This program is so bug-ridden I don't know where to start. I paid for the full version maybe 6 months ago, and hoped to do some good stuff with it. But I'm constantly aggravated by basic errors that should have been fixed years ago. Just now I recorded a Dialogue and named it... but when I click Ok it goes on the list as Unnamed Source. When I try to record it as dialogue to Lipsync with a Character, it just does not work - no lip sync, no proper recording. Now at first I blamed myself, as many people would. But it's increasingly obvious this software is almost unuseable...

MrDrWho13 wrote:

I try to learn something new each day but I'm not sure how Phwoar applies here. Sure, both me and my ideas are fit and hot but did you mean the slang was just as old as the tag?

And don't worry about the Chinese site taking over this one just yet.

Phwoar that meta tag must be ancient.

But sometimes it's the simplest solutions that get things rolling in the right direction. Having proper meta tags so that Google doesn't assign you page 546 in results. Having a website that doesn't look like an archive.org page from 1994. Devoting the time to create proper tutorials (paying to have them done right if a fan won't do it for recognition). Listening to and accepting help from your fans, some of whom might just work for free if given access, recognition and respect.

So it's not the entire fault, if any, of the Muvizu devs. The people writing their cheques have control in this situation.

As a marketing copywriter I also appreciate their desire to embellish their product with the latest market fad. Hell, I'd certainly do it if I planned an IPO or selling out. Imagine the BS you could spew in a prospectus or presentation to prospective investors.

Now that would be a funny short film made in Muvizu if we had a VR headset prop so we can have all these people walking around bumping into each other with arms raised trying to hand out money to invest.

Nothing frustrates me more than trying to help those that don't see the need for help or don't follow up on excellent free advice that they'd willingly spend tens of thousands to acquire crap from some expert "firm".

Muvizu should definitely make use of the devoted user base they have and implement cost effective suggestions for improvement. Simple Simon.

but (to my knowledge) each action is hard coded into Muvizu, so any small changes to an action would have to be made from scratch. This could take hundreds of hours for the developers.

Shouldn't there be a main topic for Desired Muvizu Improvements? There the discussion could be on the many scattered ideas to improve the program and a central place for the developers to respond.

I was just thinking that many of the character actions are too extreme for me. It would be nice to have a slider to be able to set the intensity of the action. I would think that would be a fairly easy improvement as you aren't adding a new feature - more of adjusting the range of existing movement.

"JURASSIC PACK" ... love it! Great play on words!

I still think you should create a Pig-O-Saurus and put him in a movie named "Jurassic Pork"

Or maybe something set in Ireland when dinosaurs ruled the earth. A reptilian character made from Beefy
might be called ... um... BRAWN O'SAURUS

OK, I'll stop now.

It is great that someone responded. I hope that they will keep the dialog going. I wonder if they look at what is being created on this site and the contributions of so many people who add characters and scenes? This is a great community, and I hope they will continue to support the users here, and we will continue to support them.

Am I correct in interpreting this to mean that your focus has shifted entirely away from end users and development now serves education exclusively?

I want to start by saying that I love this software. Whoever conceptualized it and created the amazingly intuitive interface is brilliant! At the current price it is by far the most affordable and usable product of its type on the market. In my opinion, you haven't even scratched the surface of your earning potential. If you focused on making money through sales of add-on products (and if you actually dedicated resources to CREATING useful add-on products) you could arrange deals with all sorts of hardware manufacturers to include Muvizu as bundles with their products. Every video card should come with Muvizu. That would position you for a huge active user base who would all want to buy your accessory packs.

Instead, you dedicate your development resources to create 3D rotation packs and Oculus rift viewer packs that are useless to 99.9% of the people who use your software. That's not good marketing strategy.

I have to wonder why the dev team would spend resources to develop useless stuff when there are features we've been asking for and which we are willing to pay for! It had to cost Digimania a fair amount of money to pay for the man hours involved in the development of the oculus and 360 degree rotation features, neither of which is really useful in the world of video creation. I have to guess its because Muvizu is based on a game engine, and you probably hire developers from the gaming industry, who come to the workplace with ideas and skills that are useful in that environment. But although there is some overlap, they are two different paradigms. Your customers are basically film makers, and until Muvizu starts catering to the specific needs of video production the products you release will continue to be useless to us, and money losers for the company.

Given the low price of the base product, the expansion packs are where you stand to make money. Develop what we want, and we'll buy it. Develop things we can't use, and we won't.

My suggestion (if anyone at Muvizu gives a d@mn about what the users think) is:
1) Devote resources to providing accessories for the new characters. Cool as they are, they remain fairly useless without the ability to change their outfits and appearance.

