I do not think nor agree with: “XSI is a known entity and if people wanted to switch to it they would have already.”
No-one other than a few select (and those who do know it love it) here in this country know it (in South America). Only those tired of the traditional DCC apps search for alternatives, find it, and would stick to it if they could. Not many realize it’s an option, including students and Autodesk clients. Resellers do not give it as a viable option even if it was included in the suites. Education of it was not promoted as much as was Maya or Max, here in this country, and yes.. maybe because it didn’t need as much education to learn how to do FX and animation with SI as counterpart packages - thus less students learning about it? Students don’t need to learn as much on how to use this package, thus there is less educational demand for it! I agree that lately it has gained more traction, mainly for movies like 300, Lego Movie, etc and a number of amazing commercials and effects. And it IS much more or as powerful than nearly everything out there. I tell people “I work in SI”, and no one has a clue it existed here (South America) - and if they did, they loved it and wished their studios or universities used it. But it’s not the software that matters, it’s business planning and execution. Was it really just “let’s see if it lives within our ecosystem and offers” mentality with your current business model? Was there no “Let’s make a business from this asset, and come out on top as a whole benefitting from an already coded asset (instead of coding and investing in a completely new one = more expensive - not to mention “not ready yet” liability)? “Let’s create a better ecosystem that will empower other packages - with as little investment possible.” = SI and it’s concepts that Bifrost and your Maya improvements are trying to work off.. Are you taking a riskier road to show “innovation” and you only caring about your majority? (what about the minority in your ecosystem?) Do the XSI user base have to become like some ethnic minority being forgotten and wiped out? Where is the true business mind in this? People still want to buy Softimage, as that is what is happening and being shown, and you refuse a sale.. because.. you refuse a sale? People want to keep on buying it in the future…. and you refuse a sale again? People want to buy it and they don’t even want you to keep on developing it!? No investment sale!? You refuse more investment from a satisfied customer, money into your system, a small 1/20th investment into your other products? Is not 1/20th better than none at all? Why are you refusing a sale to studios who want to invest years into a product you already have, coded and no-longer need to develop much? Why are you refusing a sale: “Do you have Coke?” “No, it’s in storage and we don’t sell it anymore, only Pepsi, but it comes free with the desire to buy coke!” (yes, sounds generous) “Really?! that’s odd. Ah, no thanks *walks out of the store*”.It’s that simple. And also, this 1/20th income from the M&E sector could be a no-loss asset and profit for a few years, you wouldn’t need to invest development into that asset, only serverside-executable downloads and website maintenance (which is not expensive). This asset would earn cash just existing freeing you to have that much more kick into your next big solution that will remedy the rest (a 5% and growing low investment asset for the rest of your business). When the bugs for Bifrost come out, the new features being ironed out through trial and error, what will you be able to fall on? Who will be able to learn how a creative nodal system implemented into 3D work before it is even released? How can people learn how they work and their potential within the graphic scene unless it has a track-record? Why are you starting out UNDER your competition with a product still years behind them? Why not start AHEAD, years ahead of them!? Why can’t SI and ICE be sold to compliment Bifrost as the “Successor to ICE, check out these beautiful results and testimonies done in ICE. Bifrost is ICE/SI squared!” People will buy into SI (which you’d be maintaining for very little cost after April 2016, low cost asset, high turnover) and train in it preparing for the nodal system Bifrost would offer by then. You would earn more money from a division in your business that doesn’t need much uptake after two years! Schools would benifit, students will be ready for nodal systems, and your other platforms will be ready. But more, when the two years are up and you have that nodal system in place, you have something studios can fall on, a tried and true system - instead of the new and upcoming and buggy and untried system which will take years to mature. Maya right now has a liability of underdeveloped software and functionality. Max also, Bifrost is a liability till proven trustworthy and becomes something mature. For the sake of the industry, you probably should try avoid what Avid did (shooting themselves in the foot), and take a more secure route, yes, a one where you have to “thin out your business” and “clarify your goals” but in a less risky way! Use the assets you have already. Invest the little it takes to make SI known online and to Resellers as the “selling point for the potential of Bifrost in Maya/Max/Games” and “SI is the educational platform for Bifrost and it’s future” and for your “promises for Bifrost and it’s future will look similar to Softimage and these beautiful videos and functions it can do with ease”; “these products made in SI were done with a system coming to Maya soon, and squared!” You have a marketing tools already coded, an asset already made, you don’t need to invest a whole team into making it the next few years after April 2015, without much investment and possibly liability for similar functions you’d have to invest 2, 3, 5 years into your other software packages - you have an asset to take advantage of to potentially