I think it's worth pointing out that Bifrost wasn't a PR disaster (handling of Naiad post acquisition possibly a bit), one disgruntled max fanboi went off on a rant afyer a few videos for a tech demo were shown hosted in Maya for a technology that's not even dependent on Maya to begin with past using it as a host app.
It wasn't supposed to go anywhere, it wasn't supposed to do much, but disgruntled noobs will go to extremes to create a storm in a glass of water (the guy from max underground has been spamming that article that he's updating with links to AD employee comments in several spots on CGS and other websites, trying to fish for hits I guess). You can find a long list of PR disasters, and a long list of issues with AD, their software, and how the two relate. The response to Bifrost though is so completely out of proportion and non-sensical it really boggles the mind. It's like if you showed your clients a test for a separate personal project behind closed doors to lure them in and then found out they wrote an angry dissertation and had it published on Variety with misquotings and interpretations stated as facts the day after. Go for it, have a go and give them feedback. But for now I suggest you ignore the whole bifrost debacle, it's degenerated beyond belief. If I was anybody involved on AD's side in this by now I'd probably be furious, and I doubt they can do much about it since the rep backlash if they asked the website to can the article would be horrible. They tried to stem it by commenting in there, but since they're the bad guys they can't win it, and people are re-interpreting every post again and again. On Wed, Jul 31, 2013 at 2:39 PM, Angus Davidson <angus.david...@wits.ac.za>wrote: > Have been having this fun little debate off and on with Luc eric for a > while now. Mostly on the si community forums. Firstly while we dont always > agree I have a tremendous amount of respect for both him , Graham and > recently Chris who are really do a great job of trying to hold things > together. ( I also add the Singapore team in this as they have been given a > hospital pass of note) > > The problem they are facing boils down to the following. > > What they have in the code base (even if parts of it have have fairly > major updates) is a very old foundation. this means that there is always > issues with either how fast you can work with stuff, or even if you can > work with stuff, You are in effect always constrained by the lowest common > denominator. They just cannot hope to compete with the other industry > players who are at the moment out doing them in pretty much every way > except hoovering up subscriptions. They just cant hope to keep on buying up > little firms doing cool stuff and hope it will keep things going forever. > > As I posted before I think how they have handled Naiad technically has > been right (PR wise was a disater) What I hope they are doing is keeping > their new tech acquisitions in a way that can plug into any app. This > allows them the freedom to be working on a new one app to rule the all. If > they are not doing this with that intent they are well and truely shafted. > > They need as Sylvain pointed out the radical shift like Apple (did with > mac os x) had the balls to do. I personally think they need to go further > then just the app and really work on where the app runs as well. > Accelerated Driver support for the quadro cards has been abysmal. My ponkey > donk games card kicks my quadros ass in pretty much every aspect except > cost. > > Their other main problem is perception. Right now they have a very big > problem with people questioning whether ADSK is still valid and worth their > subscription fees. For pretty much everyone I personally know and from what > I can see quite a few folks on the list has dropped their subscription (or > is in the process of for next year). I will also most likely not be > renewing our EDU sub next year. I know they are forced to hide behind > bureaucratic BS of not releasing roadmaps. However if they dont tell folks > exactly what is happening they wont need one as all of their customers > would have left. A breakdown of where our subs go for one would be great. > > While the SI people are some of the most amazing passionate about their > software I have had the honor of knowing. More and more of them are getting > tired of being treated like mushrooms. > > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------ > *From:* Sylvain Lebeau [s...@shedmtl.com] > *Sent:* 31 July 2013 04:57 AM > > *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com > *Subject:* Re: Why did I pay support?? Why did I buy a suite ? I want my > money back! > > cough.... you remember me with my past rants i am sure. > > I've tried to calm down... > > Just bought 5 more Softimage seats today. Growing the user base is the > best thing to do to make share holders go in the direction we all want. > But we are such a small army alltogheter. We are the inglorious basterds of > the 3D industry unfortunatly. But in the film, they kinda win!! :-) wich > is not what is going to happen to us... i think. > > Chris, Luc-Eric, Stefan and your team in singapore..... just dont give up! > I think you really do a great job at trying to support such a passionate > and intimate micro user base. > > I am still quite happy with the bug fixes list from 2014. Even tough I > ranted about the camera sequencer.... And also i am amazed about the > responsiveness for our problem we've had here with accessing the ICE data > attributes and the fixes to the SDK leading to SP2. This was fast and i > felt at home again. > > Autodesk, do what apple did when releasing OSX. A major cut. They > started on fresh new modern foundations. I am ready to asbsorb the cost of > our pipeline tools rewrite if you come with a master app bringing togheter > the power of the big 3s. It's the only way out. > > Merge the Fu** all of your patents togheter in this next gen uber app. It > is the only way to keep up against the others. The foundry are comming > hardcore and they will integrate Modo with Katana, Mari and Nuke. Also, > Side effects are a good bunch of listening passionate fellows too. Thoses > guys really strive for something new and refreshing. You