Autodesk Signs Agreement with Avid Technology to Acquire Softimage

#401

I’m excited of having read the word Blender several times in this thread. Is it the beggining of a new era, where low-end software packages rise? It’d be a better option if they turned out to be relatively competitive in the next few releases.

#402

LOL we should all use Blender and Linux and leave those big companies like Autodesk and Microsoft alone with their crap price and maintenance policy :smiley:

Realistically : i think they’ll keep all apps separated. with some plugins to make import/export between apps better.
Autodesk seems to be more a seller than a developer in these times…

My only hope is they don’t buy ZBrush as well…

#403

OMG!!!

I was looking forward to abandoning Max due to lack of innovation.

XSI has been a beacon of innovation for some time now.

I can’t believe this :banghead:

#404

Very sad day… and frankly just sucks!

#405

Pardon my language, but this is ****ing bad.

#406

Where did the interview with Marc & Marc go?

#407

AutoDestiny education, AutoDestination saving options, AutoDeath business model, AutoDeaf support, AutoDeal every year, AutoDear or Blender, AutoDecade of your life, AutoDecision for game makers, AutoDeclare prices, AutoDecrepit software architecture, AutoDeduction never, AutoDefacement unless most expensive product is used, AutoDefeatism if you’re out of money, AutoDefend in court, AutoDefiant stability, AutoDeficient without modules, AutoDeflate your wallet with air, AutoDeflect you away from your future plans, AutoDeform if you export for Blender, AutoDemand of standard skills, AutoDesk soon.

#408

People seem to be hating on Autodesk.

I just wanted to say it’s not like they are MS…I don’t hate them.

I’m just very disappointed in them.

They have soooo much to work with but they do so little.

Instead of being innovative they buy innovation.

Sooo Sad!

#409

Sad news :frowning:
Better than they would have bought a good programmers!
Who will be next, Pixologic?

#410

Well, as far as Linux goes, almost all blockbuster VFX are created on Linux boxes since years since that’s what all the big places run. If someone had predicted that people would use an OS, based entirely on free software, written by people in their spare time, 15 years ago, they’d most probably would have been laughed at.

If you then look how much people these shops have employed to do R&D (between 10-100), in the mid-to-large size studios, then imagine that people will wake up one day and don’t re-invent the wheel over and over again but instead share their code (like ILM did with OpenEXR), then it all doesn’t sound too far fetched.

“Realistically”, looking at what most of these “big” 3D apps do (features) and then looking at some of the free software out there, I wouldn’t be surprised if what you said above happens , at least to a large degree, over the next decade.
Although I don’t think Blender, in particular, will have anything to do with that; even if it does get used quite a bit on previz for blockbuster VFX already, these days. :wink:

.mm

#411

I get my first maintenance support with this XSI 7 boom… and now, what? I really hope they will bring the new version within a year to see how it feels like. But I guess I am going to learn some other app in depth, instead of doing personal projects with XSI. Just to have a way to run out of this. I have only around 3 years of experience with XSI, but it is my main app for almost everything I do.

It all started with 3Democracy of XSI Foundation for me… Democracy

#412

huuuuuuuuuuuuum:rolleyes:

#413

posting in a legendary thread.

Autodesk start investing on what you have, fix the bugs, perfect the code
Max is very messy at the moment.
Bring ICE in :smiley:

#414

XSI’s name will be changed to MSI. That way all the big 3 will start with alphabet “M”. The trinity of "M"s :scream:

I had to check my calendar to make sure it was not April 1st :eek:
It’s like Russian roulette, which app will get dropped eventually?

If there was a new Autodesk app in the works then by doing this everyone would have to migrate to that new app as there is not many alternatives left :rolleyes:

#415

Autodesk and Softimage: did you hear what our say? Mostly we don’t like it…obviously they don’t hear us… Don’t expect that they will hear our complains and bug reports.

#416

Nuff. Said. Now I’m going to sing.

[right]Memories, like the corners of my mind,
Such beautiful, water-colored memories,
of the way we were…
[/right]

#417

How about putting it all in one suite and calling it Autodesk MXI™ ? :shrug:

#418

If there was a new Autodesk app in the works then by doing this everyone would have to migrate to that new app as there is not many alternatives left

How is that so bad, didnt this happen with maya, ok the circumstances were different but 3 3d companies merged and created on big one. No on e complains about that.

#419

Will Max/Maya or XSI get discontinued?

I don’t think users need to worry more now than before the acquisition. Eventually the architecture of max/maya/xsi will seem obsolete and a new generation of 3D apps will appear, so in time they will alll be discontinued, regardless of being pwned by Autodesk or not. The UI and feel of the next generation of 3D apps will be so relatively different from the current, that I bet the learning curve will be comparable to a user changing from a current gen 3D app to another current gen 3D app - in fact changing to a next generation 3D app will probably be even easier since developers generally try and produce code that are better than what they wrote last year :slight_smile:

Will development stop due to lack of competition?

Surely managers will walk around programmers offices making sure no work is done: “Hey stop that work right now! competition is over! shoot some pool or surf the net! whatever you do just don’t work! mmmkay?”…or maybe not. If programmers don’t get to do what they are good at they will accept job offers elsewhere. Development will continue, but some of the effort will be put into the next generation 3D app. The difference being that all next gen developers will work with the same base architecture, and users from different markets can choose a base/extreme package, or possibly various modules. In developing the architecture and modules I’m guessing the XSI dev. team would be responsible for architecture, multithreading, UI, middleware and all things relating to 3D in general - while Max and Maya dev. teams would be responsible for areas like licensing and installation (just kidding). I’m sure owners of max/maya/xsi licenses will get some kind of discount, or perhaps a free license of first version of this next gen app. What sucks in the meantime is that (based on my own experience being an ancient Softimage 3D user who eventually didn’t have the patience to wait for XSI to get up to speed) some of the current gen 3D apps will probably experience weaker updates while waiting for the next gen.

#420

Writing in a sad but legendary post,

Well, as a Softimage fan and user since Softimage 3D latest versions (far far away), I agree with this post’s general deception feeling. Softimage almost always has been a leading and innovative tool.

I was very surprised about this purchasing price, just $35 million? Alias price was $182 millions. It sounds like a bargain, don’t you think?

What I think as really important here for XSI users is the Maya’s way till now within Autodesk’s structure, I mean, a few cuestrions for Maya users:

What about your user experience (support, versions) since autodesk adquisition?

What about the tool’s innovations, impovements and so on?

And Max user? Any addition from Maya’s workflow or technology?

The answer to that kind of cuestions is what really will argue us our future as XSI users or that “SUPER new 3D tool” 's future users.

Softimage 3D|XSI… pleased to have been yours, just a pleasure.