John Dollus Posted February 11, 2003 Share Posted February 11, 2003 Funny how the Smoothe press release for the North American office does not have North American phone numbers for contact info. You might want to add that I sure am glad that I don't work in the New York area. Sounds like you are intending to decimate the competition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted February 11, 2003 Share Posted February 11, 2003 I sure am glad that I don't work in the New York area. Sounds like you are intending to decimate the competition. Bring it on, baby! I certainly congratulate Jeff, as stated before. But I must say, that wasn't the most HUMBLE press release I have ever read. My head is still spinning from being taken by storm last year and now I am to be bowled over. My goodness. I have been expecting some consolidation in the architectural visualization market--in fact I am trying to be responsible for some of it--so this move should not be a surprise. I wonder if the near future will see a rise of super-group rendering firms and a drop in small firms like mine (as in: me, just me). Can architectural clients learn to see the value of vizualization and pony up the cash necessary to fund higher-level work? History would suggest 'no'. I actually get the same or less per rendering now than I did (in the same market) in 1989. The difference is that back then I did very large, detailed airbrushed paintings that took weeks to complete, and now I have pushed the sizes down and more importantly the time necessary to do the work, making the same money provide more profit than it did then. I have used CAD perspectives since the middle 80's, so the rise in productivity is not just due to computerization of my renderings, but better software and hardware and now output devices make a bigger difference. It will be interesting to see how well the 'Smoothe move' plays in the major markets of Canada and the Eastern US, as I suspect it is a sign of the indutry's future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Mottle Posted February 11, 2003 Share Posted February 11, 2003 Hey guys, Yes I did not write the Press Release,Smoothe's PR team did, and really it was intended for the clients not other renderers so is why it was 'boastfull' What PR have you ever read that did not play things up to the max. The only contribution I had was the quote. Anyway there is no Contact info because it takes 2 weeks to get phone numbers here and I am still waiting..soon very soon. I wished we had these sooner but you know how it goes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M. Steadman Posted February 11, 2003 Share Posted February 11, 2003 I enjoyed your interview even if some of it was written by the PR at HQ. I am currently reassessing my career as an Arch. Technologist and turning more to Visulazation and rendering. I have always loved sketching and presenting ideas in an artform. I found your website through another link, as I am doing some investigating into Architectural Visualizations. I would welcome any advise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Dollus Posted February 11, 2003 Author Share Posted February 11, 2003 If I didn't know better, I would have sworn Smoothe uses the same PR resource as Cebas. They are well known for their 'enthusiastic' announcements. My comments are meant to be light-hearted. I was only poking Ernest with a stick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Mottle Posted February 11, 2003 Share Posted February 11, 2003 John I can not beleive you just made that comparrison. :gebigeek: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STRAT Posted February 12, 2003 Share Posted February 12, 2003 smoothe.....ggggrrrrrr :ngeupset: :ngeupset: :ngeupset: their UK office pissed me off severely just recently. [ February 12, 2003, 06:12 AM: Message edited by: STRAT ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig Ramsay Posted February 12, 2003 Share Posted February 12, 2003 Why Strat what did they do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STRAT Posted February 12, 2003 Share Posted February 12, 2003 not strictly Smoothe's fault, but they took my glory!!! Remember this job i did about 8 months ago or so - well, i did a full 3d model of the externals and allot of the internal appartments and main reception lobby. I did this on spec and rendered up a load of images for the client. The client was well impressed, but he didn't ask for them in the first place. Next thing i know, about 6 months later actually, i get Smoothe on the phone to me asking me if i can send them my 3d model and all my textures and references i used. apparently the main client (big client too) comissioned Smoothe to create a full 3d model and to do all the marketing material, ie - dvd, cd, advertising posters, tv news and newspaper articles etc etc etc. This client and Smoothe obviously have an agreement in this type of project because there's NOTHING Smoothe modeled up that i didn't. We are extremely peeved by this move as Smoothe's model isn't any better than ours and they must have charged the client a small fortune, whereas we would have included it in part of the main project costs. now Smoothe take all the credits and glory for all the public imagery and publicity which is hitting you in the face every where you walk in Cardiff. As i say, not really Smoothe's fault, and dont get me wrong, Smoothe done a nice model, but it should have been mine [ February 12, 2003, 05:21 AM: Message edited by: STRAT ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig Ramsay Posted February 12, 2003 Share Posted February 12, 2003 Bummer mate The same thing has happened to me before too! Din't worry tho buddy we all know how good your work is, keep it up (so to speak lol ) Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Griger Posted February 12, 2003 Share Posted February 12, 2003 Originally posted by STRAT: ...i get Smoothe on the phone to me asking me if i can send them my 3d model and all my textures and references i used... Did you FWD them the materials that they requested? It sounds like they ended up redoing the models themselves. ~ Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nisus Posted February 12, 2003 Share Posted February 12, 2003 Ow ow dear... So Strat, did you make an agreement with smoothe? Or did they remodel the building? rgds nisus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STRAT Posted February 12, 2003 Share Posted February 12, 2003 Paul and Nisus - i did send them my texture maps and reference photos (especially those on the bottom front fascade) because my boss asked me to but i didnt send my model basically because i was so pis*ed off i plainly refused, else i was gonna explode all faces and polys and stick them all in a single layer with a plain grey material - useless to everyone. also, hek, they should build it themselves, which is wat they were being paid to do. which they did. as i say, nice model, but nearly IDENTICAL to mine. difference being was that they had lightscape to render and i didnt. im also seriously thinking about contacting Smoothe in UK for job oppetunities maybe. Damn, Jeff would be a collegue then :gebigeek: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mzagorski Posted February 12, 2003 Share Posted February 12, 2003 I thought that the press release was entertaining. No mention of furniture rendering though!?.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Mottle Posted February 12, 2003 Share Posted February 12, 2003 Hey STRAT thanks for clearing that up. I can totally understand your frustration, I'm sure I would have felt the same way, but as with anything in business sometime you win, sometimes you lose. Ultimately it's client who decides so I am pretty sure that neither company did anything out or ill will. But I guess you knew that already. If they hired you too STRAT they will have three CGA forum members. They just hired Gleggers. LOL. Be sure to send in your CV, I'm sure they'd like to see it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt_vinoir Posted February 14, 2003 Share Posted February 14, 2003 strat, smoothe have been advertising for viz people and juniors too in all the uk arch journals for the past couple of weeks. you work is well up to scratch so if you need the money for "regain" or whatever you spend your cash on go for it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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