Re: SoftImage Artists take on Maya @ Escape Studios

[Jason S]

On 09/10/14 6:56, adrian wyer wrote: as a company, our decision to move to Maya was made for us 1. production proven 2. available freelance pool 3. community of users when things go wrong 4. existing freelancers who have knowledge of both systems (Soft & Maya aiding in transition) 5.third party plugins 6.it's not 3DsMax! no brainer i'm afraid.... a It can easily be argued that basically -everyone- at that training session was there because a (pretty considerably big/bold (personal business))  decision has been made on their behalf. and none of them because they willingly decided to move to another ('overly complicated') package to get to more or less the same results. A Soft2Maya training session which would otherwise totally have been yet another mind blowing Softimage Creatives session. __________________ Ognjen Vukovic          I am quite curious as to why there are so many people transitioning to maya if you all find it such a pain... For now, there is only Maya and that's it. (and perhaps still Softimage for those that have it) _______ Since the start has the relationship of Soft under Autodesk been widely described as that of an unwanted stepchild. But I think it's because if a company is buying and therefore inheriting 'ownership' of a package (in this case a package with a fairly 'specific' userbase, and which should belong more to it's long time users than the company buying-up rights on paper) .. it can actually very closely be equated with adopting a child that isn't yours. In that the fate of the child (or in this case the 'health' of something arguably very unique and important in the lives of many) then -becomes- *the responsability* of the new parent company. quote: Chris Vienneau 2012 on the Soft/3DS chopping block rumor topic The first is to flatly call out that the rumor that the eol of Softimage and 3dsmax is upon us is totally false.    [...] We understand people make their living from this software and that they make huge decisions about their projects and companies and we take that responsibility very seriously. So if a gifted child is adopted because the own gifted child star doesn't necessarily (at-all) have the same kind of  'giftedness', to then you know.. more or less lock it up, not feed it, suck-up whatever possible out of it.. and then 'take care of it' it on the premise that it (something unique and important in the lives of many) was at that point barely no longer alive .. and that a replacement (for a part of it .. & based on something else entirely) is coming. anyway.. (sigh) It was also said that Avid didn't care so much for it's consequential acquisition inheritance, sometimes even suggesting to the point of more or less attributing it's demise to that carelessness. But you know, everything since 2.0 (?) including things like almost 'magic' attribute tranfers, ...  ICE ... and a number of other equally almost magical things.. .. the original official softimage community forum (immediately scrapped) .. customer reels .. super-support.. Under Avid, Softimage was -at least- minimally fed, along with at least -some- 'marketing'. Marc Petit said that Autodesk would be a good home for Softimage. (press release) Come-on Soft lets go home! where you'll be 'taken care of'. We'll show you to your new room we prepared for you in the sub-basement, and don't mind all the extraction equipment, it for your and everyone's own good because we say so, and it's we that decides that.