Turning Artists into Magicians

Interview with Martin Knapp of Pixologic Inc.

Tell me a little about Pixologic…what does your company do and who uses your products?

Founded in 1997, Pixologic Incorporated develops and markets innovative software tools for the film and video, games, graphic design and illustration markets. ZBrush is a graphic application aimed at simplifying the science behind generating computer graphics. ZBrush appeals to a wide audience by providing empowering tools that give users intuitive and visual control over the digital images they create. By providing a unique synthesis of 2D and 3D capabilities in a single stand-alone tool, ZBrush collapses economic and ease-of-use barriers to creating stunning images.

What's your job at Pixologic? Do you get to draw monsters all day?

I serve as the Director of Marketing and Education for Pixologic. I get to teach those new to ZBrush the ins and outs of the programs through lessons at ZClassroom.com.

I also spend a lot of time creating short documentaries of major game and film studios who use ZBrush to produce the ground breaking work that they do. You can see many of these interviews on the User Stories page at Pixologic.com.

How do you see education and marketing fitting together?

Our commitment to them doesn't just stop when they buy a copy of ZBrush.We are interested in helping them grow into exceptional digital painters and sculptors and we do this by providing extensive resources at ZBrushcentral.com, as well as up to date training in our ZClassroom.

What role does Camtasia Studio play in creating your online videos? Where does it fit into the pipeline?

I have worked in video production and post production my entire life and I have to admit that Camtasia is by far the best screen capture software I have ever used! I have tried many other screen capture programs and have never had the same high quality results that I do with Camtasia.

The amount of audio, video, and output choices that Camtasia gives me makes creating content and getting out to the public a breeze. I use Camtasia for creating all of the educational content at Pixologic as well as any promotional media needed that demonstrate the user interface of ZBrush.

It looks like you produce videos to .MOV…why did you choose that format?

We have played with several different formats. We chose Quicktime for its over all quality and compatibility with the end user. However because of the large selection of output choices Camtasia offers we are not limited to .mov and are now taking advantage of the many other output formats like Flash.

How did you discover Camtasia Studio…and what got you started using it?

A few years ago I saw some screen capture content on the web. I was amazed at not only how clear the videos were but also how small the file size was. So I downloaded a few demos of screen capture software, Camtasia being one of them. After testing all the demos there was no question that it was Camtasia that was used to created the great content I saw.

What's your favorite Camtasia Studio feature?

Due to the fact that there are so many things I like about Camtasia I am not sure there is just one feature I like the most.

But I can say that being able to save your recording into a Camtasia file for batch export later is amazing! This means that after I make a recording I am not stuck with just one file format on output. This allows me to convert entire libraries of training from a format like Quicktime over to Flash with just a couple of clicks and no loss of image quality.

Do folks at Pixologic use Camtasia Studio internally for other things beyond the ZClassroom training videos?

I do use Camtasia very often for internal communications. It's much easier to show someone from our team who isn't in the office what I mean than to try to explain it over the phone. We also take advantage of Screencast screen capture software and the free server space provided to pass video notes back and forth.

The visual clarity of the ZClassroom videos is fantastic, even when streamed over the Internet. I hear you're using Screencast.com to host the videos…does that help explain the high quality?

Well the team over at Apple have done an excellent job in creating a high quality Quicktime format that is very low in file size. This is why you can get such fast playback on the videos in ZClassroom.

But I will say this about the Screencast.com servers, what you created on your computer is what you see after upload. I was worried that the videos I created would great compressed like they do when you upload to YouTube. But the quality stayed exactly the same.

Visitors to your site may never know your videos are being hosted at Screencast.com…can you describe how and why the videos are embedded on your site?

I can't go into detail as to how we design our site but I can say that the one click embed feature on Screencast.com makes it so anyone can do it.

Why include an option to download the videos?

Because of our dedication to our users we want them to have every opportunity to learn ZBrush. Often people download the training we have at ZClassroom so they can play it back even when they are not connected to the web. I even know of cases where ZBrush users are adding the ZClassroom training to their iPods and iPhones so they can learn ZBrush on the go.

With all the video sharing sites out there, what attracted you to Screencast.com?

The easy way of uploading and sharing videos. Screencast.com is an excellent way to just get your content out to the rest of the world.

What advice would you give someone who wants to use online video to help grow their business?

Quality, quality, and quality! If your are really serious about showing off a product or service you might not want a YouTube logo embedded in the lower right. That just looks cheesy! Make sure you choose the right video sharing site that will let you show off your content the way you intended it.

Sample Videos

Pixologic allowed us to share these sample videos with you directly; more are available when you register for a free account at ZClassroom.