Hi there,
Following our upgrades survey [cgenie.com] in which many of you participated, we are running a series of interviews with the companies involved.
Our second interview in the series is with Kim Davidson, CEO of Side Effects Software [cgenie.com]. In the article he shares his thoughts on Houdini's results.
We've already published the interview with Autodesk [cgenie.com] and have upcoming interviews with Luxology and the Blender Foundation.
Hope this is of interest
Katie
CGenie.com [cgenie.com]
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Houdini Lounge » CG upgrades survey: CGenie interview Side Effects
- Katie-CGenie
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Houdini Lounge » Your thoughts on CG software upgrades?
- Katie-CGenie
- 12 posts
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Hi folks,
Congratulations to SideFX, think the user results are something of which to be very proud!
Robert - I'll be taking you up on your offer very soon, would like to do a follow up article focusing on Houdini - given the results I guess you won't be getting too heavily grilled! :wink:
Congratulations to SideFX, think the user results are something of which to be very proud!
Robert - I'll be taking you up on your offer very soon, would like to do a follow up article focusing on Houdini - given the results I guess you won't be getting too heavily grilled! :wink:
Houdini Lounge » Your thoughts on CG software upgrades?
- Katie-CGenie
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Many thanks to everyone who has completed the survey so far - we've had hundreds of responses!
We'll be closing the survey this Friday (13th Feb), so make sure you complete the survey [cgenie.com] this week if you haven't already!
I plan to publish the article on CGenie.com [cgenie.com] on Monday 16th Feb, and I'll post a message here as well to let you know that it's up.
Thank you Robert for kindly offering to answer my questions - I'll be in touch very shortly.
Many thanks once again everyone,
Katie
We'll be closing the survey this Friday (13th Feb), so make sure you complete the survey [cgenie.com] this week if you haven't already!
I plan to publish the article on CGenie.com [cgenie.com] on Monday 16th Feb, and I'll post a message here as well to let you know that it's up.
Thank you Robert for kindly offering to answer my questions - I'll be in touch very shortly.
Many thanks once again everyone,
Katie
Houdini Lounge » Your thoughts on CG software upgrades?
- Katie-CGenie
- 12 posts
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Many thanks Allegro!
Keyframe - thank you for not obeying your own promises! Has given a valuable balance to the development!
And sorry, but your quote is so good… I may just need to quote you on that literally! :?
Keyframe - thank you for not obeying your own promises! Has given a valuable balance to the development!
And sorry, but your quote is so good… I may just need to quote you on that literally! :?
Houdini Lounge » Your thoughts on CG software upgrades?
- Katie-CGenie
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Heh, so because SideFX let you be in charge of development of their software you think you can redesign my survey!
Very interesting point - no doubt if I had let you, it'd been a more precisely defined survey!
Well I can tell you from the results that even with any apparent confusion over the intricate terminology of the survey, the results are very clear for SideFX and I think they may well prove a shining example for others.
Does anyone know who's a good guy to contact in SideFX? I'd like to ask a few interview questions for the survey, hopefully they won't mind.
Very interesting point - no doubt if I had let you, it'd been a more precisely defined survey!
Well I can tell you from the results that even with any apparent confusion over the intricate terminology of the survey, the results are very clear for SideFX and I think they may well prove a shining example for others.
Does anyone know who's a good guy to contact in SideFX? I'd like to ask a few interview questions for the survey, hopefully they won't mind.
Houdini Lounge » Your thoughts on CG software upgrades?
- Katie-CGenie
- 12 posts
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live-fx - actually already approached from the other side on this. Think SideFX may have set a bit of a benchmark for this, have noticed a few other companies starting to shift their support style in this direction (eg the recent Lightwave CORE announcement).
However certain companies I think stand out by going the extra mile as you describe Houdini does with the apprentice licencing - but I'm confident (well actually I know as I've sneak-peeked the survey results!) this'll be shown out in user feedback about the company - I want to manually gather the upgrade process on each software platform, then compare that with the quantitative feedback from users. And this is where there'll be interesting correlations.
Companies that treat their customers right, consider them all important and develop an upgrade schedule around them unsurprisingly have the happiest customers, who more importantly ‘buy-in’ to upgrade prices etc more than customers who have been shunned.
Which is I guess why your Maya licences are ancient… :wink:
However certain companies I think stand out by going the extra mile as you describe Houdini does with the apprentice licencing - but I'm confident (well actually I know as I've sneak-peeked the survey results!) this'll be shown out in user feedback about the company - I want to manually gather the upgrade process on each software platform, then compare that with the quantitative feedback from users. And this is where there'll be interesting correlations.
Companies that treat their customers right, consider them all important and develop an upgrade schedule around them unsurprisingly have the happiest customers, who more importantly ‘buy-in’ to upgrade prices etc more than customers who have been shunned.
