Autodesk Signs Agreement with Avid Technology to Acquire Softimage

#881

Apple wouldn’t kill it off… only the PC version in order to keep their bloodlines clean. Besides, they can’t program QT or Itunes for Windows without screwing it up.

The bottom line is these are all tools. Minus the emo-esque doom and gloom, at the end of the day no one is taking your tool away. Even if, and they won’t, Autodesk kills off Softimage, people still have a valid working product in 6.x and 7. This is kind of like Shake users still doing great things with the product even though it is no longer in development. Less whine and more art.

#882


you’re a boon to mankind

#883

That’s what I think to make me feel better … it was allot worst if it was apple …

  • Upgrade your softimage and install scripts using itunes
  • no copy past ( like the iphone caugh )
  • no windows or linux version
  • they would probably change the name to i3D and ICE to inode
  • you would have to buy a MAC to use xsi

My opinion is that XSI right now is almost perfect, there is stuff that needs improvements like :

  • curves ( spline in max are better I have to admit )
  • some modeling stuff like extrusion along a curve could be better
  • ICE needs to be able to create geometry
  • XSI SDK needs to have more doors … for example it’s not possible to create a plugin that makes for example a primiteve without serious hacking ( please tell me I’m wrong ).
  • Maya fluids , paint fx like system

Other then that I can’t see nothing I would like changed or new.
Just a question without counting the cube how many features of maya were transferred to max or from max to maya ?! it would be allot more easy to transfer paintfx from maya to max then ICE to max … it would be more easy to change XSI interface to look like max ( with modifier stack ) and this idea is completely stupid :slight_smile:

#884

although it is a little bit off topic , with all due respect i might agree with most of your post about max beating Alias and soft to the desktop pc market
but 3d was new in the early 90’s and dev coasted a lot so i dont see the old alias and soft prices as unjustified .
and may i ask when it was when you got disappointed on your first job using SGI and alias power animator or soft cos i clearly remember when both of them had ik and envelopes and deformers like lattices and curve deformers and photo realistic rendres max could only render plastic like images with no real power in ik or envelopes , and as to sgi i worked about 5 years on those machines the software might crash but the machine never , i didnt have to kill it i didnt get any bluescreens it was rock solid and i miss it till now

regards
Ahmed barakat

#885

Lower Facerobot Please Autodesk

#886

What did I start! :cry:

It would be interesting as Kees pointed out whether AD would be NM as the next move - i dont think game developers are there greatest providers but im not sure. Trying to match what an engine can do I personally feel is pointless.

#887

OMG! this Thread is growing as fast as Autodesk! :smiley:

#888

“Even if, and they won’t, Autodesk kills off Softimage” they won’t for sure sell the sourcecode as Apple did with Shake. This is the reason why Shake it is still used and customized in several pipes around the world…

Anyhow, this whole “better ADSK oranges than Apple’s apples” has not much sense except in the optic of comparing parallel universes… If we really have to speculate on what would have been best:

  • Softimage buys out itself and becomes independent
  • somebody, with no overlapping products nor conflicts of interests, invests and believes in what Softimage was doing, and in their philosophy

This would have guaranteed:

  • no slaying of heads during the worse economic crisis in the last decades
  • full operational freedom at Softimage
  • more competition in the market (XSI8 with a fully IDEd architecture would have been a serious player to fight for all)
  • not spending hours of posts reading& writing on the forums :slight_smile:
  • no major shortage of drinks in Montreal during the weekend :wink:

P.

#889

how dare you question the might of Lord Jobso… :stuck_out_tongue:

i must say i agree with you. But i really dream a max osx exclusive 3D app :smiley: with those funny chubby icon and jumpy animation :stuck_out_tongue:

anyway, i got a question. any1 know or just have a best guess how big is autodesk market share in entertainment 3D apps rite now (in number not ‘most’)?

just curious :slight_smile:

#890

I would gather a larger percentage of people using Shake have not bought the source so it’s really a non-issue. kinda like the apples and oranges thing really? Shake simply works out of the box for some. The same goes for Softimage.

