Saturday, July 26, 2014

How DreamWorks reinvented animation software to make How to Train Your Dragon 2

How DreamWorks reinvented animation software to make How to Train Your Dragon 2

Above: DreamWorks Animation's Premo animation tool

Image Credit: DreamWorks

NOTE: GrowthBeat is less than 2 weeks out! VentureBeat is gathering the best and brightest in modern digital marketing to help declutter the landscape, simplify the functions, clarify the goals, and point the way to success. Get the full scoop here, and buy your tickets while they last.


Before it could make this summer’s blockbuster movie How to Train Your Dragon 2, DreamWorks had to build a whole new animation tool. Here’s the story of how the studio built software that lets animators work faster and more organically than ever before.


In the past, animation artists had to go through hell to create computer-animated movies. They would have to scan an image into a computer, then “draw” the animation by typing numbers into a keyboard. With a giant spreadsheet, they could change the way a smile looked or how a shadow fell across a face.







How to make How to Train Your Dragon 2


We went deep inside DreamWorks to find out how it used cutting-edge enterprise and animation tech to make this summer’s blockbuster animation.




The technology was dubbed Emo, developed in the 1980s by predecessor firm Pacific Data Images. It was used to make movies like Shrek and Finding Nemo. But it wasn’t exactly a “natural” way to draw animations.


DreamWorks Animation character animator Rex Grignon.

Above: DreamWorks Animation character animator Rex Grignon.

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

But about five years ago, just in time for the beginning of production for How to Train Your Dragon 2, the tech team at DreamWorks Animation started creating a new tool called Premo.


The vision for this animation tool was to give artists a real-time tool that would allow them to draw with their hands on a computer screen and see the changes in the final image in real-time. Now, they can work as fast as they think. The technology is a great example of how computers continue to change the way we work.


Premo was built on the foundation of Apollo, the animation company’s software infrastructure for creating computer-generated movies. And it was created in-house by a team that included both the artists themselves and tech experts from Intel, said Rex Grignon, a character animator, in a press interview at DreamWorks Animation’s campus in Redwood City, Calif. The technologists started by giving the artists a blank slate to dream up a process for creating art that was truly intuitive.


“We knew we were going to start from scratch, so there were no more handcuffs on what was the legacy,” said Katie Swanborg, director of technology communications and strategic alliances at DreamWorks Animation. “We had confidence that Intel would deliver the computing power that they said they would. So we could say to the artists, ‘We’re not going to say no.’”


Without those constraints, the artists came up with their wish lists.


DreamWorks Animation Premo tool

Above: An animator using the DreamWorks Animation Premo tool.

Image Credit: DreamWorks Animation

“We sat down and came up with words like ‘fluid,’ ‘immersive,’ ‘intuitive,’ and ‘creative,’” Grignon said.


The Making of How to Train Your Dragon

Above: The Making of How to Train Your Dragon

Image Credit: Eric Blattberg/VentureBeat

Lincoln Wallen, chief technology officer at DreamWorks Animation, said that the company had built cloud infrastructure in its data centers to render films. But with new multicore processors, each client computer at every artist’s desk could also provider a big leap forward in computing power.


“We could get a large number of threads running on a machine that we could spread anywhere we’d like, across the data center or on the local client,” Wallen said. “We didn’t have to worry about what was possible anymore. What changes over time is how much of that compute power sits under the desk or in the data center. That unlocked their creativity and allowed us to leapfrog beyond incremental improvements.”


The discussions for Premo started about the same time that the story creators and concept artists were creating storyboards, or comic book like frame-by-frame drawings, for the film.


“Lincoln asked us how we would like to animate,” Grignon said. “We tore about the process. We looked at things we did a thousand times a day or a few times a week. We put the emphasis on the things we did a thousand times a day.”


DreamWorks Animation's Premo tool

Above: DreamWorks Animation’s Premo tool

Image Credit: DreamWorks Animation

Before, the artists had a tool that was like Adobe’s Photoshop, only it took a long time to render an image. There were lots of clicks and keyboard entries that the artist had to make in order to make just one idea appear on the screen.


With Premo, the team wanted to a tool that could render that image as soon as the artist had the idea.


