> It's funny though that the name Blender is popping up quite a lot these
> days.

> Rob

> \/-------------\/----------------\/

> On 4-5-2012 10:16, Fabian Schnuer Gohde wrote:
>> I'm a freelancer with a network lic and I've followed this thread.
>> I've contacted my reseller and am awaiting reply what the total will
>> be this year here (Norway). I think with last year's hike it came to
>> almost the price of houdini escape, if it's gone up again I'm probably
>> not able continuing with XSI since I have no interest or use for the
>> other two dinosaurs in adsk's stable and I'm not having asdk
>> strong-arm me into a suite that offers nothing I need. Modo looks
>> nice, Blender is looking good these days and 1x Houdini Escape gives
>> you unlimited Mantra render tokens also a Silo lic is like $150 and
>> can be a modeler to use alongside Houdini (Houdini modeling sucks if
>> you're not doing stair cases). So plenty of options. We'll see what
>> the reseller has to say, until then I'll not lose sleep over this.
>> -Fabian

>> On 4 May 2012 00:48, Matt Morris <matt...@gmail.com
>> <mailto:matt...@gmail.com>> wrote:

>>     I'm surprised there aren't more angry people out there, given this
>>     is a European issue. I suppose the larger companies will actually
>>     save money through getting the soft/maya suites and amalgamating
>>     their software licences, but the freelancers out there must be
>>     feeling the pinch? A lot of people just use company home licences
>>     I guess?

>>     I didn't know about modo's 50 render licences, it's definitely
>>     worth keeping an eye on, along with the alembic integration.

>>     On 2 May 2012 23:52, Sven Constable <sixsi_l...@imagefront.de
>>     <mailto:sixsi_l...@imagefront.de>> wrote:

>>         hm, the render licencing is sweet. I have real problems
>>         rendering larger jobs with the mr/softimage licensing
>>         situation. Not because of mr itself, its renders everything I
>>         throw at it and fast enough. But the scalability with a
>>         renderfarm is a problem for me. Mentalray standalone is no
>>         option and 5 batchrender licences shipped with XSI is simply
>>         not enough. I will stay to softimage for a lot of reasons
>>         but,… the rendering side is awful. When I look over to the
>>         3dsmax based studios I could cry. Did they still have
>>         unlimitedrenderlicenses™  for mentalray? Ah lucky guys, those
>>         cockroachers, ay!

>>         cheers,

>>         sven

>>         *From:*softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
>>         <mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com>
>>         [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
>>         <mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com>] *On Behalf
>>         Of *Thomas Helzle
>>         *Sent:* Wednesday, May 02, 2012 23:51
>>         *To:* softim...@listproc.autodesk.com
>>         <mailto:softim...@listproc.autodesk.com>

>>         *Subject:* Re: uk subscription pricing

>>         I would subscribe to what Tim said.

>>         Some things are different (often in a good way, sometimes
>>         not), some things need a bit of refinement (601 is the first
>>         release with real CA tools), so it really depends on what you
>>         do if it could fit your bill.

>>         With me doing mainly illustrations and stills, there is little
>>         to complain about and I actually look forward to digging
>>         deeper into the CA tools - the available tools like full body
>>         IK and the posing system are pretty sweet IMO.

>>         As for the rendering, it replaces MR, Vray and some
>>         Schwarzeneggers quite nicely IMO. Together with Thea Render
>>         for unbiased, I'm all set when it comes to rendering.

>>         If you take the price of the package into the equation (that
>>         includes 50 render nodes), I don't see much else that can
>>         compete (other than Blender).

>>         But yes, it is NOT XSI, which in some areas I find pretty
>>         relaxing - many things in XSI are overkill for what I do and
>>         others are broken for so long, it's not even funny anymore.

>>         BTW. there is now a more complete SDK to go with the app.

>>         I already wrote my first shader in one long 24 hour run of
>>         coding and GUI wrangling (XML based).

>>         I enjoy learning something new actually and my XSI 2012 will
>>         be good for some years as a companion app. 2013 contained
>>         nothing I want anyway.

>>         But I threw that into the discussion mainly since I don't see
>>         Autodesk making any sensible moves in this century and for
>>         some people, modo could be a way out of it's stifling embrace...

>>         Cheers,

>>         Tom

>>         On 2 May 2012 21:26, Tim Crowson
>>         <tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com
>>         <mailto:tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com>> wrote:

>>         The deformation system in modo 601 is very powerful. The
>>         actual animation tools (animation editor) in 601 are not yet
>>         on par with what you get in something like Softimage, although
>>         they let you get the job done. The developers realize this.

>>         The alembic support is there, but is not ready for the riggors
>>         of a production pipeline. The developers are aware of this also.

>>         There are some stability issues with 601 (although SI 2012 has
>>         taken the gold medal in crashes for me lately), and Luxology
>>         is quite driven to get rid of those and make it very reliable.
>>         They're aware of the areas in which their software needs to
>>         grow, and are pretty passionate about getting it there.

>>         As for the renderer, it's hard to not gush a little. The thing
>>         is sweet. Smokes Mental Ray consistently. I'd sooner put it
>>         toe-to-toe with Arnold than anything else. That would be an
>>         interesting comparision. If Alembic support in 601 gets where
>>         it needs to be, I could see modo being used to render more
>>         productions.

>>         Modo 601 can do an awful lot that you might not expect. It has
>>         its own way of doing things (render passes are very
>>         different!). But is a very useful tool to have access to.

