3D-Album Home

[dhoward]

First let me start by saying that I really like this product. Now the BUT. Originally there was a new free style every month. Then one every two months using one from 3DTime. I have bought some styles from 3DTime and for $6.95 it was not to badly priced. But now the price is $14.95. I know I can buy the whole package for $39.95 but I don't feel that from style to style there is enough variation to spend $40/month. 3Dtime seems to be concentrating on Pan and Zoom too much. Originally there were some great styles with several variations in them. Now there are not. The program is good but as in everything the styles start to grow old. The big thing in this program is the constant stream of new styles. If the price stays at that level I won't be buying any. Just my opinion.

[james_times]

We applied a different price policy for the new release. Because of the amount of work spent in the tool development for each style, we increased the price for a single style purchase. However, because all styles in the package share the same set of tools, we keep the package price the same. This new price policy applies only to packages with this kind of particular setting, it won't stay for all the future releases.

[nan]

Consider a 10 to 20 second video footage:

http://www.rocketclips.com/itemdetail.cfm?ItemNumber=14-073-290&ClipFormat=320

The price is $129 for a single clip in DVD NTSC. This is kind of standard in video production industry.

Consider the amount of time spent in developing a style, especially the new disptach style which has key framing tool that is equivalent to a $200 software:

http://www.canopus.us/US/products/Imaginate2/pm_imaginate2.asp

I don't have to say more.

[Frogprintz]

I agree with Nan! While it is true that 3D Album originally planned on providing one free style each month, this obviously required more development time than they anticipated. Should 3D Album be held accountable for this promise to materialize? Perhaps. But, 3D Time has come forward with an outstanding body of work to supplement this great software. Their pricing is more than reasonable. 3D Time is not a division of 3D Album. They saw a business opportunity where their skills could be utilized and took advantage of this. This means that their startup costs and development time came from their own pockets. This co-dependancy may eventually work against them since they are entirely reliant on 3D Album users as a customer base. Keeping prices low is therefore to their advantage, if they can sell in volume. Rising prices is a direct consequence of rising costs. I for one will not begrudge them a reasonable increase as I do not want to discourage them from producing future work. Am I disappointed that 3D Album has failed to give us a new style each month? Yes, but I'm more than pleased that 3D Time stepped in to fill this void. 3D Time has builds a tremendous amount of user flexibility into each new style they release. This flexibility allows users to pick and choose their own backgrounds, timing, video, text, frame movement, etc., etc.. As a result, they have not released just TWO new bundled style packages (with individual styles that can be purchased separtly), but expandable packages that can be user modifed to produce 100's of new effects. Just think of the possibilities.

I personally think the Pan and Zoom styles are great. 3D Time did not make too many effects for this package. The same can be said for their latest release, the Dispatch styles. When you compare these styles to their first releases (Sports, Romance, Family, etc.), you can see how much more improved they are. I see them just getting better and better. And easier to use as well. This should please those whose learning curve is a bit steeper.

I will continue to support 3D Times efforts. I will encourage and thank them. If you truly like the 3D Album software, then all of us will benefit from this same course of action.

A hearty thank you James.
_________________
Michael Young
FrogPrintz Productions
Authorized Resellers of 3D Album

[dhoward]

Obviously everyone has an opinion. Although the new styles may offer very powerful tools to the professional developers most users are looking for unique effects without having to drill down thru menus to change the flight path of a photo. Just looking thru the forum you will find a number of people who have trouble understanding how to use this program. There is enough work just getting you photos into the program, building it, syncing the music, converting it to DVD format then calling in some other program to make a DVD. Again, even though I sense an attack, I like the program. I am just stating that it is starting to get to be an expensive proposition...I think 3DTime has done a nice job in some respects, especially with the timeline. I realize a lot of technical expertise goes into making a style and in 3DTimes case they do provide styles that no other program out there has. But many of these features may not be usable to the average consumer. I don't know who there customer base is so I will admit I maybe off base. I am just expressing a view.

[Frogprintz]

dHoward,

Please don't think I am attacking you. But I would like to point out that 3D Album is not a program for beginners. This has been said numerous times. Yes, there is a measure of complexity. And yes, a number of users have had issues. But by comparison, more experienced computer users have thoroughly investigated and studied video production to ensure they had a complete set of the right utilities and graphics hardware. As a result, they have had few, if any problems. Myself included. If indeed they had some initial difficulty, these problems were solved quickly and easily with help from the great support staff. Limited computer experience, lack of familiarity with video concepts and terminology, and inadequate hardware have been the biggest problems, by far.