“Before it showed up on the screen, there were a whole bunch of things the artist had to do,” Grignon said. “Why can’t we just have an idea and touch the screen and get it? That was our main guiding principle. It lets you stay focused on the creative task at hand. You don’t get distracted and lose that immersion.”


Each different team of artists had a chance to investigate their options and report what they wanted. The expertise included people from 2D animation, stop-motion, video games, and 3D animation. About 65 artists contributed ideas for Premo.


Grignon took that feedback and sat down with the tech leads to integrate them into a single software program. They came up with something they called “paper prototyping.” That helped them come up with the basic framework for the software design. The process was not unlike creating a movie, with pitches, storyboards, and execution.


“We thought we went into a partnership with a collection of artists and animators and storytellers,” said Peter Baker, a vice president of software and services at Intel, in an interview. “They’re actually quite a technology company as well. They’re so enthusiastic about the technology and how to use it to convey those stories, those emotional things that people can see, that jump off the screen. We have that shared enthusiasm for technology and bringing stories to life.”


DreamWorks Animation's Premo tool, showing off Hiccup.

Above: DreamWorks Animation’s Premo tool, showing off Hiccup.

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

DreamWorks Animation provided the animators with pressure-sensitive screens from Wacom. With their pens, they can interact directly with the computer-animated character. In the past, it would take half an hour before a screen could be rendered. Sometimes it would take even more time than that, depending on the complexity of the screen.


The result, with Premo, was a tool that cut down on eye movement, arm strain, eye strain, and time. It used to take weeks to train artists. Now the artists can learn how to use Premo in a couple of hours.


“I’ve never heard a single artist say they wanted to go back,” Grignon said.


The artists used Premo to do a lot of iteration. Jason Schleifer, character animator, said that the artists create moving characters in a rough format at first, so they can figure out the way that a dragon’s spine might bend as it twists in mid-flight. Then they slowly add more detail and apply all of the visual effects that make it more realistic.


DreamWorks was willing a lot of computing power and software design at the problem so that the artists could “fly” through the production process, Swanborg said.


“At that point, we want inspiration to show up on screen,” Swanborg said. “That’s when they are in the moment of storytelling.”


The team was so proud of Premo and its intuitiveness that they let the press sit down at workstations during a recent visit. Fredrik Nilsson, workflow director for animation/crowds, showed me how to use the tool in a matter of minutes.


I used Premo with a touchscreen-sensitive pen. The display could show me any given frame from the movie. I could make a change to the main character Hiccup’s face, clicking on him. Then I could use the pen to pull his face downward, turning his smile into a frown. I could then tell the computer how long he would hold that pose before he would start smiling again. Then I played the frames and watched it all happen in real-time. It was easy and intuitive.


DreamWorks Animation's Premo tool can turn a smile into a frown instantly. I created this face.

Above: DreamWorks Animation’s Premo tool can turn a smile into a frown instantly.

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

Jason Schleifer, character animator, said that if you really want to get to the spreadsheet underneath Premo’s user interface, you can do so. Once in a while, that’s necessary. But it’s not something that the artists have to do all that much.


Because of the smoothness of Premo, the artists can do more. They can, for instance, throw a lot more creatures onto the screen at one time. In one scene, there are hundreds of dragons fighting against thousands of soldiers. That kind of scene wouldn’t have been possible without Premo. They can also delve deep into the thousands of control points in a character and scuplt them to bring out the emotion in the character.


DreamWorks can get by with fewer artists now to make a movie, or it can simply choose to be more ambitious with its movies. Overall, more than 495 artists worked on the movie. By comparison, about 150 people work at NASA’s Mission Control center across three shifts a day.


Wallen said that DreamWorks Animation can use the Premo technology for years to come, even as it changes the underlying hardware to make it run faster and smoother.


DreamWorks Animation's Premo hides the spreadsheets in art creation.

Above: DreamWorks Animation’s Premo hides the spreadsheets in art creation.

Image Credit: DreamWorks Animation

Here’s a video of me using Premo at DreamWorks Animation in Redwood City.




