Alias|Wavefront 'BIG NEWS'... Apple?

[Mr. Anderson]

has any played with the free version of Maya?

I'm downloading it now, 150 meg, should take 30-50 min.

It should be interesting to see if there truly is an 3D animation explosion with all this price lowering. 3D is still a very demanding and complicated design system, you can't just get some software and start making Shrek.

Its too bad Apple wasn't involved.

 

[kidtronix]

yes sir apple to buy alias|wavefront and then next mwsf we see a super computer called g5 which will cost about the same as a low end sgi, yoink!

 

[georgemasters]

maya's goal = increased market share

A lower cost maya means they need to sell more seats. I suspect many small studios will switch at this price point because of Maya's rich tool set including paint effects. There is no free version of lightwave which should encourage many consumers and prosumers to choose Maya as the beginning of their upgrade path. Mac users in particular should seriously consider Maya over Lightwave because the user experience is more Mac like The tools sets make more sense and the UI is aquafied. While Maya is a deep and complex program I learned it MUCH quicker than lightwave. The Lightwave ui is a hold over from the amiga days and very linux like. It's composed of two separate programs linked by a hub. Your constantly loading plug-ins, fixing crashes and searching for tools. (ex- the knife tool is under the construct tab because you are "constructing new geomerty by dividing it in half). In almost every other major program cutting means taking away something. The only thing I liked about Lightwave more than Maya was the render engine. Ultimately a skilled artist will be able to produce a quality project in either program, it just a matter of how your gonna get there. For me that is Maya.

 

[Gelfin]

Originally posted by agreenster
I mean, a 2500.00 dollar PowerMac can simply NOT do what a 17grand O2 can do made by SGI

Uh, the biggest problem that SGI is seeing these days is that a 17grand O2 is still a 300MHz R12K, and $2500 machines can actually compete pretty damn well these days. Studios are backing away from SGI workstations for this reason. SGI's ability to provide fully integrated solutions (with big servers) is pretty much the only thing keeping studios from swarming away like rats from a sinking ship.

 

[Gelfin]

Originally posted by Gelfin
This is a total guess, but my mutant press release sense is telling me that they're going to slash the price of professional-grade Maya to a few grand, and release a consumer/small-organization version at $999 or so. Newtek just recently lopped about 40% off the price of Lightwave, I believe. This may be the new trend.

Okay, so I was off on the low-end pricing, but what do I win?

 

[dongmin]

3-D is boring

I still don't understand what all the fuss is about. I use 3DStudio Max/Form-Z/Lightwave almost everyday and I find the whole 3D modelling/rendering/animation thing tedious and time-consuming.
Lowering prices and making it more financially "accessible" won't change that. 3D won't have anywhere near the impact that desktop-publishing or digital video has had. Is there that much potential for hardware sales here?

 

[Mr. Anderson]

Re: 3-D is boring

Originally posted by dongmin
I use 3DStudio Max/Form-Z/Lightwave almost everyday and I find the whole 3D modelling/rendering/animation thing tedious and time-consuming.

You use it everyday and you think its boring? I'll agree on the time consuming part, but what is it you're doing that can be so blah?