Eric tapped his hand on the table and thought for a moment, then asked, "Among these people, what is the ratio of model special effects to CG special effects artists?"

Stan Winston was stunned and said, "I haven't let people count this yet." ”

"Then count it immediately," Eric said, watching Stan Winston turn his head and tell his assistant to do it immediately, before looking at Ed Carmore, "What about you guys?"

Ed Camor said: "I'm okay here, our opponents are not too interested in the team's ordinary programmers, mainly in contact with the team's middle and senior project leaders, although some of them have signed non-compete agreements, and if they are forced to leave, they will not be able to do related work for a year, but I think the business prospects shown by Jurassic Park are enough for our opponents to challenge the legal risks." ”

After hearing this, Eric looked at John Lasseter again.

John Lasseter shrugged: "I think everyone here has already seen the finished film of 'Bug Crisis,' and this 3D animated film is not inferior to 'Toy Story' two years ago, so I think Pixar should have taken some precautions to avoid a lot of employee departures." ”

After the three of them finished speaking, Eric looked at the executives present: "Is there anything else you would like to add?"

Michael Lynn said, "Eric, Ritter has gathered some information, let him talk about it." ”

Eric nodded at a chubby white man in his forties, who spoke, "Mr. Williams, based on some of the information we've gathered. A week ago. Michael Eisner of Universal Pictures, George Lucas of Lucasfilm, and Carol Butz, chairman and CEO of Autodesk, the famous graphics software company, met in San Rafael, where Autodesk is headquartered. Then Autodesk issued an announcement that Autodesk will cooperate with Industrial Light & Magic and Universal Pictures to enter the film and television special effects software market, but the announcement did not mention specific details, in addition, several medium-sized special effects companies in Hollywood have recently received large injections of funds and are recruiting on a large scale. ”

After the executive named Ritter finished speaking, the assistant who had just received Stan Winston's order pushed the door again and walked into the conference room. Put a collated copy of the data in front of Stan Winston.

"Eric, the statistics are out, among the 169 people who submitted the resignation application, 112 are model special effects, and 57 are CG special effects artists," Stan Winston breathed a sigh of relief when he said this data, although he started his career in making model special effects, but Stan Winston is definitely not a conservative person, he has heard Eric say it more than once. CG special effects are the mainstream special effects trend in Hollywood in the future, and the success of CG special effects blockbusters such as "Terminator 2", "Tornado" and "Jurassic Park" also proves this. Nearly two-thirds of the employees who left the company were model special effects artists, and only one-third were CG special effects artists, so things weren't as bad as he thought.

Everyone present seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, Eric had already guessed this possibility, and now that his guess had been proven, the last trace of worry in his heart had dissipated a lot. The reason why there is no large outflow of CG special effects artists in the digital field is mainly because CG special effects artists use a combination of special effects software developed by themselves in the digital field, and at present, these software digital fields are not sold to the public, leaving the tool software in the digital field, these originally very skilled CG special effects artists can only re-learn those immature third-rate special effects software on the market, if it is not for the salary that the poaching company gives is difficult to refuse, these people will definitely not take the risk of leaving.

Putting aside the ideas he had conceived yesterday in London and on the plane, Eric clapped his hands to get everyone's attention, and said, "Okay, now let's talk about how to solve this problem." First of all, we considered cooperating with Autodesk to develop Maya, but that cooperation was not successful, since we were reluctant to join at the beginning, now Autodesk has taken a fancy to the cake of special effects software, and wants to get in and intervene, but it is too late. How he jumped in, we kicked it out. ”

There were a few chuckles in the conference room, but no one despised Autodesk, Autodesk currently relies on the main AutoCAD industrial design series software, has basically monopolized the industrial drawing software market, film and television special effects software and industrial drawing software have a lot in common, Autodesk wants to develop the corresponding film and television special effects software is not too difficult, the cycle is much shorter than the original digital field to develop Maya and other tool software, in the original time and space, because of the opportunity to enter the field in advance, Autodesk also monopolized the film and television special effects software。

At this time, if you want to prevent Autodesk from entering the film and television special effects software, it is not only for the sake of software sales interests, but more importantly, to ensure the position of the leader in the film and television special effects industry in the digital field. If any company only invests and does not generate profits, it will not be able to escape the road of closing its doors sooner or later, this is the case of the technical team led by Ed Carmol, and the disadvantages can not be seen in the case of the rapid development of the digital field.

