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List: kde-kimageshop
Subject: Re: 2015 funding thoughts
From: Sven Langkamp <sven.langkamp () gmail ! com>
Date: 2014-10-22 17:22:03
Message-ID: CAAmsBfknRzSu1pP5YG52rFL6JFdH45tFfDSt1w-sv2pBwJL6vw () mail ! gmail ! com
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On Wed, Oct 22, 2014 at 12:03 PM, Boudewijn Rempt <boud@valdyas.org> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Pretty soon, KO GmbH will be out of the Krita business. The Krita
> Foundation will take over Krita Studio and Krita on Steam, so customers
> don't get screwed. But one of the reasons KO GmbH is going out of business
> is that we never made the income needed to make the company break even (let
> alone profitable). That doesn't bode well for the Foundation, either.
> Pretty soon, either the Foundation has to be able to pay me a living
> income, or I'll have to go and find another job. Krita development _will_
> slow down considerably then!
>
That's sad, although I already feared that it would happen. I assume that
KO also will be getting out of the remaining Calligra too (not that much
anyway), right? Paying to you and Dmitry it certainly going to be hard.
> So, here's a plan I've been preparing for next year. Part of it is about
> invigorating the development fund subscriptions part for individuals, part
> of it is an attempt to figure out how to get companies to take up
> responsibility one way or another.
>
> I see two possibilities: make a second development fund subscription for
> companies that includes all the Krita Studio perks (stable builds for
> CentOS, Ubuntu LTS and Windows, support when needed), and I've got a list
> of four biggish projects that should be of interested to studios especially.
>
>
Any estimates for the subscriptions?
> Please help by going through this proposal and suggesting ways of making
> this more attractive -- then I'll send it out to all the contacts I've
> gathered over the past year and see whether we can get something going!
>
> (Note: I've sort of fixed a month of development work at 5000 euros.
> That's awfully cheap in a commercial setting, but it's sort of realistic
> for a non-profit like the Krita Foundation, I think.)
>
> I'll also post this on the forum.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------
> The Krita Foundation: the next steps
>
> Krita has been developed at break-neck speed in 2014. We released Krita
> 2.8, with a host of new features, performance improvements and bug fixes.
> We made the first port to OSX available. We brought Krita to the Steam
> platform. We are on track to release the next version, 2.9, which will have
> among other things a greatly improved transform tool (cage, liquify,
> transform masks, perspective transform and more) and improved compatibility
> with Photoshop files.
>
> However, developing Krita at this pace means we have to fund developers to
> work on Krita full-time. While there are many volunteers who dedicate their
> spare time to Krita development, with only volunteer contributions,
> development would be much slower.
>
> Currently, the Krita Foundation earns about 500 euros a month through
> donations, sale of DVD's and the development fund. We made an additional
> 19,000 euros this year through the Kickstarter campaign. Krita on Steam
> makes about a 1000 euros a month right now, but for the moment, that money
> comes to KO GmbH, not the Krita Foundation.
>
> In order to continue its work, the Krita Foundation needs at least 10,000
> euros a month. Given that Krita is already in wide-spread use, with plenty
> of opportunities for growing much larger, that should be doable.
>
> I want to invite individual artist to join the Krita Development Fund:
> currently we get 100 euros a month through the development fund. Any
> amount, from five euros up makes a difference, because it makes for
> dependable income that we can plan with.
>
> For companies, I want to create a new subscription model that will take
> the place of the Krita Studio license KO GmbH offered. It will still give
> access to Krita builds for CentOS 6.5 and Ubuntu LTS, as well as Windows,
> and support with bug fixes and installation help.
>
> There are also four development project that I want to invite companies to
> subscribe to:
>
> * LOD performance optimization: this will bring Krita's real time painting
> performance up to par with Photoshop, or even go beyond that. There is
> currently a proof-of-concept, but it needs at least four months of work,
> about 20,000 euros.
>
I think going forward the is one of the most if not the most imporatant
development, so it should get top priority if possible.