earn you much more than just 5% of you M&E division while you keep investing in liabilities like Bifrost and Maya till it becomes an asset and covers it’s costs. This could potentially save your future blunders - and already offer those who are not happy with your current products or pipelines an alternative, instead of telling them “Go use Houdini or Modo or Blender or C4D, we have no other options for you after April 2016, or better yet, if you're new, we have NO options other than the ones you might not want, go to the competition.” Students have to study A LOT to get into Maya, or Max, but very little for SI to get similar results. Students crave better ways, but pirate and loose cash learning something that takes so long to learn to do something so simple and easy to do that SI and ICE could offer right out of the box. They can’t afford plugins, they can’t afford an expensive and work-heavy pipeline. Small studios also! You could keep and earn a bigger fanbase, grow the industry with more options (healthy competition) and still stay up on top. I feel as a business, you guys are somehow being “less innovative” in the terms of marketing and sales - security and investment and future proof options. Why are you taking away the mattress out from underneath you before you take the jump? Where is the business, money earning, secure investment, future proof business planning in this? Why are you denying seats for an already coded product that you wouldn’t have to maintain so much after April 2016? Why are you limiting the industries “options” on the basis of delivering promises or “acquired and integrated” functionality? Why are you putting all your eggs in one basket with products that aren’t even fully developed yet? Why are you not working on USING your assets even for 5% of your revenue (which compliment everything else you really want to focus on?) SI does not take away from you, it adds to you. A seat in SI is a seat for Autodesk. Any graphic produced in ICE or SI is a compliment to the future of Bifrost and Autodesk. And now you are snuffing out even the very IDEA that Bifrost COULD work in production as a nodal system. As a business model and plan, this is absurd. Absurd. I don’t see Softimage as a sad story, I see the businesses that manage these millions of lines of code as a sad story, and as it is, I also see Autodesk as a sad story if they are not careful and use their assets instead of putting them into a box to collect dust!!!! If you want innovation, use what you have to make your business work. Don’t invest millions in underdeveloped (yes, future proof) products without something to rest on! the 5% revenue SI gives you and the selling points it has to help your upcoming products and it’s continued use, to help you refine where Bifrost will go, out of 20 years experience in cinema, commercials and the like, is much more valuable than 50% or 95% invome. You wan’t to grow your assets to 200% or 1000% right?…. instead of stepping out on a limb into an unknown production ideology with Nodal like creative systems without trusting an experienced product, it’s absurd. Risky. And certainly not mature enough to do it in the next 2 years with the current platform you have. You have no “Plan B”! And the majority of SI users have already turned to “Plan B” and the first options you provide and only want to provide are simply not there, not in two years, not in 5, not in 10, because it hasn’t had the 10 years backing and experience in that particular field. Even studios like Animal Logic turned to “Plan B” because animating in Maya probably didn’t make the cut without ICE. Your 5% is growing without development, your 5% is slowly becoming more and it doesn’t require a whole new product to cover the needs you are trying to satiate with the huge invesments into Bifrost and Maya. Your 5% is not getting worse, it’s your lack of management of the assets you have, and investment into riskier “innovative” approaches to reinvent the wheel for the majority who are looking and demanding for more. This is my thoughts to the history of SI, it’s not the software that killed itself, nor it’s fanbase. It’s how the business works with it’s assets. And a business that discards and disposes of an asset is like a person walking out of his house because he dreams of a better one - only to find himself on the street with only wishful thinking. Yes you have other houses, and you’re building another house.. but come on, you had a perfectly wonderful house, state of the art for many more than 20 years, and you are just going to leave it to rot? What if your new house takes too much cash before it comes to find that it has leaks, holes, and lets the tenants down because of it’s empty promises? What if those in the Maya and Max house want another house to live in, one with more room to move in already? (without plugins, without an external nodal system Bifrost offers - without “renovations”) Why are you snuffing away a safety net, and snuffing a 5% asset? Why work with less? Be greedy and USE YOUR ASSETS! And also be complacent and safe, invest little into a product that has much already going for you. Do that so you can have a safe bet when you invest millions into developing products that are just trying to catch up to the concepts SI has tried and true for years and years and years to come. Thanks, -Draise From: Maurice Patel Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2014 12:50 To: [email protected] Anything constructive to add? That could be implied and pre-acquisition is not relevant to the question which was about an apparent recent gain in traction maurice Maurice Patel Autodesk : Tél: 514 954-7134 -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jason S Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2014 1:44 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: An Open Letter to Carl Bass On 03/25/14 13:41, Maurice Patel wrote: ..Softimage is less than 3%.. Post-aquisition
