-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.zolatimes.com/V3.18/pageone.html <A HREF="http://www.zolatimes.com/V3.18/pageone.html">Laissez Faire City Times - Volume 3 Issue 18 </A> ----- Laissez Faire City Times May 3, 1999 - Volume 3, Issue 18 Editor & Chief: Emile Zola ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Life of an International Telecommuter by Estaban Hill I live in Mexico City, Mexico. It takes me one minute to commute to work every morning. That is the time it takes for my computer to dial the connection to my Internet Service Provider. Where do I want to work today? Chicago. This past month I received an email and ICQ message from a client of mine in Chicago inquiring about my availability to perform some 3D-animations for a corporate meeting taking place in Miami, Florida in the middle of April. We talked about the time frame of the project, 14 days, and a general overview of the project. It all sounded agreeable. So we commenced with the plans. The project originally consisted of a single animation, then my client informed me that an additional animation was also needed. There was time for both, and things were going along smoothly so far, so I agreed. The primary animation was a 3-screen panoramic logo animation. This animation was to be played back before a live audience on 3 separate screens, side-by-side, each screen approximately 12ft x 9ft. The perspective center of the animation would be in the center of the middle screen. This would give the 3 screens the appearance of one large panoramic screen. Each screen would be driven by its own Digital Beta-cam or SP Video Playback deck. So the animation needed to be rendered to 3 separate videotapes. I have done this before, so the necessary techniques are in my bag of tricks. What makes a 3-screen project more of a project would only be in render time (that is, in the computational processing which converts the 3D models and animation programming into high-quality visual moving pictures). Since I am "virtually" rendering 3 screens as if it was one large screen, it can take up to three times the rendering time. First, my client faxed me the well-done storyboards (pencil sketches of the animation sequence), and everything was very self-explanatory. Then they sent me via e-mail a JPEG computer image file of the meeting logo, and the corporate logo, and an Adobe Illustrator file of the logos also. This really helps out a lot, as I can use many of the existing shapes and curves as a starting point for the 3D model in my 3D-animation program. As the creation of the 3D models progressed, I would post preview and status images with descriptions, to one of my Internet web sites. Then I would email my client about the updated postings. They were able to pull up from any web browser, wherever they were, the preview images, and status descriptions. If my client was on-line, many times we would have an ICQ chat (ICQ is an internet messaging and chatting program) about how it was looking and about the progress, and I would send them changed images that I was making while we talked in real-time. I repeated the same process for the animation previews (these are small-sized versions of the current animation sequence). I used AVI and MPEG video type files for the previews. Depending on what part of the animation I was working on, I would send wire-frame (objects appear to be made of a mesh of wires) versions—if it was only tests of the objects’ motions and timings. If it was about colors, lighting, or visual effects, then I would send an actual! fully rendered preview (in which objects have full color, lighting, and textures applied). Transferring Files The project was working out very well so far. One of the problems that I have encountered in the past with working over the Internet is with the successful transfer of these files, which are sometimes several megabytes in size. The single image previews were fine—they are only a couple of kilobytes each. It is the animation previews that can cause the problems downloading (transferring from somewhere on the Internet to your hard drive), because of their size and/or the unreliability of standard point-click-save-as web browser activated downloads. One solution that works out very well, is for me to set up my clients with a little program that works as a Download Agent, or as the industry likes to call it, a download manager. Now what a download manager does is something that never occurred to Bill Gates with all of his fiber-optic Internet connections. Download managers are for people like us who use the real Internet. How many times have you clicked on a file in Internet Explorer, or Netscape, and it starts the download, only to abort after 2 or 15 minutes? Then you have to restart the file from the beginning? Not anymore with a good download manager. The download manager that I prefer for its simplicity and power is NetVampire. It is a free program that you can download from http://www.netvampire.com among other places. With the NetVampire program, you click on "Add Job", and then you put in the URL (the http:// or ftp:// address of the file you want to get). Then you click on the large green VCR-type arrow button. That starts the Job. NetVampire tears through the Internet determined that it WILL get the file, and if there is a problem, it will restart from where the file stopped. That includes problems such as Internet timeouts, multiple ISP disconnects and redials, a computer crash—whatever. I have successfully transferred in the past an entire CD (600+ megs) from