#891

Without wanting to go out of topic, Apple has killed Shake effectively, the next generation of Shake too and before those has a bloody history, Chalice for example comes to mind, another good compositor.

In any case, what I mean is that Autodesk is quite a good partner for many reasons, only would love to see they embrace Softimage’ philosophy in creative terms, support terms and to think out of the box. They have done it already in some areas like nCloth and fluids, i would like to see that extended to interface, workflow, etc…

hope it helps.
jb

#892

Good point. Phenomenon has vaporized and porting a couple of nodes to Motion does not really mean creating a successor to Shake… That was a pity indeed. Has it been officially cancelled with a public statement by the way?

In any case, what I mean is that Autodesk is quite a good partner for many reasons, only would love to see they embrace Softimage’ philosophy in creative terms, support terms and to think out of the box. They have done it already in some areas like nCloth and fluids, i would like to see that extended to interface, workflow, etc…
hope it helps.
jb

Agreed.
It still puzzles me how they will manage to avoid probable confusion in managing these three software lines (and philosophies) properly, the relative and again probable slowdown in development (due to more people involved in the decision process), and the increase in the walkable distance necessary to exit the box in order to think.

Anyway, they boldly state they will manage to do it, so let’s see. We have power to express judgement, still.

P.

#893

I think it’s certain they will keep all 3 going on for a while, as long as they make money…

Uniting all 3 is possible and would certainly be good thing as long as it is next generation software, like maya was!

Who has more brains and talent at the moment under one roof then AD?
Plus they have Realviz, and Discreet products, Mudbox, and so many more.

Including people who worked in Alias Wavefront who made maya out of 3 top competitors of the time.

They could make software who could have Ice, PaintFX, nCloth, face robot, real time character animation, AI, and so on, all the best modeling tools, including mudbox, and realviz modeling tools, camera tracking and all of this in one package.
Would you buy such a package? You would be crazy not to…
But it would be really huge undertaking, so it makes sense to try to protect the market while you do it…

I would like to propose them to do the following:

  • Make the software talk to each other.
    Through Crosswalk or FBX, Collada, what ever the case, it would be great to get this number one priority.
    Get all the people in big studios involved (open beta?), and create this mighty inter-operabillity tool, which really works, so we can exchange data between all the packages.
    (including other AD products)

Make this available as a plugin for a bit older versions of maya, max and xsi. Get all on board and united in this task.

  • if the first one works, it would be easier to sort out rendering solutions as well.
    Use this file format, import into any application, and render with any renderer.
    This is the next generation tool I’m waiting for…

Als

#894

Hopefully they will just keep softimage as a subsidiary and allow them to keep doing what they do best, kinda like EA and Maxis.That could just be wishful thinking though.

#895

Let Autodesk know what you think!

Cheers everyone, I’m not so upset about this after a few days, the emotion is gone, but I still know in my head that reason says this is a bad move.

I have expressed my concern in text boxes on the Autodesk.com website survey that is currently running automatically when you visit the site and elect to fill it out.

I highly advise that everyone in the CG community do the same and use it to express their thoughts/concerns/feelings/kudos/emotes about the SI buyout. To get more chances to tell them in words choose “Other” categories that will allow text response.

Whether you like/dislike this business move I think we all agree that it is huge for those of us in CG. Why not tell the company directly what you think about it?

#896

Guys it does not make any sense to kill any of the three or to make a super 3d software combining them, the more diverse the better from the business pov, that’s why there are like 10 types of Colgate tooth paste…

#897

Autodesk seems to move rapidly in Microsoft monopoly footsteps, and FBX is becoming the proprietary .DOC of 3D.

XSI was one of the biggest remaining promotors of COLLADA, so this looks like a bad move for COLLADA, the open standard interchange format and .ODF of 3D. The half-broken “FBX-COLLADA” conversion just makes things worse.

#898

I wouldn’t consider Microsoft much of a monopoly in those regards anymore.

#899

Does anyone know what this will mean for Alienbrain customers? Was that part of the sale as well?

Chris

#900

I have read that Alienbrain was not in Business deal so i think it is still Avid.