Mark Phan

Campfire Still Image Render

Mark — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 03:29:59 +0000

I am finalizing my campfire animation that is due in a couple weeks, but I just wanted to post my progress. I think it’s a large improvement over my last update so I am very happy about that! All my models and textures are a lot more realistic. Rendering out this one frame took 8 minutes, so I am very nervous to start the full render of my 30 second animation. I am still making final adjustments such as adding smaller branches in the campfire and by the logs. The actual fire needs a little bit more work as well. I currently have an area light above the fire to draw add an extra glow, but I need to lessen the intensity. Look out for the final animation in a couple weeks!

Facebook Introduces Timeline for Brand pages…Good or Bad?

Mark — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 22:57:40 +0000

Last Friday at the Facebook Marketing Conference, Facebook unveiled timeline for brand pages which is aimed to boost brands’ and advertisers’ engagement efforts. Facebook says it allows “brands to tell their story” similar to the options users are given. A notable feature is the direct-to-fan-page messaging which allows users to send private, direct messages to your page. This creates a new channel for communication so that you can address concerns without them being viewed publicly by others. While some are embracing the change, others are very upset. Almost all companies previously used a custom default landing tab, which would drive incentive to like their pages. With the rollout of timeline, this option has been removed and companies can no longer have a default landing page.

According to consulting firm A.T. Kearny, top global brands are not interacting with their consumers as much as they should. In December 2011, 94% of the top 50 brands didn’t allow users to start a conversation on their Facebook page. 56% of of those brands didn’t respond to a single comment on the page. The report found that the most activity on the pages were on non-promotional, personal posts from the brand. However, only 13% of posts were personally oriented. Conversely, 61% of brands posts were promotional in some context, which recieved only 11% of all consumer interactions.

Posting non-promotional, personal posts is something that I feel strongly about because it correlates with higher engagement. Many companies fail to understand the need for more personalized posts because they are so focused on promoting the brand or product. As a consumer, I don’t want to be constantly bombarded with advertisements on Facebook. I want to know the people behind the brand, so I can better relate to the product or service. I enjoy when companies take the personal route periodically and are inquisitive about their user’s lives. This makes their page feel less like one giant advertisement because I am engaged and interacting with someone. It’s a great feeling to know that a company is willing to take a step away from all the advertising and connect on a more personal level.

Campfire Animation Progress

Mark — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 03:54:46 +0000

I’m still alive and trucking along with my campfire animation! Check it out above. I’m pretty happy with the progression from my animatic. This is not the finished product by any means; it’s only my first-pass.. I still have tons of work to do! Lighting the scene in Maya proved to very difficult as I couldn’t create a realistic lighting setup that illuminated only the campfire area. I did the best I could and tried to simulate the light flicker in After Effects. It didn’t turn out exactly the way I wanted, but it’s sufficient for my first pass. I focused a lot of my time on the actual fire, because I wanted to simulate a realistic flame. Working with the dynamics system was pretty overwhelming since there were so many properties that needed to be taken in account such as the density, tension force, velocity, etc. I simulated the fire being blown from a brief gust of wind and returning back to a normal state. Due to time constraints, I had to fake the animation of the trees in After Effects. I realize they seem very out of place especially because my fire is realistic in comparison. For my second pass, I will need to animate the trees in Maya hopefully influenced by an air field. Varying trees will also be added to fill in the open space because I do want it to feel like you are in the woods. For my second pass, my textures will be improved. I definitely want to get more detail into the ground and fix my trees and logs. Overall, i’m happy with my progress and I’m excited to refine everything for the final animation!

User-initiated Ads Result In Higher Consumer Engagement

Mark — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 11:14:20 +0000

SpotXchange has announced that it is the first real-time bidding (RTB) supply source to offer initiation type for video ad inventory, in real-time with every bid request. The company says that this information will help its real-time bidding partners valuate inventory more effectively and make more efficient buying decisions as they will have a better understanding of which ads were auto-initiated and which were user-initiated.

Auto-initiated ads are ones that play automatically when users visit a web page, but do not block the user from viewing the intended content. Conversely, user-initiated content requires users to view the ad before accessing desired content. According to SpotXchange, higher levels of consumer engagement are associated with the user-initiated content, and therefore advertisers are willing to pay a premium for them. In the past, the company says both types of ad placements have been bundled together by ad networks who sell them at a flat CPM. SpotXchange is seeking to change that by providing this through which advertisers can evaluate each placement opportunity independently.