> * Animation: make the animation plugin ready for the real world.
>
> We have an initial investment from Eric Lake's project together with
> http://songoftheamazon.com/the-film/. We should consider doing a
> crowd-funding campaign to double their investment. This needs about 3-4
> months of work, so 15,000 to 20,000 euros.
>
I think the animation support needs at least three months to fix the
remaining issues and integrate into the main application. The additions for
that project would be another 3-4 months.
> * OSX: the OSX port is experimental and needs work to be ready for end
> users:
> * port remaining dependencies (HDR painting, optimizations)
> * fix OpenGL
> * fix popup palette (currently now shown when OpenGL is enabled)
> * implement Wacom support to replace Qt's built-in tablet support.
> * polish gui inconsistencies
> * fix resource handling
>
> This needs six months of dedicated development, so about 30,000 euros.
>
> * Scripting: a proof of concept exists of Python scripting support for
> Krita. The goal is to enable both writing gui extensions for Krita as well
> as automate image manipulation actions.
>
> This needs three months of development, about 15,000 euros.
>
Another big item is port to Qt 5 which should also happen in 2015. That
should take not that much time, but also needs to be scheduled carefully.
I think it's important that we go back to shorter release cycles as 2.9 and
not start too many projects at once. Ideally we would be ready to ship a
development project every 3-4 months. Currently we have sort of a mess due
to mvc and animation running concurrently. A shorter development cycle
would bring new features to the users faster.
I think we should also try Patreon. Form what I saw that seems to be a lot
more interesting for people than custom development funds. Looking at other
Patreon stuff it looks like the average is amount per person is about 10$
for bigger project and we would maybe need between 1000 and 1300 supporters
to fund everything, but 600 could get a half the amount already.
[Attachment #5 (text/html)]
<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Oct 22, 2014 \
at 12:03 PM, Boudewijn Rempt <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:boud@valdyas.org" \
target="_blank">boud@valdyas.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote \
class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px \
0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex">Hi,<br>
<br>
Pretty soon, KO GmbH will be out of the Krita business. The Krita Foundation will \
take over Krita Studio and Krita on Steam, so customers don't get screwed. But \
one of the reasons KO GmbH is going out of business is that we never made the income \
needed to make the company break even (let alone profitable). That doesn't bode \
well for the Foundation, either. Pretty soon, either the Foundation has to be able to \
pay me a living income, or I'll have to go and find another job. Krita \
development _will_ slow down considerably \
then!<br></blockquote><div><br></div><div>That's sad, although I already feared \
that it would happen. I assume that KO also will be getting out of the remaining \
Calligra too (not that much anyway), right? Paying to you and Dmitry it certainly \
going to be hard.</div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px \
0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex">
So, here's a plan I've been preparing for next year. Part of it is about \
invigorating the development fund subscriptions part for individuals, part of it is \
an attempt to figure out how to get companies to take up responsibility one way or \
another.<br> <br>
I see two possibilities: make a second development fund subscription for companies \
that includes all the Krita Studio perks (stable builds for CentOS, Ubuntu LTS and \
Windows, support when needed), and I've got a list of four biggish projects that \
should be of interested to studios especially.<br> \
<br></blockquote><div><br></div><div>Any estimates for the subscriptions? \
</div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px \
0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex">
Please help by going through this proposal and suggesting ways of making this more \
attractive -- then I'll send it out to all the contacts I've gathered over \
the past year and see whether we can get something going!<br> <br>
(Note: I've sort of fixed a month of development work at 5000 euros. That's \
awfully cheap in a commercial setting, but it's sort of realistic for a \
non-profit like the Krita Foundation, I think.)<br> <br>
I'll also post this on the forum.<br>
<br>
----------------------------------------------------<br>
The Krita Foundation: the next steps<br>
<br>
Krita has been developed at break-neck speed in 2014. We released Krita 2.8, with a \
host of new features, performance improvements and bug fixes. We made the first port \
