I've looked over my previous opinions on Maya and want to provide a more directed approach to my concern.
I feel it's difficult for new artists to get into Maya. The student license being limited to no commercial use makes sense. I feel for solo projects and selling assets on store fronts, it should have the same limitations as the indie license. Becoming a student for Maya is made less appealing knowing you can't use anything you make as a student. Most newcomers will not consider the idea of being unable to sell the assets they make with the license until a professor tells them or they hear it in passing. I'd like Autodesk to update these licenses so assets can be legally sellable after buying a license, as long as the license purchased is applicable for how the asset being sold.
The trial is currently 30 days. It's very difficult for someone to find the time to properly learn Maya in that time frame unless they don't work or have no social life. This accessibility of Maya is major hurdle for a lot of newcomers and a major reason people turn away from it, especially hobbyist.
Stripped down Maya (My original suggestion, updated)
Currently, Maya has a lot of tools that hobbyist and independent artists won't use. I feel a cheaper or free version of Maya with just poly modelling, UVs, rigging, and animation would benefit Autodesk. These tools would capture the attention of people in the hobby sphere and bring in new users who may eventually purchase a full license. This would also enable hobbyists and newcomers a way to get familiar with Maya over a longer period of time without sweating the most basic knowledge. More tutorials would also exist, and thus a larger and more supportive community willing to help each other.
Maya without exports
A education version of Maya that strictly allows users to make models and save in MB or a cloud save (with a file size limitation) that could be recovered upon purchasing a license.
Currently, I'm looking at graduating soon. I will likely be sticking with Maya simply because it has stream lined a lot of things that were hurdles for me while trying to learn Blender, prior to college. I did, at one point, look at Maya and didn't consider it for a moment. I would have spent that year learning Maya over Blender had there been an accessible way to do so. The only reason I switched, was because Maya is what my college taught. Autodesks hold on the industry will be harder to maintain as other options become more viable and preferred by smaller studios. Less and less people can afford college in this economy. I was barely able to get through college with a part-time job while living alone. The number of people who will be able to learn Maya is constantly going down and the reasons to switch are growing.
