Autodesk to acquire Alias; what does it all mean? Two seemingly completely different paradigms of 3d with Maya and 3ds Max now sharing the same parent. When I heard the news, like most of you I freaked out. What does this mean for the future and the choices of where we devote our time and energy in the 3d world?
譯文：Autodesk收購Alias，這意味著什麼？3d領域的兩個看起來完全不同的代表人物：Maya和3ds Max現在分享同一個父親。當我聽到這個消息，就像很多人一樣，我感到迷惑。這對未來意味著什麼，對我們在3d的世界選擇哪裡去投入我們的時間和精力呢？
I had an opportunity to speak with Dave Wharry, Vice President, Global Sales & Marketing, Alias, and Marc Petit, Vice President of Product Development and Operations, Media & Entertainment, Autodesk after preparing some questions based on all of the threads and personal conversations I had with many of you in both the Maya and 3ds Max communities. Since this was a voice conference I am summarizing a lot of the answers to my questions.
譯文：在看了很多帖子和與Maya以及3ds max社區的許多人談話後，我準備了很多問題，帶著這些問題，我有幸能夠和Alias的全球銷售和市場副總裁 Dave Wharry先生和 Autodesk的媒體和娛樂部產品開發和運作的副總裁Marc Petit 先生對話。由於我和他們是口頭對話（而不是文字的），所以我概要而言許多問題的答案。
I wanted to start with the basics. Why exactly did Autodesk acquire Alias? My exact question was
譯文 我希望從基本問題開始：究竟是為什麼Autodes要收購 Alias?對這個疑問我是這樣提問的：
「It is apparent by looking at the revenue sources of Autodesk and Alias, that the entertainment divisions are only a small portion of the respective company revenues. Is it fair to say that this acquisition was more about the industrial design, automotive, market and technology acquisition and less about how to mix Maya and Max?」
譯文: 很顯然，從Autodesk and Alias收入的來源上看，娛樂部門的收入只佔很少的一塊，所以可以直接的說此次收購的目的更多的是工業設計、汽車、市場和技術 ，而較少是希望混合Maya和Max?
The answer was not what I expected. Dave noted that the majority of Alias\' revenue came from the entertainment industry. One of the major reasons for the acquisition was not something I had posed in my question, but was about the synergies that could be created through both the high end film market where Maya and the Discreet product line (Inferno/Flame, Fire/Smoke, Lustre) are at the heart of many industry leading production pipelines in film, high end post and visual effects. Similarly, many game companies have built hybrid pipelines where 3dsmax works in conjunction with either Maya or Motionbuilder. According to Alias and Autodesk the variety of clients that use Maya or 3ds Max use them for different reasons throughout their pipelines or choose to use one over the other because they fit their needs more adequately
譯文 然而答案超出我的預想。Dave (Alias)指出Ailas的收入主要是從娛樂業來的。收購的主要原因不在我提問中列出的原因中，而是Maya和Discreet 產品線（例如Inferno/Flame, Fire/Smoke, Lustre）是很多電影高端、後期處理和特效工業領先的產品流水線的心臟。類似的，許多遊戲公司採用3dsmax和Maya或者Motionbuilder組成了混合的流水線。根據Alias和Autodesk的經驗，不同的客戶選擇一個產品而不是另外一個產品是因為那一個更加符合他們的需要。
Ok, but aren't Maya and 3ds Max directly in competition? The short answer, No. Not as Autodesk sees it. They feel by owning both products and by changing the product marketing where necessary they can show the differences in the products and let the client decide which is better suited for their needs in each area. Also by focusing on the development synergies of the product they will be able to offer a better work flow between both applications. Maya is on the Mac and Linux for instance, 3ds Max is not. Mac users will therefore choose Maya when deciding which 3d product to buy from Autodesk.