How DreamWorks reinvented animation software to make How to Train Your Dragon 2

What We Learned This Week

This week we learned Vegas is changing blackjack, why sleeping in doesn't work and that New York is the unhappiest city in America. Ok, we probably could have guessed that last one.
What We Learned This Week

The New Smashing Mystery Riddle: Have You Figured It Out Yet?

Ah, these mystery1riddles2never stop3, do they? To celebrate the launch of the SmashingConf Whistler4, our very first conference in Canada, we’ve prepared a yet another riddle, and of course this time it’s not going to be any easier!


So, how does it work this time? Well, below you’ll find the first of a few hidden animated GIFs that contain a secret Twitter hashtag. Your job is to deconstruct that hashtag as fast as possible. To do that, you have to pay attention to the file name and count objects within the GIF (for example, “3 chairs”) and search for them on Twitter (i.e. #3chairs).


If your guess is right, you’ll find a tweet leading you to the next level. Once you’ve reached the last level (oh, you’ll know when), just tweet out all the hints in one single hashtag to @smashingmag5 on Twitter! Not that difficult, right?


Alright, let’s get to business. Are you ready? Action! (And good luck!)


Smashing Book Mystery6
Tip: Watch out for a hint in one of the frames in each of the GIFs. Large view.7


So, What Can You Win?


We’ll raffle a quite extraordinary, smashing prize (and a couple of other Smashing extras, see below) to the first couple of readers who tweet out the correct hidden hashtags to us!


  • a roundtrip flight to Whistler, Canada,

  • full accommodation in a fancy hotel,

  • a ticket to the Smashing Conference Whistler 20148,

  • any Smashing workshop ticket of your choice,

  • full access to the Smashing eBook Library,

  • a signed edition of the Smashing Book #49,

  • a truly Smashing laptop bag,

  • your very own Smashing caricature, designed just for you.

Please notice that to avoid spoilers, comments are closed for this post. And sorry, we aren’t going to make it too easy for you. The winners will be announced on Saturday, July 19th.


Alright! Let’s get to work. Or have you already figured it out? ;-)


Update (19.07.2014): the first person to tweet the right hashtags was @jaicab_10, followed by @rakesh_katti11, @_paulrose12, @furniest13. Congratulations! All the other winners will be announced at latest early Monday. Thanks to everyone for participation!


The post The New Smashing Mystery Riddle: Have You Figured It Out Yet? appeared first on Smashing Magazine.



The New Smashing Mystery Riddle: Have You Figured It Out Yet?

Content Marketing

* If you are unable to request your attendance here due to overwhelming response, kindly email to apac@econsultancy.com.


 


Content Marketing


Note: This event is exclusive to senior client-side marketers.


The Content Marketing Roundtable is your chance to share knowledge, experience and best practice on the issues, trends and developments around Content Marketing.


Attendance is limited to 14 - 20 attendees, with discussion chaired and facilitated by Econsultancy to ensure all participants get the most from the session. 


Agenda


The agenda for the day is very much driven by those attending - your priority areas and pain points. Potential topics for discussion on Content Marketing to be added shortly.


Content Marketing

ECRM

ECRM


Note: This event is exclusive to Econsultancy Enterprise subscribers.


The ECRM Roundtable is your chance to share knowledge, experience and best practice on the issues, trends and developments around ECRM.


Attendance is limited to 12 - 18 attendees, with discussion chaired and facilitated by Econsultancy to ensure all participants get the most from the session. 


Agenda


The agenda for the day is very much driven by those attending - your prority areas and pain points. Potential topics for discussion on ECRM to be added shortly.


ECRM

Marketing Attribution

Marketing Attribution Roundtable


The Marketing Attribution Roundtable is your chance to share knowledge, experience and best practice on the issues, trends and developments around this topic. 


Attendance is limited to 12 - 18 attendees, with discussion chaired and facilitated by Econsultancy to ensure all participants get the most from the session. 


Agenda


The agenda for the day is very much driven by those attending - your priority areas and pain points.



