This is all just forum member speculation, but Id like to hear everyone else’s thoughts. A while back they picked up maya, and no leaps and bounds in my opinion where made to ether it or 3dsmax, no cross-pollination etc, so I wouldn’t expect to see any immediate change in mud box software. I think agility and smallness are good for a company if it want to iterate faster and push the envelope more often.
I agree. While its probably unnecesary to say this on zbrush forums i think this seals mudbox’s fate. Zbrush is the way to go now. As you said they have done nothing drastic to maya or max and their prices (also talking subscription prices on autocad for example) are just way too high. I find this a real shame. Maybe skymatter didnt believe in themselves anymore?
3dioot
“Maybe skymatter didnt believe in themselves anymore?”
Yeah, I came to that conclusion quickly, after z3 launched my guess is they felt a decade behind what pixologic was able to do. Seeing the success and potential, and un ignorability for modeling that feels like painting or sculpting is something that giants like Autodesk could no longer ignore. I can see them wanting to get their hands in the cookie jar and the recently brought to its knees mudbox make a reasonable choice. Wouldn’t surprise me if they had gone to pixol with somekind of deal before skymatter.
LOL - mocaw, so I guess you got as all here… Even you know better then Autodesk himself, whats gonna happen in a long run (obviously if they know that this will hurt them, they will not do that…). Too bad that they didn’t had such smart advisor before they sign papers… But hey! Maybe they are about to buy some other company - check out with them quick and sell them some priceless advice before those potato heads do another mistake.
:lol:
Honestly, I think that Skymatter made a HUGE mistake. Autodesk is really killing off all of its apps. They just released Max and Maya 2008, with what, two new enhancements each? Mudbox will just be either butchered and shoved into both apps, or will just sit in the corner of their R&D labs gathering dust.
Autodesk has really dissapointed me, and I know a LOT of others. Mudbox really had some potential. Now it’s going to be just another novelty app. that’s never going to gain in any meaningfull features.
Personally I thought MubBox was waayy tooo expensive anyway. They probably weren’t doing very well in sales becuase of it. I noticed that when it first came out that you had to meet strengent criteria to buy their scaled down version. When I went to their site the last time, they changed the lower cost version to that of “non commercial use”.
I could have told them that it cost too much, duh. It doesn’t even come close to what ZBrush does and ZBrush costs less.
It will be interesting to see what Autodesk does with it.
Hey I just like to “speculate” like any other person in a “free” market economy. :lol:
It just had to be it wasn’t selling well enough if they gave it over. What did they buy them for?
There is a lot of noise on the displacement painting signal these days with ZB, MODO, Silo, and Hexagon being around in addition to MB. So much the better for the company almost everyone knows and trusts on the topic and so much the worse for the future holders of MB!
Maybe I was over stating in before when I said that it would actually hurt Autodesk shares, but I doubt it will help them. As I’ve stated else where- they bought Maya when it was the “industry standard” for its market segment (and still is in many respects), the same is not true for MB.
The funny thing is that there are a lot of users who almost strictly will not buy and autodesk product if they can help it for a number of reasons- so this again is a gain for ZB!
true, also on a darker note, it could be possible for them to improve mb to play nicer with max, and maya, and infact somehow take aspects of mb, and put them in both. and perhaps make the support for how zb handles things less important to them or even disregard or misimplement to force people to use their app and snuff our zb. A little on the conspiracy theorists side I know. But ponder that over your next cup of coffee.
oh wow, where have i heard this before?
was it when Autodesk acquired Discreet and 3D Studio Max, and Max ceased to be a good program for any serious artist, and now nobody uses it because it’s so horrible?
when Poser changed hands, and faded into the winds to become obscure? (not the most ‘honorable’ example, i know, but it needs saying)
or was it when Autodesk aquired Alias, and subsequently threw Maya development to the wind, thereby not resulting in the often demanded interface improvements, speed increases, and various other boons to the existance of artists everywhere?
but no, the harbingers of doom have named the next victim of fate and capitalist economics: Mudbox.
i’m all against huge uncaring conglomerate corporations and all, but i’d really like to see where it’s written that being bought by another company is bad for business. Autodesk buying Mudbox means nothing in and of itself.
A while back they picked up maya, and no leaps and bounds in my opinion where made to ether it or 3dsmax.
Amen.
I’d like to see the integration of 3dsMax, Maya, Poser, Zbrush, Photoshop, Apophysis, MojoWorld, Groboto, XenoDream and WorldMachine into a single application.
R.I.P. MudBox :td:
It’s convenient for you to forget about programs like lightscape and motionbuilder…
Doom no…just RIP!
Maya is a different story- they’d have been complete idiots to kill it or just watch it fade…
Does that mean anything is off the table either way though? NO.
It’s convenient for you to forget about programs like lightscape and motionbuilder…
No offense to any omitted app intended.
I could have listed quite a few others, but thought it might be overkill…
Originally quoted by zeke3d
Wouldn’t surprise me if they had gone to pixol with somekind of deal before skymatter.
Healthy bit of insight there
Ofer to Autodesk? (the dinosaur collective of node-based procedural softs?)
NO WAY 
Sorry, we posted at almost the same time- my post was aimed at Andrew RaZ’s post…not yours!
I’m glad it’s Mudbox, and not ZBrush.
But then again: MB looked like an extension to Maya from the start.
Remember how Skymatter was going to charge for the update? How only full license people with gold support could get the update for free? Their mentality was already Autodesk, so I guess it’ll be a good symbiosis.
I wish the succes, but personally I prefer ZBrush. By far!
Need to clear the air here. As much as Autodesk are the current Empirical conquerors of various areas of the software world they wouldn’t buy Mudbox unless they intended to turn it to profit, or to integrate it somehow into their current softwares.
Someone said that it wouldn’t help them any??? Why buy it then??? :o That would lack any business sense at all.
Current speculation is that Max an Maya will be taken to version 10/11 and then will be replaced by one all conquering program, which undoubtedly will either incorporate Mudbox or integrate with it.
People are always ridiculing Max simply because it is owned by Autodesk. How many people have actually used it?? Max has served me well over the last 10 years and I assume that it will continue to serve me.
And with regard as to ‘what this means to Pixologic?’ : It means some competition. We are all aware of the power of ZB3 and the current gap between it and Mudbox, but think about it… if Autodesk keep Mudbox operational after its acquisition; think of the financial backing it now has.
Sorry if I went on a rant, but its early and I’ve not had coffee or a smoke break yet :evil: , and I’m sick of folk slating Max… thats all for now. 
Nothing to be happy about. I’d rather have a bunch of small companies, keeping close contact to the individual user bases, reacting to the expressed needs (well, more or less) in less time then the huge companies.
That’s funny: complaining about MB being costly, and then thinking of a more cheaper future for this app just because it changed the owner.
Well, Autodesk is known - if not famous - for moderate pricing?
It’s certainly just me, but the last time I got greedy, I went into some harsh times…
(edited for typo)