譯文：好了，但是Maya和3ds Max 之間不存在直接競爭嗎？ 簡短的回答是：沒有，不想Autodesk 看到的那樣（譯者註釋：這裡還是Alias的Dave在回答，Dave認為Maya和3ds max之間沒有直接的競爭，而從上下文中可以看出Autodesk則認為Maya和3ds max存在直接競爭，所以從上下文看出Autodesk希望消除它們的直接競爭）。他們（Autodesk） 感覺有必要擁有兩個產品並且通過改變兩個產品的市場方向，他們可以展示兩個產品的不同，並且讓客戶選擇在各自的領域哪一個更適合他們的需要。同樣我們的目光聚焦在開發配合上，他們（Autodesk）能夠為兩個產品提供更好的工作流程。，例如， Maya可以工作在Mac和Linux平台，而3ds Max不能，所以 Mac用戶在選擇Autodesk的3d產品的時候會選擇Maya。
So that got me to my next question before I had a chance to ask it; 「will there be a best of both worlds product... a mayax or maxa?」. The answer: At least not in the foreseeable future (product lines are only planned out for 3 years and there is no plan for that to happen during that time). They made it clear and emphasized this point. 「we will maintain separate development teams, make no changes to resource commitment, funding the development of each product separately while moving forward. no changes whatsoever」. They will「remain separate and focus on interoperability」 to make things work. Marc joked about hoping to see a 3ds Max version 20 and a maya v20 -- although it was a bit far out to give me a commitment to! He also stated 「By sharing designs we will be able to adopt similar representations and metadata in both packages which will help information flow much better throughout the production pipeline. For example; we could make sure that rendering and compositing happens in the same color space or enable material representations and complex animation constructs to flow freely between packages. As demonstrated by the delivery of the Vault with 3ds Max 8, our customers will benefit from many of the collaboration and workflow technologies that Autodesk is developing in other market verticals.」
譯文：所以當我有機會提問的時候，我就想到了我的下一個問題：會不會有一個最好的產品：一個叫做 Mayax 或者 maxa的東西？ 回答是：至少在現在可預知的將來（軟件產品開發計劃只計劃 3 年，至少在這一段時間不會出現這個計劃）。他們（Autodes和Alias）很清晰的表達並且強調這一點。「我們會保持分離的開發團隊，對兩個產品的資源和資金都不會改變，無論什麼都不會變。它們會保持獨立並且致力於互用性。Autodes的Marc開玩笑說希望看到 3ds max 20和Maya 20，但是這個太遙遠了以至於不能看作是一個承諾。他同時宣稱：採用共享的設計，我們可以在兩個產品中採用相似的表達方法和元數據，這樣有助於流水線的信息流。舉例來說，我們可以讓渲染和合成採用相同的色彩空間，或者讓材質表現和複雜動畫創建自由在不同軟件之間傳遞。」
Dave brought up a recent acquisition in Autodesk to use as a comparison. He pointed out that when Autodesk acquired Revit for the architecture space users felt it was in direct competition with Architectural Desktop a product they already owned. 「Both teams remained intact, both products remain separate, and grow separately still today」. This is a perfect example of a sucessful implementation of just this concept in the 3d space.
譯文 Dave以Autodes的最近一個收購案為例作為比較，他指出，當Autodesk收購Revit的時候，建築界用戶感覺和他們已經擁有的Autodesk 建築軟件Architecture Desktop 直接衝突。「兩個團隊都保持完整無缺，兩個產品保持分離，並且直到今天各自都在成長。這是應用這個收購理念成功實施的一個完美的例子，3d 界也一樣。
Realistically, we see this all the time in other industries. Just look up how many competing companies Pepsi Co owns. We, in the 3d community, are just so used to software being merged when we hear acquisition we all jumped a bit soon. I guess those Softimage/Microsft and Alias/Wavefront days stay close in our memory as 3d users.
