Adobe bids for The Foundry

[Shawn Miller]

[Aindreas Gallagher] “Nuke beats Fusion like lava beats paper.”

I don’t know that I’d go that far… Fusion has a long, respectable resume of high end VFX and motion graphics work, and it’s still really popular.

I do have questions though. IF the acquisition happens, what does that mean for Hiero… what about the close relationship between Maxon and Adobe… will you get Cineware and C4D Lite WITH Modo… will there be a Modoware? Will Adobe create a different plan that includes tools from The Foundry plus Anywhere? Will Adobe absorb The Foundry, or let their brand stay in tact, like Boris did with Imagineer Systems? So many possibilities! IF it happens, there just won’t be a more powerful suite of applications from one company… what will that mean for the entire industry?

[Aindreas Gallagher] “If adobe have bought Nuke, they’ve basically bought the current Jedi temple.”

Totally agree… if you include all of The Foundy’s applications and plugins. 🙂

Shawn

[Phil Hoppes]

As one might well imagine there is a huge thread on this over at the Modo Forum. Tim about nails it with his analysis although I still think that Autodesk is probably still a viable suitor. From a Modo User perspective, the preferred buyer is most likely Adobe. Given the Softimage debacle if AD were to by TF Modo will stick around a short term, and then resources will be pulled. I could see the rendering engine put into Revit and Inventor and the render Modo render license agreement with Solidworks pulled. A stragegic thrust for AD and then Modo would just die a death like Softimage. AD is going full subscription on everything starting Feb 2016 although if you want you can buy a full license. I think the price on Nuke, Mari, Hero et.al. would stay higher if AD were to purchase them but they already sell to that high end market and know the customer base very well. Adobe, while I sure the big production houses use CC, with their huge consumer base the products from TF are a bit of a different sell. I’d love to see tighter integration between AE/Modo and one wonders what will happen to the Maxon deal. I cannot see that continuing if Adobe was to by TF.

I really think the big question to answer is will there be a “Hitler reacts to Adobe buying The Foundry” video or “Hitler reacts to Autodesk buying The Foundry” video.

[Walter Soyka]

[Aindreas Gallagher] “Nuke is royalty, you are an AE butler / footman.”

This is a good point. For you FCPX advocates who are agitated that users of other NLEs are still looking down on your choice 4 years in, spare a thought for the After Effects artists who have been the objects of similar professional scorn and derision for the last 22 years.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Andrew Kimery]

[Walter Soyka] “For you FCPX advocates who are agitated that users of other NLEs are still looking down on your choice 4 years in, spare a thought for the After Effects artists who have been the objects of similar professional scorn and derision for the last 22 years.”

Premiere might have AE beat in the Rodney Dangerfield department. 😉 Granted the birth of the NLE’s in 90’s pre-dates my career, but until the last couple of years I have seen little but resounding contempt for Premiere. AE, while maybe not being best of the best, has always seemed professional to me where as Premiere was the laughed-at, also-ran NLE only used by lame Windoze users to cut horrible corporate videos and crappy wedding videos while ‘real’ editors used Avid or, if they couldn’t afford Avid, FCP (oh, the irony).

While I’m sure people that have been pointing out all the good in X since 2011 are starting to feel vindicated, people like Jacob Rosenberg of Bandito Brothers have been out there trying to spread the good word about Premiere for well over a decade.

[Shawn Miller]

[Andrew Kimery] “AE, while maybe not being best of the best, has always seemed professional to me where as Premiere was the laughed-at, also-ran NLE only used by lame Windoze users to cut horrible corporate videos and crappy wedding videos while ‘real’ editors used Avid or, if they couldn’t afford Avid, FCP (oh, the irony).”

I think Walter is referring to a much narrower audience; professional compositors and VFX artists. Really, until about CS6… AE was absolutely regarded in the same vein as Premiere; a tool for down market (broadcast, event and corporate) graphics folks. The landscape is a bit different now, with AE somewhere in the pipeline for nearly every blockbuster feature film, and firmly in high end commercial and television workflows. HOWEVER, that attitude is still pretty common, ‘they’ say “AE might be fine for_________, but if you want to get real work done, the industry standard is_______.”. It doesn’t matter if AE is perfectly suited for a particular task, there are people (producers and artists) who simply won’t use it. The same way some people won’t use FPX, PPro, Avid or Vegas, no matter what.

People are silly. 🙂

Shawn

[Andrew Kimery]

[Shawn Miller] “People are silly. :-)”

Agreed.

[Bill Davis]

[Andrew Kimery] “[Shawn Miller] “People are silly. :-)”

Agreed.”

But of course, them – not us.

We’re all universally smarter than the average bears.

I know this because my mom told me so when I was 5.

; )

Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.

[Andrew Kimery]

[Bill Davis] “But of course, them – not us.

We’re all universally smarter than the average bears. “

lol, Exactly. Great minds think alike. 🙂

[Simon Billington]

I don’t disrespect Adobe at all, but I don’t think it becoming a behmouth company by owning everything useful in video land is the best move for the industry as a whole.

Adobe needs SOME competition before it ends up as another Microsoft. No disrespect to MS users either.

[Andrew Kimery]

[Simon Billington] “I don’t disrespect Adobe at all, but I don’t think it becoming a behmouth company by owning everything useful in video land is the best move for the industry as a whole.

Adobe needs SOME competition before it ends up as another Microsoft. No disrespect to MS users either.”

Agreed, but for any company, not just Adobe. With regards to the video side of things, I think Adobe does have healthy competition from companies like Avid, Apple and Blackmagic. Though two of those options have inexpensive software tied to proprietary hardware and in the long run I don’t think that’s any better for the health of the industry than Adobe’s approach.