Autodesk Motion Builder 7.5

#41

When Kaydara first launched Motion Builder 4 they targeted hobbiest by offering it for $100 and $100 for an upgrade to 5 standard. Why did they do this, well they wanted a large base to get it off the ground, improve it and start creating some cool character animations. The support was awesome, they actually talked with us via their forum (even the president of the company) and when 6 came out it had a lot of user input. But then they sold to Alias and the support and feedback went downhill from there. 6.5 was the last update that has some Kaydara input. If there are any ill feelings it really should be directed at Kaydara for selling out to Alias because they knew that an investment group owned Alias and it was going to be sold again. I am sure MB will die out just as some of there other products will. Autodesk constantly kills products that are not profitable. We should move our support and $$$ to other companies that are truly concernend about their user base.

My two cents.

#42

I have to say considering the pedigree of Filmbox we have had a good ride until now. The main purpose of the cheap entry point to Motionbuilder was probably to get people trained up on it therefore increasing the chances of larger studios hiring freelancers, thus increasing the number of seats a studio would buy, a bit like XSI foundation. Also, the chance of the freelancers migrating to the full package down the road, as they would inevitably phase out the Standard package. As it has been, the standard package has been like an extension of the original offer that went on indefinitely. The upgrade offer to the Pro version is actually a good deal if you are a professional user. Alas, I have only just started to seriously learn the program and I can’t see myself upgrading to Pro at the discounted price before the August deadline. However if this offer was kept in place indefinitely I would be much more likely to take it up in a year or so.

My observation of the power of the package is that even though the interface is incredibly busy, that it is quite an intuitive program, and it really is next-gen. In a pro environment, it would easily pay for itself. If a niche high-end package requires big dollars to roll in to keep it in the marketplace then I can see why Autodesk have dropped the Standard version. Who knows what Kaydara would have done at this point if they were still a standalone entity? it would be good to see the price of the Pro version drop to 2K though (same as Maya Complete) and an upgrade offered to Standard users for 1K.

#43

I’ve asked about that & the answer seems to be no.
No Universal Binary for std
No transfer to new hardware
No transfer to new OS

Autodesk’s advice to me was that since I was still within the initial 30 days support period (just), that it was perhaps in my interests to cancel my upgrade to MB7std and seek a refund from Digital River.

#44

Evil.
Lets all say it together:
Soft dongles suck big time and are a annoyance to legal customers.
Not to forget: Autodesk sucks.

What if my machine breaks in a middle of a job now?

#45

Evil.
Lets all say it together:
Soft dongles suck big time and are a annoyance to legal customers.
Not to forget: Autodesk sucks.

What if my machine breaks in a middle of a job now?

This is the only time I say use a crack. You bought it but they don’t support it anymore that’s not your fault so grab a crack and use your software. Only get the version you have though. This is only for software you bought but they don’t support.

#46

OK I haven’t experienced exactly why Autodesk suck and it’s not going to help me thinking that they are evil…but it doesn’t sound good about the license transfer possibilities. I’ll have to investigate myself. If they did not offer the most basic license transfer support via email or product activation within the software (and I don’t see why they can’t set it up to auto generate a serial if you are switching platform) then this is really stingy. If you just spent a thousand bucks on the software six weeks ago then you wouldn’t be able to return it and now if you were using it in production and the machine goes down you couldn’t re-install it. I don’t believe that this would be the case, it’s unethical.
Also, if they extend the upgrade offer beyond August then they make make more money from legacy owners too. Getting the Pro version for the price of Maya Complete seems like a good deal if you can afford it, also knowing that this will include the next upgrade for free, assuming it falls within the maintenance timeframe.

#47

I had no idea that the license was so limited. Autodesk are to get back to me tomorrow regarding whether I can move the license to a new machine when I upgrade my hardware in the near future and what kind of fee there will be if I am able to do so.

#48

I’m a user of of motionbuilder standard too. I bought it at the time it was 100$. At that time I thought I found a company with a nice offer for freelancers. I upgraded to motionbuilder 5 and finally to 6.

A few weeks ago I was wondering if I should upgrade to 7. But after that I guess, as all the standards users who don’t earn big cash I’m screwed. As stated I think it’s amazing the price they ask for it, when you can have maya complete for 2000$ or xsi lower product for 500$.

So I could still work with my motionbuilder 6 for a while. But I just finished building a new computer (dual opteron 275). It would be nice to install it on it. But from last posts, if I read well I can’t transfer to new hardware???

How is that possible?? It’s really a shame on Kaydara, alias to let do that and autodesk.

Now I’m looking forward for an other nice animation package with some respect to their users (kaydara seemed to have some at the time of version 4 and 5).

I wish that more software companies would be like Luxology (modo). I bought it at the end of last year. The software is licenced to me and not hardware. So I can Install it on any computer that I own or work with (my laptop, my home worksation, and my computer at work). And If I upgrade hardware, It take 5 sec to have it running.

But I guess they don’t care.

The rumblings of Alex…

#49

I can only second that, thats the way it should be.
The whole thing is very annoying.
I am seriously hoping that the modo guys come out with an animation package that fills the gap sometime , or that the next rev of c4d allows me similar CA ease & speed & reusability of motion so I can dump MB.

