You're invited to rate Autodesk products

[veronica.meuris]

Hello!

Thanks for being an Autodesk customer! We're interested in learning more about the value of Autodesk products to you.  As a part of this effort, we’d like to include your opinions. 

Click here to answer 2 quick questions

Your responses will be shared with Autodesk product leadership. Over the coming year, these results will be used as the foundation for ongoing conversations that will help ensure Autodesk delivers value to you.

Thank you for your time!  We look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

The Autodesk Product Research Team

[Anonymous]

I have tried to down load the trial LT product, but cannot get it to work. I will try a few more times then i will have to move on to someone elses product.
Sorry to be a bit negitive but it your free down load wont work on a standard pc i would have to think twice about paying for a full version.
Kind regards
Alex Ross
Director
Alex Ross Engineering ltd

[Anonymous]

Considering how oversimplified this survey is, it sounds like the question is "Shall we kill Maya?".

The answer is:

If you don't want to fix it, or don't understand what is wrong with it, you might as well sell it to some other company who is interested in fixing it the right way, and continue developing it the right way. My impression is that Autodesk/The Maya Team, can't AND doesn't want to really fix Maya. It's not going to happen overnight. That is for sure. Otherwise it would have been done already. It is only going to happen over time and only if you care to understand what it is that needs to be fixed. If you don't want to really invest in fixing it then don't.

This answer it too long for your survey. You just want to collect some numbers and average them to see if it adds up to a YES or NO. You have a forum here with thousands of messages that have already answered your survey.

What will you do with the answer is the question.

   Are you going to continue Maya without fixing it?

   or

   Are you going to kill it because it needs fixing?

.

This is just my opinion. An answer to my opinion is not necessary. You can even delete my post. It is not going to hurt my feelings. I have bigger problems and they are called "Maya".

Near is the End? (Star Wars Talk or something like that)

Thank you.

[veronica.meuris]

Hi Alex,
I'm sorry to hear that you've been having trouble with the LT download. Can you give me some more details about it and I'll ask around and see if we can figure out the problem for you?
Where are you trying to download it from, which version, which OS are you running, what's your hardware, does the download fail to start/or does it start and fail? etc.?
Any details you can provide me with would be helpful.
Thanks,
Veronica.

[veronica.meuris]

Hi there,
Thanks for taking the time to respond to my survey. I can hear your frustration and I get it. Maya has a lot of things in it that need fixing and it probably seems that we're moving at a snail's pace to make it better. We're trying and we're making fixes but, it's a slow process for sure given how much is needs improving; sometimes the improvements we make too are behind the scenes, stuff you wouldn't see but, they make your work faster, or the performance a bit better, for example. We are committed to Maya and want everyone that uses it to be successful. We really do appreciate the patience you've shown as we continue through the always growing list of things we want to make better in Maya.

[Anonymous]

> We're trying and we're making fixes but, it's a slow process

In order for your efforts to have a result you have to have a plan and a goal. Beyond just making money that is. Autodesk Maya has never had a plan or a goal or the ability to stick to a plan or a goal even if they did have one.

Edited by
Discussion_Admin

[Anonymous]

Veronica, can you talk about some of the improvements that were made behind the scenes? I just received a subscription price increase email which said: "You may have noticed updates we’ve made recently to help you be more productive using our software – including new features, enhanced technical support, simplified administration tools, and more." In all honesty, I'm curious as to which of those updates make the end user more productive? 

I don't mind the price increase, but I do think that this is a good time to bring up core level functionality. What's being done at the core level to improve the way Maya handles large amounts of data? Over the years, I've found myself utilizing other software packages to handle many parts of the production process in a very efficient manner. At this point in my workflow, Maya has become a hub package where all of that outside data is brought in and manipulated. At the same time, I've noticed that external plugins are necessary for Maya to be able to handle any of this efficiently. Fantastic add-ons like Multiverse Studio stream on-disk geometry into VP2 to significantly improve how Maya handles scenes.

Is any work being done on this front? Are there any plans for USD integration? Those are the types of updates that would make me more productive. 

[Anonymous]

Hi Veronica - I appreciate Autodesk trying to reach out for feedback. I am a Maya FX artist and we have been constantly frustrated at the lack of support for the FX tools. Please see my other post on this forum from yesterday - Maya hasn't improved the nParticles or Fluid FX in over 5 years!! Why?? This is slower than a snail; more like a glacial pace! I'm going to have to switch over to Houdini for FX like most of the other FX artists. Please respond to this!!