After Eric's words were finished, everyone in the conference room began to make their own suggestions.

After three days of intensive meetings, the digital realm held a press conference at Firefly Studios headquarters.

At this time, the second-week box office data of "Jurassic Park" was released, and it received more than $71 million at the box office, with a total box office of $185 million. Although it was a press conference in the digital realm, when it was learned that Eric would be present, many of the reporters who received the invitation were gearing up to prepare a whole bunch of sequels about "Jurassic Park".

However, the information revealed at the press conference did not disappoint the reporters present.

Ed Carmore, who originally held the position of chief technology officer of Pixar Animation, announced to the outside world that Firefly will integrate Pixar and the technical support team in the digital field to form a separate Firefly software company, which mainly provides special effects software and related film and television special effects solutions for target customers.

After Ed Camor finished speaking, more than 100 reporters in the press conference hall immediately buzzed with discussions. Some of the less well-informed reporters wondered why the digital realm was in full swing and why they were making such a move to tear down the walls, while others who were very sensitive to industry news realized that this was a firefly's counterattack to the poaching that the digital realm had experienced during this time.

At first glance, this may sound illogical, but even if the news of Autodesk's cooperation with ILM and Universal is not revealed, some smart people can understand that this is actually a disguised expansion of the digital realm. Although the special effects software in the digital field has not yet been leaked, the technical level shown from movies such as "Jurassic Park" has thrown off those small and medium-sized special effects companies in Hollywood. Therefore, once the tools and software in the digital field are sold, not only will the special effects artists who leave the digital field be given priority, but other special effects companies will also join the camp of users of software tools in the digital field.

Moreover, Ed Carmor's statement is also very important, in addition to special effects software, Firefly Software will also provide customers with specific film and television special effects solutions, which not only increases the profitability of Firefly software, but also restricts the development of those special effects companies who are greedy for convenience through solution licensing. After all, if you can buy a set of special effects shots at a lower price, most people will no longer waste time and money on technology research and development. The solution provided by Firefly Software must rely on the software of Firefly itself, which once again restricts those small and medium-sized special effects companies from using other special effects software.

After Ed Carmer announced the news, the press conference entered free question time, and the audience raised a large number of arms in unison.

The host looked under the lookout and randomly ordered a very temperamental female reporter.

Unexpectedly, after the female reporter got the microphone, she turned directly to Eric, who had not spoken just now: "Mr. Williams, I am a reporter from the Los Angeles Times, the North American box office of "Jurassic Park" has accumulated $185 million, and fans are very concerned about the follow-up story of Dinosaur Island, but your original novel did not reveal relevant news, will Firefly develop a sequel?"

"First of all, I would like to say, ma'am, your question has nothing to do with this conference, and if anyone asks a similar question next, I will not answer it. But now I can tell you that there will definitely be a sequel. ”

Eric was just about to hand the microphone out when the female reporter immediately said, "So, Mr. Williams, will Firefly Software treat special effects companies outside of the digital realm differently?"

"I don't know what kind of difference you are talking about, Firefly Software and the digital field are originally one, if it is technical support, Firefly Software will definitely spare no effort in the digital field, this is an indisputable thing. However, other aspects, such as the special effects software owned by Firefly Software, are treated equally internally and externally. After the spin-off, even those in the digital field who want to use Firefly Software's latest software will need to pay a fee according to the process. ”

The microphone in the audience quickly passed to another reporter, and the other party's question was still aimed at Eric: "Mr. Williams, I'm a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, will Firefly Software go public?"

"There are no plans to go public yet, but it will definitely be in the future. ”

The reporter immediately hit the snake and asked the question that the whole Wall Street was very concerned about: "Will Firefly Pictures go public?" (to be continued......)