Text Annotation

The new Text tool lets you add text directly to the image. This is useful for shorter comments that you want to draw attention to. You can still use the Note tool for longer comments or for providing the opportunity for response. To add text, select the “T” icon in the Tool palette (or use the T shortcut), click the mouse on the image where you want to begin your text and type your text. You can use the enter/return key to add multiple lines. The text takes the color, opacity and size parameters from the Tool palette. And, like in the note and chat messages, phrases that look like web addresses are automatically converted to web links.

Color Picker and Custom Color Selection

Now you can choose a specific color from the image you are reviewing to make your annotations. To select a color click on the eyedropper icon in the Tool palette and drag your mouse over the image. Once you find the desired color, click the mouse to add it to your palette. You can also set a specific color by expanding the color palette (click “color”) and typing a hexadecimal color number in the input field provided.

Customers have requested easier ways to add people to workgroups. Previously, you were required to invite people and have them register and accept your invitation before you could start sharing your content with them. We have added the option to let you register the accounts for new people you want to add to a workgroup. The new collaborator is automatically added to the workgroup and receives an email with the username and password you specify. If you need to establish many new accounts, you can simplify the process and import a .csv spreadsheet file to create up to 50 accounts at a time.

Also, workgroup members are now added to your contact list so they can be easily added to new workgroups. And if one of your collaborators forgets their username or password a new function on the workgroup tab allows “staff” members to email it directly to them.

Last week, I had the pleasure of participating in a special Technology Day at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. The theme of the day was the “Teaching and Learning in Four Dimensions” and focused on the impact that emerging 3D prototyping and immersive technologies are having on the world of fashion and education. The Keynote speakers were W. James Au and Janine Hawkins. James gave an engaging presentation about the principles of Second Life (SL) and how the various user groups interact. Janine is the Editor of Second Style in SL and spoke more specifically about the top designers in SL and how many talented international, especially Japanese, designers are using it to gain recognition and promote their work. I was really struck by just how quickly and profoundly the virtual and real worlds of fashion are converging in the design, commercial and educational realms. You can find an excellent summary of the day’s events on Elaine Polvinen’s Virtual Fashion Technology blog.

The event was organized (exceptionally well, I may add) by Beth Harris, a professor of art history at FIT and a leading proponent of technological innovation in education. Beth originally discovered Cozimo through the web and contacted us to learn more. Since then we’ve developed a close relationship and Beth has shared her considerable experience and passion on the needs of educators. Dealing effectively with rich media is one of her primary concerns and she immediately jumped at the opportunity to experiment with Cozimo’s new WordPress plugin on smARThistory, a blog she maintains with her colleague Steven Zucker.

Thanks to Beth’s invitation, I had the opportunity to meet educators from FIT and other institutions who attended Technology Day. We’ll be setting up full Cozimo accounts for a number of courses in the upcoming semester and we’re looking forward to supporting other educational initiatives they are working on.

It’s interesting how many of the people we speak with about Cozimo start out by asking how we differ from a web conferencing application like Webex. Understandably, the idea that you can make a presentation online to a group of people with both applications sparks the comparison. But in reality the two applications are completely different beasts and it’s important to understand these differences when considering your collaboration requirements:

Broadcast Quality vs. High Quality

When web conferencing “broadcasts” a video screen capture of the presenter’s computer, there is typically a high degree of image compression required to optimize bandwidth. As a result the quality and resolution of the work you’re presenting can be severely degraded and there can be significant latency in presenting dynamic content such as video. With Cozimo everyone works directly from the content itself so you see the full resolution and quality of the media. PDF files maintain all vector information so that people can zoom into graphics and text without degradation. Videos are played back fully synchronized with frame accurate timing. The visual quality of the work is naturally of utmost importance for creative professionals and Cozimo provides presentation and online collaboration without having to compromise.

“Here and Now” vs. “Anytime, Anywhere”

Web conferencing is all about the “here and now”. It’s sufficient for collaborating on content as long as everyone is together in a session but once the session is over that’s it. With Cozimo you have the option to let people review and annotate your content at their convenience so you can review it at a later time. Or you can be online together with any number of team members for real-time review sessions. In addition, web-conferencing solutions often require the installation of specialized software that is not always supported on all platforms while Cozimo can be administered and accessed pretty much any web browser on any OS.

Persistence and Tracking

The annotations and drawings that are made during a web conference are not persistent so it’s hard for any team member to return and review any comments that were made. While it’s usually possible to record a video of a web-conference session, you can imagine how difficult it would be to go back and locate some specific comment or note at some future date. With Cozimo all the comments, drawings and messages are persistent and you can easily reference them at any time. In addition, you have a complete history available of the review activity for any item.

In the end, it really boils down to process. Today, people use a wide variety of means for distributing and collaborating on digital content: email, FTP, web conferencing, faxes, couriers, live meetings, etc. Using all these tools typically result in disjointed feedback and an awful lot of wasted time trying to keep it all circulating and organized. The real value of Cozimo is that, unlike the immediacy of a web conference, it provides a fully integrated suite of tools for supporting digital content review and collaboration throughout an ongoing design or production process.

This year’s VisMasters Design Modeling and Visualization Conference is being held in Boston, May 12-13, and we’re very pleased to be one of the sponsors this year. In fact, it was at DMVC two years ago that Randal Stevens and Jeff Mottle of VisMasters and CGarchitect.com generously gave us the opportunity to preview our alpha version of Cozimo to the attendees and many of our current customers go back to that event. So it will be great to get back and show everyone how far we’ve come since those early days.

DMVC is really the only conference of its kind in North America to specifically address the needs of architects, designers, artists and CG producers who are involved in 3D design visualization. It brings together some of the best speakers and instructors from around the world for two intensive days of sessions dealing with the latest technologies and techniques. Speaking from experience, it’s also a great informal event to meet and learn from a very passionate group of interesting people doing some incredible CG work. If you’re in the field, it’s well worth attending. And as sponsors we can save you $50 on the registration if you use the promo code - dmvc08cozimo - when registering. See you there!