Now this is one of the main reasons I went with modo 2 year ago as a student. I have purchased the student copy twice ( $149.00 X 2 ) so far and now that I am about to graduate I am in a position to purchase the commercial version for about $400.00. There are studios in my area that use only modo and the do fine. You can always export an FBX if your client needs it. This move will hurt Autodesk big time. I think they underestimate students ability to quickly learn another program.
Ahahahaaa!!! Looks like it'll be a return to the days when I was in Uni.... When we all forked out and bought completely legitimate copies of the program for personal use. Well, something like that anyway.
Ok I spoke to Autodesk UK this morning who confirmed there are no upgrade paths whatsoever to individual licenses, only Suites. The cheapest Suite upgrade here in the UK is the Entertainment Creation Suite Ultimate which is £4050 + tax.
So last month (2012 and prior), it would have cost £165 for the EDU Suite, and then £600 for the commercial upgrade to just Max - £765 in total. It now costs £4860 to upgrade to any kind of commercial license.
A standard Max seat here in the UK is £3600, so it's cheaper to just buy that.
I then followed up with 3 resellers who all confirmed the same thing.
So, looks like I won't be purchasing anything. Nice move Autodesk, right when the economy is in such great shape too.
I was talking about Blender vs. Max (free vs. expensive and bloates).
yep, I ve been hearing lots of good stuff about blender, I shall try it out at least for the fluids which look nice.
And don't remind me about Max's corruption issue, I once had an entire scene become 'uv' corrupt, so my entire scene which had a small bunker and ship in it lost all the UV's for some odd reason, for around 5 revisions of the file. It was nightmare checking each pieces and laying them out again, Max's issues also cost a friend of mine his job
oh that sucks man, sorry to hear that! yeah this is one of the big reasons for me to switch.
As for ice, seriously not to sound like a fanboy... but that simply rocks, and I still consider myself a noob at it, but the more I dig in, the more I am amazed at all the stuff you can do from modeling to rigging and fx all in a smart and intuitive way.
@Teejay, that sounds crazy man, specially for guys like you that only need one of their packages, the pricing is insane, sorry to hear that as well. But you might want to look at modo or blender. I cant speak for blender although as I ve said I heard lots of good comments on it. But if not Modo is defintetly something I would look into. Well that if you are willing to learn a new package... which can be a whole new game on itself... workflow wise..
Are they killing the free version thing? I've been using that to learn 3DS Max.
No, all the free stuff is still be available.
The paid student versions are perpetual licenses rather than the 13-month licenses you get for free. They also don't have the 'This file was created using an EDU version' flag, or watermarks on printed output for CAD files etc.
So for students/unemployed people and hobbyists who just want to use the software for personal projects or learning, things are just as good as they were, but for graduating students who want to upgrade to commercial seats, things are not good.
They've fucked themselves outright. I for one will be learning a cheaper alternative now such as modo.
Overall, they have reduced sales and increased piracy rates. Congratulations to whoever thought that up. Ill be frank, i used a 'practice' copy of max till i became a student. I had full intentions of buying a copy after i graduated.
Now, well...
Modo it is.
I wonder if there actually paying attention to this thread?
If so, you've lost 13 x £780, as my class mates agree on modo.
hard core dumb move, you want students to learn on your program cause then companies will use them since thats what everyone knows. Someone messed up big time lol watch piracy rates go through the roof now
Replies
http://students.autodesk.com/?nd=download_center
its all free
So last month (2012 and prior), it would have cost £165 for the EDU Suite, and then £600 for the commercial upgrade to just Max - £765 in total. It now costs £4860 to upgrade to any kind of commercial license.
A standard Max seat here in the UK is £3600, so it's cheaper to just buy that.
I then followed up with 3 resellers who all confirmed the same thing.
So, looks like I won't be purchasing anything. Nice move Autodesk, right when the economy is in such great shape too.
oh that sucks man, sorry to hear that! yeah this is one of the big reasons for me to switch.
As for ice, seriously not to sound like a fanboy... but that simply rocks, and I still consider myself a noob at it, but the more I dig in, the more I am amazed at all the stuff you can do from modeling to rigging and fx all in a smart and intuitive way.
@Teejay, that sounds crazy man, specially for guys like you that only need one of their packages, the pricing is insane, sorry to hear that as well. But you might want to look at modo or blender. I cant speak for blender although as I ve said I heard lots of good comments on it. But if not Modo is defintetly something I would look into. Well that if you are willing to learn a new package... which can be a whole new game on itself... workflow wise..
No, all the free stuff is still be available.
The paid student versions are perpetual licenses rather than the 13-month licenses you get for free. They also don't have the 'This file was created using an EDU version' flag, or watermarks on printed output for CAD files etc.
So for students/unemployed people and hobbyists who just want to use the software for personal projects or learning, things are just as good as they were, but for graduating students who want to upgrade to commercial seats, things are not good.
Overall, they have reduced sales and increased piracy rates. Congratulations to whoever thought that up. Ill be frank, i used a 'practice' copy of max till i became a student. I had full intentions of buying a copy after i graduated.
Now, well...
Modo it is.
I wonder if there actually paying attention to this thread?
If so, you've lost 13 x £780, as my class mates agree on modo.