Leonardo | open letter to softimage

open letter to softimage

Leonardo | 02 Dezembro, 2006 10:56

I've been feeling tired of working as a free-lancer in the software-loc market, specially dissatisfied of doing it from home so I decided to start looking around for opportunities and thought it would be a good idea to start with the company whose final product I appreciate the most, SoftImage.

So last Tuesday I sent them my résumé accompanied by the cover letter below which I decided to share with you since I truly and deeply believe in the necessity of the changes proposed in it. Feel free to show your support in the comments section if you care and share the same belief.

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Dear SoftImage People,

Beforehand, a word of warning is demanded: This is not your regular “Cover Letter”. Still, I hope it reaches the right hands, whom, hopefully, will bear with me.

My name is Leonardo Cortes and I am a Brazilian living in Montréal for the past year. Although not being directly involved with any facets of the 3D market in a professional capacity, I started to investigate it two years ago as a personal agenda. After a long research and debating myself hardly with all the intricacies of such a complex market filled with complex applications (all from the perspective of someone who wasn’t even familiar with the term ‘3D mesh&rsquo, I came to the clear conclusion that the best (by far) overall 3D animation package available was also the one with the smallest market share among the main competitors: SoftImage’s XSI.

During this period, lots of good things happened and SoftImage’s strong marketing moves, such as the “3D Love Tour”, coupled with the persuasive argument of such a high quality release in version 5, spiced up by tidbits of the then upcoming FaceRobot really helped improve matters. More schools adopted XSI, new XSI communities were formed, more books and video training kits were released. Unfortunately (or fortunately!) the competition is not dead and even if backed up by Avid, SoftImage cannot ignore the empire created by Autodesk’s acquisition of Alias. Not only that, but even smaller companies with less inclusive packages, such as Luxology’s Modo, are turning into real contenders in specific areas. It goes without saying that this market is becoming more and more porous and compartmentalized each day.

It is my understanding that if SoftImage is to prevail as the best 3D animation package and significantly expand its market share, while it must cater for the high end industry with hundred thousand dollar packages such as FaceRobot, concurrently it ought to sow the seeds for a market conversion based on the individual. There is no denial that there has been a strong trend for an artist’s centric solution in which pipelines become more flexible to adapt to whatever tasks (and software packages) at hand, thus ratifying the ultimate truth that, at the end of the day, it’s them, the artists, who will dictate what software package will be used in current productions. It’s the people who will drive the market, not the other way around.

With this very important premise in mind, SoftImage must take a much more proactive attitude towards the expansion of the user base, which ultimately will converge into higher sales figures. As I am sure you know by experience, this is easier said than done. But there is a huge opportunity often disregarded by most software houses. Actually, “disregarded” is not the best term, but a rather under-estimated and thus under-utilized opportunity: the “Learning Editions”. SoftImage has a great policy for the “Learning Editions” of XSI. What it fails to understand is the proper definition of “learner”. SoftImage, as well as all other software companies, insist on characterizing someone who is interest in learning the ropes of XSI as a formal student. While this is certainly true for several people, it is also a total denial of the Internet time we live in! And I mean this in a much broader meaning than this paragraph might have encompassed. Allow me to elaborate.

We live in a time of endless possibilities, information is largely available thus making the dynamics of personal life options much faster and easier to follow. There is a vast number of people all over the world who are now turning their heads to 3D animation for one reason or another but not all of them (I would say a great part of them) are encouraged to follow through, they are actually discouraged not only because of the field’s competitiveness itself, but mostly due to the lack of financial resources to invest in learning a tool as complex as XSI. Sometimes, this is not the single problem. Chances are very slim that all around the world people who become interested in learning XSI will have a school available at reach. If he or she is lucky enough to have an animation school nearby, truth be told, chances are it will be a Maya based school. Other times, the potential “learner” (not student) is already past school time or is already paying for school loans because he or she did not know better when they had to choose their field of study at such an early stage in life and now they wish to delve into 3D. But how???