Which is I guess why your Maya licences are ancient… :wink:
Houdini Lounge » Your thoughts on CG software upgrades?
- Katie-CGenie
- 12 posts
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Antoine - take your point, though as I mentioned to JColdrick, I'm not wanting to know what you think about the incremental development policy at SideFX or the major release cycles at Autodesk - rather simply the opinions of users about the general upgrading of their software.
ie are you happy with how SideFX upgrade/develop Houdini? Not do prefer the minor,major,incremental etc. As you point out yourself, you very quickly get into difficulties in defining what these are themselves, let alone inter-company differences (eg is a point release for Autodesk the same as for SideFX).
The responses in themselves from this forum are interesting in themselves (might mention you guys in my article!) - the survey's been posted in dozens of different company forums/news pages and whilst I've had masses of responses to the survey, only you guys have analysed the explicit nature of the meanings (and that's certainly not meant to be a criticism, rather a compliment if anything!).
Can any of you explain that one? Are Houdini artists more scientifically/analytically astute than a Maya artist perchance?
:wink:
ie are you happy with how SideFX upgrade/develop Houdini? Not do prefer the minor,major,incremental etc. As you point out yourself, you very quickly get into difficulties in defining what these are themselves, let alone inter-company differences (eg is a point release for Autodesk the same as for SideFX).
The responses in themselves from this forum are interesting in themselves (might mention you guys in my article!) - the survey's been posted in dozens of different company forums/news pages and whilst I've had masses of responses to the survey, only you guys have analysed the explicit nature of the meanings (and that's certainly not meant to be a criticism, rather a compliment if anything!).
Can any of you explain that one? Are Houdini artists more scientifically/analytically astute than a Maya artist perchance?
:wink:
Houdini Lounge » Your thoughts on CG software upgrades?
- Katie-CGenie
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Great point WhoDjini - something I should have included (something like ‘how many licences does your organisation hold’) - fortunately a lot of that detail is already coming out through user comments, but very interesting point nonetheless!
Houdini Lounge » Your thoughts on CG software upgrades?
- Katie-CGenie
- 12 posts
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Houdini Lounge » Your thoughts on CG software upgrades?
- Katie-CGenie
- 12 posts
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Heh - sounds like it was a scarring experience!
Well to clarify the question - looking at the upgrades that you've had from Houdini over the last year, how much have sidefx been focusing on introducing new features and how much on fixing bugs. Note I'm not looking for technical quantities - it's absolutely about your gut instincts on this.
Do you feel SideFX are spending their time fixing bugs or adding new features?
Well to clarify the question - looking at the upgrades that you've had from Houdini over the last year, how much have sidefx been focusing on introducing new features and how much on fixing bugs. Note I'm not looking for technical quantities - it's absolutely about your gut instincts on this.
Do you feel SideFX are spending their time fixing bugs or adding new features?
Houdini Lounge » Your thoughts on CG software upgrades?
- Katie-CGenie
- 12 posts
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Hi JColdrick - good question,
As you say the actual upgrade process is very much apples and oranges between the various software companies, however the focus of the survey (and the article I'm building from it) is around user perception of this process and the point you mention will be very interesting to examine if there is a difference in user ‘feelings’ around upgrades depending on whether they get small updates frequently or big upgrades infrequently…
As you say Houdini release iterative patches very frequently indeed and I'm assuming (though trying not to influence any results!) that may have an interesting impact on user perception compared to Autodesk who may make their users wait for six months for a fix…
Had better stop before I share any preconceived notions, but very good question and one that I'm confident will answer itself in the results!
As you say the actual upgrade process is very much apples and oranges between the various software companies, however the focus of the survey (and the article I'm building from it) is around user perception of this process and the point you mention will be very interesting to examine if there is a difference in user ‘feelings’ around upgrades depending on whether they get small updates frequently or big upgrades infrequently…
As you say Houdini release iterative patches very frequently indeed and I'm assuming (though trying not to influence any results!) that may have an interesting impact on user perception compared to Autodesk who may make their users wait for six months for a fix…
Had better stop before I share any preconceived notions, but very good question and one that I'm confident will answer itself in the results!
Houdini Lounge » Your thoughts on CG software upgrades?
- Katie-CGenie
- 12 posts
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Hi everyone, I'm writing an article on software upgrades looking at the differences between the various programs and what people think of them.
I'd really appreciate it if you could give your opinion on what do you think of the software you use by filling in the following quick questionnaire (I promise it's quick - 60 seconds, time yourself!)
I'll post the article studying the results after the survey has been collated.
Click here to answer the survey [cgenie.com]
Many thanks,
Katie
I'd really appreciate it if you could give your opinion on what do you think of the software you use by filling in the following quick questionnaire (I promise it's quick - 60 seconds, time yourself!)
I'll post the article studying the results after the survey has been collated.
Click here to answer the survey [cgenie.com]
Many thanks,
Katie
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