Hahahaha...... this is all I can say to you!Good luck with the inovation!Autodesk, it sounds that the future is bright for you as well. On 15 Mar 2014 13:37, "Chris Vienneau" <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi guys, > > > > Your math is a little off as the number is 600 m in R&D and 1 billion in > sales and administrative. The administrative covers everything from all the > people that support the developers to the building and computers. Autodesk > spends more on R&D than Adobe or Apple. Our CEO Carl Bass uses the products > and tells about what he doesn't like all the time. Again you can check him > making stuff here: http://www.popsci.com/article/technology/maker-king . > We have a huge research group that drives its own agenda ( > http://www.autodeskresearch.com/) and our doing lots of labs/research > projects here ( labs.autodesk.com) . Our research into multi-touch, > reality capture and 3D printing is industry leading and we have been > involved in projects like molecular maya working with MIT on cancer > research ( > http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2013/10/features/biology-is-the-new-software). > Autodesk's executives (check their bio) including Marc Stevens who ran > softimage and runs the film/tv group are all engineers and this is a > technology driven company. I know it sucks that no one from Autodesk in M&E > has said this to this community but I like working for Autodesk and believe > that this is a good company. > > > > For Maya 2015 we will show off the redesigned from the ground up fluid > flip method from Dr. Robert Bridson , a new voxel based skinning method > that was a siggraph paper , continued improvements on the hair and cloth > simulation of Nucleus from Dr. Jos Stam. Most of the innovation in this > industry comes from the top studios and the work that comes out of > production. The snow in Frozen was amazing but a lot of work. ( > http://www.disneyanimation.com/technology/publications) If< > http://www.disneyanimation.com/technology/publications)%20If> you take > the innovation that has really driven the industry forward in the last five > years the origins are all on production. With tech like Alembic, openvdb, > Ptex, UV-tiling, opensubdiv, open color IO, Open EXR, etc.... there are > smart people in studios like Sebastian Sylwain (ex-weta), Bill Polson > (Pixar), Lincoln Wallen (DreamWorks), Rob Bredow (Sony), Dan Candela (Walt > Disney animation), and Hilmar Koch (ILM) that make great code and open > source to the benefit of the community. Then there are tons of contributors > like Autodesk and the Foundry who do things like porting, standards and bug > fixing so this all works together. Even the applications that are young and > fast moving like Mari (weta) and Arnold (Sony) are from production and > still take their main direction from production just like Maya. All of the > applications from Soft with Jurassic to Maya with Dinosaurs got their > footing with production work. The fact that Toy Story was all built on in > house hardware and 20 years later you have amazing movies like Despicable > Me and Lego movie made with mostly off the shelf tools is amazing. Go back > and look at the tools you think are innovating and see how many of their > "innovations" are based off Siggraph papers or are inspired by tools > written in production. I for one have no problem giving credit where credit > is due and most anything in Maya that is good has come from being built in > partnership with customers. > > > > This industry is lucky to have organizations like Siggraph and FMX that > foster and promote innovation and we love that more and more of the base > platform is community based. We have led the VES effort to standard Linux > libraries for all the vendors (Foundry, SideFX, Autodesk) and get to work > in organizations like open GL building out the next gen drivers and MPAA > (setting the new ACES standard for replacing Cineon) all building up the > base upon which the industry sits. We get to package up technology like > Xgen and bring it to the larger market and all vendors get to put in > Alembic to share data and open color I/O to set color within a facility. > > > > This movement has allowed medium sized companies to do shots that were > once only possible by a few shops and more importantly this has allowed > stories to be told in countries that have never before had a voice. There > is no one tool to rule them all and Max vs Maya vs Soft vs Houdini vs Modo > vs Zbrush vs fabric does not foster innovation. Raf said it well when he > described the Lego as all of those tools plus internal tools plus really > smart people plus an amazing story made what we all enjoyed so much. > > > > First and foremost everyone who works at Autodesk in the M&E division > including the people who used to work at Soft (there are way more than have > left) love the film and games industry and the chance to be a part of it. > The decision with Soft was a hard one but we back it so we can focus on > helping the ecosystem make better movies and games. Innovation comes from > the synergies of all these products, platforms, hardware and your talent > and putting that on any one tool or company does not capture what is still > a vibrant passionate community. The business model right