I took an hour to copy quotes from emails I’m exchanging about Gooseberry recently. Just to share with everyone how much Blender and our films mean for people.
(USA) You must already know that the dev community you’ve got is MUCH more responsive, professional and humane compared to any other out there. (…) The Blender Foundation is a beacon of hope for so many. Don’t lose sight of that. How you deal with this will influence how your users and developers deal with their end.
(Poland) I am very impressed with the way you progress with Blender.
Project Gooseberry and Blender Cloud are ground-breaking initiatives!
(UK) Let me and rest of the Blender community know if we can do anything else to help, I really want Gooseberry to be a success. This is a very exciting time to be a Blenderhead :)
(Brazil) I’m very pleased to say that I just subscribed and start to support this project. I’m very happy to contribute with you guys, whose keep making blender the best open source program ever.
(USA) Thank you for being willing to take the risk and push ahead fearlessly for this great project!
(India) Although currently I am not using Blender for my professional work but I have been counting big on it. Upon my return from Canada to India, I planned to open my own VFX Studio. I am working on it and has planned implementation of Blender in studio pipeline.
(Vietnam) I want send money for Bronze Sponsor 450 euro, even if you guys not get full funding. I agree create this movie very important, need show whole movie industry!
(USA) I have been thinking about the virtual studio pipeline for some time now and am intrigued by some of the things you mention in your interview on the Gooseberry page. Honestly, I think you’re a step further than what I was considering. (..) Ton you are on the verge of turning this industry on its head and I love it. I’ll try to be a more active member in the future.
(Spain) I just spread the word in Spain, France, England, Italy and Germany and all my Spanish speaking contacts around the world. I hope this is just the beginning of a new way of making films!!
(Germany) this is a good opportunity to say thank you for the world’s most astonishing software. Blender is fantastic and unique in its variety. I used to have a licence of 3ds max and was always annoyed at the upgrade dictates of the software. (…) So yes, i like the idea of Project Gooseberry and wish you all the best for a successful realisation of your ideas.
(USA) I support your vision for growing Blender and visual artists into the coming years. I believe Gooseberry and the collaborative tools that may result from it can really impact visual artists for the better and provide solutions to the industry’s problem of nomadic studio life, while opening new pathways of creative collaboration that would not be realistic otherwise. I doubt you’ll give up on this, and you should not.
(UK) I’ve subscribed. I really want this to succeed because Blender and the community behind it means so much to me.
(Spain) I forgot to congratulate you on the great success Blender has had over the years. I am a long time follower and a big fan!
(USA) We would love to sponsor Project Gooseberry. (…) we’re finally in a position to give back to our wonderful community.
(France) good luck with the last stretch on Gooseberry! Even if you don’t make it to the full goal, what you’ve achieved is already amazing!
(UK) I like the idea a lot. No I do not believe that hollywood does it right. If they would they would not have scriptwriters artist and cgi artist on strike so often.
(Philippines) Believe it or not, Blender, the philosophy, and the community behind it has been a huge influence to me as an artist and person.
(Germany) As a Blender user and fan of your open-movie concept, i really would like to see gooseberry succeed.
(Mexico) I’m totally convinced that this will take blender a couple of steps ahead so keep on going!! Thank you so much for this amazing piece of software.
(USA) I’ve been following Blender for years now, ever since Elephant’s Dream, and I’ve donated for every open movie since Big Bug Bunny. I think Gooseberry is a wonderfully audacious project. I also especially like how there is ample time in the schedule for developing the story.
(Australia) Absolutely stoked to see you guys taking on the challenge of an entire open feature film. Mathieu was an inspired pick. Best of luck with your fundraising!
(USA) I realize the scope of Gooseberry and appreciate your push for a platform to support it. I have found that Blender is a project that I want to see continue and be a shining example for the open-source model regardless of how much I actually use Blender.