2) Also a utility character that has the best features of the potato heads (lots of skeletal attachment points) and of the newer characters (ability to turn off the various body parts we don't need) would be useful. We could use such a character to create our own specialty creatures without all the constraints we have when trying to modify the current characters

3) And finally, in the absence of dev team involvement with the forum, users have started experimenting on their own. We now know that it is possible to create quadrapeds by editing the XML files. True, we are prohibited from doing so by the user agreement... but knowing that it is possible changes our expectations for the dev team. You can no longer tell us that it isn't possible to do what we've been asking for.

We want at least one professionally designed quadraped that has enough attachment points that we can morph it into other creatures with a little modelling skill. I can't speak for anyone else, but I'd pay whatever you asked for such a character! I think just about everyone would.


In summary: expand your user base with bundling deals, then fill the store with useful accessories, and I predict your revenue will take off like a rocket. Or not. Your call.

--------------------------
edited by PatMarrNC on 01/09/2016

I think I'm coming from a slightly different direction here, I recognized Muvizu as a modified game from the start, and like most games it is like a car that is already built. It's a very complex car and to dive under the hood would be a very daunting task. Whenever I get fancy with Muvizu I run into problems, so I use other software, like my video editor, to pick up the slack. With Muvizu it's best to work in tiny chunks of 10-20 seconds or less and to really plan stuff out, especially character movements, which is my particular peeve.

With a bit of experimenting you can put Muvizu characters and props anywhere, in any environment. Although it's cumbersome in use, it gets the job done, without the mind-blowing complexity which is the hallmark of most 3-D programs. I just finished trying to figure out Amazon's Lumberyard to no avail. I've tried iClone and Poser and have given up on them.

I'll continue using Muvizu until something comparable comes along, but I might be in for a long, long, wait. I'd like to make my own 3-D environments for them in the meantime, if anyone has any suggestions they'd be gratefully received.

. This must mean something.

MrDrWho13 wrote:


What would those alternatives be? I'm not aware of any 3D animation programs with anything like this level of customization, or ease of use.

There are free alternatives to Muvizu now, unlike when it started.

Hi Pat,

I'm afraid your initial post shows you are just following the Muvizu "Path of Despair" that many of us have been down already. You can probably see some of our signatures carved on the walls in the flicker of your dying candle

From the first arrival full of excitement and wonder, to the supportive messages to those vets who seem to be complaining unreasonably, to the tentative questioning of Muvizu staff about the future, gradual angry realisation of "the Truth", then a last burst of enthusiasm and effort to ignite things again. Then comes the final pleading for "a Sign". Followed by the apparently irreversible slump into apathy.

Its such a perfect tragedy, someone should make a movie about it....

Digimania,
What do you think, should Ziggy72 and others hang around waiting for more updates and bug fixes or should they go elsewhere?
Do them a favour and let them know if Muvizu has a future. They've been the most loyal supporters of your software the least you can do is stop wasting their time with vague hints that all is going to be well if you know it really isn't!

Take a breath Zig...

In and out,

That's it...

MuvizuTeam wrote:


Jo, thank you for commenting!

I hope this thread is not discouraging to anyone at Muvizu. It is intended to show our interest in the product and to point out that what we all want is really pretty simple. We don't want you to work overtime or jump through hoops. We just want you to redirect the same amount of work that you're already doing into features and expansion packs that we can use.

We recognize that Muvizu is one of many tools in the toolbox, and as such we don't ask you to recreate features that we already have in other products.

The most productive and most money-making thing for Muvizu is to take the existing paradigm and refine it:

• Where there are bugs, fix them.
  
• We love the actions so much, we'd rejoice if we had more.
• expansion packs!
  
• outfits!
  
• characters that are modifiable! (this is why most of us still use the potato heads... they are more modifiable)
  
• timeline enhancements!
  

the list could get long and overwhelming. But pick one and run with it.

We'll buy it. You'll make money. Everybody will be happy
.

Hi All,
Jo here. Thank you for your letter. I will share your comments and the points raised. As previously mentioned - we are a small team but we will be back in touch as soon as possible.

ukBerty wrote:


Your Mum was right but this situation with Muvizu is ridiculous. It's obvious that Muvizu is never going to recover the money invested without a serious rethink.

On a positive note. They did release an expansion pack with keyframing for cameras etc. That was a huge improvement and not an easy thing to implement.
So yay! Go Muvizu!

D
edited by Dreeko on 02/09/2016

MuvizuTeam wrote:


Oh hello Jo!
And what do you do in the land of Muvizu?

Hi All,
Jo here. Thank you for your letter. I will share your comments and the points raised. As previously mentioned - we are a small team but we will be back in touch as soon as possible.

ikes wrote:

+1 to this. Or at least the ability to add custom actions. I don't think any have been added since 2012/2013.
edited by MrDrWho13 on 01/09/2016

Oh, and I like to add to that: more character actions!