I really hope that I wont be forced to buy this overpriced update out of an emergency situation because of future problems with my machine or because I want to upgrade hardware.
I will stick to my MB7 as long as it lasts and refuse to support this kind of product policy (it pains me that I have talked several individuals into buying a copy of MB in the past that now face the same situation).

#50

I feel your pain, I did the same thing. Now we’re all like “ok, lets hope Alias keep supporting the older versions with software keys”. But, if you pushed any one of us, I’d say, we think this is NOT gonna be the case. The track record so far since MB was taken from the hands of Kaydara makes this very clear.

#51

Finally some clarity from Autodesk

Although there is unlikely to be a recompile of MB Std to Universal Binary should my hardware fail or need to be replaced, I can relocate my license for a fee of £109 + VAT, I can also change platform in the process.

I’m still disappointed that MB Std has been discontinued but at least I can continue to use the license that I have paid for, subject to the above fee.

#52

Great, that makes sense…should be free though…

#53

a bit pricey for a new serial but then, its better than not to be able to move the software at all.
Fair enough then.

olli

#54

Have to make sure I get all my work done on my current setup then I guess.
That price is frankly taking the mickey and is just one more indicator that it’s all about the money. :frowning:

#55

yup, they want you to pay the price you paid for the update again for moving the software you paid for to a new machine-- yuk!

But then, its better than no new serial at all.

You are at our mercy, puny customers–

Olli

#56

Told you they was evil. It is about money and I hope they stay away from all the products I love before they greed it up and take it out of the hands of common people. This is indeed an evil company.

I would use this principal. If I bought a car and locked my keys in the car. I can crack the window or break into my car, because it’s my car. I bought it and can do stuff like that if I feel like it. I can’t break into other people’s cars cause it is wrong, but it ain’t wrong to break or crack my way into my own car that I bought.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12392763/

Guilty of stealing patents…I guess if they can’t buy it they steal it…sounds like software pirates to me.

Note to Autodesk, please stay away from all the great software out there. We don’t need you buying up anymore software companies.

#57

You’ll have to forgive me, I’m gonna take this off on a bit of a tangent here…

Motionbuilder seems like it’s primarily an app for cleaning up mocap data. It doesn’t really offer much if anything that the main apps don’t as far as keyframe animation goes. When it comes to mocap I think it’s great at doing what it does, but I don’t see why people would want to use it if they didn’t have access to a mocap studio. Since companies front the bills for software upgrades, I assume that the people complaining in this thread are hobbiests or freelance users; the kind of people that don’t have access to mocap studios.

So i’m wondering, what is it eactly that the people here are using Motionbuilder for? Am I wrong on you not having access to mocap equipment or are you all using it for keyframing? If the latter then imo you might as well quit complaining and go pick up something like XSI foundation for $495, which i’m assured by colleagues has a much better set of keyframing tools than Motionbuilder.

#58

Admittedly, we use it because it gives us access to a lot ofmocap data out there, (no way we could pay to do our own mocap).
It does have some very good keyframing, but morethan that, the way you can blend motion clips, add addative and override clips on selected body parts, cut, timeshift and more means it’s very powerful. It’s also easy for a novice like myself to use, which is why I decided to get it in the first place.
As long as my current PC holds up, I’ll keep using it.

#59

I use motionbuilder for camera blocking and light character animation in architectural visualizations. It’s very easy to plan out your takes and see it all come together scrubbing through the timeline making tweaks & changes as you go. For character work there is so much mocap freely available on the net I doubt if I will ever need to use a studio. Being able to chop-up, blend edit & reuse mopcap data is fun & a huge time saver, without it I would never have the time to include animated characters in my work.

The reason I and so many other users are upset about Autodesk dropping support for the standard version is obvious. My business uses it to add a little production value to projects, but it’s only an extra. The price of Motionbuilder Pro demands to much from my budget to be a viable.

#60 
 Seems like you have not campared MB to any general purpose 3D app by testing it.
 
 Main reasons to use: excellent autorig, maybe the best NLA of any app, incredible editor speed (60000 polygon model textures in realtime (!) only Messiah:Animate can handle stuff like that, but it is not textured there).
 Very easy re-usability of motions (transfer from one char to the other with a dragdrop)
 
 Very good keyframe options.
 
 Obviously its no replacement for a 3D app but a focussed animation package.
 You have to render with a general purpose app (unless you are satisfied with the MB realtime -renderer).
 So anyone using it has a general purpose package also, but prefers to animate in MB.
 
 Personally, my general purpose app is cinema 4d which lacks a lot of character-centric animation features MB has and plays very well with MB.
 Its complete nonsense to assume that someone using MB and not using the PRO version with a MoCap facility is automatically hobbyist.

On the other hand they are not automatically big studios (thats why Kaydara launched the standard version, to open up the freelancer market to MB and show the world that MB could do much more than process Mocap).

Lots are only part-time animators, doing other stuff like 2D animation, illustration, visualisation whatever and use MB to do their CA.

Most users probably like it because it gives them the possibility to add CA to their projects with as little fuzz as possible.Or because you can animate up to 10 times faster with it because you dont need proxies or testrenders.

MB is widely used in games for character animation and previz these days  btw. if only because of the nice re-usability.

As Alias bought Kaydara first thing they did was to include the MB full-body IK autorig in Maya-- for a reason I guess.

Still does not give Maya the power to process a 60k char in realtime in editor (not that it makes sense to work with 60k chard, but think of three 20k chars interacting)

 Olli