Avid plans to divest the Softimage® 3D animation product line.

#21

Oh Dear Lord, is there no fleeing from Autodesk? I thought I escaped their fatty, greasy claws. This is terrible news… Houdini is my last resort…

#22

Well, I guess no XSI is worse than Autodesk XSI.

#23

But i cant understand the problem here, in terms of future innovation, development of XSI etc.
I think XSI is, and will be XSI. The only difference i can see, is that now it will be called Autodesk Softimage XSI.
Thats the same thing that happened to Maya.
In terms of price, well, then things may change… or maybe not.

#24

I don’t know how things have changed for Maya since AD bought them.
It might not be a bad thing for as long as support / maitenance / and services dont change; or better yet - if things improve.

Im just curious as to how the product name will look in the future:

will it be : Autodesk Softimage XSI or Autodesk XSI?

Maya and Max people are still Maya and Max people
So XSI people will remain XSI people I guess.

It just sort of disturbs me to think that one day-- “a 3d artist - is an autodesk artist” :arteest:

#25

I have been using AD products for more than 20 years, and I can not say that this will be a good thing for Softimage! We have never used XSI in our pipeline but were very seriously considering moving our character pipeline to XSI after Maya was purchased. Autodesk will NOT help flourish product development. The aqusition of Alias and Softimage will only stifle our industry. Competion breeds inovation and now Autodesk can just focus on their share holders as they have done with there 2d Cad products. That may be good for stock holders but it will not be good for the CGI industry! So Sorry XSI users : (

#26

well, for years editors were called Avid Artists or Avid Editors… Looks like we’ll all be AutoDesk hoes in film credits soon :stuck_out_tongue:

#27

While I don’t think AD will axe XSI (yet), I must say that if any of those 3 apps did have to get the axe, my money would indeed be on XSI sadly. If only for the reason of the size of its installed user base as compared to Max and Maya. Or put another way, if I had no choice but to upset any group of users, it would be the smallest one…

#28

but i am still baffled as to why they - avid would do something like this … not enough money from the software … the product was growing massively … it just needed a year again …

i hate having second thoughts at the brink of massive decisions … i have a lot banking on XSI and its future use …

steups !

I think AD should buy me for 35 mill too and let me have some real R and D time indeed !

#29

I dont know how many of you got this… but this is how I found out…

Important Announcement: Autodesk signs agreement to acquire 3D animation assets of Softimage Co.
From: Autodesk (med_ent@autodesk.com) Add contact

           Sent:
      Thu 10/23/08 4:42 PM
  
                         [QUOTE]

October 23, 2008

Dear Autodesk/Softimage Customer,

We are pleased to announce that Autodesk and Avid Technology have signed a definitive agreement for Autodesk to acquire substantially all of the assets of Softimage, a Canadian subsidiary of Avid Technology. We are excited by this opportunity to join forces, combining two strong teams into a world-class center for computer graphics software research and development.

Both Softimage and Autodesk Media & Entertainment are headquartered in Montreal, Canada. Softimage has been developing state-of-the-art 3D technology for more than 20 years. Its products are recognized as best-ofbreed in the entertainment industry. With nine million users, Autodesk is a world leader in 2D and 3D design software for the media and entertainment, manufacturing, building and construction markets.

Softimage's technology complements Autodesk's entertainment products. Many film, television and game pipelines include products from both companies. Adding Softimage products and technology to Autodesk's entertainment product line will allow us to offer you more complete and efficient workflows. 

Upon completion of the acquisition, you will still be able to choose your favorite 3D modeling, animation and rendering solution – whether it is SOFTIMAGE® |XSI®, Autodesk® 3ds Max® or Autodesk Maya® software. We intend to continue driving innovation in all three products. Following close, we will also focus on improving interoperability through the Autodesk® FBX® software 3D data exchange solution to help improve your production efficiency when working with multiple Autodesk applications.  

We are also excited by the proposed addition of Softimage talent and technology to Autodesk Media & Entertainment, as it will accelerate the work of our newly formed Games Technology Group, which includes technologies such as Autodesk® HumanIK® and Autodesk® Kynapse® software. The group's purpose is to deliver the next-generation of real-time, interactive 3D authoring tools for games, film and television. 

