Autodesk aquires Alias

Illusions

So...umm...what now? Autodesk acquired Discreet, the makers of 3D Studio Max, and now they've acquired Alias, the makes of Maya. Is the long awaited golden age of a combined Maya and Max ahead? Or some horribly mutated, bug infested spawn of evil?

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?id=5970886&siteID=123112

...when I originally visited CGTalk, I thought it was an April Fool's day joke...then I realized it wasn't April...

Vark

my... mind...

JordanW

uhh wow, so i can see them keeping the 2 products to cater to whatever people prefer, or creating an uber 3d program, maybe both...

this is just plain crazy 0_o

Scott Ruggels

Dsng, you beat me to it.

So which product continues, and which one becomes a memory? Whith the end of the competition, how expensive is the next product going to get?

Scott

MoP

Bring on Maxa, I say!

oXYnary

^^^ LOL.

Daz

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

FunkaDelicDass

I think Mayax sounds better.

Interesting. I don't think they'll discontinue either app, but this could hurt leapfrogging innovation between apps on release.

Oh well, I've been putting off learning XSI for a while, but now this seems like a good reason to give it go!

Daz

Seriously though, in lieu of this turning into a software flamewar, I'm just pissed because its just a shame. The fact of the matter is that fierce competition yields better software.

I was at an hour long modo demo the other day and it blew me away. But as just a standalone modeler it seems a little steep compared to XSI for less $ and much more app. I'll probably end up buying XSI. I don't know how Maxa or Mayax could compete with it.

ElysiumGX

If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em. Today is a sad day.

For those of you Maya users that are pissed off, XSI 5 offers great migration tools. Probably implemented because of this agreement.

_Shimmer

ahrm
THIS is suprising. Still I dont know, is that good or bad? I love max, hate Maya but still both needed to exisited to compete. Now.... wow... ahrm

I am speechless...

skrubbles

SWEEEEET!
Glad it's not the other way around (don't kill me)

thomasp

oh crap... now both of the most widely used packages are under one hood? bad for prices and innovation. bad bad bad.
it was annoying enough to see kaydara being sucked up by alias a while ago but this is just too bad. greedy execs!

but, *evilgrin* if they intend to focus on one product (which is rather inevitable sooner or later, no?), hopefully they decide to kill maya in favour of max, not the other way around. har har. *sigh*

rawkstar

OMFG OMFG OMFG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

for $182 million in cash!!! WTF did they do rob a bank?

thomasp

nice one from cgtalk: [ QUOTE ]
So this is how Autodesk plans to implement the rumored rewrite of the 3DSMax core.

[/ QUOTE ] lol

rockstar: autodesk is huge in many industries. max is not one of their core apps (likewise alias makes a lot more money with their studio products than with maya). that probably doesn't hurt them at all. they might well be able to suck up avid, too. no more app flamewars...

Sean McBride

HAHAHAHA v thats hilarious.

Wow... so many angry maya users now.

I was comming here to post this news.

Mark Dygert

I like both. I also liked how they played off each other to keep pushing forward. I'm afraid that will stop. Maybe it will grow to a compition between maya/max and some other program, maybe XSI?

BTW Mayax sounds like a antidepresant.

Malekyth

/me shivers in soul-rending fucking horror.

If the FTC has any balls and/or still subscribes to the quaint old archaism that competition is generally a good thing, they'll never allow this. I'm not holding my breath, of course, just suggesting, and hoping.

MoP

Mr. Rockstar, haha, yeah, that's what I thought!
I can picture them wheeling in huge sacks of money...

Mayax sounds like how an American with a really strong Southern accent would pronounce "Max" anyway

SouL

Most likely both apps will continue. Autodesk is in it to have a share of the profits that Alias is able to bring in. Alias probably caved in because Autodesk will nodoubtly be a huge source of money for R&D.
I don't see this as the end of the application advancement.

It's similar in the way that say... Vivendi owns several development studios. They're just in it for the share of the profits in exchange for financial resource.

Sean McBride

bahaha, good one.

I accualy think mayax sounds like a laxative.

Thats a good point soul. Lets hope they go with that.

rawkstar

hopefully the integration between the programs will become easier, here at Ritual we use both max and maya, max mostly for modeling and maya for animation, would be cool to see that kind of split while still maintaining compatibility between the two.

Justin Meisse

I'm guessing they are going to have Maya aimed at Hollywood VFX industry while Max will focus more on the video games industry. If they merge or discontinue one of the lines there will still be the Softimage vs Autodesk flamewars to look forward to.

Sean McBride

Well Alias has FBX. I've accualy had to do just what you are talking about v and fbx was a life saver. How much easier can it get?

Jay Evans

wow, this was a surprize, although the 2 apps have been getting more and more similar. Surely you cant fund the development of two such similar products forever? With games catching up to film as far as 3d needs, I predict a convergence at some point in the future. I enjoy using both at work, so if I only had to click one button to start them both it would make me happy:)

Ryno

I hope my buddy Max hooks up with that hot chick Maya, and they have beautiful offspring.

ElysiumGX

I think it's very likely the strengths of both apps will split as to not share the same market. Max to be used primarliy for game development, and Maya holds its market in the film industry. But that still leaves the question of why anyone (mainly hobbyist, and small development studios) would want a choice between the two, when they can have the best of both worlds implemented with one package at a much more affordable price from Avid?

Justin Meisse

ElysiumGX, frankly, I never even knew XSI had such a low price, I'm going to give the free version a test drive tonight.

ScoobyDoofus

This, while disturbing, could be good news for us for the immediate future, but 1-2 generations down the line, innovation will slow, and hopefully a new competitor will rise to the challenge.