(Yep. That keeps me going, thanks :)
-Ton-
+1 on each and every quote. Blender really is an exceptionnal piece of software already, and this is just the beginning. Projects like Gooseberry really have the potential to take it much further, and supporting it is thus very important. Subscribing to the cloud is quite a small investment with respect to what it offers yet, and what it will offer in the near future.
I couldn’t agree more, about all of it:) Became a subscriber a few days ago, go Gooseberry!
Next tuesday, with 2 days to go, I have another public appeareance. Does Gooseberry still not have a printable black and white no too much ink A4 poster ?
Such wonderful support.
I guess as far as the future goes perhaps we need to build better networks and draw people in on a country by country basis. It’s pretty obvious there are little blender organisations that do have a network.
I have received some very positive feedback on my “thoughts about gooseberry” that I linked to elsewhere on this site. Yet, I received no feedback from “the makers” (although I am a – financial – supporter of the project).
That’s fine. I am used to not getting feedback from professional companies all the time :-)
It may be because I did not only praise the lord but tried to express some mixed feelings. Sometimes enthusiasts don’t want to hear about mixed feelings.
That’s fine. I am used to not being like for having mixed feelings.
Having invested into a project, I would love to see the project progress. I would love to understand what exactly the project will turn into, if the funding goals are not met (more than some vague statements would be cool). I would, being an egoist, love to see “some value for money” in the cloud before my initial subscription time runs up (excuse me for being honest, what I currently can find in “the cloud” is not what I expected). Like I tried to explain in my “elaborated notes” mentioned before, I would like to see a clear direction on this project (a “good movie” does not go well with “a good development R&D project”, as I put it in my text).
That’s fine. I am used to not getting what I would love to get (I am married, after all, you know).
But: I would have expected some “great efforts” after the deadline for the funding had been extended, to make this project more widely known. Some press releases (OUTSIDE the internet – the internet is NOT the real world), some “behind the scenes”, some coops with independent film makers, some interviews on TV, radio, newspapers, ok – and some more “outside the community” stuff on the web, agreed.
I feel that the extended deadline should have forced a burst of preview material, ideas, clues, “promising proofs of concept” etc to get more people on the train. It seems, to me, obvious that the Blender community has, for the most part, made up their minds whether to support project Gooseberry or not. Extending the deadline should have gone hand in hand with an explosion into the non-Blender world of the “art community”, IF (and that’s an IF) the project is about making a GOOD MOVIE.
If it’s about R&D, then maybe some outlooks at how Blender integrates into pipelines, cooperates with other (including professional) tools, can be used “outside the enthusiasts community” would raise interest among potential supporters that are not, yet, Blender users, because they see Blender as “toyware”. R&D, in my eyes, is the great benefit of this project (I have doubts about its movie-qualities, as expressed before).
That’s fine. I am all for R&D.
(Note: R&D does not mean “Rungeons and Dragons”, being a typo. It means “Research and Development” – and that’s what I invested in :-) )
@Marc: If you want feedback, just write Ton an e-mail. He answered mine really fast, although i mentioned some concerns about clarifying the targets… To be true, one of the sentences above is from me – however there was also much critics in my mail – i would have really liked to see much more advertisement, videos or generally information at all.
Since the extended time, the numbers are rising slower than ever. And apart from the story-video and Tons promise to do something big in the last week to drive traffic to the gooseberry-site, nothing seems to have happened…
But maybe this is just like it is. I hope they will learn for the next movie-project – getting 10.000 supporters is hard work, you cant just expect the community to do this if they don’t know how to advertise this for people not interested in blender. At least i don’t know:
A: Hey, would you like to help getting a cool open movie made?
B: Sure, why not? How could i help?
A: You could join the Blender cloud…
B: Whats that?
A: You get access to all training videos from the blender foundation.
B: What is that blender? I don’t need training for thing i don’t do.
A: Well, its just 45€ for the first 3 months – You also get all the production files and everything is creative commons, so you can share it if you like.
B: So i should pay 45€ for something i can legally get for free?
A: If you don’t like that you could just pledge a custom amount of money…
B: Ok, i might think about that option when i know more about the film!