Hi Andi, As many people pointed out I don't think anything else can be a complete replacement for ICE. Bifrost is not a port of ICE to Maya and that was not the goal nor did I mean to imply that it was. It is just an area of innovation for us in the sense that we are creating something from scratch. A lot of its design of course was influenced heavily by Naiad and by ICE. Maurice
Maurice Patel Autodesk : Tél: 514 954-7134 From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Andi Farhall Sent: Sunday, March 09, 2014 4:30 AM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: Update to the Softtimage Transition Plan Hi Maurice, so Bifrost is a success you say, so can we expect it to be at least everything ICE is and more? Will people who transition to Maya end up not missing ICE because that's the number one issue for many of us. Andi. ........................................................................... http://www.hackneyeffects.com/ https://vimeo.com/user4174293 http://www.linkedin.com/pub/andi-farhall/b/496/b21 http://www.flickr.com/photos/lord_hackney/ http://spylon.tumblr.com/ This email and any attachments to it may be confidential and are intended solely for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Hackney Effects Ltd. If you are not the intended recipient of this email, you must neither take any action based upon its contents, nor copy or show it to anyone. Please contact the sender if you believe you have received this email in error. ------------------------------------------------------------ ________________________________ From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: RE: Update to the Softtimage Transition Plan Date: Sun, 9 Mar 2014 04:51:45 +0000 Hi Sebastian, I'll try to answer your question as best I can. I have been reading the threads and trying to figure out how best to answer questions like the one you posed, or even if it was worth it. Especially, given the fact that there is no real reason for anyone here to trust anything I say. I would feel the same if I were standing in your shoes - and I have in the past. Before I answer your question officially for Autodesk I would like to share my own personal experience of situations like these. Once, rather Ironically, when I was working for Softimage in 2000, their leadership team asked me to communicate the decision to stop development on Media Illusion (another acquisition) to our customers, many of whom I had personally trained. These things do not get any easier with time. The decision to make Softimage 2015 the last release was not made because of cost-issues - that is to say it was not done to reduce the operating expenses of the M&E division - which is why there was no reduction in work force. The decision was made so that we could focus our efforts on fewer projects enabling us to better execute on them and free resources to research new areas of innovation. Luc-Eric explained this in a bit more detail earlier. The decision was made at the end of last year after many months of deliberation and it was not something that was undertaken lightly (Autodesk's annual strategic planning cycle, when decisions like these are typically made, kicks off in earnest in September). There were many factors that led to that decision and although hindsight is great these factors are not always predictable. Several of the plans we had previously made did not work out as expected and so evolved significantly over time. Anyone who has ever had to manage a business or project will probably be familiar with the fact that plans can change quite rapidly (and in unexpected directions) as new events occur and you react to them. To quote someone a whole lot smarter than I: "the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray." We were optimistic that some of the R&D methodologies and innovations we were experimenting with would prove more fruitful than they did (e.g. projects like skyline). Does that mean we should not have attempted them? Personally, I think we need to try and do new things even if we know that 99% of attempts at innovation will end in failure - after all they sometimes end in success (e.g. Bifrost). Ultimately when we say "focus" what we mean is better balancing our finite resources so that we can still invest in new research projects - even if these might fail - while continuing to evolve and improve existing customer workflows. To enable us to continue the former we had to focus on Maya and 3ds Max for the latter. Regards maurice Maurice Patel Autodesk : Tél: 514 954-7134 From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Sebastien Sterling Sent: Saturday, March 08, 2014 9:55 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Update to the Softtimage Transition Plan Maurice ? is softimage being discontinued because of cost issues ? or because it is impeding other AD products ? it may seem redundant, but this question has not been answered.
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