Marketing Attribution

Five SEO Tips for Global Marketers

If you want to boost your website traffic overseas, you need a localized strategy for each market. Here are five SEO tips to keep in mind during that localization process. Read the full article at MarketingProfs
Five SEO Tips for Global Marketers

'Outlander' Writer Initially Thought Star Sam Heughan Was 'Grotesque'

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SAN DIEGO — Outlander star Sam Heughan drew massive screams from the crowd at a panel for the show on Friday at Comic Con, but during the casting process to find the perfect Jamie Fraser, author Diana Gabaldon's reaction to the actor was significantly different


"They sent me Sam's audition tapes and I was driving somewhere so I said,
I can't look at it until tonight.' But they'd given me his name and I was Googling him, looking up his IMDB photos saying, 'This man looks grotesque, what are you thinking?'" she said


His audition, however, proved that he was right for the part. "Five seconds in, I said, 'He's fine. He doesn't look anything like his photos.' He was gone and there was Jamie Fraser. I've never been so astonished in my life." (Later, a fan admitted that she, too, had the same reaction, "but he's going to be a great Jaime.") Read more...

More about Tv, Television, Comic Con, Starz, and Outlander
'Outlander' Writer Initially Thought Star Sam Heughan Was 'Grotesque'

15 NSFW Coloring Book Corruptions to Ruin Your Childhood Fun

Crayons
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Childhood activities just aren't the same once your adult mind has been corrupted by the harshness of the real world.


Take coloring books for instance — Navigating a crayon in-between the lines as an adult is a simple task, so our crooked minds may tend to wander towards sex, drugs, murder and even Satan.



Introducing the subreddit r/ColoringCorruptions, where innocent childhood coloring books become hours of NSFW adult entertainment.


Now get your debauched minds to a 64-pack of Crayola, stat. Read more...


'The Walking Dead' Season 5 Trailer Has Arrived — And It's Awesome

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SAN DIEGO — Rick and Co. are a little worse for wear in the new trailer for Season 5 of AMC's The Walking Dead.


We last left the gang in the hands of total creepers Terminus, but in the trailer for the upcoming season, screened first at Comic-Con, our good guys seem to be making some progress in convincing Terminus not to, well, terminate them. Specifically, the gang's case is that if they can make it to Washington, D.C., they can save the world



Our only complaint about this trailer? Needs more Daryl. But we say that about everything ... and every day of our lives. Read more...

More about Television, Comic Con, Entertainment, Tv, and The Walking Dead
'The Walking Dead' Season 5 Trailer Has Arrived — And It's Awesome

Sweet News for Verizon Moto G Users

moto-g-desk-cases


As per Motorola Mobility’s latest Google+ post, the Motorola Moto G on Verizon is due for an upgrade. Android Kitkat 4.4.4 will be rolling out throughout the weekend, replacing the previous iteration of Kitkat 4.4.3 on the device. The new software update brings a new dialer UI, Camera features, and some simple security and stability updates. 4.4.4 came to the Moto G early, keeping with its previous track record of receiving updates just after the Nexus line. Motorola should be sending the update to other carriers and Moto devices soon, right after the Moto X 4.4.4 battery drain issue is rectified.


source: +Motorola Mobility


 



Come comment on this article: Sweet News for Verizon Moto G Users



Sweet News for Verizon Moto G Users

TalkAndroid Daily Dose for July 25, 2014

TalkAndroid_Daily_Dose


With hectic schedules, it can be hard to keep track of everything in your news feed. That’s why we created the TalkAndroid Daily Dose. This is where we recap the day’s hottest stories so you can get yourself up to speed in quick fashion. Happy reading!!


Apps


Facetune, a selfie editor, is now available for Android devices




Carriers


HTC Desire 610 available today through AT&T


Verizon will start throttling its unlimited data users on October 1st


Verizon allowing LG G3 owners to uninstall bloatware


Gaming


Rovio releases Angry Birds Transformers teaser trailer


Google Play Store now has a seperate section for Offline Games


Google


Google looks inward with new Baseline Study of human body


Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides now work with any file across mutliple platforms


GPU benchmarking company drawElements purchased by Google


Google Glass


Minnesota Vikings utilizing Google Glass in training camp


Phones


Amazon Fire Phone proves difficult to repair in iFixit teardown


HTC Desire 610 available today through AT&T


Specs revealed for Lenovo’s upcoming flagship, the Vibe Z2 Pro


Verizon allowing LG G3 owners to uninstall bloatware


Leaked photos of Motorola’s X+1 show wooden back, no MicroSD slot


Sweet News for Verizon Moto G Users


Device certified by FCC seems to be Samsung’s Galaxy Mega 2


Smart Glasses


Lenovo shows off their Google Glass knockoff


Updates




Come comment on this article: TalkAndroid Daily Dose for July 25, 2014



TalkAndroid Daily Dose for July 25, 2014

Mobile Marketing: The Week in Review

Mobile Marketing The Week in Review3 Mobile Marketing: The Week in ReviewIn case you missed it, here are some of the top stories in mobile marketing and advertising we’ve been following this week.


