Wow !!! this is some awsome stuff !!! i'm gona buy this one $99 ?
So this means you have every thing
You guys went mental or something ??????????????????

So what this means is you can render out i3d aswel as bgeo geo ect ???

some thight marketing i must say.

Tamis
You guys went mental or something ??????????????????

Yeah, someone must of dropped some of their spare liquids from the 70´s in the coffee room this morning cause this is a frikkin good deal

Thanks SideFX .

This is amazing for folks like myself who want to make a nice quality reel.

Big thanks SESI. I'm already a happy customer :wink:

yup! SESI just went mental.. :shock: I just laid claim to my copy before they snap out of it

just curious, is this for “starving artists” or “students.” What does the license agreement look like … are you allowed to use this for commercial projects? (as not many starving artists like myself can afford the real deal, and quite frankly wouldn't have a need for a-zillian render nodes)?

Some answer are here

http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=146&Itemid=267 [sidefx.com]

yeah, that's a shame … got my hopes up for a second. Starving artists need to make money too!

This will just put more pressure on students to spend the bucks before they make the bucks. Good for schools I guess though that want to teach rendering.

andrewlowell
yeah, that's a shame … got my hopes up for a second. Starving artists need to make money too!

This will just put more pressure on students to spend the bucks before they make the bucks. Good for schools I guess though that want to teach rendering.

In the end side effects is a company not a Charity fund…

Exactly. I think it's a great marketing move, it removes the argument about costs for individuals that really want to work with private projects and learn the software better, while still being realistic about not being a free ride for studios. A nice bold move.

Cheers,

J.C.

This is really great!!!!
I wanted to push Houdini throught personal project and this is EXACTLY what I needed, I could not be happier!!

SideFX, this is a GREAT marketing move!


Now, how much for unlimited apprentice render tokens?

Tamis
In the end side effects is a company not a Charity fund…

Yes I knew that .. I agree it's a great marketing move, not the result of a 70's acid trip. I think it's good to have those purchasing options as well but the term “starving artist” is a little misleading since starving artists need to sell their work eventually, even though they won't make a very small fraction of what a movie studio would. $99 would be a little low for that privilege in my view but it would be great to have the option to purchase a single render-node version of Houdini for a reduced price.

andrewlowell
Yes I knew that .. I agree it's a great marketing move, not the result of a 70's acid trip.

http://www.derivativeinc.com [derivativeinc.com]

jason_iversen

andrewlowell
Yes I knew that .. I agree it's a great marketing move, not the result of a 70's acid trip.

http://www.derivativeinc.com [derivativeinc.com]

T. K. O.

That's more like it! Actually I thought that was more like an early 90's combination of E and C++?

Back on topic, it looks like a great tool for assembling high quality demo reels but to me starving artist implies the ability to sell work. I wonder if there were any way to do that without the studios taking advantage of it.

yeah, that's a shame … got my hopes up for a second. Starving artists need to make money too

The thing that baffles me is how can anyone doing freelance or running there own jobs / clients can claim to be a starving artist ? . You either have to be not charging enough or quite frankley not very good at your job not to be making money. The licence as a percentage of a job dollar value is tiny.

ouch .. if you're referring to film and video work I'd agree.

Well, ok .. if they want to call it starving artist they can call it starving artist I don't mean to get caught up on the verbage, no biggie … I was just a little mystified until I read the new FAQ's on what someone could gain by spending the extra money, even if it's a small amount. If it's better demo reel material that leads to better gigs than I guess that's a good investment.

But, I'd disagree that unless someone is making enough to foot 8'gs they must not be good or doing good business. It's much easier for a multiple-person shop, in an established market to do this. I doubt most freelancers have a personal edition of Houdini at home?

I'm coming at it from the angle that someone could spend a year making a multimedia work with Houdini starving artist … show it in an art gallery … have someone buy it for 20g's (which would be amazing), then get sued for making money off of an NC license agreement, which isn't very clear on the main ad for the software.

This would be very unlikely of course, but the earlier posts suggested sidefx was giving away an 8k package away for $99, .. as long as it's a NC license agreement it isn't granting any privileges except for the ability to try out more of the software.

If it said “student artist demo reel edition HD” nuff said. But that doesn't have a catchy ring to it?

andrewlowell
I'm coming at it from the angle that someone could spend a year making a multimedia work with Houdini starving artist … show it in an art gallery … have someone buy it for 20g's (which would be amazing), then get sued for making money off of an NC license agreement, which isn't very clear on the main ad for the software.

If such a happy event takes place, I'm sure there is a way to negotiate with SESI in respect to the new turn of events, have the artist pay some amount and convert the agreement to a commercial one. Side Effects are a friendly and approachable company.

as long as it's a NC license agreement it isn't granting any privileges except for the ability to try out more of the software.If it said “student artist demo reel edition HD” nuff said. But that doesn't have a catchy ring to it?

It grants you the privilege of rendering to HD res without watermark. This is big enough for me, as it opens some new doors, even for non-commercial activity, like a more professional looking reel, works which can be exhibited etc.
But I agree that maybe a “Student Edition” might have been clearer. Let's watch how the market responds to this terminology, I'm very curious.

Dragos

yes I know SESI people are great … and if I were SESI I'd do the exact same thing. Buying a product makes a little more revenue, gets more students and users on board, and gets more user feedback. Even if people ignore the agreement and do small commercial projects with a single render node Houdini the odds are small that it would be worth enough to sue over anyway.

My point is that NC means NC. I'd much rather see a version with all the creative features (meaning particles and dynamics) that was affordable to the end user but inefficient for medium and large size studios. Reduced render nodes would be one approach.

Owning your own work is one of the only privileges an artist has who could be making a lot more money in a studio gig, and that's not something that people generally like the negotiate after the fact.

so the name + the license agreement strikes me as a bit odd.

I see it as nothing more complicated than appealing to those individuals out there that may or may not have a fulltime job in the biz, but love doing 3D work and competing in the increasing number of competitions out there which require something that's printable(i.e. HD) and without advertising watermarks. It also doubles as an educational price for students and appeals to those little ego strokes that people in our biz get when they're called “artists”. Dropping $100 to let them try that using Houdini instead of XSI(which I believe has educational pricing) or Maya can only help spread it around a bit.

Now, if they can get lots of the “sexy” style tutorials out there, like fur, fluids, rigging etc. so they aren't floundering in the details windows, I seriously doubt it will be a huge moneymaking venture, but it might help with perception, which counts for a helluva lot nowadays(unfortunately).

Cheers,

J.C.

ok here's an idea. Make a new license type that allows the apprentice user to purchase any number of single image render tokens. Or even get a bill for them in the mail every month.

The idea would be that an image token would temporarily override the apprentice watermark during rendering.

A “starving artist,” “student,” “enthusiast” whatever, could easily afford $5-$10 a frame as long as it was a one time shot. Frames could be priced by resolution and/or cache type. Like photo-paper

By paying for the image the user has “bought” the rights to the image but not the software. This would be almost impossible for a big studio to afford though, because of hundreds of render layers and drafts, and the nuisance of a watermark would seriously cripple any multiuser rendering / compositing pipeline.