實際上，我們總是可以在其他的工業界也看到這樣的例子。只要看一下百事可樂擁有多少相互競爭的企業，就可以了。我們在3d領域，只要聽到軟件收購我們就跳起來，看來是太著急了。我想當年Softimage /Microsoft和Alias /Wavefront 合併還停留在3d用戶的記憶裡。
They tell me that both 3ds Max and Maya have seen great sales growth over the past year but the growth has been in complimentary areas. They are confident that by owning both products not only can they invest more in the 3d space but create new work flows, share work flows, and integrate better open source standards. Marc continued; 「Having the industry's best portfolio of creative tools under one company will lead us to invest more and faster into these applications. We will be able to bridge some existing gaps into the current production workflow, offering solutions from pre-visualization, to production, post-production and mastering. FBX, a freely available toolkit, will be at the heart of our interoperability strategy. Autodesk and Alias share the vision of an open, connected production environment based on industry standards.」
譯文：他們告訴我，3ds max和Maya在過去的一年都獲得了很大的銷售增長，但是是在各自相應的領域。他們有信心，擁有兩個產品，他們就不僅可以在3d領域作更多的投資，而且可以創造新的工作流程，共享工作流程，並且在打開標準的源文件整合的更好。Autodesk的Marc進一步說：在擁有了業界最好的創造工具之後，我們將在這些軟件上投資更多更快。我們能夠將現有的工作流程之間的隔閡填平，從預覽到生產，從後期處理到控制，我們都可以提供一個解決方案。FBX，一個 免費的工具包，將會是我們協同工作地核心 。Autodesk和Alias將會共享一個美好遠景：一個開放的可以互聯地基於工業標準的產品環境。
Understanding clearly that each product will remain separate we can get back to looking to the future of 3ds Max and Maya separately. Many 3ds Max users have expressed their concerns to me off-line. So I asked: 「Max users have been awaiting a new rewrite, but they are also very invested into the 3ds Max paradigm and work flow. Will there be another Max rewrite or will there ultimately be a new product that combines the best features of Maya and Max?」 Marc explained that with the recent restructuring of Discreet and movement of the 3ds Max development team to Montreal they have been able to really focus on the outstanding issues and tune up performance and work flow without the need for a rewrite. 「3ds Max 8 is a gigantic step forward in performance」 Marc stated, and referenced the extremely positive response they have been getting from their beta sites. 「The Montreal team has focused heavily on development」.
譯文 ：當理解了每個產品都會保持獨立，我們在回到3ds max和maya各自的前途這個問題上。很多3ds max用戶對我表達了他們關注，所以我問：Max用戶期待一個重新改寫，但是他們同樣在3ds max 上花了很多投資和工作流 。會有另外一次Max被重寫嗎，或者會有一個超級的軟件融合了3ds max和maya的長處嗎 ？ Marc解釋說最近discree 被重組，並且3ds max開發組遷移到蒙特利爾，他們能夠真正的關注這一次傑出的發佈，調整軟件性能和工作流，而不需要內核重寫。「3ds Max 8 在性能大大前進了一步」，Marc說，從Beta用戶的正面回應來看，蒙特利爾團隊已經真正集中精力在開發上面了。
With Autodesk's deeper pockets the Alias divisions should be able to see more budget for R&D and by sharing intellectual property both divisions should be able to develop their products in ways not possible in the past. The bottom line; there will be no Mayax or Maxa in the foreseeable future. There will be no mixed team, no one product development team taking over the other's plans. There will be no major changes to the future of our products as we've seen them aside from working with the suite of Autodesk products much more seamlessly. They will share intellectual property and focus on interoperability not only between the 3d products but with their existing 2d lines. At the end of the day Autodesk will profit whether a buyer chooses Maya or 3ds Max, and maybe in some cases a client will choose both where in the past they would not have.
譯文 ：隨著Autodesk將Alias掌握在口袋裡，Alias能夠看到能夠的研究和開發投資預算，隨著共享知識產權，兩個部門都可以以過去不能看到的速度開發。有一個底線是：在可預知的將來，將絕對不會有一個Mayax或者maxa出現。將不會有混合團隊，也沒有一個團隊會接受另外一個的計劃。將來我們的產品將不會有重大的變化，除了他們將會配合的更加天衣無縫之外。他們將會共享知識產權，以便不僅能夠在3d 產品之間互用和協同工作，而且和一個2d的產品線之間也是這樣。最終有一天，無論用戶購買Maya或者3ds max，Autodesk都將獲利 ，也許有些時候他們兩個都買呢。
Regardless of whether or not you think this is a smart business move for either party, I think Maya and Max users can all rest a little easier knowing 3ds Max will remain 3ds Max and Maya will remain Maya...
譯文：不管你認為這是否是一個明智的商業交易與否，我認為，Maya和3ds max用戶可以放輕鬆，3ds max 將還是 3ds max，而 Maya將還是 Maya ………
張貴城：青援果味餅乾侵