Site Search
Join Muvizu
Messages in this topic - RSS

Home ? General Discussion ? Digimania has gone into administration

pages: 1 2 3 4 | Please log in or register, then complete your details to create a post.
22/04/2017 14:52:49

ritsmer
ritsmer
Posts: 110 		Well - 'In Administration' is not necessarily equal to a total 'Insolvency' close-and-forget.

And - as we can read in the letter to the employees: ...'there are a small number of interested parties for certain parts of the business'.

The management of Digimania surely will have tried to contact possibly interested companies already - but often there are so many factors in such a transfer of assets that it is only doable in combination with a close down of (some parts) of the company - which also probably will bring down the price tag of the assets.

If one considers the facts then it is quite conceivable that there might be companies wanting to continue the great work already invested in the development of Muvizu platform.

So let us hope the best.
permalink
22/04/2017 15:20:52

roroduck
roroduck
Posts: 28 		ritsmer wrote:
Well - 'In Administration' is not necessarily equal to a total 'Insolvency' close-and-forget.

And - as we can read in the letter to the employees: ...'there are a small number of interested parties for certain parts of the business'.

The management of Digimania surely will have tried to contact possibly interested companies already - but often there are so many factors in such a transfer of assets that it is only doable in combination with a close down of (some parts) of the company - which also probably will bring down the price tag of the assets.

If one considers the facts then it is quite conceivable that there might be companies wanting to continue the great work already invested in the development of Muvizu platform.

So let us hope the best.


I can only echo everyone's thoughts - I hope and believe the staff will end up OK from this - we users are also a resilient bunch so - we'll figure out something - I like all the suggestions I've seen so far
permalink
22/04/2017 19:17:02

DreekoMuvizu mogulExperimental user
Dreeko
Posts: 1257 		Hello,

This is from an anonymous developer who has kindly decided to reply to the questions on this thread -


"What happened?"

Digimania went into administration on the 18th of April. Everyone was made redundant on that day and sent home. We'd heard a few days before that it was going to happen and we'd managed to remove our personal possessions. We were told not to release the information though, for legal reasons.


"Is everyone okay?"

We've been told we won't be paid for April, we have to claim it back from the government and it will take around 6 to 8 weeks. It also won't be the full amount we're owed. In the meantime, everyone has bills to pay and families to feed.


"Why was nothing announced?"

Sorry. I hate to say it but it's not our job to any more. We're busy panicking about mortgages and rent, and writing CVs. But the real reason is that the administrators were supposed to take care of it and we didn't want to interfere or step on their toes. Obviously that hasn't happened and I can only apologise on their behalf. I don't know their reasons, but I know they've been busy dealing with what they probaby see as more important things, such as looking for buyers and making sure everything is accounted for.


"Can Muvizu still be purchased?"

I believe so, yes. But it's up to you to decide if you want to since there will be no support.


"Can it be activated? Will my existing Muvizu still work?

An activated Muvizu will keep working indefinitely, unless your MAC address changes. It can currently be activated, but I don't know for how long. Assuming there is no buyer, the administrators will sooner or later turn off the server, or at least the company who runs it will realise they're not getting paid and turn it off themselves. At that point, the activation process won't work. So make sure you have it installed on any PCs you're likely to ever need it on. Although the licence says you can only use it on two PCs, it will only stop activating once you've had ten activations.


"What happens to payments from uploaders?"

I don't know. I believe any money flowing into Digimania is ending up in a big pot that will be used to pay the administrators fee, and anything remaining will go towards the people it owes money to.


"What will happen with the forum?"

Unknown, but I suspect it will be turned off in the near future if there is no buyer.


"Will someone buy it and develop it further?"

Again, unknown. I haven't heard anything.


"I'm getting an E2 error since the 8th of April and everyone's ignoring me!"

An E2 error when activating means that Muvizu is having a problem writing the licence file to the hard drive. This can happen on some PCs because Windows is over-protective of certain folders and you need the right permissions. A simple Google brought up this response that will likely fix the problem without any tears:
https://www.muvizu.com/Wiki/wiki/134/troubleshooting-e2-error-when-upgrading-to-play
edited by Dreeko on 22/04/2017
permalink
22/04/2017 19:45:39

Tangledbliss
Tangledbliss
Posts: 66 		Thanks for that info Dreeko, and thanks to all Muvizu for a lovely accessable program. Completely free for a long time and afterwards still very cheap. It must 7 years or so I have been using it. It never quite got all the full range of bells and whistles of those big flashy expensive programs, but it has a charm and humour that outshines any one them. Perfect for humour but when you look at the movies of Rodrisilva real poignancy. A bunch of us over on zuchat are keeping our fingers crossed that it might be taken over and kept intact and even developed.
Come and join us https://www.facebook.com/groups/zuchat/

Geoff Clarkson (Tangledbliss)
permalink
22/04/2017 20:25:01

MrDrWho13Muvizu mogulExperimental user
MrDrWho13
Posts: 2220 		Thank you very much to the anonymous dev who came forward and answered our burning questions with definitive answers (And thanks Dreeko for facilitating this).

