TyphonRT Video Suite (Kickstarter)

WIP games, tools & toy projects
#1

I’ve finally launched the Kickstarter for the next-gen suite of video apps I’m launching for Android. The marquee launch app is a creative video capture app that combines an open ended effects composition preset editor. I spent a good deal of effort and time refining the info & promo video. Be sure to check out the Kickstarter here for expanded info:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/85808410/typhonrt-video-suite-next-gen-video-apps-for-andro-0

Check out the Kickstarter page for the promo video! Let me know what you guys think. :smiley:

Some promo shots:

#2

If your highest tier is $50, you’re going to have a hard time. Where is the “$25,000 to have dinner with the dev and access to a private forum” tier? :stuck_out_tongue: But seriously, there may be people/enthusiasts/diehards willing to spend more than you’re asking for. Even if nobody is going to end up paying >$50, having higher tiers means you’ve got the guts to ask more - which might convince people funding just a tad more.

The promo video is like a tech demo. Where’s the motivating narration, something to lure in the potential funder and pitch your product. Imagine the first iPhone to be marketed without Steve screaming ‘amazing!’, ‘fascinating!’, ‘best phone!’, ‘revolutionary!’, ‘unparalleled!’, ‘beautiful!’, ‘masterpiece!’, at the willing audience.

#3

Good eye… I’m adding these expanded reward tiers tomorrow morning before I blast the rest of the world. I actually had them all edited, but messed up with saving them and they all disappeared… :’( I’ve got to get the demo code for the presentation this weekend working tonight. :: sigh :: 16+ hour day here if not longer! Some of the higher reward offerings will include dinner at the studio (I’m actually a good cook too) and one night and weekend long immersive gaming sessions at the studio. I’m also going to offer a 10k reward (max value possible) to custom code a photo app using the effects preset editor with the HTC M8 depth camera. I’ve already got all the depth mask effects code written in general. Sadly the HTC M8 only works with photos, but they’ll have exclusive access to that app for at least 6 months and can brag to all their friends. ::slight_smile: There is a launch party as well starting at the $100 tier for tickets.

With any luck this weekend at the Big Android BBQ I’ll be getting an in person demo in front of several decent Android blog folks and any posts like that will definitely help get eyes on the site.

Also have www.typhonvideo.com up… First time getting things up on a CDN and getting video backgrounds working.

#4

In the snippet with the local news reporter, the visual effect is not clear… and it’s anti-Putin, which can be a turn off for people. Keep your video politically neutral :slight_smile:

#5

Good point… I made this the first update and didn’t put it at the end of the sizzle video. I’ll probably add it to the end of the sizzle reel… Here is the video:

Wait someone likes Putin? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: OK US / west coast bias here. I did think about this, but time ran out before being able to reshoot. I’ll see if I can swap out that section. The creative team I was working with didn’t advise on putting the text caption before the news reporter: “Edit lower thirds in the field” like I suggested. They said that was too technical of a term. I dunno… The clip is supposed to show that you can do lower thirds in the app and not have to go back to desktop editing to get a reasonable news clip for posting online.

Thanks for your feedback for sure!

#6

So, I rebooted the Kickstarter. I lowered the funding goal from $45k to $20k and did this without lowering quality expectations. Basically I needed to fund a significant device testing lab if I was going to release for KitKat due to MediaCodec API instability across the ecosystem. I’m bumping the min Android OS requirements to Lollipop which received more testing from Google. There are also other benefits like defaulting to the Camera2 API.

Check out the new Kickstarter:

#7

Instead of a reboot, it might have been… prudent… to gather feedback on why it didn’t work out. I mean, there are some oddities in your marketing scheme, like… telling your audience a significant chunk of their hard earned cash is going to pay the rent and fund other mundane things, is a bit of a let down. It may be the blatant truth, but that doesn’t really work in marketing. People invest in their perception of your potential. Your brutal honestly might pop the bubble prematurely. It’s your task to get them excited right up to the moment of pledging, maybe a few minutes longer!

The following image is meant to represent your progress over the years:

This is not convincing. We see expensive audio equipment, professional lighting, yet an extremely overlit projection screen, leaving the projected image dull and unimpressive. It’s not really engaging too, as it’s just your logo, it doesn’t represent the product, it doesn’t show potential. What do you want to express with these photos? How is your studio relevant to your supporters? Presumably they are not going to visit it, it looks like a whole lot of money was pumped into it, maybe their money will be used to spice it up… why would they care? Why bring it up?

#8

Good points… I do appreciate the feedback because I’m not getting much. I’ll try an figure out verbiage changes that make sense.

I see all sorts of projects being transparent in where the funding goes. I guess there are some that don’t list it either and lean toward the direction you bring up. A big problem is just getting out of the friends and family category of backers. During the first campaign I was counting on conference attendance to pass out flyers and demo in person to Android enthusiasts. This turned out to be not so good.

I’m at the Samsung Developers Conference right now though and got very lucky to get featured on Android Central via Phil Nickinson who’ve I’ve bumped into in the past at conferences since the early days of Android:
http://www.androidcentral.com/typhonrt-video-suite-looks-be-amazing-real-time-renderingrecording-platform

Getting further coverage in Android blogs / any press is the only thing seemingly that will make it tip.

#9

When I browse your Kickstarter, I just see nothing that triggers me. Keep in mind that I’m not your target audience, but still. Your kickstarter video is 1:42 of consecutive video effects, without any explanation, then 8 seconds of fade out (bye bye!) followed by a monologue without background audio.

Why not splice it up? Interleave your visual effects (mentioning how awesome the current effect is, and what they can use it for), with your monologue, and let the background music play. On second thought, that background music is so generic it would be better to switch to audio that better matches the visuals, cross fading (varied) music segments for different visual effects. Captivate people, make it less of a slide show.

My $0.02 (towards $20K)

#10

Definitely a live and learn experience I suppose… As things go the current video cost a lot to produce. I don’t have the resources / equipment to shoot a better one myself and was engaged full time as a contractor when things were being filmed for half of it at least (then that client ran out of funds and ahhh…). I’m taking on a short term contract Dec / January to survive at this point, thus also pushed out the release date a month for the KS.

A comparison KS is Looksery’s:

Sure the video is a bit… Hmm… I guess I’ll call it “consumer friendly”. I dunno…

Dang, I thought it would seem over produced with background music during the monologue.

Hey man… I produced that track… Albeit back in 2002… :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

#11

Didn’t mean to insult :slight_smile: It the audio doesn’t fit the video, maybe that colored my perception of the audio, ending up a tad harsh :slight_smile:

Anyway, if anything, that 8 second ‘intermission’ is hopefully easy/cheap to rip out. That will surely help retention rates.

#12

No worries… That is one of the only few tracks of mine that would be at all appropriate or close to appropriate for a general audience. All the rest are outsider / eccentric / experimental music.

That I can take a look at and am plenty skilled at editing. Maybe There could be a way I could mash up the monologue and intro sizzle reel. I think refining the textual content is much more pertinent at this point.

As things go it’s practically impossible for me to get anyone to be in a film / reshoot scenes without involving other creatives on the clock. I’ve essentially locked myself in my studio coding for the past year+ and most old acquaintances won’t be in a video or even back the KS, so yeah. So everything has a dollar sign attached to it.