cannot sit laid > back on maya, xsi and max and hope to make your trimestrial performance in > terms of incomes for years to come. You are rellying on too old > technologies in my opinion. That's what will not only bring softimage to > it's knees, but all of your grandpa 3d apps. Something is really happening > out there, and you seem's to only put the meal to the microwave oven. > > The only thing we all miss, is the real will for innovation, passion and > devotion at Autodesk. Something that is very present everywhere around. > Best exemple is blender..... open source....free...... WAKE UP.!!! > > Are we at the Stalingrad battle for 3D market supremacy? Of course we are! > And Autodesk is way behind so far for the lead. > > > sly > > > > *Sylvain Lebeau // SHED** > *V-P/Visual effects supervisor > 1410, RUE STANLEY, 11E ÉTAGE MONTRÉAL (QUÉBEC) H3A 1P8 > T 514 849-1555 F 514 849-5025 WWW.SHEDMTL.COM <http://www.shedmtl.com/> > <<http://www.shedmtl.com/> > http://WWW.SHEDMTL.COM> > > On 30/07/2013 9:40 PM, Greg Punchatz wrote: > > I don't think we should be too hard on Chris and the rest of the > development team in Singapore, I just think they've been dealt a very bad > hand. > > I think it was a mistake letting Softimage development leave Montréal, > as all the people that really know the code inside and out are there. I > really do hope the new team surprises me, Chris seems to be earnest in his > want to create a good product for us. I just hope the people above him > empower him to create some great features for us... I would not want to > walk in his shoes right now. > > Sent from my iPhone > > On Jul 30, 2013, at 8:18 PM, Emilio Hernandez <emi...@e-roja.com> wrote: > > Hmmm but Softimage DS came out when it was already Microsoft as I > remember. Eddie was the comp from Softimage and Toonz for 2D cell > animation at the moment Microsoft acquired it. Unless of course DS was in > development which I don't know, at the moment Microsoft bought it. > > As many of you I never felt in home with AD as I felt in those good old > days. Even with Avid that was trying to do: I don't know what... > > I stopped paying my suscription since 2013. I was waiting to see the new > incredible team that it was said to bring new blood to Softimage. But all > I can see is AD adding more corpse parts to the Frankenstein that is Maya. > > And new Softimage wizkids that as far as I read here, don't know how to > properly increment a version number with no backward compatibility. > Needing to compile all the plugins again in order to work with 2014sp2. > > Something I have never seen before in Softimage. > > Better tools have been developed by the SI Community by far. > > Just wondering... If the people of Greenbay owns its football team... > > $10 million is not that much to get Softimage out of the dungeon... > > > > > > 2013/7/30 Matt Lind <ml...@carbinestudios.com> > >> Let’s review the past: >> >> >> >> In 1994, Microsoft acquired Softimage Co. for an amount which I used to >> know but currently escapes me. I would say north of $300 million USD. >> Microsoft bought the company for Softimage Digital Studio to promote their >> webTV intiative. >> >> >> >> In 1998, Avid paid roughly $200 million to acquire Softimage from >> Microsoft – mostly as a defensive move fearing being killed by DS and >> backlash from their own customers. >> >> >> >> In 2008, Autodesk paid roughly $37 million to acquire Softimage from >> Avid, but that only included the 3D half of the company. The DS stuff >> remained with Avid. >> >> >> >> Today with reduced market share, downsized development, a core built on >> near obsolete technology of COM/OLE and dependencies on other technology >> with strings attached, and no game breaking features released since the >> last acquisition (but many enhancements to ICE), I would guess you could >> buy Softimage for under $10 million. But I’m sure Autodesk would ask for a >> lot more. >> >> >> >> At this point you’d be paying for a name…..one which many people >> mispronounce. >> >> >> >> >> >> Matt >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto: >> softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Emilio Hernandez >> *Sent:* Tuesday, July 30, 2013 5:35 PM >> *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com >> *Subject:* Re: Why did I pay support?? Why did I buy a suite ? I want my >> money back! >> >> >> >> How much money will it be needed to buy Softimage from AD? >> >> >> >> 2013/7/30 Greg Punchatz <g...@janimation.com> >> >> I was just reading between the lines... >> >> I've read your mails and posts for years, lets just say you have a knack >> for foreshadowing future happenings by putting things a certain way... >> >> Like the time you wrote the post on the Softimage forum, "so what if you >> guys finally had to bite the bullet and switch to Maya what would you miss >> the most?" >> >> Only time will tell if I read your tea leaves correctly . >> >> Sent from my iPhone >> >> On Jul 30, 2013, at 6:48 PM, Luc-Eric Rousseau <luceri...@gmail.com> >> wrote: >> >> > On Tue, Jul 30, 2013 at 6:23 PM, Greg Punchatz <g...@janimation.com> >> wrote: >> >> I am also hugely disappointed in Mudbox... The only thing I ended up >> using >> >> in the whole suite is SOFTIMAGE.. Zbrush and Mari got my personal >> dollars >> >> because they delivered while AD promised. Now Luc Eric is all but >> saying >> >> Mudbox is going into Maya on Softimage forums.... >> > >> > I never wrote or implied anything of the sort about mudbox. I replied >> > to a statement made that an app like zbrush or mudbox couldn't be >> > built in another app instead of standalone, if it is a platform that's >> > designed well enough and provides good SDK services. there is no need >> > to mindlessly re-create UI, manipulators, opengl viewports, from >> > scratch all the time when all the base is similar. we've all wasted >> > time in apps that have weird navigation or stuff we've used to with >> > manipulators. it's pointless, and Softimage itself has always been >> > about using the same tools and UI in all modules.. >> > >> >> >> >> >> -- >> > > > > -- > > > This communication is intended for the addressee only. It is > confidential. 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