Proof of the increasing number of such group of people is the growing success of companies such as Digital Tutors, 3D Tutorial, Gnomon, Kurv Studios, 3DQuakers and so many others. Now, if we put aside for a moment the current (hypocritical) moral standards, how many people who try self-teaching XSI using such tools actually have a registered XSI license? Even how many of them actually paid for the video-tutorials themselves? Like it or not, legal or not, XSI and many other applications are just a click away and who can actually say that never broke a single IP rule? MP3’s, movies, books, applications, operating systems, whatever! So if even in a scenario like this the video-tutoring companies are prospering, it means that a good part of all the people interested in learning XSI is actually overcoming whatever barriers and running unregistered copies of the software (trial versions don’t cut it forever!). And of these people, at least some are actually supporting the video-tutoring companies. So how can SoftImage change the current situation to their advantage?

The answer is simple but two-fold. First SoftImage must acknowledge that one does not necessarily need to be a registered student at some school to be a “learner”. Second, SoftImage must understand that the real barrier against software piracy is business ethics, not personal. This doesn’t mean in any away that individuals don’t have ethics. On the contrary! As I said in the beginning of this letter, the individual should be the focus of this revolution and SoftImage should trust on their ethics. Simply put, I propose that SoftImage offer each and every video-tutoring company or book publisher who sells specialized content about XSI the chance to sell “XSI Learning Editions” to their customers. This would definitely be a bold move but would show the world the clear understanding SoftImage has of the time and world we live in and its challenges.

Let’s give it a quick analysis. If all the people in world who aspire to one day becoming a 3D animation professional actually realize they have a shot at it at a very reasonable entry ticket by combining both, software and education, what sort of reaction could be expected? Also, learners (again, not students) who are currently “in the dark” would be able to come out and aspiring individuals would have a real motivation because finally SoftImage had led the way by understanding that **as long as someone does not make money out of XSI, they are all “learners”, thus eligible customers to the Learning Edition Series**. They are all fair game because they would be financially supporting the company while expanding the user base at a much faster (and needed) rate, so that at the end, those who actually transition to a professional life would do so having XSI as their main development tool, thus bolstering XSI sales in the professional market as a consequence. This, of course, is not even taking into consideration that each new user would become a potential XSI evangelist, exponentially increasing possibilities.

Playing with numbers: Assuming a conservative supposition that 20,000 people per month, all over the world, consider learning a 3D package. Also consider that only 20% of them actually become interested in XSI. Let’s say all this empirical suppositions of mine are ridiculously insane so we will cut down the current 4,000/month potential XSI students (I guess now we can call them students, right?) to 1,000/month. Of these, let’s say that only half will actually pursue their goals by purchasing the “Learning Edition” + tutorial material. So we are talking about 500 additional “Learning” copies sold per month! Again, my guesstimates might be totally off and if you are reading this, you probably have access to the figures and are capable of a better evaluation yourself. Then again, more important than an immediate income is the actual enlargement of the user base, which will undoubtedly lead to an expansion of XSI adoption by studios all over the world, as a side effect, in the not too distant future.

I cannot stress enough the fact that if an individual who is really determined to learn XSI, if necessary, will probably do so by illicit means. Instead of condemning this individual, SoftImage should nurture his interest by giving him a feasible access to learning version of the software. This approach will create a solid mutual respect and admiration and pave the way for future businesses. Naturally, the naysayers following their pattern of avoiding changes will argument that this marketing approach would lead to a decrease in sales of the regular XSI versions. Fear not! As I said before, business ethics will still be there to leverage the market. It may happen that a rookie free-lance animator might do his first or second paid job based on the Learning Edition of XSI but we all know that at the end of the day, the professional 3D circuit is not exactly gigantic and if not led by ethics, sheer embarrassment and lack of work (yes, reputation is still a player) will lead to purchases of XSI’s regular packages.

Truly, I do not understand how come so many software companies fail to acknowledge the reality of the world we live in today and take advantage of it. If Microsoft is wise enough to offer OEM versions of their Operational Systems to those who buy a hard drive alone, why wouldn’t SoftImage, with a much more specialized piece of software, offer XSI Learning Edition to someone purchasing Digital Tutors XSI Basics, for instance? Lastly, please don’t reach for the shorter “escape route” by stating the availability of a free 30-day trial version of Essentials. SoftImage is on the verge of XSI 6. What a great moment also for a marketing evolution!

As I said in the beginning, this is not your regular “Cover Letter” and although I am not applying for any specific position, hopefully it will serve as some food for thought from an outsider’s point of view and maybe, just maybe, it will land me a job interview at SoftImage in concert to my true admiration of this company’s labor.

Congratulations on the 20^th anniversary and best regards,

Leonardo Côrtes.