Maya Indie

[Anonymous]

Just wanted to say thank you Autodesk for adding this pricing tier. I was in the process of moving my workflow over to Blender but now I can continue using Arnold and Xgen!  I hope Autodesk keep this tier for awhile and not a limited time. 

[slimboJoe]

So if you are already subscribing and wish to switch to INDIE, you will need to pay full price at the end of the one year special INDIE pricing to start your subscription up again.  Autodesk does not seem to allow you to "switch" your subscription to INDIE for one year, it's like a new purchase instead.  So I would lose my special "subscription renewal" price I'm currently paying through my software provider.  Was hoping I could save a bunch of money on the cost, like Houdini pricing, but only a deal to attract "new" customers.  Super bummer.

[Tyler.P1]

As what the others have said earlier, most of this thread has been trying to figure out how long the indie offer is going to last. Right now Autodesk is trying to figure out is if there is enough of a demand to keep this as a long-time offer, along with some other factors that need to be taken care of. 

If Autodesk decides to make it an official deal in the future, then I'm sure that they will put in some sort of system that will handle the licencing in a much more convenient way. We just need to wait for updates. Otherwise, the current offer right now is basically just a discount or coupon that is applied when you check out. 

[JabbaTheNut]

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@slimboJoe wrote:

So if you are already subscribing and wish to switch to INDIE, you will need to pay full price at the end of the one year special INDIE pricing to start your subscription up again.  Autodesk does not seem to allow you to "switch" your subscription to INDIE for one year, it's like a new purchase instead.  So I would lose my special "subscription renewal" price I'm currently paying through my software provider.  Was hoping I could save a bunch of money on the cost, like Houdini pricing, but only a deal to attract "new" customers.  Super bummer.

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This is exactly the situation I am in. I am buy nearly all definitions an Indie.  I purchased the M&E suite a few years ago at a substantial upfront cost.  When Autodesk forced everyone to go to subscription, I was given special pricing to switch from perpetual to subscription.  As a result, my annual cost is approximately $1,000 per year. This compares to the current annual subscription fee for the M&E suite of about $2,500.  If I were to switch to Maya Indie, I would lose this discount.  If the Maya Indie program were then to end and I had to go back to just a regular Maya subscription, I would then have to pay about $1,500 per year.

I am not sure how this situation fits into Autodesk's analysis.  I will say that I am currently considering walking away from Autodesk.  There are many less costly and highly capable alternatives now.  Spending this much on Autodesk when the most expensive alternative is about $300 per year is kind of silly.  The move to Maya Indie would entice me to stay with Autodesk, as it would make Maya more competitive in today's market.  As it stands, the probability is high that I will give up on Autodesk this year.

@maurice.patel , I am sure that there are many others in my situation who feel as I do.  Could you please convey this sentiment to the decision makers and encourage them to decide quickly on the Maya Indie issue?

[Anonymous]

Used maya for quite a few years before being out priced but now thinking of subscribing to Indie version but before I do is there any news on the future of the Maya Indie? otherwise I prob just stick with blender and maybe buy Houdini indie.

Thanks

[maurice.patel]

Hi @Anonymous 

We are committed to Maya Indie and are in the process of working out licensing as well as a global offering.

maurice

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the quick response Maurice.

That's good news then and reassuring this indie version would be ideal for my needs.

Also regarding the auto renew is it correct that you still need to disable this and purchase again once sub expires.

Regards,

K

[maurice.patel]

Hi,

I believe Autorenew is now deactivated by default - this was just a problem when we launched the pilot. But it is worth checking to make sure. But yes there is no renew mechanism for the pilot because we currently do not have a separate SKU for Indie (this is what we are working on implementing). We wanted to get Indie out early to test it so it is technically (as far as our back end works) being run as a promo and not as its own product. Autodesk systems make promos finite and non renewable. What we do is just keep replacing it with a new promo until we can get the licensing and SKU implemented.

maurice

[singhs_apps]

I am not sure what the SKU entails,

but I hope that Maya Indie will be available worldwide and allow multi year subscriptions.

Just as importantly it should have the same feature set as the regular Maya program, but available for solo artists and small teams.

[reniferziolo]

Can't wait, happy to hear it! or read it..  Indie pricing is great for freelancers

[aerys.bat]

Insane how many levels of bureaucracy Maya is buried under... wow

[Anonymous]

Just found this thread and I am interested in the topic as I got a Maya indie license when the pilot started last August. So If the posts are correct does this mean that we can just let the current indie license run out and then purchase it again with the same account for another  year? I am curious because I want to keep the license and but will expire in 30+ days.

[maurice.patel]

Hi @Anonymous . yes you will be able to repurchase 3ds max or Maya Indie at the Indie price once the subscription subscribes.

[Anonymous]

@maurice.patel  Thank you for responding. This is great.  The indie pricing model will be great for the Maya community especially for new comers.  

[Cavaliere.fab]

Can I ask one question about this...

Cause I fit the whole profile for each single parameter but I how can I be sure if the project I work on is below 100000$ or above?

Wouldn't be better to delete that and maybe just focus on how much a user can earn individually?

Cause when you work to little projects as freelancer, you cannot really know what's coming next. Let's say a company would call me to work on their project maybe they will pay my skills for a couple of months or maybe six months but they won't pay me more cause I need to buy the normal version. I mean... The only way would be for me not to work for them skipping a big opportunity,

but at the same time I coudn't afford the whole price waiting and hoping that a big score will happen. 

In that case I'll just move my workflow to something like Blender. Don't you think?

My2cents

[reniferziolo]

I don't think it's about the project but how much you make per year or the
company.

[Cavaliere.fab]

I wish...unfortunately it is clear in the maya indie page.
It is also about the project. It says:
"You may not use the license on any project valued over USD $100,000. "

[reniferziolo]

well, prolly as a freelancer you won;t be getting those,unless its for the
game but in such a case the value of the project is unknown. Let's see what
autodesk has to say

[Christoph_Schaedl]

If you deliver only assets the 100k limit doesnt apply. 

I am a freelancer and I’ve been contracted by a studio that makes over $100,000 USD in gross revenue. Can I use 3ds Max or Maya Indie? 

If the contracting company has contracted you to deliver a specific digital product (such as a model or rendered frame) that is valued less than $100,000 USD, you may use 3ds Max or Maya for indies users. 

[maurice.patel]

It's a valid point but personally I believe, there are as many cons as there are pros to a 'gig economy' and the reason we have established the guidelines we have is to prevent excessive erosion of the value of creative work within the industry.  What we are trying to do is encourage indie productions and start-ups, not provide a cheap alternative for established studios to source their labor and avoid paying fair value for the software they use and by extension their artists they use. Encouraging creatives to do their own work, build their own business is what the spirit of Indie is about. A studio working on large budget productions should be expected to budget for both the artists they need and the software they use to get the work done. This is the reason we have the budget criteria. It is also why we make a distinction between when someone is buying an asset from you (legitimate Indie usage) versus you actually working on their production making assets for them (potentially non compliant usage based on budget).

We are also looking at some lower cost offerings with broader commercial usage (stay tuned) but the intent of indie was never to provide a loophole for larger studios to avoid paying for the software they use by hiring freelancers with indie licenses. Note: this could also have a significant negative impact on full-time employees in the industry if we deliberately made it attractive for studios to do this. It might be inevitable anyway but 'doing it for free' whether its the software or the work of artists is not something that is necessarily healthy for the industry, so this is not something we wish to enable.

[Anonymous]

so pretty much for Freelancer or someone like me who just enjoys Maya as a hobby with no profit we should move to blender right ? even though i hate blender interface.