Yahoo and Flurry are now one. On Monday, Yahoo announced that the two companies will merge with Yahoo acquiring the analytics giant for an estimated $200 million.


According to the latest studies performed across Australia and New Zealand, marketers understand the importance of personalization, yet most are falling short of delivering on the goods when push comes to shove.


Adobe has released its latest ad data report for search ads. According to a post at TechCrunch, U.S. search ad spend grew about 9 percent year-over-year, mostly through click growth. For the full year, including the proverbially strong fourth quarter, Adobe “expects that spend will increase between 10 and 12 percent.”


David Thacker, vice president of product at LinkedIn, confirmed this week that the social networking platform for professionals is doing its part to make B2B marketing through LinkedIn more precise and effective than ever before.


According to a recent post at AdWeek, email is increasingly read on mobile devices, but “that doesn’t mean the desktop is no longer relevant to marketers.”


Want to get the latest MMW news and insight delivered straight to you inbox every morning? Click here to sign up for our free newsletter.


37b97aafe3aee5bffdcf85f98539a0fa Mobile Marketing: The Week in Review Mobile Marketing: The Week in Review


Mobile Marketing: The Week in Review

What We Learned This Week

This week we learned Vegas is changing blackjack, why sleeping in doesn't work and that New York is the unhappiest city in America. Ok, we probably could have guessed that last one.
What We Learned This Week

George R. R. Martin Declines To Kill Someone For Once

He may seem to delight in traumatizing fans by murdering their favorite characters in gruesome ways, but even George R. R. Martin won’t stoop so low as to kill an innocent 13-year-old boy. Not for a mere $250, anyway.
George R. R. Martin Declines To Kill Someone For Once

Finding Water On An Alien World Could Be Harder Than We Thought

It looks like finding a habitable alien world could be much more difficult than the human race was hoping after three hot-Jupiter exoplanets turned out to have far less water than astronomers predicted.
Finding Water On An Alien World Could Be Harder Than We Thought

How DreamWorks created a visualization system to prototype scenes in ‘Dragon 2′

How DreamWorks created a visualization system to prototype scenes in ‘Dragon 2′

Above: Peter Upson's shows off DreamWorks Animation's visualizaiton system.

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

NOTE: GrowthBeat is less than 2 weeks out! VentureBeat is gathering the best and brightest in modern digital marketing to help declutter the landscape, simplify the functions, clarify the goals, and point the way to success. Get the full scoop here, and buy your tickets while they last.


One of the coolest new tools for making animated movies is a visualization system that shows you what an animated shot would look like in real-time — before a film animator goes through the expensive process of creating a fully animated scene.


I had a chance to view one of these systems in a visit to the Redwood City, Calif., campus of DreamWorks Animation, which used the rig to make How to Train Your Dragon 2, the big summer movie that has generated more than $300 million in worldwide box office revenues. Its real value is in giving a film director an idea of what a scene will look like before he commits the resources to create the scene.







How to make How to Train Your Dragon 2


We went deep inside DreamWorks to find out how it used cutting-edge enterprise and animation tech to make this summer’s blockbuster animation.




Inside that campus is a camera-capture room that resembles a motion-capture studio, with ten state-of-the-art MX-F40 motion-capture cameras from Vicon. Those cameras send out an infrared light signal. The light hits markers on people or objects within the room and then bounces back to the camera. Then tracking software on a Windows machine computes the scene and all of the markers within it. The software can insert the marker locations into an animated world from the film, said Pete Upson, final layout artist and one of the capture-room experts at DreamWorks animation, in an interview with VentureBeat.


