Expose 1 Book??

[CEJ]

Hi People

 

Has anyone had the chance to read this book yet, and if so what are their views on it, and would they recommend purchasing it?

 

http://www.ballisticpublishing.com/

 

Do you also know of any other books like this one?

 

Cheers

[Jeff Mottle]

Well having sat on the advisory board and having two limited editions sitting in front of me rigth now, I can definetly tell you it's worth the money. The quality of the books is phenomenal and the imagery within is even better. There are no other out yet, but there are plans for several others in the works as we speak.

[Sawyer]

Personally I love the book and I am not even remotely impartial. :winkgrin:

 

I am only sorry that the book has not gotten pimped through the big national sellers (I know there are reasons). The book really does a great job of elevating the work we do. Only right now I get the feeling the people who are buying the book are the ones who are into cg.

[vizwhiz]

hi There

 

Jeff,

 

The Expose book is awesome, dude

 

i got to look at a copy at SIGGRAPPH

b4 it got released, it is so way cool

 

Thanks to you Jeff, i was able to refer

someone at the very last week to This Book

 

and he ended up with 9 different Images included

 

Thanks again

 

so when is The Next Expose Issue coming out?

 

Thanks

 

Randy

[Jeff Mottle]

A new book will be coming soon. I don't want to start any false info so I'll just leave it as that. The guys over at Ballistic would be the best to answer that questions with any certainty.

[Jeff Mottle]

Expose 2 has just been announced. Check the homepage of CGA or go to the balistic publishing website.

 

http://www.ballisticpublishing.com

[nisus]

Wonderful book indeed!

 

I wonder how many cgarchitect-members actually got their place into exposé

 

Jeff/Smoothe: Swiss Re

Igor K: tower

nisus/AMS: HetVolk

 

rgds

 

nisus

[vizwhiz]

hi There

 

nisus

 

also Alex Gunawan, had 9 Images

 

http://www.3designarchitect.com/

 

****

 

awesome Book, excellent Idea

 

also CQFCQF i Think, too

 

****

 

Thanks

 

Randy

[recon]

Originally posted by Jeff Mottle:

Well having sat on the advisory board ....

Hey Jeff, has the ides of a Visualization-only version ever been tossed around?

[Jeff Mottle]

Yeah the EXPOSE series will be a yearly edition, but there is talk of mid year specialty version dedicated to one field. It's been disussed, but I'm not sure where the discussions are now. I'm not involved in the decision making at Balistic Publishing. I only find out stuff because I'm friends with Leo over at Ballistic/CGnetworks.

[recon]

Good that they idea is out there, I hope something comes of it... Expose 1 is terrific, but when architectural clients come over, it's not neccesarily the book to leave on the coffee table!

[neill]

what programs do the guys at 3darchitect.com use?

 

max?

 

anybody know?

 

 

thanks

neill

[neill]

i mean 3designarchitect.com?

[nisus]

Hi recon,

 

I've even been talking to the guys at Taschen to get an architectural 3d-visualisation book out. I'll contact Jules again in a week or so.

 

rgds

 

nisus

[Ernest Burden III]

I've even been talking to the guys at Taschen to get an architectural 3d-visualisation book out.

Been there, didn't work very well. Who is the paying audience for these books? Does the general public care about what we do in the CG world, especialy the CGarch-vis field? Do they care enough to spend US$35 on a book, especially when every image in there is available on-line? My observations from similar projects going back throughout the last two decades is they mainly appeal to our peers, and there aren't enough of them to make publishing and selling these book very profitable. Selling copies of your work to your collegues is not a good way to generate business, quite the opposite--it's a good way to teach others how to better compete with you. Also, books like Expose are offered for sale without compensation to the artists included. Is it an 'award' to be included, free advertising, being duped into giving away valuable imagery so someone else can sell copies? Is it just vanity publishing?

 

That is an overly cynical look at the books, to be sure. But I do feel their role is ill-defined for those of us asked to contribute material to them. I am not against them, I wish them and everyone involved well, and I may even submit my own material for consideration.

 

The other side to this is that these books provide a vehicle for great work to be seen by a wider audience than just putting it on your own website, which helps to inspire others and raise the industry standards for quality work.

[alexg]

Hi, Neill

 

We are using autocad for modelling and max for lighting/rendering

 

Expose1 is a great book, especially the character / 2d section. The works in those section are just truly amazing. Really opens your mind looking at all whats happening on the other side of cg industry.

 

However, I also agree with Recon and Ernest. Expose1 is good for cg community but not really effective for marketing/promotional use.

 

I don't really understand why the guys in ballistic wants to start with expose2 in such a short time after launching the first one?

We haven't even see them in major bookstores yet.

Too much of expose book in one year, they should consider making 3d magazines rather than artbook.

 

and to Vizwhiz

thanks for those tremendous support!

without your pushing me, I wouldn't even think submitting to expose

[recon]

Originally posted by Ernest Burden:

quote:

---

I've even been talking to the guys at Taschen to get an architectural 3d-visualisation book out.