Autodesk will acquire and plans to continue developing the following Softimage products:

[ul]
[li]SOFTIMAGE|XSI, including XSI Essentials, XSI Advanced, XSI Academic, XSI Mod Tool and the XSI software development kit (SDK). XSI offers a complete 3D modeling, animation, rendering and development environment.[/li]> [li]SOFTIMAGE®|Face Robot® software, which enables the creation of life-like human facial animation quickly and easily.[/li]> [li]SOFTIMAGE®|Cat™, an advanced character animation system that is a plug-in for Autodesk 3ds Max software. It is intended that SOFTIMAGE|Cat will be integrated into the 3ds Max product line.[/li]> [li]SOFTIMAGE®|Crosswalk, an interoperability solution, is intended to be integrated with Autodesk’s interoperability technology.[/li]> [/ul]The acquisition is expected to close in the next month. Until that time, Autodesk and Softimage will continue operating independently. Please continue using your existing contacts for sales, services and support. We will keep you updated on this acquisition, both directly and online at www.autodesk.com/softimage. We look forward to welcoming you to the combined family and thank you for your business.

Sincerely, 

  [img]https://leads.autodesk.com/AprimoPortal/serverfiles/MED/softimage_petitsig.gif[/img]    [img]https://leads.autodesk.com/AprimoPortal/serverfiles/MED/stevens_sig.gif[/img]     Marc Petit

Senior Vice President,
Autodesk Media & Entertainment Marc Stevens
General Manager
Softimage Autodesk is a registered trademark of Autodesk, Inc., in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product offerings and specifications at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document. © 2008 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Thank you for your continued interest in Autodesk products. Autodesk respects your time and privacy. If you would prefer not to receive future e-mails about our products or events, or have received this e-mail in error, please click on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of this page.

Autodesk, Inc., 111 McInnis Parkway, San Rafael, California, 94903

[/QUOTE]

#30

Too many surprises for a short time :sad: Autodesk will raise the price double here, which means instead $ 500 for Foundation (as it was before few months) it will cost € >3000 for Essentials. And will become slow and buggy.
Bye-bye XSI :sad: :wavey:

#31

People im really sorry but ur are doomed, like us people who use maya…

good luck :wink:

#32

I’m just wondering if this is realy going to make any difference.

I mean, it seems like SoftImage has always been owned by a bigger company. Microsoft, Avid and now Autodesk. I’m actually wondering if they are going to even call it something like Autodesk XSI. I feel like the name is not gonna change at all.

How different is Autodesk from Microsoft or Avid? Autodesk is just the company that has the $$$$ to let SoftImage develop the amazing tool XSI is. If Autodesk wants to keep XSI alive, they will have to keep the SoftImage staff satisfied. What is Autodesk without it’s developers? The developers are the real brains behind the company, not those shareholders that unfortunatly are making the decisions.

#33

I think AD will keep XSI alive however.They act more like sellers than actual developers, right now…
If you look they did just the same with Max and Maya.No Big new 3d app here.

The real problem could be XSI development, which i guess will be way less aggressive than before.
Its sad, however to see less and less competition in 3d industry, as time passes.:frowning:

#34

well if i had the money, i would have invested it into Softimage Inc and stop this impending madness, plus pitch in some extra for futher R and D …

I understand the need for close affiliation but total buyout … yeesh !

I mean XSI was doing great with crosswalk before …

so i have learnt that the grass/trees are greener on the other side but it always has the risk of bigger companies coming in to deforest an plunder …

I so feel like a prdigal son right about now :frowning: …

NB wow i now know what it feels like to be a naysayer … ok lets see wtf happens with all of this and hope for the breast with everything

#35

Yeah, who doesn’t? :smiley:

That aside, this was depressing news. Not the thing I was hoping to see while having my coffee this morning, that’s for sure.

#36

Wondering if this will affect the current developement of plugins for XSI?

#37

I’d say something along the line

I’d say something along the lines of ‘bye bye Collada, welcome FBX’. Looking at Autodesk, then I must say that they rather take the proprietary route than the open source alley. Heck… Autocad releases have difficulties reading each other’s files.

But honestly, if I would be a plug developer, I’d be on the phone. I might be able to sell my services to the big A better than ever before!

R

#38

Let’s see…they don’t have two other market dominating 3D applications already? How is that for starters?

This would be like, say, if Avid owned FCP, Premiere and just about every comp app out there…then bought up vegas or some such thing.

OR- if microsoft somehow bought up Linux (impossible), OSX, OS/2 (the banking one), BeOS, and then went for google robot (highly unlikely) and Palm OS to boot.

That’s how different it is…

#39

The only challenge I see is that the concentration of patents in one hand will make it very hard to come up with a new challenging CG app for everyone else than the one sitting on it…
Or we wait… quite some time…
R

#40

reasons … as they put it

http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/autodesk_softimage_public_faq.pdf