Sweden contained in a single file (an ISO image), over the period of a couple of days using this program. NetVampire will get the file—simply, quickly, reliably and for no charge—even from behind a corporate firewall. While the file is transferring, you can watch the status of the transfer with a speed/kbs histogram readout and a dashboard of status and progress indicators. Very, very, nice. There are other download managers I have used; two of the more popular ones are GoZilla, and GetRight. Again, I prefer and recommend NetVampire. Ok, so all went smooth and well with the previews. Then it was time for a final render… Final render done. >From Computer to Videotape Now. I am in Mexico. Not close to the U.S. border, but rather deep in—in Mexico City. I need to get this to my client in Chicago. This is a large animation: 20-seconds for each screen, plus an animated matte (stencil) for post compositing, and some face/fill mattes also, for the producer to add some highlights, or light sheens moving across the face of the logo elements, later in Chicago if he wished to. The first step traditionally is to get the animation transferred from my computer hard drive to videotape. I do not have a US$15,000 Digital Betacam Video Recorder in my house, so this requires me to go to a company that has this equipment, and to rent time at their location to use this equipment. I had the time, and I took my machine to one of the many post houses here. This place was nice with Digital Beta-cam and all the works. DDB Needham, the global advertising agency, was doing some TV commercials while I was there. So this place had the right stuff. I reserved my time. Then I tore my machine with my large 17" monitor out of my house, drove over to the post house, hooked up the real-time Beta-cam component output video DDR cables of my machine into their video system. Then recorded the animation to the tapes. Then disconnected everything, loaded my car back up, and made a mad dash to FedEx before the 5-pm deadline for overnight delivery of the video tapes to Chicago. Success... Then I started on the next animation. This animation was a single screen, with a little more complicated object-choreography than the first. We did the storyboard thing, the preview thing, and the final render thing. Thursday morning. Render done. Time for the post house thing. Done. We make it to FedEx at 4:40 p.m. We have 20 minutes, before the 5-pm deadline. The FedEx workers informed us we were fine, then they helped a few other customers, and did some paper work. Fifteen minutes pass, and they still have not finalized our paperwork. Then they tell us that the package will not go out tonight, because it is too late. Moreover, they already did the paperwork but the van was loaded up already. I pleaded with them whether there were any way they could get the package on the van. They said no, paperwork was already submitted. We even asked if we could go to the airport and leave it there. They said no. I am thinking to myself: I have the package in my hands. The van is sitting in front of the store; I have money in my hands. I got here and was helped at 4:40. If I chose FedEx, then doesn't it mean that it is important for me to get these packages out internationally? What is the problem with these people? Ok... things are getting hairy now... So we go to UPS. Nope, missed their deadline also... Saw a DHL down the road, they could send it! ...but could not guarantee that it would arrive Friday morning. We sent the tapes anyway. And got stuck in some bad traffic on the way home, so it turned into a wreck of a day. Thursday night. I talk with my client. After reviewing the final animation AVI preview movie file I had sent earlier in the day, they said there needed to be a change in the animation. The change was small... so ok... not a big deal.... What was a big deal for me, was the realization of how much time I had wasted that day sending off videotapes. Everything was for nothing. Wasted effort, time, resources, cash. For everything would have to be repeated the next day, as the "small" changes meant a new layoff (a new transfer of animation from computer to videotape). So the whole process again. Being a veteran to the craziness of the media industry, I rolled with the punches, but did not stop thinking about it. In these situations, you can let the frustration fuel either anger or creative thought. I spoke with my client, and told them that I will not be doing any more work for them until we have a better system of getting things to Chicago. Ok... Deja Vu Friday morning. The animation change is done. Animation re-rendered. Ready to go to the post house for another transfer to video tape, and then a mad dash to FedEx to send the tape to Chicago again! Fun! Fun! Fun! The post house tells me they can't get me into the production suite until after 5:30pm. FedEx’s so-called deadline is 5:00 p.m. BIG Problem. When I heard that they could not get me in. Something snapped inside of me. I ran for my gun. Not really. What really happened is I felt myself get real creative. The solution to my problem... There was a way, I had nothing to lose, so I got on the net, and went to the Chicago Creative Directory looking for a post house located in downtown Chicago that would have some type of DDR (digital disk recorder). I needed some type of system that my files (already rendered and ready to go to videotape) would be compatible with. What this would allow me to do was to take my rendered animation files, a total of 1500 separate images (D1 720x486 