[veronica.meuris]

Hi Eric,
Thanks for your feedback. I really appreciate it when people take the time to respond to us.
I understand your frustration for sure. It's a challenge for people using elements of the software that may not be getting as much attention as other parts of the product. We are trying to prioritize the feedback we get (which is a lot!) and are always working to improve Maya, both under the covers and in the tools and features you see. Know that your concerns have been captured and we'll be looking at them in the context of our overall product goals.
In the meantime, here's something else you might be interested in... Join our product research community. It's different than our beta site and will involve you working closely with researchers (like me), to help us understand where our software fails to meet your needs and, can involve you being in touch with our designers to solve design challenges. It's more directed and hands-on than the Beta.
Whether you join or not though, thanks for your input above.
-------------------

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* Sign Up - Click the link below to sign up and we'll send you a questionnaire that will help our research team match you up with particular studies.

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* Participate - Research studies can take place online via your computer, smartphone or tablet. Or, it could take place at an Autodesk office, your business or home.
* Learn - We'll share insights that we've learned from you. You'll have our gratitude for helping us make Autodesk products the best they can be.

Looking forward to seeing you in the community,
Heather Gong, Community Manager

[Anonymous]

Hi Heather, Thanks for your reply. I appreciate the offer but generally people like myself who have a lot of experience in production are too busy to do things like that. I wish Autodesk would hire more people who have experience in production to help them guide the software, I think it would turn out much better. I just have a simple question which is: Why there have been almost no development in the essential FX tools of Maya fluids and nParticles in the past 5 or more years? Are there better FX tools on the way? Nobody from Autodesk has attempted to answer this question. This is why most FX artists and companies have switched to Houdini, because they have no reassurance that some of the tools are improving. Despite my complaints I think Maya is an amazing tool; I just hate to see it fall behind.... Best, Eric

[Anonymous]

Hi Eric, I'm not from Autodesk but I can tell you a that they are actively working on the Bifrost Project, which should become the new next-gen platform for most of FX related stuff inside Maya. At the moment it still does only fluid, but there is an underlying procedural graph which as not been exposed to users yet. I don't know when it will be released tho, but that is what you should look at for what is coming next. I don't think any additional work will be put on Maya Fluids or nParticles.

I don't think the people from Autodesk will give you a comment about this, as their policy don't allow them to talk about most of the things going on behind the scene. We only had a few comments about the ongoing Bifrost Node. Here are some extra things you can read to see where they are going:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/maya-forum/maya-update-new-bifrost-menu/m-p/7272511/highlight/true#M4...

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/maya-forum/maya-2018/m-p/7269142/highlight/true#M45266

https://www.fxguide.com/featured/bifrost-the-return-of-the-naiad-team-with-a-bridge-to-ice/

https://www.fxguide.com/featured/bifrost-exclusive-first-in-depth-look/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DucKeXM_gHM

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the info and this is more than Autodesk has ever told me. However it seems that they just don't understand the basic idea about FX in production. The big problem in FX is doing good work while keeping the process as simple and managable as possible. Bifrost may let me do a tidal wave but what if I just want to do some simple raindrops? Bifrost cannot do it!! It is good to have advanced tools, but you need simple tools as well. Are you listening autodesk people?? Bifrost may be great but it will never be the all encompassing FX solution!! The small shops that still use Maya for FX get MUCH more use out of Fluids and nParticles, even though you have abandoned them, which is why most FX people I know have switched to Houdini!!

[veronica.meuris]

Hi Eric,
Thanks for your reply and I understand where you're coming from. Would you be interested in having a quick chat some time over Zoom to talk to me about how Bifrost is not meeting your needs and Fluids and nParticles are?
If you'd rather not, feel free to respond to me with more detail about what the small shops get out of Fluids and nParticles that they're not getting out of Bifrost and I'll take that back to the design team.
Thanks,
Veronica.

[Anonymous]

Hi Veronica, Thanks for getting back to me! Sure, I'd be happy to chat with you about my experiences with Maya FX. I have been doing freelance Maya FX for 10 years with many different companies so I think I can give you some useful feedback. Despite my criticisms I am a huge admirer of Maya and would love to see the software improved. I don't have zoom, are there any other options? I can chat by phone, facebook or skype. Or I could even drop by the Venice office since I live close by in Santa Monica. I can also write a brief summary of my experiences with Maya FX. Cheers, Eric