Pixologic anyone? Maybe a Zbrush 3 or 4 with integrated animation & compositing?

I have yet to be bitten by the XSI bug. Silo is pretty interesting, but Im still just so much better in Max that switching Apps seems stupid at the moment, unless I HAVE to.

Also, Maya is cross platform...will Maxa/Mayax, recoded, be cross platform as well? Only time will tell.

Joshua Stubbles

I think this is great. Bring Maya's animation tools into 3dsmax, and it's a hell of a package. Modeling in Maya is god-awefull, but Maya does have some cool things about it. I can't wait to see how these 2 packages are merged together.

Keg

Modo is getting animation sometime in the next year I beleive (can't remember the exact details from siggraph)

ScoobyDoofus

From the acquisition FAQ:

"By combining the two companies’ products and services, we will create a suite of software and services that will let customers produce compelling products, movies, games and advertising more quickly, and with better data management capabilities, than ever before."

So, while they say they will continue to sell both products, and claim no interruption of the release schedule, it seems as if they plan some sort of merger of the two applications.

Jeff Parrott

I'm can't wait to see the clusterfuck of a package this brings together. I heard Autodesk was buying the game rights to the WNBA too.

Moz

I live down the straight from Alias, I wonder when they are going to be replaced by another starbucks.

JKMakowka

Maybe it's time for some of you to have another look at Blender

P.S.: Wings3D will have animation & rigging support soon btw.

Weiser_Cain

Hmmmm, I was already considering an alternative, but me thinks this behemoth will hog all support in the universe...

Keg

i'ts going to be maya with character studio... be afraid... very afraid

MoP

Haha yeah, let's combine the worst features of Maya with the worst features of Max, see how many complaints we get then

flaagan

maya's animation is quite good, and i've always liked max's GUI, but never really liked modelling or uv mapping in either.
I'll still be sticking with xsi though, due to both price and my general preference to working with that app over the other two.

aesir

Oh god... I really didnt see this coming...

Looks like I dont need to learn maya after all!

FatAssasin

I doubt they'd stick Character Studio in Maya. But I'd love to see Motion Builder replace CS in Max.

ElysiumGX

[ QUOTE ]
P.S.: Wings3D will have animation & rigging support soon btw.

[/ QUOTE ]

And suddenly the sun comes out from behind the dark clouds.

Ninjas

The dynamics in max SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK. Even the 7.5 stuff sucks. I heard Maya is better for this stuff. It is hard to imagine it is any worse.

ElysiumGX

Friend of mine mentioned something interesting. Maybe the reason this news coincides with the release of XSI's Maya migration tools is because either Avid (Softimage XSI) was tipped off early of the plans, or maybe Autodesk also tried to buy Avid as well. That's a scary thought.

JBoskma

I hope this is the start of the development for the Photoshop for 3D. A program that everybody will use.

SouL

You guys have to remember... the programs aren't just about the modeling/animation features. I was talking to people about this today at work.

The main advantage that Maya has always had (and still has) over Max is Maya is far more customizable in many different ways than Max. This goes far beyond basic scripting of in-app tools and UI functionalities. The easier a major program app is to customize, the better the custom tools/support a game/movie pipeline will have.

One of the biggest reasons why many developement studios are migrating from Max to Maya is not because modeling/animation tools. But the level of customizability that Maya is able to achieve. Technical artists and programmers are able to take advantage of this to create custom tools that allow for seamless data translation from one app to another.

The better the communication between 2 apps, the less steps you'll need to go through the pipeline. And that translates to much faster iteration rates on your work.

I can't say much about what I've been able to use... but our pipeline involved taking data from Maya, moving that into our custom tool, then straight into the game. We got Maya to work the way we wanted it to, that we only needed 1 universal tool, that all the artists used, to get our assets in-game whenever we pleased.

The level of iteration we had was at the point where we could have the game running on one screen, make changes in Maya, import to our custom app, save, click a button, and the changes appear in-game.

If Autodesk plans to merge the applications together, they will need to make sure that the new app will need to have at least the same level of flexibility as Maya. If it doesn't many developement studios will leave them behind and look elsewhere.

Daz

Yes SouL that's all well and good but much more importantly If they merge I will finally get a make teapot primitive button!!1

Joshua Stubbles

Honestly, I don't care one iota about how easy the app is for a programmer. I'm the one making assests with it, not them. It's their job to make tools for the app I use, and allow me to do my job. Period.

Toomas

AutoDesk + monopoly = same product different #
Atleast thats how it is with AutoCAD, lets take 2002 then jump to 2005 use it for a year and jump back to 2002 and you can only notice maybe 2 or 3 small features that you would like to have from 2005.
Not to mention they actually sometimes REMOVE very useful features for no apparent reason...

PaK

vassago, that's a very narrow-minded and selfish additude. No one depeartmenst serves another as if they were the thers' bitch. You're part of a team when you work on a game. Unless you want to work with a bitter code staff that isn't interested in making robust tools for their selfish art staff. Working here for the last 5 months has taught me that cohesion between the art and code staff makes for awesome, user-freiendly tools.

-R

aesir

Well, its natural that Vassago doesnt care how easy things are for the programmers. All that matters to him, and most of us, is the art side. However, for the people in charge, who make the decisions about what program they're gonna buy a hundred liscences of, its very important that not only the artists are able to get the best product, but also that their coders dont have to waste countless hours working with a difficult piece of software. And if a company wants to use Maya because it saves their programmers time, then we would have to use Maya as well.

I dont see why we cant have it be good for both sides though.

Personally, Im extremely excited for a new piece of high quality software.