Investment: DragonFrame Software

Immediately after purchasing the Camera, I went to purchase the software which will be controlling it. DragonFrame, formelly known as Dragon Stop Motion before the release of version 3, is developed by Dzed, an amazing little software company that I would die to work for.

There were quite a few software occupying that space before them, but somehow, DragonFrame is taking it at the next level, leaving the competition far behind. It is remarkable to see a software company which vision seems to empower the lost art of (low tech) stop-motion, with the best tool-set that computer technology can offer.The angle of DragonFrame is resolutely contemporary : The stop mo craft has moved not long ago to DSLR Cameras, never to return, it seems, to former shot grabbing alternative (such as Digital Video Cameras). DragonFrame is designed from the ground up to harness the power, flexibility and high resolution of DSLR. Just USB-wire your DSLR camera software to your computer, turn on its "life-view" feature (a web-cam like video feed that DSLR camera is sending as "live preview" of the shots), start Dragon Frame... et voila... Plug'n Play at its best... the software takes over and control focus, ISO, aperture, shutter speed, executing shots and sending the pics directly on the your computer hard disk... it's magic.

The new version 3 is packed with so many tightly integrated features, too many to enumerate: take their Lip-Sync system for instance, which allow planning and synchronization of dialog with mouth movement (with replacement mouth or otherwise)... there is a dedicated software doing just that called Magpie which cost close to 500 USD. Well, in Dragon 3, this is just a side feature, part of the whole package which sells for 300 USD with the Keypad.

I actually don't quite understand how they can get away publishing such a specialty software, in the Pro league of this minute industry, for less than 300 USD. I wonder how their business model is working... there can't be so many of us pulling this kind of software off the shelve at 300 USD to maintain an apparently sophisticated software (and hardware!) company afloat. Why so cheap? Oh yeah... of course... their market is Stop Mo animators... the kinds that do not necessarily have deep pockets.

p.s Oh, and... did I mention... their website feature one of the most interesting and progressive blog about Stop Mo.