Maya Student version

[SheepFactory]

-no it doesnt watermark

-yes you can open up the student version files in commercial version. There is no difference between the two other than the licence type and the fact that you cant make money off of the student version.

[t-man152]

you pay some moneyy to get the student version and then when you graduate you pay a some more money to upgrade it tooo the comercial licence ( if you want). Im in the process of saving my money to get it. Also I just wanted to ask one more question. I know you cant sell your work with this. but can you do and distribute demo reels?

[Seven]

excellent, thanks Sheep.

t-man152 - yes you can distribute demo reels, well I would imagine you can. You can with Student Max. I would think its the same as you are not making money from freely distributing demo reels.

[stew]

I was talking on the phone to someone at Alias Germany about that offer the other day, asking almost the same questions.

So: It's a full-featured version, it is Maya Unlimited. Not PLE. What makes the difference is the licensing, you are not allowed to use it for commercial purposes and it expires when you're not a student any more. But you do not have to renew it every year, buy it once and use it as long as you're a student. After that, I was told, you have the option of upgrading to a full version of Unlimited, costing approx EUR 1000,-.

I am myself considering purchasing the student's license, but I don't see myself having much time to spend with the Maya SDK (for me, the most significant difference to PLE) before the end of my studies... How much does the C++ API in Maya differ from MEL anyway? Are MEL skills easily transferable to the C++ API?

[Eldar]

Originally posted by stew

So: It's a full-featured version, it is Maya Unlimited. Not PLE. What makes the difference is the licensing, you are not allowed to use it for commercial purposes and it expires when you're not a student any more.


So, it is based on honor system? Or the licence is timed to expire on graduation date? In which case, it's not exactly what you might consider "permanent".

[stew]

That's how I understand it, yes. I think "permanent" translates to "needs not to be renewed", not more.

[Seven]

thanks for the info stew, to me permanent means for life, not just for the 2 years ive got left at university. Also how do they know how long ive got left at uni, when to shut it off ?

With 3DSMax.. you can have 2 student licenses. The first one is £120 for 15 months, and the other is £700 or so (i think) for life. Both have the rule of not using it for commerical use.

I was thinking the permanent license was similar to the 3DSMax life license for Maya, not just for Student life.

[stew]

thanks for the info stew, to me permanent means for life, not just for the 2 years ive got left at university. Also how do they know how long ive got left at uni, when to shut it off ?
My understanding was that you are not allowed to use that license after you graduate, but it doesn't have any technical measurements that would enforce that, so it won't stop working from one day to the other. But, if I understand that correctly, Maya is soft-locked to your computer (Maya owners correct me if I'm wrong), so you probably won't be able to transfer that license to another computer.

[CGmonkey]

The most important question: Do you get the box and manual?

[Seven]

Thats a very good point CgMonkey, do you get the box and manual. Anyone know ?

[t-man152]

Originally posted by stew


So: It's a full-featured version, it is Maya Unlimited. Not PLE. What makes the difference is the licensing, you are not allowed to use it for commercial purposes and it expires when you're not a student any more. But you do not have to renew it every year, buy it once and use it as long as you're a student. After that, I was told, you have the option of upgrading to a full version of Unlimited, costing approx EUR 1000

no actualy I think once you graduate it doesnt expire. you have it forever you just can't use it comercialy. once you graduate you have the CHOICE to upgrade to full version but you can keep the student version as long as you want.

[beaker]

Originally posted by Seven
Thats a very good point CgMonkey, do you get the box and manual. Anyone know ?
No, alias doesn't give out printed manuals to anyone anymore(not even the commercial version) since they are exactly the same as the html docs. You only get the learning maya book and the what's new in this version/release notes books. We got a dvd with a version at one company I freelanced for. Not sure if they include it with the edu version though. If you do want printed manuals I think they are around 250-300 US$(last I knew) for the set of around 10-15 books.

[Eldar]

Originally posted by t-man152
no actualy I think once you graduate it doesnt expire. you have it forever you just can't use it comercialy. once you graduate you have the CHOICE to upgrade to full version but you can keep the student version as long as you want.

Are you sure about this?

This is from the A|W Academic Licence agreement PDF that you can download from JurneyEd site at

http://www.journeyed.com/PDFs/alias_agreements.PDF



"4. Term of Software License(s).

4.1 Generally. A|W shall provide to the Participant
nodelocked license for each Software license acquired
pursuant to the Program, which, subject to the terms hereof,
for the term specified on the applicable Order;

4.2 Students. For student Participants, all Software licenses acquired hereunder
shall terminate upon the earlier of one year from the date of activation of the
applicable Software license or three calendar months following the date of the
student's graduation or termination of participation in the Academic Program;"


I don't know if I'm reading this right, but it sounds to me like the licence is programmed to last a year from activation date. Then there's the 3 months after graduation thing which doesn't make much sense with 1 year licence scheme. I need to take a course in "Conversational Lawyer as a Second Language 101".

If it really expires in a year or once you graduate, I'm not sure $800 is a good investment. That is a lot of money for something that isn't really as "perpetual" as advertised, and legaly has no use for anything other than learning how to use it. People who are able to take advantage of this can already use the software for free in school labs.

[Eldar]

For any that might be curious, this is a response from a sales rep at JourneyEd on this issue:


The agreement form is outdated. At one time we sold a version that did
expire, but the version now is a perpetual license. I apologize for the
confusion.

So that about answers that question.

[stew]

I just read the licensing terms on the order form from the German Alias web site. That one clearly states that the license is only valid during your studies and that it must be returned when you abort your studies. No matter what any sales representative tells me, this is the license that I would have to sign when ordering the student version.

It's not worth it for me any more. I plan on having finished my studies early next year and 6 months of Maya Complete are not worth 300 Euros to me. That's PLE for me then, maybe spending the money on the next Pixels:3D update instead.

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