The function of the room goes beyond capturing images of actors that artists can use as the foundation for 3D-animated characters. These cameras capture the positions of people and props, which allowed director Dean DeBlois to visualize what he had in mind for both himself and the film crew about what the scene would really look like.


“This gives the director the idea of blocking out the scenes in real-time,” Upson said. “We can work real-time with the director in the room and remove the back-and-forth process.”


I played around inside the room as a faux director. I had a camera on my shoulders that transferred the images in real time over a cable to a big computing rig. That machine transformed the images I was shooting into animated figures I could see on a display. Other visitors played characters from the film, like Astrid and Hiccup. They moved around, and I could see exactly where they were and how much of the screen they took up at any given time. If I didn’t like where someone was standing, I could ask them to move to another spot.


“This is what it allows the artists to do,” said Katie Swanborg, director of technical communication and strategic alliances at DreamWorks Animation, in an interview during a tour of the animation studio. “In the moment, I can provide creative feedback.”


Visitors hold props with infrared markers in DreamWorks Animation's visualization room.

Above: Visitors hold props with infrared markers in DreamWorks Animation’s visualization room.

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

Director James Cameron also created a visualization system for the film Avatar so he could see what his live-action actors would look like when they were converted into ten-foot-tall, computer-animated warriors in scenes in the film.


CGR Trailers - HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2 Teaser TrailerIn the past, computing power for animation was so expensive and time-consuming that there was no way to see what something looked like ahead of time. An artist would create a scene and send it off for rendering. After a day or so, it would come back, and the artist could see it. If the director wanted changes, the work loop would start all over again. The process was like taking a picture with Kodak film. You could take a roll of film, send it off to the store, and then find out if the pictures were good. If they weren’t, you’d have to do it again.


“We are harnessing the power of the hardware and software to put filmmaking back into our artists’ hands,” Swanborg said.


With DreamWorks Animation’s Apollo system, the visualization and animation are now integrated.


The storytellers still do a lot of their work ahead of time using animated storyboards, which are like frames from a comic book. For Dragon, that work took up about two of the five years it took to make the film. But the visualization tool saved a lot of time.


“Five years ago, the process seemed nuts,” Swanborg said. “We sit on top of a computational infrastructure here that can access a tremendous amount of compute power if we want to. Why can’t we use that to make our filmmaking much more like our consumer lives of taking pictures with our cell phones? We are using this to turn cinematography on its ear.”


 


How DreamWorks created a visualization system to prototype scenes in ‘Dragon 2′

SEC drops probe into Facebook pre-IPO shennanigans

SEC drops probe into Facebook pre-IPO shennanigans

Above: These people are putting ads in your news feed.

Image Credit: Facebook

NOTE: GrowthBeat is less than 2 weeks out! VentureBeat is gathering the best and brightest in modern digital marketing to help declutter the landscape, simplify the functions, clarify the goals, and point the way to success. Get the full scoop here, and buy your tickets while they last.


Hard feelings still remain in the minds of some investors over Facebook’s May 2012 IPO.


Just days before the IPO, analysts working for the underwriters reduced the forecast price of the stock (based an a downgrade of Facebook’s real ad revenue), and the underwriters told their large clients about it, but a vast majority of private investors never got tipped off. When the stock went on sale at $38 per share it lost half its value within a few months.


The Securities and Exchange Commission wondered if Facebook had properly disclosed its real advertising revenue before the IPO.


The Facebook IPO’s lead underwriter, Morgan Stanley, said that making crucial disclosures only to select investors was “standard practice.” The loophole is that while it’s unlawful for the underwriters to “publish” research on pre-IPO companies, there’s no rule against brokers advising key clients of new information over the phone.


Apparently the SEC believes this contention, because it has now dropped its probe into the matter.


In its most recent quarter earnings filing with the SEC, Facebook writes that the SEC “had terminated its inquiry and that no enforcement action had been recommended.”


While Facebook has been removed from the SEC’s probe, the agency may still be investigating the company’s IPO underwriters, including Morgan Stanley.


The Facebook IPO was also marred by a NASDAQ computer glitch, which caused millions in losses for large brokerage houses. The Nasdaq ended up paying out $10 million to settle allegations of securities law violations related to the matter.


