Marc Posted October 4, 2005 Share Posted October 4, 2005 I see some clever admin posted this on the main page, but in case you missed it. http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index...6&siteID=123112 crazy talk, and I can't help chuckling a little at the madness. M Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LEO-oo- Posted October 4, 2005 Share Posted October 4, 2005 Huch - this is really crazy. What the next? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfwood Posted October 5, 2005 Share Posted October 5, 2005 Huch - this is really crazy. What the next? 21633[/snapback] If I wake up tomorrow morning and see "NewTek aquires Side Effects Software Inc." I'm coming downtown with both guns blazing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheUsualAlex Posted October 5, 2005 Share Posted October 5, 2005 If I wake up tomorrow morning and see "NewTek aquires Side Effects Software Inc." I'm coming downtown with both guns blazing. 21634[/snapback] Wouldn't it be prettier with a samurai sword instead? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gurbo Posted October 5, 2005 Share Posted October 5, 2005 From what I've been reading Alias has been scaling back on their R & D since version 6(?) and Max was written by third party developers anyway so perhaps new tools and toys will be sometime coming.. I'm more interested in the industry response to this acquisition. My impression is that Autodesk is seen in a similar light to Microsoft. While having a huge user base of max and maya users combined perhaps it will give 3D apps like XSI, Lightwave, and of course, Houdini a chance to catch up market share. No need to slash the price of software anymore. Gurbo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest Posted October 5, 2005 Share Posted October 5, 2005 i dont know about marketshares, but i know that Alias hired bunch of people in the last year or two ( i would say 100 or more ). i have the feeling that quite a bit of the engineers there will be pissed-off by this "shiny" Autodesk event. Would be good to have bunch of them in the SESI team. fucked Autodesk the last thing we need is another MS-alike company around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfwood Posted October 5, 2005 Share Posted October 5, 2005 Wouldn't it be prettier with a samurai sword instead? 21635[/snapback] No way.... a sword is no match for Old School's Eagle Claw Syrup Attack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LEO-oo- Posted October 5, 2005 Share Posted October 5, 2005 @Wolfwood+Alex What about a good Beer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old school Posted October 5, 2005 Share Posted October 5, 2005 I think this is similar to the TDI < Wavefront < Alias < SGI merger. The 3D industry just isn't big enough for companies/investors looking for their 3 to 5 times growth so consolidation is a good thing. I sure didn't see this coming but it does make sense. We all knew Alias was looking around for either cheap acquisitions to grow or a quick cash bail-out for the current investors. Well, Alias acquired, ahem, Kaydara which was probably 5th or 6th on their list of companies to acquire and with no where else to turn, the alias investors went to the uber-giant Autodesk and pleaded their case for a cash deal. C'mon, what's 150M to a 1.3B company. You get Studio which is beating you up bad in the 3d industrial design market and an in at Ford plus others. You get some nice technology to paruse for your on-going rewrite of 3dsMax plus you immediately achieve cross-platform 3D tools with Maya in the short term and it's associated marketshare in feature film with it's almost zero growth, miniscule as it is to the giant Autodesk. Applied Geometry, the division in the states that writes/wrote all the Maya and Studio NURBs tools is a nice touch. Well Rhino3D IS the end result of that company so they finally get the same/similar NURBs tools as Rhino. Not bad considering Rhino is sub-1000 and is eating market away in AutoDesk's coveted industrial design market. And you thought Alias wrote all their own code. Ask the same question to Softimage: "Do you write all your own code? Oh that's why it takes a major release to fix things! Yeah." Shameless competitor dig. I'm allowed. (smack on back of head by peers, ouch) In the end it is all about market share and growth. Technology is just a tiny thing to be dealt properly with marketing and nice handshakes between the "suits" over lovely discussions of what is the best food, drink, car, vacation spot, etc. Technology? Boooorrrrrriiiinnnnngggggg. I myself prefer to talk about Maple Syrup, politics and most importantely Houdini geek speak! It will take a couple years for things to sort out I am sure. It will be interesing to see how much of Alias moves to Montreal and the Discrete team. Will the Toronto office be run from Montreal or the US. Hmmm. Ah those bothersome trite details. Don't want to upset the market, do we? Will they pull the studio team to LA? Will Alias keep on innovating? Well nothing earth-shattering since Maya1 anyhow so any change is good for Alias. Will 3DSMax and maya merge? Probably not. Too much baggage and egos to contend with plus I have yet to see two different technologies merge nicely. What about companies like Sony Imageworks and others with a tremendous investment in Maya? I would imagine some spend more coding around Maya than Alias does writing Maya. Ouch! There are other companies in the same boat. I've even seen companies that have a pipeline entirely built around Maya. "Why'd we do that???" I'm sure the prospect of Maya eventually disappearing is one scenario the technoloy heads are pondering and the ultimate question: Do we actaully believe Discrete|Autodesk when they say that Maya will be around for the long term... Do we continue to pour money in to supporting what I personally see as the bottomless bucket that Maya presents to pipelines and studios? As a kid learning 3D, what do you do? Learn yet another interface or do you really dig in and learn 3D, see the light and MASTER HOUDINI! Yes a shameless plug. Sorry. Lots of questions going on I am sure. Caution, segue ahead... All I know is that the smallish mammals won out the evolutionary race with the humungous Dinosaurs which seem to be just getting bigger all the time. It just took a bit of time though, oh 300 Million years. I can wait, er, that is if there is an atmosphere left to breathe. Damn SUV's Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark Posted October 5, 2005 Share Posted October 5, 2005 one slashdot post i noticed said this is the end of innovation in 3d software! guess he hasnt seen houdini :thumbsup: i wonder what will change and how soon.