Companies Are Not Investing Enough In Mobile Advertising

Mark — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 19:02:28 +0000

According to a new report from mobile advertising and analytics firm Flurry, there is a significant disparity between the amount of time being spent on mobile (23%) and the amount of U.S. ad dollars directed toward the media platform (1%). According to Peter Fargo, VP of Marketing at Flurry, “…the main reason for this disparity is that the mobile app platform has emerged so rapidly over such a short period of time. With the iOS and Android app economy only three-and-half years old, Madison Avenue and brands have yet to adjust to an unprecedented adoption of apps by consumers,” Other interesting tidbits from the report include:

Upper middle class consumers aged 25 to 34 are the most likely demographic to interact with mobile ads, something Flurry believes bodes well for the future of the mobile platform.
Print media is going in the other direction; it receives 29% of U.S. ad dollars but only 6% of time spent.
The web: 16% of ad spend versus 22% of time spent; Television: 43% versus 40%.

Total mobile app revenues, which includes pay-per-download, in-app purchases, subscriptions and mobile advertising, will rise from $8.5 billion in 2011 to $46 billion in 2016, forecasts ABI Research. The predicted overall growth comes despite several challenges that face in-app purchase revenue growth. “The vast majority of current in-app revenue is being generated by a tiny percentage of people who are highly-committed mobile gamers,” said Mark Beccue, senior analyst, mobile services, IAB Research. Citing that IAB does not believe the percentage of gamers who make in-app purchases will grow significantly, Beccue says that mobile developers other than game developers need to adopt this revenue model for it to grow. In addition, IAB also faults Google for several of the challenges facing mobile revenue growth. The company did not introduce in-app purchase to the Android Market until July 2011, while pay-per-download is not offered in all markets for Android, while subscription billing is not offered at all, according to IAB.

Real-time TV Social Media Activity

Mark — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:54:38 +0000

As a social media intern at FEARnet/Lionsgate Entertainment last summer, I was responsible for keeping up with latest digital trends. I found a lot of great websites that were especially helpful in the field of social media. Trendrr.tv is a unique service that tracks the online activity of all major TV networks and shows in real time. They look at a variety of inputs from social media activity, to blog buzz and video downloads. Trendrr takes all of this social data and organizes it into an informative list that includes sentiment value of the activity. I think this is a unique feature because it lets you know how people are feeling about the network or show. Some shows may have a lot of activity across Twitter, Facebook, Getglue, & Miso but most of the buzz is negative. This allows networks to keep track of what their consumers like to see and what they don’t. I am definitely a fan of integrating social media in digital entertainment because it adds an extra level or interactivity and personalization. You can communicate with people all over the world who are watching the same thing on TV and I think this trend will continue to grow.

Campfire Animation in Maya

Mark — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 02:54:07 +0000

I’m currently working on a campfire animation in Maya. I’ve posted the animatic here so you can get an idea of what animation im going for. There will be trees and grass that is affected by a wind source. The campfire in the middle will be flickering while also emitting light that matches the flicker. The image above is just a still and my first pass. I’m having some issues rendering the draft animation, but will update with my progress.

Google and Apple Prepare As Facebook Enters Mobile Advertising

Mark — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 15:40:15 +0000

In Facebook’s recent IPO filing they disclosed a potential pitfall for the company: mobile. Facebook does not display ads on their mobile products. Over half of Facebook’s 845 million users access the site on a mobile device, which means Facebook isn’t making revenue from these mobile users. As more people steer away from personal computers and towards mobile, this can negatively impact Facebook’s financial results. Facebook mentioned in order to compete effectively in the business, they must successfully monetize mobile usage. Facebook will hold it’s first marketing conference in New York City on February 29th, where it claims to share the “newest solutions, actionable insights, and proven strategies that demonstrate how you can use social technology to drive business growth.”

According to MobileMarketer, Google’s AdMob and Apple’s iAd mobile ad networks have lowered their prices to attract advertisers. This seems to be a result of Facebook’s IPO earlier this month, which expressed their interest in entering the mobile advertising. By making their prices more attractive to customers, they hope gain new large clients before Facebook does. On Wednesday, Google removed the 10 cent minimum bid and targeting fees for “cost per click” ads on its AdMob platform. Apple previously required a minimum of $1 million to be spent per iAd campaign, but they have lowered the minimum to $100,000.

Facebook’s Value Worth $75 Billion..Who Owns It?

Mark — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:11:11 +0000

Since Facebook’s recent IPO filing on February 1st, some financial data has been released, which contradicts many who previously valued Facebook at over $100 billion. A company’s value is determined by how much money the company makes and how much it might make in the future. Facebook made $1 billion last year, which was a 66% increase from 2010. It is growing faster than the top companies Google and Apple. Facebook has other sources of revenues that will continue to grow, such as transaction fees on Zynga’s games. Zynga will have about $1 billion in revenues this year, and Facebook takes a 30% transaction fee. Also when Facebook enters the world of mobile advertising, large revenues are expected.

According to BusinessInsider, In order to believe that Facebook is worth over $100 billion, than you must also believe Facebook will launch a new fast-growing business, or radically accelerate in the advertisement or payment business.

Read BusinessInsider’s process behind the $75 billion valuation for Facebook here.