now sucks and > things need to change but there is still a bright future ahead and many > problems left to solve. > > > > cv/ > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > ________________________________ > From: [email protected] [ > [email protected]] on behalf of Toonafish [ > [email protected]] > Sent: Saturday, March 15, 2014 7:39 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: Idea- Just keep Mental Ray and FBX support - Softimage free > w/Maya or Max or any Suite. > > Sales revenue was 2.31 Billion in 2013, and gross income 2.07 Billion. > > The "funny" thing is that while I read on the list the reason for shutting > SI down is that they believe they can focus more on innovation this way. > > But AD spent only 600 million of that money on R&D, and 2.83 Billion on > "sales and administration". They spend way more money on selling the idea > they are innovative, then they spend on actually trying to innovate. And > when you consider how little innovation they have been able to squeeze out > of a budget that is still humongous to smaller, much more innovative shops, > it's simply embarrassing. > > http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/adsk/financials# > > You can sell customers, or sheep as they are called in some business > models, heaps of crap as long as you spend enough dough on convincing them > it really doesn't stink, it's the sweet smell of innovation. > > I suspect the peeps that pull the strings at AD really couldn't care less > about clients or innovation as long as this attitude brings in higher > profits. They wouldn't smell innovation even if it sat on their face. > Softimage with ICE is one of the most innovative DCC packages they have on > their hands, and even though they seem to understand that you need to spend > at least some money to sell innovation, they couldn't be bothered to lift a > single finger to sell SI. > > but I'm rambling on.. > > -Ronald > > On 3/15/2014 9:46, Matt Lind wrote: > I'm not throwing the baby out with the bathwater. What you have to > understand is Autodesk doesn't want customers running concurrent sessions > off a single license as in a Maya/Max and a Softimage session running in > parallel. that would effectively allow double the users to work while > paying only half the price. eg; if a customer has 50 licenses it would > allow 50 maya + 50 softimage users to run concurrently, but pay for only 50 > licenses. Some studios are ethical and wouldn't do something like that, > but as someone mentioned just the other day, other studios in lesser > affluent places might not be so ethical. Even if Softimage were included > for free, it still consumes some amount of resources to ensure it still > installs and runs as advertised. > > I agree in principle Autodesk should continue Softimage until one of their > other products can replace the functionality. If anything, that's the ball > that was dropped in this whole debacle. Of all companies on the planet, > you'd think the one with all the accumulated experience of all the products > that went through this process in the 1990's would know better and be more > prepared than anyone else. But what's done is done. > > The problem with the theory of disgruntled users leaving and hurting > Autodesk is that the Softimage user base isn't large enough to really be > missed on Autodesk's bottom line. think about it. Only 8% of Autodesk's > revenue comes from media and entertainment. Of that 8%, about 5% of it is > from Softimage (0.4% total) - and that might be a generous number. For > every $100 Autodesk earns in revenue, 40 cents comes from Softimage. Take > out expenses and you're looking at much less. > > I don't remember the actual number, but I thought somebody recently > reported Autodesk earned $392 million last year. So, let's run that > through the calculator: > > $392,000,000 USD * 0.004 = $1,568,000 Softimage gross revenue > > I don't know what 10 developers in Singapore get paid, so I'll use > conservative values based on USA rates: > > 10 * $100,000 = $1,000,000 > > subtract expenses from revenue: > > $1,568,000 - $1,000,000 = $568,000 > > I don't know what marketing of Softimage costs, but I'm willing to bet > $568,000 USD doesn't go very far for a product that needs a lot of > attention to survive. Even if tripled, that's still lean. See the problem? > > One item of note that probably hasn't been brought up in discussion yet is > that Softimage has been included in the Max and Maya suites the past few > years, so some sales of Max and Maya may actually be Softimage sales in a > certain light - I know of at least one studio where that is the case. In > that scenario Softimage is getting the short end of the stick when it comes > to accounting. > > I mourn the loss of Softimage as much as anybody having dedicated 21+ > years of my life to it both as professional user and former owner of a > Softimage certified training center. Sometimes life sucks. > > Matt > > > > > -- > Ronald van Vemden > ----------------------------------------------- > 3D Graphics & Animation > Cyberfish Laboratories | www.cyberfish.nl<http://www.cyberfish.nl> > Toonafish | www.toonafish.nl<http://www.toonafish.nl> > tel. +31(0)20 5289291 > fax +31(0)20 5289292 > email: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> >
