myself! I’m very excited!