pixels, field rendered full frame), and put them on a JAZ disk (1-2 Gigabyte Capacity Floppy Disk), or a couple of ZIP disks. That would ELIMINATE the need for me to schedule with a post house to transfer to video tape here in Mexico City, then go to FedEx, and overnight the computer disks to Chicago. Instead, once the post house already in Chicago got the files of my animation on a JAZ disk there, they could put the disk in their video system, press PLAY on the files from the disk, and then press RECORD on the Digital Beta-cam Recorder, and make a videotape (or whatever media I desired). Presto. Animation to tape. The tape would then be ready and waiting for my client to pick up in Chicago. Sounds good in my theory... It turned out even better in practice. Within 10 minutes of my search on the web, I found a post house in downtown Chicago—a listing that seemed promising. (I wanted a place that could talk my language, a real new-generation digital house.) Cutters ( http://www.cutters.com). These guys are digital pros—and not just because they could take my files and put them on tape with no problem. This place was also connected. They were already setup to do remote transfer of digital video with their other location in Los Angeles. They had a T1 (1.5Mps) high-speed digital line setup on the Internet with an FTP (standard protocol for Internet file transfer) server waiting for me to log on, and to start sending the files! What this meant was... FedEx had just lost a lot of business. I could transfer my animation over the internet (using one of my FTP file transfer programs) DIRECTLY to the post house computers, then they record to tape in seconds from the time the transfer is done. I immediately sent them some test frames, and they worked out great. Resolution was fine, file format fine, field order fine. Very Fine. Everything’s Fine Here It is 4:30 p.m, Friday. I speak with my client. I ask them when they need the new animation reflecting the changes. They say, "When can we get it?" I tell them, "You can pick up the tape downtown Chicago in an hour and a half, at 6 p.m. Or, you can pick it up on Monday morning. My client says "How!?? Are you serious?" My client is ecstatic. I tell them what the deal is. Welcome to the information age. "Beam me my animation, Scotty." I hear Nicholas Negroponte echoing in my mind: "Atoms, no. Bits, yes. Definitely, thank you." My client speaks with the producer of the project and they tell me that Monday is just fine. Since I had all weekend to get the files to Chicago, I started the transfer from my own 33.6k modem through my ISP at 8pm Friday. It was a big transfer, 350 megabytes in total. The transfer ended Sunday morning 5a.m. or thereabout. About 30 hours total time. I used an FTP program called LeapFTP. Very nice FTP client with some good queue (to do list) functions for reliably sending large numbers of files. 9:00 a.m. Monday morning. I contact Cutters in Chicago. The frames were there, in order, and the animation played back is looking very good. 9:30 a.m. My client enters Cutters, goes to a post room, looks at the animation, thinks it looks great, and asks for a Beta-cam SP and Digital Beta-cam video tape copy. 9:45 my client walks out the door with a smile on his face. The broad implications of these events may not seem clear at first, let me address some of them. Changes Traditionally when a client requests changes to a project, no matter how miniscule the change, that would require that I put the animation to tape again, in its full form, and then re-send, by courier, FedEx, etc. Overnight delivery in most cases. With this new method, it is not necessary to send the entire project; I can send only the changes. Example: If I have an animation that is 10 seconds long, that would equal 300 individual image frames. Lets say the last 3 seconds of the animation needed to be changed. That is 90 image frames. I can make the changes, motion, color, timing, etc., re-render those 90 image frames, then just send those changed 90 image frames to the post house. The post house then inserts those 90 image frames as replacement frames, presses Play/Record, and there it is. Very nice. This can save a LOT of time, and money. Very efficient. This process does work well. As a matter of fact, while I was uploading the 300 megabyte animation, I was looking at the existing animation on my video monitor, and realized that a couple of the 3D objects needed some work, just an edge bevel, and some reflection textures. This sequence was about 1.5 seconds or 50 image frames. So, while the FTP transfer was still in progress to Chicago, I loaded my 3D animation program and PhotoShop, made the necessary changes, re-rendered those frames, then added them to the end of the transfer queue (to do list) in my FTP program. The additional files were about 50 megabytes in size. This means that while I was doing the transfer, I was making changes, and tweaking, at the same time. So the animation that arrived was different than the one I started with. Another benefit example: My client goes to present the show in Miami, then the client requests changes in an animation or video effects sequence. Traditionally, if the work was done in Chicago, and that is where I was, I would need to redo the process and get a changed tape to Miami somehow before any deadline. This would occur under VERY tight time constraints. Now, with this new method, I can send the image files to a post house in Miami, over the Net. My client then picks up the tape from the city he is in. Jurisdiction Distance