Autodesk now owns Maya and 3D Studio
Exclusive story: Autodesk acquires Alias
Tuesday, October 4, 2005 by Frogboy | Discussion: WinCustomize News
Autodesk, the makers of 3D Studio Max has acquired Alias, the makers of Maya for $182 million in cash. For those of you who thought that 3D Studio Max was made by Discreet, well, Autodesk now owns Discreet so in effect, the 3D modeling software market is under control by Autodesk.
Most 3D modeling that you see in movies, TV, and games is done using either Maya or 3D Studio Max. This concentration of market power by a single company in such a key market has many designers and artists quite nervous.
"What about the cost of both products?" said Scott Tykoski, a 3D graphics designer at Stardock. "These are expensive products today when there's competition, what about in the future? Are we going to be paying $12,000 base cost for these programs in a year?"
According to Autodesk, the product release schedule for both products will continue into the foreseeable future without modification. The two companies will continue to exist and market and sell both Maya and 3D Studio Max for the near future.
What the actual effect on development of both products now that competition between the two is gone remains to be seen. This story is still developing..
Reply #2 Tuesday, October 4, 2005 7:43 PM
| 3D Studio Max was made by Discreet, well, Autodesk now owns Discreet |
Discreet's name just changed back to Autodesk.
Or was that just a typo?
They've changed the name of it about 4 times.
This doesn't bother me much at all, nothing like when Adobe bought out Macromedia, yet we still see both publishers pushing the products out with little change.
Reply #3 Tuesday, October 4, 2005 11:00 PM
For 3d software, there are tons of different applications out there. Maya is geared more towards feature films and Max for games. I'd like to see the best of both worlds put together in one package. Personally, I think that the 3D max interface has a technical feel to it while Maya seems geared more towards the creative process. I'm not alone in that though about the GUI design for both applications either.
I don't see how this will spell doom for any particular camp, but a cohesiveness is more than welcome. Max will finally get some much needed improvement in it's animation area, Maya will be able to finally use more than a few select file formats, and both should be cross-compatible in the next few years. I eagerly await this.
Reply #4 Wednesday, October 5, 2005 1:09 AM
| 3D Studio Max was made by Discreet, well, Autodesk now owns Discreet |
if i remember correclty, MAX was made by Kinetix a subsidary of Autodesk which was later merged with Discreet when Autodesk bought Discreet....
Reply #5 Wednesday, October 5, 2005 3:35 PM
"3D modeling software market is under control by Autodesk" is over simplifying a little too, but it certainly isn't the healthiest move for the Cg software market potentially.
Cheers!
Reply #6 Wednesday, October 5, 2005 5:51 PM
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Reply #1 Tuesday, October 4, 2005 6:40 PM