Over time, Windows has become easier and easier to use. Computers have dropped dramatically in price. As a result, users expectations regarding performance and user friendliness has increased. However, software has become increasingly sophisticated. It should be realized that 3D Graphics technology is a relatively new arena. It should also be acknowledged that this technology has a language all its own. Yet despite this challenge, every new user seems to expect the technology to be simple to understand and use. Especially so when this technology became a very attractive home user application. Nearly everyone who purchased a digital camera/camcorder, and then saw a homemade DVD created from personal pictures has been amazed. Until recently, this was only possible in the world of the professional graphics artist or videographer. Video production is not as simple to use as a word processing application. It is truly magic that developers and programmers have invented the right combination of highly complex hardware and software to produce the type of video we see in common use today. But this by no means makes it easy to use, let alone understand. And, there is still a long way to go since change and new discoveries are being made almost daily. The guiding principles, terminology, codecs, and multiple steps (and tools), behind video production remain, at least for the time being, highly structured.

Stop and think about this. Less than 10 years ago, the type of video result we are getting with 3D Album and 3D Times' software could only be possible with an investment of hundreds of thousands of dollars. I know. I've been making this kind of investment for years. Today, this and more can be done for less than $2000.

Therefore, if one wishes to produce an attractive video that can be played on home DVD players, and avoid constant frustration during the creative process, a goodly amount of study, practice, and patience is required. While this is an individual experience, just remember that 3D Album is not a product that can give everyone instant results and gratification.
_________________
Michael Young
FrogPrintz Productions
Authorized Resellers of 3D Album

[james_times]

Micheal, thank you very much for your encouragement, but do not get disappointed if we release a cookie-cutter template package for beginners next time .

For Dhoward, we continue to work on templates that is ready to use, but we need diversities. We know that there are different levels of 3D-Album users expecting different things. In fact, many users starting as beginners now become very experienced, as I can tell based on my correspondence with customers. We have to grow as they grow.

Besides, our new styles do have default animation path and work flow. If you do not want to define your own, it works the same way as other styles.

Regards,
James

[blinkito]

Nan,
Consider that when I first bought 3d Album (day one of the release)I was told that I would get one style per month. Enough said about that.

Micheal,

You said

[oldsoul]

This topic is coming up more and more frequently, making it appear more and more people are upset about it. Whenever someone voices disappointment in the lack of new free styles on a monthly basis as advertised, some people jump to the defense of the 2 companies involved and don't address (to say nothing of resolve) the the issue voiced. This is frustrating. Both companies spend a lot of time working on this product to make it a product we want to use and both companies do a great job at what they're doing. But one of those companies sold us their product based, in part, on the promise of free new styles monthy. Furthermore, they solicited our ideas for new styles -- I even suggested early on that details be provided when style suggestions were made, which would have made it easier for 3D-Album to develop styles that were what their customers wanted. Dozens of terrific suggestions have been made and only a very small number of them have been developed. There is just a sour taste left at what appears to be a bait and switch tactic, or at the very least, a broken promise. That throws the integrity and character of the company into question. I would like to see that matter to them.

[Frogprintz]

Perhaps a library of artistic, theme based background pictures, overlays, stylistic fonts, and a safe zone border, would help fill this void. From what I've seen so far, many of the existing styles/effects could be easily adapted to specific themes if users had a selection of royalty free art work to choose from. (i.e. the Pan and Zoom PS0011 wedding theme with pictures of the desk, wedding dress, pearls, etc.).

http://host212.ipowerweb.com/~i3dtimec/product_info.php?products_id=79&osCsid=f380f681b84003c6a1a9de66859293e4

The new Dispatch styles from 3D Time have improved controls to take better advantage of the wonderful effects and video integration. If 3D Album and 3D Time worked jointly to provide a series of properly sized templates that would install directly into an optional, user selected folder of 3D Album, this would enable everyone to apply almost any theme they wanted quite easily. Of course, a reasonable price for this art would be expected. I certainly would be willing to buy this extra feature.

I suggest background themes that follow the "Style Suggestions" that have accumulated in this forum category. These themes would not be stylistic effects, but rather a collection of generic photographs and graphics that would enhance this specific theme when incorporated with the users personal pictures.

Users who are reasonably comfortable with Photo Editors can do this on their own, but it would make the task much easier for less creative beginners if this was provided for them and the installation was done automatically.
_________________
Michael Young
FrogPrintz Productions
Authorized Resellers of 3D Album

[nan]

Michael, I completely agree with you. In the past, both 3D-Album and 3DTime have been working with new styles that use totally different templates. This significantly increased the complexity and the time in developing a new style. While new styles now become more and more flexible, many people just use them as they are in their orignal design. It will be great if we see that users who are experienced with graphic design can provide graphic library for these generic themes, and offer them to less creative users. It will also be great if either 3D-Album and 3DTime can provide theme-customized styles and increase the productivity in developing new styles.

Blinkito, don't get me wrong. What I was trying to say with the two posted links is that the price for the new style is not unreasonable. But what you stated was true. On the other hand, what the sales person told you was also true at then time. But that was not a lifetime promise. The company did not advertise in any media, nor in any printed material (software box, flyer, etc.) about monthly free new style. If you take a look at similar products like FlipAlbum, PhotoParade, and PhotoShows, they are all selling new themes to customers without providing any free ones on a regular base. And in fact, developing new themes in those products are much easier than in 3D-Album. I do wish the time for development of a new style package could be reduced to one month.