is dead for me now. Do I need to worry that customs agents on the border (or airport inspectors) are going to stop my package, or hold it up because of an inspection delay? No. Do I need to waste my time filling out a form and signing my name to a U.S. government-mandated form here at a local Mexico City FedEx office stating that the content of my video tape does not advocate harm against any U.S. citizen, and that it does not contain material that advocates or promotes treason against the U.S. government? No. Here is something to chew on. Give me a practical anonymous digital cash option, a web server in the Bahamas, good anonymity encryption services, combined with my high quality, competitively-priced digital services. Give me a global market. Then try to tax me. Who tax whom? Where is my tax jurisdiction? Tax what? The same can be accomplished today with already existing protection services, at a slightly higher cost. Skip not too far into the future. I am doing my work with teleconferencing, instead of conferencing with video, I decide to conference with a 3D character, lifelike in skin texture and facial movements, maybe driven by data collected by my own movements. Now. Tax a 3D Avatar of my choice that looks like me or no, communicating in video and voice, which is performing these services? Things are going to get very hairy. Ayn Rand is smiling. Market If I can use my ISP to send my animation video files to Chicago, then will not the same animation video file arrive in Los Angeles, New York, or Crawford Productions in Atlanta at the same speed and cost to me? How about London, or Frankfurt, or Tokyo? Any slower? Not really. I can provide animation services globally. It will work equally well anywhere in the world. Again, the death of distance. My market now extends, very practically, to anywhere there is an ISP. After I left Chicago, the rest of the animation boys had more pie for themselves. Well, I am not back in Chicago, but I am back in the Chicago game, and an even bigger game worldwide. Do it digitally. And watch the one's and zero's rip through and destroy distance and border monopolies. Time The sending of 350 megabytes from my machine via a slow modem may seem extreme to some. I agree, but I had the time, and it was an experience. There is another method of transfer, using an ISP. It is not necessary to send your files through your slow modem, you can take a JAZ or ZIP disk to your ISP, or any ISP, give them a little cash, and have them FTP the file for you. Depending on their connection speed (T1, T3, etc.), the files will get to their destination in a flash. (That’s how I would have gotten the files to Chicago by 6 p.m. Friday.) FedEx may have a wonderful digital infrastructure of tracking and management, but they are still moving boxes of atoms that are held hostage to physical mass and legal issues. I don't need an industrial-age courier that uses information technology really well, even if it gets international business service awards for it. I need an information-age courier. I can already see droves of ISP's taking the new digital courier business much further than FedEx can: the ISP's have the infrastructure; the ISP's are the infrastructure. Give me a couple of years, and I will not even need an ISP for a high speed digital courier service. Rather, I will have twice the bandwidth that my ISP has now for the cost of my ISP modem connection today. There are cable modems now in Monterrey, Mexico: $45 dollars a month for 10mps Internet access speed and a 450meg limit of transfer, and 10 cents per megabyte additional transfer. That is in April 1999. Bandwidth x Connectivity changes everything. More than any of us can imagine. Tear Down the Walls In conclusion: my client had several master copies of the animation in his hand early Monday morning. The DHL package containing the original unchanged animation that I had sent Thursday (for arrival on Friday) did not arrive until Monday afternoon. Bits, yes. Atoms, no. Thank you. Many think the hammers and machinery driven by political and market forces that tore down the Berlin Wall in East Germany were impressive. Watch what I can do with my free will and my modem. Don't wait for your country or the country next to you to tear down their walls. Get a modem. Get connected. Make your life and work information based. Get digital. What are many of the people of the world going to do with their modems? They are going to seize their freedom, and make their own decisions of where their borders lie. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Estaban Hill ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) says he is "currently available for many types of digital services including: 3D Animation, Video Effects, Morphing. Compositing, Broadcast or Web. 2D Paintbox, Backgrounds. Pagemaker, DTP. Magazine Covers. Presentations, PowerPoint, Self-Running. Internet Web Pages, Sites, Applications, Integrated Databases. ColdFusion. Security Consulting. Encryption, Software, Proxy Servers, VPN Systems, PGP. Multimedia - Kiosks, Tradeshow Booths, Group Meeting Game Shows. Research. Reports. Training. And much more of co urse..." His ICQ number is ICQ: 2764075. -30- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Published by Laissez Faire City Netcasting Group, Inc. Copyright 1998 - Trademark Registered with LFC Public Registrar All Rights Reserved ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End Kris DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! 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