Softimage bought by Autodesk!!!

[Carsten Lind]

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?id=12022457&siteID=123112

[Bonecradle]

With regard specifically to ZB, I wonder how this will affect us?

On other boards people are mentioning possible improved interoperability between XSI and the other Autodesk apps.

For a couple of versions now it seemed as if XSI and ZB developers worked together to make these two apps work better together.

So now that AD has XSI and Mudbox, I wonder what impact will this have on ZB and XSI interoperability?

[Carsten Lind]

From recent events I think that zbrush will lose in the long run, unless pixologic step up starts to take things seriously. Here I am thinking of broken promises, ambiguous announcements, miscommunication with the end users, chaotic releases etc.

I hope that pixologic will manage to do that, because apart from the UI, Zbrush is so much better than Mudbox - also zbrush has a mac version, mudbox dont.

[Bingo_Jackson]

This is so depressing.

Autodesk was always powerful...now that they own the top 3 production packages, they are completely omnipotent. They can destroy any other ancillary 3d production app at will by either not supporting it, or actively interfering with its compatibility.

For me its not a question of whether they will try to buy Pixologic, but rather whether they will simply destroy zbrush now in favor of Mudbox.

[lemonnado]

SoftImage blew chunks after the initial V6 came out....
No tears here...
Lemo

[tdrs]

:cry: OH, My God!!!!:evil:

[skullbeast]

"There can be only one......." Colin MacLeod from the clan MacLeod

[HD CG ADDICT]

well I hope autodesk don't mess this up.

they have a great chance to accelerate the 3d industry here, but I'm finding it hard to be optimistic about the chances of this happening.

I mean on the bright side we should get better integration between XSI/maya/3dsmax

but then again does that out way the chance that XSI could loose its uniqueness which makes it so good and ZBrush compatibility dropping only to be replaced with mudbox :cry:

only time will tell i spose

[sirquadalot]

Monopoly anyone? What do we have left...(feal free to add) C4D, Houdini, Blender, Carrara... the crunch continues...:(

[Carsten Lind]

Modo is looking promissing, but yeah it can look like monopoly, but still no where near ..

Look at the bright side, XSi get to live on - avid could as well just had fired the bunch - end the whole product

[TrackZ]

How did they get this past the antitrust authorities! There's no competition now, I can see them mothballing one of the apps as well...

[brettSinclair]

All I have to say is PLEASE pixologic. DON'T sell out to autodesk. Stick it to the man!! The industry needs variety. With autodesk buying every app they can decide the retail price. We're royaly screwed if that happens!

The only reason max and maya had a price drop was because xsi was cheaper. Its over now...

[Philly13]

Yeah, totally! Please don't sell out, if this goes then we're soon gonna be buying our groceries from Autodesk :/ Stay unique!

[Bingo_Jackson]

They dont need to buy Zbrush to destroy it now. All they need to do is make sure that the top 3 production apps dont work very well with it, as opposed to MB, which will of course work seamlessly.

[Wolfman'sBrother]

yeah this is getting crazy. once autodesk buys these they seem to make no improvements they add like 2 tools a year and update it every year its the stupidest thing ever. im with these guys... please dont sell out zbrush. they can have mudbox.

[spaceboy412]

i agree that it sucks and could spell problems for zbrush, but one option is zbrush to change its current plan of being more 3d oriented and change to another type of application, i mean if they added more 2.5d tools it could be like painter is to photoshop.

[SalmonGod]

ZBrush is totally unique and will always draw a special crowd as long as it remains that way... 2.5D is the founding paradigm of the software the way I see it, and nobody else in the industry has bothered to touch that concept

however, I can see ZBrush falling out of mainstream use for your average 3d animation pipeline

at this point I don't see myself ever buying an autodesk product... the capitalist inevitability of power consolidating into fewer hands gains more momentum by the day and it disgusts and horrifies me... not that consolidation in the 3d graphics industry is so appalling, but it's a global trend across all industries... and when some industries consolidate, it DOES produce horrifying effects

I just don't want to feed any leviathan if I can avoid it... I'll be making a serious effort to learn Blender a few months from now