Been there, didn't work very well. Who is the paying audience for these books? Does the general public care about what we do in the CG world, especialy the CGarch-vis field? Do they care enough to spend US$35 on a book, especially when every image in there is available on-line? Ernest,

I think you may have a point, but somewhere inside me I still think it would work. I don't expect the general public to buy this book, (I bet 99% of Expose owners are not in the General Public category either) but there are alot of related design industries that might pick up a copy if it's done well, as Expose was. As for teaching others how to better compete with you, I really don't think it's that big of an issue. As you said, it's not like all that information isn't on line anyway. This is simply a way to have a "best of the best" coffee table book with a more focused subject matter than Expose has.. How many architects and designers have stacks of books showcasing other major studios' works? And are they afraid to leave them out in view of thier clients? If they are, they have bigger issues.

 

True, nobody is going to get rich off of it, but I believe the time is right for something like this to work.

 

[ November 14, 2003, 07:47 AM: Message edited by: recon ]

[nisus]

I understand your point very well Ernest, but should one not publish his work to be afraid someone else might get better? I don't think so.

 

Imho, fear is never a good guide...

 

Publishing ones work means one is already ahead of others. One should just try to keep up with it. Or not.

 

On the other hand, people might not be interested in our work at all, but why do people by books about the buildings/designs of someone else (basicly any architectural project)? It's not the NEED that is important, but how you SELL it. Basicly people don't need so much except for food and drinks, but get convinced to buy music or moving images on plastic everyday, or spent more money on faster cars, computers or whatever.

It's but a trick to establish a fake desire...

So why not?

 

nisus

[Ernest Burden III]

should one not publish his work to be afraid someone else might get better? I don't think so.Imho, fear is never a good guide...

I do not mean that I think that way, or that I support thinking that way. But I have seen these books come and go and I do not think they have proven to be effective marketing vehicles, assuming that was even the goal. But what is the goal and just WHO is the audience?

 

But my main point is still that I think these publishing project need to better define what they are trying to do, and what place the artists' have in them.

 

Or nothing...no-one asked me, so why am I commenting, anyway? I don't mean to be negative.

[dwright]

The only thing I HIGHLY criticize from them is that they are making bucks ONLY out of others people work and they do not even give a single free book to those published on the book. That is, in my opinion, way too far. Is is common among other book companies to give 4 books free to contributors of the book.

[siliconbauhaus]

the book looks cool.

 

I bought a copy of Digital Architecture (I think this is the title)and Hybrid Drawing Techniques by Contemporary Architects and Designers both by M. Saleh Uddin several years ago.

 

These books are really useful for references / inspiration for arch cg.

[nisus]

David and Ernest,

 

Good thinking about the money and the goal. I'll have to think about it a bit more myself. I might get back to this

 

Silicon,

I got both books too. Do you got the one: Hyper Realistic Computer Generated Renderings by someone called 'Orrida or somthing'... now thàt is a great book, whereas I don't find the one of Uddin that good a reference...

 

rgds

 

nisus

[Sawyer]

Originally posted by dwright:

The only thing I HIGHLY criticize from them is that they are making bucks ONLY out of others.

And I kind of bet that a lot of the money they make is from the people whose work they are printing.

 

My take on the Expose thing is just that they are trying to do something big. Now it's just kind of cult level publication but in 5 years it could be big. I think that the market for this book is there and it just needs sometime for it to really stick.

 

I don't see the value of an Arch Viz only publication because I don't think it's that interesting to enough people. I could recommend Expose to most people I know (especially if they like naked women) but I would know very few people who I would tell to run out & buy the Arch Viz book.

 

That said I really do think that architects need education as to what they should expect from a viz service. Our Arch office gets 2-3 arch viz mailings a month. So far all I have seen are pretty poor. Some look like they are rendered right in cad 2000. Hard to imagine architects getting turned on by this stuff. A few years down the line I want people to know I am an artistic professional not a cad drafter who has a bit of time to kill.

[Ernest Burden III]

Hyper Realistic Computer Generated Renderings by someone called 'Orrida or somthing'... now thàt is a great book

Yeah, Lightscape cover, lots of Lightscape renderings inside. Too bad it has to become a historical document.

[recon]

I do not mean that I think that way, or that I support thinking that way. But I have seen these books come and go and I do not think they have proven to be effective marketing vehicles, assuming that was even the goal. But what is the goal and just WHO is the audience?

 

But my main point is still that I think these publishing project need to better define what they are trying to do, and what place the artists' have in them.

 

Or nothing...no-one asked me, so why am I commenting, anyway? I don't mean to be negative. [/QB]

I guess my major point is that I love viewing the best work in the field, and I think there are plenty of high quality images (Hey, look at all the ones in Expose) from the visualization realm to fill a book dedicated to it. The audience?? ...architects, visualization professionals, and thier clients... The purpose?? ...for inspiration, admiration and talking points. People who actually buy the book?? ...probably the first two groups mentioned above, and not their clients. Therefore it's not really a money making venture (and perhaps thats why it won't work?).

 

And my driving force in this quest to see a publicatoin like this come to fruition is that, while there is a time and a place for naked women sprawled across a pile of linen, it doesn't exactly belong in a book that sits on the coffee table in the lounge area of a viz-studio or architects office.

 

I was under the impression that expose was not really a money making venture (although it may evolve to that), but rather a community kind of publication. Maybe I'm just naive:) But I for one would love to help organize a project like this.

 

[ November 16, 2003, 06:08 AM: Message edited by: nisus ]