(Copied from original User Voice forum)
"If you're a student, you get Maya free for three years. After that, there is a considerable jump in price - thousands of dollars.
I'd like to see low cost options for those who don't make any money with Maya, with increments for those who do, based on the amount of money they make with it. The game engine Unity3D works this way. It's free until you make $100k per year. Unreal charges 5% of your income, but only if you make a certain amount.
A sliding scale for Maya would allow students to continue to use the product long after they leave school."
"How about an indie version for just a dollar a day that sat between Maya LT and Full Maya. Include things like MASH, The Modeling toolkit, Some of the more basic UV workflows, The animation timeline without some of the more advanced features. Perhaps disable the use of mel scripting and only give us a few of the more used sculpting tools. Limit the amount of money we are allowed to make per year with this license. Much the same way there is an indie license with Unity or Unreal.
Support export and import shaders to work with substance, Unreal, Unity. Handle all types of 3D file formats and work with any renderer we choose as well as have a native renderer like the arnold plugin included with the package.
A lot of people cannot afford Maya and this provides at least an entry-level animation and modeling toolset that goes above gaming assets in Maya LT but below full blown studio level licenses."