I very much hope that the former staff manage to find alternative jobs as quickly as possible. Everyone I've spoken to since first playing around with Muvizu 7 years ago has been enthusiastic and always happy to help.

I'll be sticking around on Zuchat if the forum disappears.
permalink
22/04/2017 20:41:00

klevinbeer81
klevinbeer81
Posts: 3 		Thank you Dreeko for posting that info. I hope all the muvizu staff find new jobs soon.
permalink
22/04/2017 20:45:31

richinri
richinri
Posts: 13 		PatMarrNC wrote:
Ammostro wrote:
A facebookgroup where we can post our clips, sets, idea's,.. . Maybe a good idea. So we can stay in touch.


There is already a FB page dedicated to Muvizu... ZUCHAT
https://www.facebook.com/groups/zuchat/

Unfortunately, FB doesn't offer a way to trade sets. I think a yahoo group would be a good idea, since they have an area for file storage

I also hope that if the plug is pulled out, the program will continue to work.

I hesitate to make any claims because so much is still not known... but a number of people have tested to see what would happen if the server goes down, and we feel pretty sure that Muvizu will continue to work as long as you run it on the computer where it was originally licensed.

The problem is that if/when your computer fails, you won't be able to reinstall on another computer. So if your computer is fairly new, you probably have a long time left to use Muvizu. Hopefully in that period of time, new options may arise. Put my name on the list of people who hopes that the administrators allow it to go open source, or that a buyer emerges.

-----------------------------
edited by PatMarrNC on 22/04/2017


Actually I do see many groups on FB that have file areas and they do exchange files.
permalink
22/04/2017 21:41:25

35litretheatre
35litretheatre
Posts: 33 		Having been away from Muvizu for a while, I was really sad to see this. Hoping the staff will find jobs soon , sending my best wishes x
permalink
23/04/2017 01:42:03

tonyob67
tonyob67
Posts: 211 		I have being very busy trying to survive and give my sons a better life working in 2 jobs. If this is the end of muvizu I will like to say thank you to the very nice people I met here. Pat, Clay, Ziggy, Ikes, Rod Silva, MrDrWho...Thank you guys, It´s being a pleasure. I will follow you on facebook
permalink
23/04/2017 04:25:40

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738 		tonyob67 wrote:
I have being very busy trying to survive and give my sons a better life working in 2 jobs. If this is the end of muvizu I will like to say thank you to the very nice people I met here. Pat, Clay, Ziggy, Ikes, Rod Silva, MrDrWho...Thank you guys, It´s being a pleasure. I will follow you on facebook


good seeing you again Tony! I will always remember your winning entries in my contests! I like your sense of humor... you are a good man and I am happy to have met you as a result of using Muvizu. Your sons are fortunate to have such a loving and hard working father! Best of luck to you in whatever future endeavors you choose to pursue!
permalink
23/04/2017 07:31:06

ukBertyMuvizu mogulExperimental user
ukBerty
Posts: 975 		It's all such a shame. The technical team at Muvizu have always been a pleasure to deal with and I'm sure you'll be snapped up by another company up there in "Silicon Glenn".

Keep in touch - you know where I am....
permalink
23/04/2017 09:11:28

mindiflyth
mindiflyth
Posts: 77 		Jeez, first Xtranormal goes under, now this. It seems like every time I get really into an animation program and invest a lot of time and effort (and some cash) into it, the company goes under. I'm starting to feel like the kiss of death!