How much percentage of the new style suggestions have been fullfilled in new styles? I just went over the requests and found that at least over 50%. The problem is that people did not get them linked with new styles. Part of the reason, as Michael stated, is that many users just use the new styles as they are provided. For example, there are a couple of suggestions for cuiseships. There are no answers to these suggestions. But as a mater of fact, there are new styles (TDTSportsTA0012, TDTDispatchPS0010 and TDTDispatchPS0012) can be used for this theme. Therefore, I would sugguest the style developers post more answers to requests in the Style Suggestion forum.

[Frogprintz]

A selection of ready-made title introductions and endings would also be a welcome addition. These beginning and ending clips would allow a user to add or modify their own text. They could be limited to 10-15 seconds with the option to use pre-selected audio, or choose their own. Audio and video would fade in and fade out properly. These clips could then be "mixed" with a users choice of the 3D Album/3D Time, styles and effects that best showcases their photographs.

Beginners would find this extremely helpful. It would also give a needed "completeness" to any video production. For an example, look at this brief clip. I posted it earlier. It was made with Roxio's Video Wave7.

http://www.frogprintz.com/video/seduced.wmv

Some video editing packages provide a few selections of pre-made introductory title clips. However, the developers of these entry level Video Editors (like Ulead Studio9, Roxio Video Wave7, Pinnacle Studio, etc.), are not offering for sale additional libraries of these clips. There are very few alternate sources for low cost clips of this type, and the selections are limited. Among the alternatives that are available, most do not have a user interface to modify text and audio, instead, relying on the video editing application to accomplish this. I believe a bright entreprenuer with an artistic eye (such as 3D Time), can carve out a profitable market niche to serve this demand. Anyone hear this opportunity knocking?
_________________
Michael Young
FrogPrintz Productions
Authorized Resellers of 3D Album

[DJ]

I like this software, I like this forum, and I'm all about causing smiles--not offending anyone. So if anyone is offended, know that this is not my intention. But I have to say this. It seems that whenever it's mentioned that 3D-Album has not lived up to providing new free styles as they stated they would, defenses go up and the discussion ends up going in all kinds of directions as the main point gets totally lost. I (like many others here, I'm sure) have spent a good deal of money on this software. When I purchased the PE version new styles were supposed to be available on a regular basis, but the company pretty much forgot about the PE version and anything new seemed to be geared toward Pro and CS. So I purchased Pro--then as it seemed that the focus was more on updating and improving CS, I got the CS version, feeling that for $300, everything would be better. Instead, available new styles pretty much came to a halt. Then, new styles became available--but I've got to shell out even more money? That's lousy business and false advertising. Period. I don't care how you try to sugar-coat it.

In addition--and this is not a criticism of 3DTime--many of 3DTime's products are just animated titles--not complete "styles" like the styles that are part of the 3D-Album software. For those who have advanced video editing and creation skills, that's great--but selecting a style and having your photos displayed in a Hollywood-style animated show is how the software is advertised.

Though the word "monthly" is not used, 3D-Album's statements regarding the frequency of available new styles to download is indeed printed on the PE and CS boxes; PE states regularly and CS states constantly. I did not buy the boxed version of Pro, so I don't know about that one.

I've said all that to say this: how hard 3DTime is working... whether their prices are reasonable or not reasonable... the advanced techniques incorporated in their latest product (for those who have the skill to benefit from it)... what would be paid for similar styles if purchased elsewhere... how complex 3D technology is..., etc., etc. doesn't have a darned thing to do with the point--that 3D-Album has not-- and is not-- living up to what it advertises.

DJ

[vdoJim]

I recently purchased the newest set of styles from 3Dtime. What a great package. The price was very reasonable for the amount of development time involved in creating these styles. Keep up the good work 3Dtime.

I agree, 3D-Album could be a bit more forthcoming with new styles.

[rsnow]

I didn't save the box so I could be wrong in my recollection of what was printed on it. As I recall, it said new styles on a regular basis or words to that effect. I, like many others, seemed to have understood that to mean free styles. However, technically, if the word free was not printed on the box then MR has not violated their promise.

At any rate, I'm afraid I may have been the one to start this harangue and I apologize if folks are getting upset about it. yes, I would like to see the company provide some of their own styles on a regular basis. After all, it was their styles that attracted me in the first place. I like 3dTime's work and have purchased from them. I hope they continue to offer styles and folks continue to buy them. Still, it would be nice if 3D Album could squeeze out a new style of their own every once in a while. they must have some of the very creative folks who created their original styles still around.

Michael, you are so right about the need for more intro and ending styles. I wish I had the time and talent to create some.

My final thought on this subject: I've always been told that there is no such thing as a FREE lunch. I believe it and the principle still applies. If the folks at MR have to choose between creating styles or making needed improvements, I'll have to opt for having a solid program that works properly. After all, having a lot of styles isn't much good if you can't produce a final product with them.