[basat]

Autodesk has not any rival left from now on. I hope this does not mean that they are going to upgrade applications in every decade

[j-ant]

I agree with spaceboy412, i like the 2.5D tools and i hope pixologic improve it in the release zbrush 3.5 or Zbrush 4. Zbrush is unique software it's like combination of 2D and 3D software, the pixol technology is unique and i think zbrush is the only software that can create images that have editable depth, lightning, material (2.5D). I hope pixologic stay unique and don't sell out your amazing software to autodesk. I hope pixologic improving 2d or 2.5D tools in next release, 2D/2.5D tools it's very usefull for 3d/2.5D Illustrator and i hope more improvement on the lightning, material and rendering on next zbrush release, so i don't need other application to render :D . Can't wait to see the new feature on zbrush 3.5. (Excuse my english :o )

[Sebcesoir]

Yeah, not only 2.5 tools, but I regret a bit that most people seems to forget that zbrush is an entire illustration program.
I remember during the beginings of 2.0 there was much more illustrations...

3D sculpting is in fact a very small part of zbrush...

But its out of topic ;)

[spaceboy412]

Seb that is exactly what i was saying, i remember those days, and i think with some modification to layers and more painting tools zbrush could return to being a stronger app without the need of photoshop.

[Jester]

I think ZB has its very strong place. MB is nowhere (yet) compared to ZB, brushes are uncomfortable, etc. I have completely different feeling when working with ZB, a lot smoother, finer, etc.

Pixologic has to listen to the studios, they working with, end of course the key beta testers. But I think they'll do their best.

[womball]

Whatever happend to competition? What incentive will they have to make improvements and to keep the price somewhat reasonable?

LOL at Kasperle comment. I agree. I aslo don't think monopolies are a capitalist phenomenon. Capitalism is about competition.

[Jester]

Stop this arrogant **** here, please. This is NOT a political, but an art forum, you are ranting against the moderators, I'm really surprised that you are not banned yet.

This thread is about Autodesk acquiring Softimasge, and I don't think that it has any business with Obama and McCain (neither to our local "heroes" Gyurcsany and Orban)

[TrackZ]

Taking a side step back on topic...

If it is true that Autodesk plan to create one new 3d app that "does all", what about all the people who've spent years learning either Max, Maya or XSI? It won't be very nice to find out all that knowledge is redundant, and for what good reason apart from corporate strategy? Then theres the extra cost and teething problems a brand new app will bring.

If they do cull one of the big 3 apps, which one will it be? All have good workflow and can produce top results so what criteria will they use?

Either way I think its very bad that Autodesk has been allowed to gobble up most of the market. I can't imagine they will continue updating all 3 apps, but there we are, it will probably forced upon us whatever they do.

[Captain Sensible]

This made me laugh http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kR7UWImpG54

[aurick]

ZBrushCentral is NOT the place for political grandstanding.

I have deleted the political posts that have been made in this thread, and will close the thread if they continue.

Thank you for your cooperation.

[It's Alive!]

Only 35 million to buy XSI?

If Softimage sold the program for the same price Zbrush goes for. Would it be crazy to say that they might have made more money?

I know this is a niche market.

3,000 dollars is a lot of money.

I wish there were Commercial and Non Commercial Licenses options for all of these 3d programs.

I know Educational Versions exist for far less, but some people are not in school, and all they want to do is learn the program to build a portfolio, and they can't afford the Commercial price.

The Educational Version is not possible for them, and yet they would still be using the program for the same intended Educational Purpose.

[Jester]

XSI had a Foundation for 500 bucks. That's pretty the same as ZBrush price. But, while XSI offers a complete solution, ZBrush doesn't. XSI is a modeler, animation, simulation, renderer, etc. software, ZBrush offers illustration and 3d sculpting.

Softimage has been sold, because Avid suffered great losses on video editing market, and doesn't want to spend money on 3D (even if it was profitable). Avid needs all resource on its main area.

XSI Essential 7.0 for 2995 bucks is a good price, it has ICE, has MR as native renderer, has an excellent polygonal modeling toolsets, and so on. I'm sure that the price invested will return within short time.