to OSX available. We brought Krita to the Steam platform. We are on track to release \
the next version, 2.9, which will have among other things a greatly improved \
transform tool (cage, liquify, transform masks, perspective transform and more) and \
improved compatibility with Photoshop files.<br> <br>
However, developing Krita at this pace means we have to fund developers to work on \
Krita full-time. While there are many volunteers who dedicate their spare time to \
Krita development, with only volunteer contributions, development would be much \
slower.<br> <br>
Currently, the Krita Foundation earns about 500 euros a month through donations, sale \
of DVD's and the development fund. We made an additional 19,000 euros this year \
through the Kickstarter campaign. Krita on Steam makes about a 1000 euros a month \
right now, but for the moment, that money comes to KO GmbH, not the Krita \
Foundation.<br> <br>
In order to continue its work, the Krita Foundation needs at least 10,000 euros a \
month. Given that Krita is already in wide-spread use, with plenty of opportunities \
for growing much larger, that should be doable.<br> <br>
I want to invite individual artist to join the Krita Development Fund: currently we \
get 100 euros a month through the development fund. Any amount, from five euros up \
makes a difference, because it makes for dependable income that we can plan with.<br> \
<br> For companies, I want to create a new subscription model that will take the \
place of the Krita Studio license KO GmbH offered. It will still give access to Krita \
builds for CentOS 6.5 and Ubuntu LTS, as well as Windows, and support with bug fixes \
and installation help.<br> <br>
There are also four development project that I want to invite companies to subscribe \
to:<br> <br>
* LOD performance optimization: this will bring Krita's real time painting \
performance up to par with Photoshop, or even go beyond that. There is currently a \
proof-of-concept, but it needs at least four months of work, about 20,000 \
euros.<br></blockquote><div><br></div><div>I think going forward the is one of the \
most if not the most imporatant development, so it should get top priority if \
possible.</div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px \
0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex">
* Animation: make the animation plugin ready for the real world.<br>
<br>
We have an initial investment from Eric Lake's project together with <a \
href="http://songoftheamazon.com/the-film/" \
target="_blank">http://songoftheamazon.com/the-film/</a>. We should consider doing a \
crowd-funding campaign to double their investment. This needs about 3-4 months of \
work, so 15,000 to 20,000 euros.<br></blockquote><div><br></div><div>I think the \
animation support needs at least three months to fix the remaining issues and \
integrate into the main application. The additions for that project would be another \
3-4 months.</div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px \
0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex">
* OSX: the OSX port is experimental and needs work to be ready for end users:<br>
* port remaining dependencies (HDR painting, optimizations)<br>
* fix OpenGL<br>
* fix popup palette (currently now shown when OpenGL is enabled)<br>
* implement Wacom support to replace Qt's built-in tablet support.<br>
* polish gui inconsistencies<br>
* fix resource handling<br>
<br>
This needs six months of dedicated development, so about 30,000 euros.<br>
<br>
* Scripting: a proof of concept exists of Python scripting support for Krita. The \
goal is to enable both writing gui extensions for Krita as well as automate image \
manipulation actions.<br> <br>
This needs three months of development, about 15,000 \
euros.<br></blockquote><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Another big item is port to \
Qt 5 which should also happen in 2015. That should take not that much time, but also \
needs to be scheduled carefully.</div><div><br></div><div>I think it's important \
that we go back to shorter release cycles as 2.9 and not start too many projects at \
once. Ideally we would be ready to ship a development project every 3-4 months. \
Currently we have sort of a mess due to mvc and animation running concurrently. A \
shorter development cycle would bring new features to the users \
faster.</div><div><br></div><div>I think we should also try Patreon. Form what I saw \
that seems to be a lot more interesting for people than custom development funds. \
Looking at other Patreon stuff it looks like the average is amount per person is \
about 10$ for bigger project and we would maybe need between 1000 and 1300 supporters \
to fund everything, but 600 could get a half the amount \
already.</div></div></div></div>
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