At the west coast anime conventions of æ94, we debuted the White Radish demo. We had prepared a tape for showing in fan video rooms containing our fan works, such as \b4F, Nagisa Bonita,\b the \bT-3\b trailer, and \bGirlfight Tonight!\b The demo, which was only a few minutes long, was clipped at the beginning and end of the tape. It was shown several times during that convention (and I got the distinct impression that some people were getting tired of the demo).
Jerry, who was informally in charge of all PR and correspondence (which was a mistake, as I would later come to realise), also wrote up the first \bWhite Radish Reader,\b which we distributed along with our new business cards.
During the first of the two cons, AnimEigo showed off their new logo, designed by Allen Hastings, author of LightWave. Logo designing was one of the services we offered on the demo tape, so we decided to see if other anime companies were looking for an upgrade. We approached all the major distributors at the time, but got no offers. (A couple were planning to look into Mr. HastingsÆ services.)
However, John OÆDonnell of U.S. Manga Corps seemed interested in our proposal. We offered to produce an animated logo mixing 2D and 3D animation, using a hand-animated female character and a 3D rendered mecha, both of whom they had the US rights to. Mr. OÆDonnell invited us to show him what we could do, and sent us model sheets for the armoured suit. This gesture seemed encouraging enough, so we set to work on it between conventions. Jerry storyboarded a brief sequence, and created several still logos intended to improve upon their cutout M.D. Geist logo screen. I did some pencil roughs of one of the shots, and rendered a test animation of a mecha suit walking around and jumping ten miles into the air.
At the next convention we brought the tape to U.S. Manga Corps. They played it, but their reactions were hard to judge. They said theyÆd show it to a few other people in the company, and let us know.
Eventually, we received a brief letter stating that they didnÆt want to change their logo at this time, but thank-you-very-much. After that, we vowed never to work on spec again.
\b\c04Talks with Woodhead are informative but not enabling\b\c00
At the earlier convention, we also approached AnimEigoÆs Robert Woodhead, and asked if he would fund a video, in the same way he funded Running InkÆs \bBayscape.\b Unfortunately, he "lost his shirt" on that venture, and was not inclined to do it again. The demo tape did not convince him that we could produce quality work. However, he \bdid\b provide useful information on the production of videos, including concrete figures that no one else would give us.
There was still the possibility that he might fund one of our projects, but first we would have to produce something that would show him we could tell a story (a Catch-22 very common in this industry).
\b\c04Other peopleÆs opinions of the demo\b\c00
Of the people whose opinions we asked of the demo, Robert Fenelon was one of the most detailed in his critique. Both he and Woodhead commented negatively on the use of pencil roughs in the demo, which we found surprising. We had thought that it would be better to show more work in progress than less finished work. (Of course, now that DisneyÆs been doing it for a while, maybe it would be safe to do it again.)
AnnieÆs hair, they said, was too complicated, and would be too hard to animate. Again, this seemed strange, since after all, the evidence was on the screen.
AnnieÆs design came under attack as well, but even at the time that was not surprising. What I \bdid\b find harsh was when Rob Fenelon said that the demo looked like something from an animation class. Seeing as neither one of us had even taken an animation class, though, perhaps this was not so harsh after all.
All in all, the conventions were very disappointing, since we had received no offers of funding, very little outside interest, and one incident of wasted effort.