>>         *Tim Crowson
>>         */Lead CG Artist/

>>         *Magnetic Dreams Animation Studio, Inc.
>>         *2525 Lebanon Pike, Building C. Nashville, TN 37214
>>         *Ph* 615.885.6801 <tel:615.885.6801> | *Fax* 615.889.4768
>>         <tel:615.889.4768> | www.magneticdreams.com
>>         <http://www.magneticdreams.com>
>>         tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com
>>         <mailto:tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com>

>>         On 5/2/2012 1:38 PM, phil harbath wrote:

>>         do you have any thoughts on the character animation tools,
>>         they don't seem to be "there" yet,  however, I haven't had the
>>         opportunity to use it yet.

>>             ----- Original Message -----

>>             *From:*Thomas Helzle <mailto:thomashel...@gmail.com>

>>             *To:*softim...@listproc.autodesk.com
>>             <mailto:softim...@listproc.autodesk.com>

>>             *Sent:*Wednesday, May 02, 2012 4:36 AM

>>             *Subject:*Re: uk subscription pricing

>>             Have a look at modo 601.

>>             Depending on what you do, it might be a nice alternative
>>             (it is for me, I'm no longer on subscription as well -
>>             partly because of the price increase).

>>             You can import ICE particles via realflow .bin and alembic
>>             is built in (didn't test that one really though).

>>             The renderer is brilliant, and while the layer based
>>             approach has some cons compared to nodes, it also has some
>>             things that are impossible to do in MRay out of the box
>>             like instancing of materials and textures.

>>             I already start to really dig it and would prefer it over
>>             MR in most cases. For me, the alternative would have been
>>             to buy Vray for XSI.

>>             Modo is actively developed in all areas (SP1 came out
>>             yesterday) and the community is very open and welcoming.

>>             The main thing I miss is the modifier stack for modelling,
>>             but I still have XSI 2012 if I should need it badly.

>>             With all the things that may be missing, you also get a
>>             load of nice and well though out things not available in
>>             XSI to this date: you even have a color palette (yay ;-)
>>             ), great tools for measuring and exact work, it comes with
>>             a nice library of USABLE presets, and it's way more
>>             tailored to the small shop or freelancer without a herd of
>>             TDs.

>>             I bought it while the crossgrade offer was still on, so it
>>             was way cheaper than another year of subscription for XSI
>>             would have been.

>>             Overall, 601 is the first version of modo that I
>>             personally would call pretty "feature complete" as a
>>             package...

>>             The demoversion is said to be out end of this or beginning
>>             of next week.

>>             May be an alternative for you, may be not.

>>             For me it is pretty much the only alternative, since
>>             Lightwave still has a way to go (although v11 is pretty
>>             good) and Cinema doesn't agree with me...

>>             I keep a very open eye on Blender though.

>>             http://www.luxology.com/

>>             Otherwise I think Raffaele nailed it. And I'm not
>>             interested in making Shareholders happy if they don't make
>>             me happy in return ;-)

>>             Cheers,

>>             Tom

>>                 That's because they want you to buy the suites,
>>                 instead of being on one of the smaller products. That
>>                 way they can make "new seat" money, look good in front
>>                 of the board of directors, and present figures that
>>                 (artificially so) suggest their market isn't
>>                 completely stagnant and deadlocked.

>>                 The joys of being out in the stock market and having
>>                 to grow in revenue and potential revenue every
>>                 quarter, or suffer an onslaught of sales and stock
>>                 depreciation.

>>                 On Tue, May 1, 2012 at 11:01 PM, Daniel Sweeney
>>                 <danielbswee...@gmail.com
>>                 <mailto:danielbswee...@gmail.com>> wrote:

>>                 yeh I have not renewed my subs either because of this
>>                 as i cannot justify the increase.

>>                 bit of a joke. a friend said its pretty much the same
>>                 price for the bottom subs of the creation suite.

>>                 Daniel Sweeney
>>                 3D Generalist

>>                 *Mobile:*+44 (0)7743429771  
>> <tel:%2B44%20%280%297743429771>
>>                 *Email:*Danielbswee...@gmail.com
>>                 <mailto:danielbswee...@gmail.com>
>>                 <http://northforge.co.uk/>

>>                 On Tue, May 1, 2012 at 1:36 PM, Matt Morris
>>                 <matt...@gmail.com <mailto:matt...@gmail.com>> wrote:

>>                 I remember bringing this up a while back, talking
>>                 about the lack of a silver subscription and an
>>                 imminent uk price jump. I believe Maurice replied to
>>                 say they were looking into it. However, since then it
>>                 appears its been basically shelved because softimage
>>                 customers are mostly on subscription and it could mean
>>                 a revenue drop.

>>                 So that leaves UK customers with a 70% price increase
>>                 from last year's subscription. 70%!!! That's a huge
>>                 amount, and will directly lead to me cancelling my
>>                 second licence (which was only used periodically) and
>>                 thinking hard about renewing the other. Given that
>>                 commercials have had budgets slashed I just can't
>>                 justify spending that much on a yearly basis. Its a
>>                 shocking decision. Way to go Autodesk.

>>                 --
>>                 www.matinai.com <http://www.matinai.com>

>>                 --
>>                 Our users will know fear and cower before our
>>                 software! Ship it! Ship it and let them flee like the
>>                 dogs they are!

>>         --

>>     --
>>     www.matinai.com <http://www.matinai.com>

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