That's (mostly) a joke and I don't really mean to make this all about me. I feel bad for all of the employees who lost their jobs so suddenly, and I hope they can get good new jobs soon. I also hope this program can be salvaged somehow. If it goes away, there's really nothing like it to take its place.
permalink
23/04/2017 10:54:04

Tangledbliss
Tangledbliss
Posts: 66 		It all seemed a bit gloomy a few days ago - but stay positive. If it gets bought and run by somebody nice thats good. Otherwise there is a lot of enthusiasm to maybe keep this all going on a cooperative community basis. Come and jopin the gang on zuchat. https://www.facebook.com/groups/zuchat/
permalink
23/04/2017 11:40:26

Brucik
Brucik
Posts: 12 		I am an online games developer and it wasn't hard to see that such an ending was unavoidable. Digimania had a good product going here but they were also a good example of "bad community management". I followed the Muvizu blog even though it came very rear and I never found helpful info there. I also read all news letters but they were always selling us something too. The YouTube channel was last updated 3-4 years ago, Facebook page has one post a month too. There was nothing to engage the consumer into spending something. Users gained a culture of work "arounds" to compensate for the little "short coming" in the program. This could have been a signal to the devs to improve and bypass the work "arounds" update after update hence showing the user that the devs were paying attention to their needs. To my surprise, most of the developments proved the devs had no idea where they where taking the project for example the:
Oculus VR expansion pack
What I would describe as a great but useless toy not worth the time limited and resources used on it.
If only there had been more "animation life" changing developments like the
Key framing expansion packIn this mobile age, characters still can't fully interact with smartphones they can't put food in their mouths etc, so instead
of releasing useless packs why not give the users more freedom to create their own custom actions.
With a little more attention from the developers through a community management or marketing team, this could be an international animation household name. This could be a hit on Steam and other platforms, hence taking care of the business side of things. I wrote about this a while ago too, I guess I was a prophet of doom in a way. The devs should get what is coming to them as they could have influenced the fate of this project while they had the chance but didn't.
permalink
23/04/2017 14:15:46

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738 		now that we know the program itself will continue to run as long as it stays on the same computer, most of us will have years of access to it, even if nothing changes with its ownership.

One thing that probably WILL change, (and pretty soon) is this forum. Now would be a good time to download all the sets. There no guarantee that any of them will make the transition to Zuchat
permalink
24/04/2017 00:28:19

Rocque
Rocque
Posts: 359 		A couple of more thoughts before moving on for the day. I am still hoping that somehow Muvizu keeps running, but I am the eternal optimist.

1. If anyone can contact the support team for Muvizu, maybe ask them to set up a Go Fund Me account or something similar, and those of us who want to help them through this difficult time can send a few dollars their way. If anything like this happens they can contact us over on Facebook.

2. If anyone finds a way to keep the site up and running or legitimately wants to buy the business, they could also set up a type of funding account. I am not sure how they work, but hopefully the money is used for the purpose for setting up the account.

3. There have been rumors of cutting staff back where I work from time to time, and it is a horrible feeling when your job is not secure, and you are not prepared to lose it. Keep the good thoughts and/or prayers going out to the people behind the product as others have mentioned.

4. The licensing key thing and being able to use Muvizu without the website is intimidating, but I will have to try it. I just open Muvizu and it should work then? I will test it out to see.

Once again, thanks for everyone's help and patience on this site.
permalink
24/04/2017 08:49:10

Witchy
Witchy
Posts: 25 		Shocked and saddened to hear this news. My thoughts are with the staff and their families. All contact I've had with them was prompt, helpful and professional. Very sorry it has come to this.
permalink
25/04/2017 17:48:01

RodrisilvaMuvizu mogulExperimental user
Rodrisilva
Posts: 113 		Perhaps this is already one of the few moments that we have left. Muvizu finished but not our will to use it. This may be my last movie with this software. We have the hope of better days.
Thank you Muvizu team for having been with us during these years.

This for you.
permalink
25/04/2017 18:36:41

Ammostro
Ammostro
Posts: 42 		Nice. Hopefully everything will be fine for them.
permalink
25/04/2017 18:56:23

tonyob67
tonyob67
Posts: 211 		Rodrisilva wrote:
Perhaps this is already one of the few moments that we have left. Muvizu finished but not our will to use it. This may be my last movie with this software. We have the hope of better days.
Thank you Muvizu team for having been with us during these years.

This for you.


OMG
permalink
pages: 1 2 3 4 | Please log in or register, then complete your details to create a post.

Home ? General Discussion ? Digimania has gone into administration

About

Media

Legal

Muvizu

Muvizu is easy to use 3D animation software that allows anyone to create high quality animations quickly and easily. Muvizu’s animation engine is ideal for storytellers, animators, teachers and businesses looking to engage, enchant and delight audiences with animated content.