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest Posted October 5, 2005 Share Posted October 5, 2005 that's right oldScool in most cases Audotesk will kill the spirit of Alias. People will lose respect by Maya ... slowly, but will. Then we will see. We already heard that they will split the team. Nothing worst can happen. I believe many of the software engineers at Alias will leave soon or later. I'm going to fallow them. Better, manage to hire them SESI Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agentex Posted October 5, 2005 Share Posted October 5, 2005 Better, manage to hire them SESI 21645[/snapback] I really hope this happens, the fate of the software lies in whether or not the core developers stay with err Autodesk.. ugghhh. Can they move to develop a new application? If Alias couldn't find stable investment then this doesn't seem to be an option. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mcronin Posted October 5, 2005 Share Posted October 5, 2005 Don't hold back oldskool, tell us how you really feel. Something good may eventually come of this but I think this is going to be a very bad thing for Max and Maya users in the short term of the next 2 or 3 years. Those products are going to atrophy while the compnay gets reorganized and refocuses their efforts on whatever is next. Then, the first release of whatever is next is going to be missing a lot of features, make up for missing features with bugs, and people are going to hate it. Good opportunity for Avid and Side FX to pick up some clients. Although it was smart of Autodesk to pull this just as both companies released new versions (buying them about a year) there are a lot of new productions coming along, new pipelines being built for next generation games... Who in their right mind is going to build a production around a software with an uncertain future? All it means for me is that I probably will not have to bother scrubbing the rust off my Maya skills anytime soon, if at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keltuzar Posted October 5, 2005 Share Posted October 5, 2005 say if they start making a new software that is similar to houdini.....? they know very well that 3d max ANd maya are based off old technology, i can see them making something new; they have the resources now and it is a good time to start something fresh especially with 64 bit technology out already... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rafal123 Posted January 15, 2006 Share Posted January 15, 2006 Can someone from SESI explain what they think about Autodesk-Alias connection? Will something be changed in SESI business? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peliosis Posted January 15, 2006 Share Posted January 15, 2006 Have a look at cgtalk WIPs, 90% of work is max and vray. Every beginner starts with max because it is easy, they love click and tonado features, they are not going to hate it. I have many friends working in max just for the reason it's easy and vray renders fast and without problems. Same with maya, it attracts newbies with features like paint effects, make fire and such. People want fast, one click renderings, nobody will start to hate max. It is awful for me and I detest working with it but many guys just want to have the work done without looking under the hood. I can't speak for maya since after hearing from everywhere how much scripting is needed for daily work I can't understand it's phenomenon when it comes to the masses. It's hard to predict what will happen but perhaps both softwres will be normally developed (as autodesk states). As for sidefx...I think they are going to do just nothing but with the firmness of a tank further develop houdini. I like the fact that they don't care too much about marketing and all the bells and whistles for donkeys. Houdini is the only software I like to work with now and have a feeling that time spent with it is not lost, because it teaches how to think, not repeat commands and learn new interface that will change soon. my 5c's Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keltuzar Posted January 15, 2006 Share Posted January 15, 2006 regards to pretty images out of the box doesnt make you an artist rather it makes you a button pusher. One can make one pretty image by throwing billions of rays around and letting the computer do all the work for you in say 3-4 hours. Tell the same software to make a feature film or a visual effect and you will spending most of your time rendering rather than researching new tools and workflow plugins. 3dmax doesnt make you think.... the stuff is provided for you; all you do is click and your done... a good analogy is the modelling software; Poser.... The reason why maya is great becuase it is easy to use off the shelf... one doesnt need to understand procedural workflow and the scripting option. Not to mention stuff works faster in maya, like dynamics, cloth (syflex), fluid interactions in the gui, makes life easier to do stuff... Houdini is the god of them all, but that comes at a price, for one must know all the basic understanding of 3d and the basic knowledge of how one node can change the outcome of another. Also a good understanding of math and physics. I love maya becuase its my way of thinking. Though houdini is a great package, I would rather do a small project quickly in Maya; suffering lots of handicaps with attribute controls rather than in houdini where I have too much control and I need to be aware of everything to get something going.... houdini stands optimal in a company where everyone know his/her jobs and are working together for a common goal. with the power of hdas tds can make plugins on the fly and hook stuff in to make life easier. As a single user working on houdini its a really not that efficient IMHO. please note a software that changes interface isnt a good teaching experience rather really a waste in time for the user to learn the new shelves..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peliosis Posted January 15, 2006 Share Posted January 15, 2006 As a single user working on houdini its a really not that efficient IMHO. 23724[/snapback] I think it depends on time you spent in houdini learning it's plenty little gotchas, and preparing your otl and shader stuff. I mean the more I use it the faster and more efficient I am and coming back to max xsi is much more painful every time. It all depends on experience. At last...no other software has a copy SOP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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