Marc Petit joins Exocortex

[angus_davidson]

@Nick3d I don't think ICE is something you can take out like Houdini engine (but I might be wrong)

And speaking of Houdini... I've played with it last few weeks and it looks less and less weird. Weird, isn't it?

Thats a whole lotta weird, in a very weird week

[McNistor]

yeah man, I know, its... weird.

[Eugen]

I'd be wary of dealing with other companies that exhibit this complete lack of passion for what they do. There are a few people at Atdsk that probably have a passion for the software but it's way too diluted and all it remains is the palpable greed. Perhaps the natural course of a company when it becomes an international monopolist juggernaut, but that doesn't mean we have to like it or accept it.
A much better experience in dealing with small-medium companies that care about their customers and their s/w as much as they care about the money.

Agreed. Sadly, one cannot come to another conclusion. Not even AD themselves care to deny it.
This company might be even a somewhat comfortable refuge for it's employees, but I suspect you need to put your idealism into the umbrella stand walking in there. Wait, there even might be idealistic characters working there DESPITE such an atmosphere, and thanks heaven there still are, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was much frustration as well - which of course the usual corporate image propaganda will keep undisclosed.

And the next fool who says there's so much negativity among Softimage users gets it where it hurts...
That being said, back to work. Nothing new to learn here.

Moderator edit: corrected the quote, you wrongly attributed it to me- HB

[McNistor]

That being said, back to work. Nothing new to learn here.

Agreed. And amen!

[MauricioPC]

Okay ... I guess you guys are right. But just as a little fuel ... last two blog posts of Cory.

http://area.autodesk.com/blogs/cory/par ... 4-for-maya

http://area.autodesk.com/blogs/cory/get ... ionbuilder


Apparently nothing happens in Softimage land.

I must admit I've been studying the M-sucker ... oh boy, what to do.

[Bellsey]

I'm not going to answer Eugen's question, and I think an analogy from Pvt Joker at 0:18 to might explain why...

[Eugen]

; }
Exactly... I don't answer catch questions myself...

[angus_davidson]

Unfortunately it shouldn't have to be Graham (no disrespect meant) that answers those questions. Its not part of what he is supposed to do, Our product manager should be do that.

[Eugen]

Not an easy man to meet...

[Hirazi Blue]

Well, contacting him certainly isn't the problem (his email address has been posted on this community and on his Area blog). The only time I tried I at least got a prompt response. Not the kind of response I had hoped for at the time, but friendly and prompt. Considering some other employees of Autodesk have never even bothered to respond to my occasional mails at all, I count this as a "small victory" and as a definite "plus" for mr. Mogk.
Carry on... ;)

[nuverian]

It's just like bomb waiting to explode
tick tock

[dewf]

I'm sure this idea has been floated elsewhere, but ... what if everybody just stopped buying Softimage updates until Autodesk formally abandons it? And then start a Blender-style "we'll buy the source code from you" kind of thing?

Given the relatively niche nature of Softimage these days, it shouldn't be too difficult to get a ballpark estimate of how many studios/seats are using it, and thus what AD is likely earning off it every year. Then crowdsource some multiple of that amount and purchase Softimage outright.

[gfxman]

I understand perfectly, but I don't think anyone has seen my point either and there's nothing more I can say.

Sofitimage is doomed.

[Bullit]

I'm sure this idea has been floated elsewhere, but ... what if everybody just stopped buying Softimage updates until Autodesk formally abandons it? And then start a Blender-style "we'll buy the source code from you" kind of thing?

Given the relatively niche nature of Softimage these days, it shouldn't be too difficult to get a ballpark estimate of how many studios/seats are using it, and thus what AD is likely earning off it every year. Then crowdsource some multiple of that amount and purchase Softimage outright.

It is very difficult to comment when an opinion is so way off real world...

[angus_davidson]

The open source thing would never happen. Softimage has patents that are too valuable to be put into the public domain. Also Softimage is not really the right architecture for an opensource project. It has too many dependancies on custom things.

One of two things will happen.

Development will stop all together , but folks will continue to use for as long as they can. AD will keep on charging a sub for as long as they can

Development will continue at the current rate (which is pretty much bugfixes and any paid for changes ala camera sequencer) AD will still continue to charge a full priced sub for a product that has a handful of developers for as long as possible.

Please note this is not bashing the devs. I think they are doing a great job with the shitty hand they have been dealt.

Because its a great tool people will use it for as long as they can. How long they continue to pay for subscription for it (which at the same cost of a Maya subscription where they they get massively more developer hours value) however remains to been seen.

If anyone has seen the latest whiskey tree tech demo and what Softimage is capable of doing it just goes to show just how massively shortsighted Autodesks current stance is.

[MauricioPC]

If anyone has seen the latest whiskey tree tech demo and what Softimage is capable of doing it just goes to show just how massively shortsighted Autodesks current stance is.

To be honest Angus ... the work of Whiskytree and RodeoFX is by far a lot better than major VFX houses doing work with a only Maya pipelline.

And I say more ... the work done by Blur (using Softimage AND 3ds Max) is one of the best I've seen. So there's a trend of amazing VFX and 3D work done without Maya. It seems they realized this now as there's a new attitude towards 3ds Max. But what about Softimage, right?

There's some strange things within Autodesk. For example ... they do push the Maya LT thing a lot for game development. But a simple yet very important thing 3ds Max has, that are smoothing groups, don't even exist properly on Maya. You can do something similar, but not the same thing.

Anyway ... if you look at The Foundry. They are advancing a lot in Mari, Nuke, Modo, etc. But The Foundry is so small in comparison to the Media & Entertainment section of AD (in terms of revenue), and yet, they are advancing. So in my mind, there's some mismanagement in AD house. Heck, even though Mudbox is cool, they can't catch ZBrush in terms of innovation and great tools added. And Pixologic is a small company.

Oh well ... it's sunday, let me ride a bike. Cheers.