Facebook shares closed at $76.90 the day after it announced second quarter earnings, July 23rd.




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Facebook is the world’s largest social network, with over 1.15 billion monthly active users.
Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in February 2004, initially as an exclusive network for Harvard students. It was a huge hit: in 2 w... read more »



SEC drops probe into Facebook pre-IPO shennanigans

What We Learned This Week

This week we learned Vegas is changing blackjack, why sleeping in doesn't work and that New York is the unhappiest city in America. Ok, we probably could have guessed that last one.
What We Learned This Week

Why responsive landing pages are a lot like Santa

attachment-52a72bede4b073a80cd21728

When I was a little kid I always wondered how Santa managed to make his way down all those chimneys. Everyone knows that on that one special night of the year this jolly and rather round man manages to fit down every chimney so that he can leave gifts for all of those who are on his “nice” list. Even at such a young age I was able to recognize that this didn’t seem feasible. Looking at him in all pictures and movies, and even having sat on his lap myself at the mall, I was able to recognize that Santa was not a little man and chimneys are not very spacious…so how does he do it?

Well, now that I’m much older and much wiser the answer is rather clear. Santa is very good at reproportioning himself. In an instant he’s able to thin out and elongate himself so that he can easily fit into all of those narrow chimneys. It’s really quite impressive.

This scenario reminds me a lot of responsive landing pages. Rather than delivering inflexible landing page to all visitors, regardless of which kind of device they’re using, and relying on them to resize, pan, and scroll so that they can easily see and engage with the page, a responsive landing page provides an optimal viewing experience for everyone. You see, a responsive landing page resizes and reconfigures itself to fit easily onto every screen screen – whether that is a computer, tablet, or mobile phone. It’s one page that satisfies everyone!

With the massive growth of mobile and tablet usage it is becoming increasingly important to reach these users in the most efficient and usable way possible. And that, my friend, is through responsive landing pages.

The Takeaway?

Santa is not the only one who can impress us with his magical re-proportioning skills; you too can impress all your visitors with your magical, but completely achievable, responsive landing pages!

Want to learn more about responsive design? Check out our Responsive Design for Landing Pages white paper.




Why responsive landing pages are a lot like Santa

User segmentation: the gift that keeps on giving

All I want for Christmas is a gift just for me. Not one that I have to share, or one that was made for someone else. I want it to be in exactly my size, flattering to my shape, and in a shade that makes my eyes sparkle. I believe that this is a perfectly reasonable Christmas wish. I also happen to believe that this desire for something made “just for me” in all aspects of life is not entirely unreasonable.

But alas, I too believe that giving is indeed better than receiving and because of this I also want to make sure that what I give to others is wholly just for them. So this brings me to my point, re-gifting is not acceptable. Not for holiday’s and not for landing pages. You have to make it just for them, in just their size, and if it makes their eyes sparkle, that’s even better.

The easiest, and also the most effective way in many cases to do this is through segmentation experiences. This is especially true if you don’t know the visitor very well. It’s kind of like picking the name of the guy at the office that you only see when getting coffee for your secret Santa exchange. You want to get him something great, but who the heck is he?







attachment-52a8d291e4b098a46d393956

The joy of a segmentation experience is that you don’t really have to know the person at all; you just have to know a few basic ways that he may identify himself. You might, for instance, drop by the water cooler and talk about your golf game one day, the latest box office hit the next, or a concert you’re going to on Friday. Eventually, he’s going to show some interest and presto! You’ve got the perfect gift idea.

The same is true of landing pages, if you show a visitor options that they can relate to, one of these choices is going to resonate with them enough to make them want more of what you’re offering. These options can be a million different things, depending on what you’re pitching, but they should always be supported by specific content.

The worst thing you can do at this point is segment your audience and then send them to the same interior page as any other segment.  That’s not giving them what they want at all, but rather using that information just to meet your own marketing needs. That’s like getting your best friend tickets to your favorite band’s concert because you know she’ll take you. Not ok.

So this year, be a good gift giver. Give them what they want, and make it just for them; even if you have to ask them what their perfect gift is. 




User segmentation: the gift that keeps on giving