Damaged mirage user looking for answers to lots of questions

[chapman]

saw the sticky post about the mirage lawsuit. lame for everyone i assume.

but i am a pro-active supporter of (what i thought was) the mirage software, i have been since Dec 2005 when i bought it. I thought it had taken an AWFUL long time to get any new versions of a young software. So i guess i am now a big fan of TVPaint software.

I was very excited to download the TVPaint software and see so many cool new features, things i didn't expect at all.

So... I just re-did my computer and moved up to Windows X64. It is working great, but when i went to try to re-download the Mirage software, i have found there is no place to do so. I have Mirage and Mirage NOMAD, so i was able to use the NOMAD disc to install a version of 1.5, which they list as 1.5B. I also found the unlock key and the sentinel X64 drivers, so all is working there.. however the program hangs when browsing.

but here are my questions, in order of smily faces

- How compatible with XP64 is TVPaint? The Wacom drivers and sentinel drivers seem to be working fine with Mirage.

- Are there any deals to get TVPaint if i am a victim of the Bauhaus-TVPaint lawsuit? I am a big fan of the software.

- Will TVPaint be able to open any of the .MIR files that i have?

thanks
matt chapman

[fanany]

...
- Will TVPaint be able to open any of the .MIR files that i have?

hi Matt and welcome aboard!

for your third point, the answer is ... definitively yes ! (lineage compatibility preserved).
I let others (more qualified than me) to answer for your 2 other points.

[Fabrice]

Hi Chapman,

Welcome on the TVPaint forum.
Here are our answers :

- How compatible with XP64 is TVPaint? The Wacom drivers and sentinel drivers seem to be working fine with Mirage.

As far as I know, the current TVPaint softwares should work with XP64. However, we don't have a specific version compiled and optimised for XP64

- Are there any deals to get TVPaint if i am a victim of the Bauhaus-TVPaint lawsuit? I am a big fan of the software.

Yes, there are. I will send you an email about this asap.

- Will TVPaint be able to open any of the .MIR files that i have?

Yes, all .mir files can be opened with TVPaint. (also, some .tvp files can be opened with Mirage)

[JM07]

...
- Will TVPaint be able to open any of the .MIR files that i have?

hi Matt and welcome aboard!

for your third point, the answer is ... definitively yes ! (lineage compatibility preserved).
I let others (more qualified than me) to answer for your 2 other points.

I currently have Mirage 1.5. What am I supposed to do now? Is there a costly move to update?

JM07

[spacecat]

I am wondering about this as well,,

I went to go to the Mirage web sight today to find that it was no more!!! what ???

so now everyone I know from there is here,

so there is some sort of deal you offer for us poor Mirage orphans who need new TV paint parents??

[Nicolas R]

I currently have Mirage 1.5. What am I supposed to do now? Is there a costly move to update?

JM07

so there is some sort of deal you offer for us poor Mirage orphans who need new TV paint parents??

You should take a look at the following pages guys :
http://www.tvpaint.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2033

It's all digital and should even work with your old Mirage dongle

Also note that this offer has been extended to May 30, 2008

[Paul Fierlinger]

The TVP offer of a discount for us Miragers is still twice the price of what Mirage used to be, but considering that there was no development of Mirage going on at Bauhaus, who's to complain?

My intuition says that if TVP sold for far less there would be legions of more takers and the payoff should be greater than keeping the price high so that only the very seriously invested animator still finds it worthwhile. On the other hand, being admittedly somewhat of an elitist I'm glad that the price keeps a certain (shall we say MyToon level) element outdoors.

I was just thinking yesterday; TVP must be the oldest animation software in continuous development, no? There have been lots of others that have appeared and fell by the wayside -- some in disgrace even. And since the TVP bitmap format caters to true artists (opposed to vector based software for the masses which tends to finish the animator's line for them) how strong would the legions really be?

So I am glad that I'm not at that end of the business and will go along in the company of my fellow elitist's here, even though some of us can be at times pretty cranky.

[Fabrice]

Hi Paul,

I just wanted to add that the price policy is not so different as the old one :
* Mirage was sold 895 € in 2003 (on that time the change was 1 USD for 1 euros)
* TVP Animation Pro is now in 2008 : 950 € (the dollar has dropped recently, it explains that the price is higher in USD)



nb : as far as I can remember, but maybe am I wrong, Aura price was something around 820 € ...

[Paul Fierlinger]

Of course, that too.
We'll have a new president soon. Campaigns are long but life is short.

[Fabrice]

Also, I should add two things :

Everything that was created in Mirage is still compatible in TVPaint and the reverse too !

Also, we have special offers for students, schools and universities, at very attractive prices. (contact me directly if you need more infos)
A lot of students in this forum can testify that
And TVP Animation standard is half cheaper for everybody, also there is not half features

[Klaus Hoefs]

I think 2005 is hard to compare with 2008, we have since then a price-drop in many software segments. Look at 3D price fights: Max, Maya, Softimage ..

The goal is to get more clients and also to make the app widely known as an animation standard.

How many old Mirage-users want to switch over here, and how many are able to switch and will afford ?

[Paul Fierlinger]

Good point, Klaus. Just look at what has happened to the prices of NLEs. Vegas is down to $300 and can be had for $ 180 if one searches out some of the deals. DPS/Leitch has kept their prices high and they are in the cloud of irrelevancy. Vegas is rapidly growing in popularity.

[Fabrice]

The goal is to get more clients and also to make the app widely known as an animation standard.

That's the reason why we have two version which does not have the same price.

Btw, we already have hundreds of ex-Mirage users here and students that uses the software. (just read our lastest newsletters )

Newsletter January
Newsletter March
Newsletter April

EDIT : Our student versions are time and features unlimited

[ZigOtto]

imo, the reason why tvpaint is still confined to a small popularity is based on 3 points :

- FX and layer operations are destructive,
- no Parent/child Layers hierarchy
- the dongle protection : it's very hard to find good cracks on the web,
even in eastern countries ... (god bless the bad crackers)

that's why many animators choice the adobe factory: PS + AE,
(much more expensive for those who have to buy both, but who really have to ?)

[jbardakos]

- FX and layer operations are destructive

I think this is one basic reason although small teams which is the trend..
can easily adapt to a non procedural way of doing such work...

but in a bigger production where the supervisor expects other animators
to be able to correct possible errors after he ... supervises them...a procedural non destructive approach is essential...

On the other hand o know that when i work in Tvpaint along with one or
two more other animators we can finish much quicker than if we had to use
a more procedural system (not to mention that most non procedural systems tend to be vector based which is evil imo.. )

I still believe in the theory of evolution for software applications of course..
but i personally find that only with bitmaps (scanned or not) and expressive line i get my eye and soul happy...



[/quote]