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Geek Culture / Autodesk buy Softimage - today.

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bond1
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Posted: 24th Oct 2008 00:24
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Dang, this came out out nowhere: http://www.softimage.com/

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"bond1 - You see this name, you think dirty."
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Phaelax
DBPro Master
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Posted: 24th Oct 2008 01:47
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does autodesk still own studio max or did someone else buy that?


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NeX the Fairly Fast Ferret
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Posted: 24th Oct 2008 01:48 Edited at: 24th Oct 2008 01:50
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I used to play about with my Dad's work copies of Autodesk and AutoCAD. They were pretty unintuitive at first but could pull off some amazing stuff once you got the hang of them. Most of my TurboCAD (which I use for DB, etc. £10 for a great textureless modelling package. Not bad!) skills come from it.

Should I continue coding or focus on my art? Vote here:
http://www.polldaddy.com/p/953461/
NeX, the creator of a billion failed projects.
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bond1
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Posted: 24th Oct 2008 01:52 Edited at: 24th Oct 2008 01:53
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Autodesk owns everything, lol.

3ds Max, Maya, Mudbox, Motionbuilder, and now XSI. And the list goes on. I hope Softimage's CAT animation tools are intergrated into the next version of Max, it IS a 3ds max plugin after all.

So now, the three major 3D apps used in the video game industry are now owned by the same company. I wonder if ZBrush is next on the list. Autodesk is a MASSIVE company, with incredible buying power.

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"bond1 - You see this name, you think dirty."
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Jeff032
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Posted: 24th Oct 2008 03:06 Edited at: 24th Oct 2008 03:07
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Quote: "I used to play about with my Dad's work copies of Autodesk and AutoCAD. They were pretty unintuitive at first but could pull off some amazing stuff once you got the hang of them. Most of my TurboCAD (which I use for DB, etc. £10 for a great textureless modelling package. Not bad!) skills come from it."


I took classes using AutoCAD when I was in high school, and then got TurboCAD afterwards. TurboCAD is nice, but I miss having the command line that is in AutoCAD.

We also used another Autodesk program - Inventor. That was really fun to work with. I need to find a free/cheap equivalent.

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Oolite
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Posted: 26th Oct 2008 03:43
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Maybe i'm jumping ahead a little in this conversation but before anyone starts mentioning that all packages are going to merge into one big 'Autodesk 3D' package. Think again, what would be the sense of merging all of the packages from a financial point of view. All they have done is acquired softimage as a sister company of Autodesk, all of the work to softimage will probably still be on the up and coming they will just be reaping in some financial benefits and merging as much technology as they can across the board
hence;
Quote: "SOFTIMAGE|Cat: This advanced character animation system is a plug-in for Autodesk 3ds Max software. It is intended to be integrated into the 3ds Max product line."

I don't think they will be dumbing down any products either just to make 3dsmax technologically superior, anyone noticed Maya going down the pan lately? No? Thought not.

Wait, i really did get ahead of myself, regardless, this probably shouldn't be scaring anyone, if anything prices should come down because of all the funds coming in to autodesk..
..That reminds me, i should probably think about updating max soon, still on 8 with Vista and anyone who has used is knows its not meant to be work with vista at all and its stupidly unstable...

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Sid Sinister
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Posted: 26th Oct 2008 04:17
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There is always a bigger fish. Watch Microsoft by autodesk now in it's attempts to rule the world. Wouldn't that be a bi....

"If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants" - Isaac Newton
-Computer Animation Major @Baker.edu-
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bond1
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Posted: 26th Oct 2008 05:48 Edited at: 26th Oct 2008 05:49
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I've got no prolem with Autodesk. I think they are a great company, I read in Forbes magazine that they are one of the top ten companies in employee satisfaction. I own stock in Autodesk as well. And now, with CAT, it looks like 3ds Max users are going to get a $1000 plugin included free with max! Still shocked by this one acquisition though, it came out of nowhere. And through the grapevine, it sounds like Avid is the one who actively tried to sell Softimage, rather than an aggressive buyout by Autodesk. I guess Avid got tired of Max and Maya's dominance in the entertainment market, and decided to bail out of it.

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Final Epsilon
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Posted: 26th Oct 2008 08:58 Edited at: 26th Oct 2008 09:03
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From what I understand and have read, Avid was struggling financially and could not justify keeping SoftImage. And this just happened to be a perfect opportunity for Autodesk to snatch up their largest competitor.

My greatest concern is a) Autodesk no longer needs to price their products aggressively with an effective monopoly, and b) there will be a slow-down of innovation and new features in the industry
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Oolite
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Posted: 26th Oct 2008 15:15
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Quote: "there will be a slow-down of innovation and new features in the industry "

Maybe so, but if Autodesk play their cards right, we could end up having a massive technology boom with everyone pulling their weight together.
Then again, it could go the other way.

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Sid Sinister
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Posted: 26th Oct 2008 19:41
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Oooh, price drops would be nince

"If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants" - Isaac Newton
-Computer Animation Major @Baker.edu-
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