Slashdot Mirror
Maya now Free for Personal Use
TeknoBilim writes "Alias
announced today that their leading software, Maya has become a free download for non-commercial applications. Thanks a lot, Alias. Now I can record the video for my next game. :)" This makes me wish I had talent. At least now I (and many like me) won't have to pay any money just to dabble with Maya.
I've had the watermarked version for quite some time. I don't think this is anything new. I checked out the link and this seems to be the same "learning edition" they've been offering. Did I miss something?
Woohoo!
the more free software, the better! :D
\X/
Could this in any way be a response to people Warez'ing it?
Seems like it leaves a nasty watermark so no using to *ahem* make movies.....
Olmec.
I like movies.
Matrix was good, but Reloaded wasn't so great.
I thought Titanic had some pretty good effects.
Less CG, more wire kung fu!
Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old.
The Japanese have a musical instrument that looks like a banjo and is played with a rice scoop.
My dog has fleas.
Alias has offered this personal learning edition version of Maya for years now; they're just announcing that the latest release of Maya, 5.0, is also available in the PLE form.
Don't get me wrong--it's great that they do this. There's just no real news here.
The PLE version has a few limitations compared to the version you pay for, but they're really amazingly small in the grand scheme of things.
Yankees Suck!
There have been two versions of the Maya Personal Learning Edition now. It's nice, but don;t do TOO much work in it. You CAN NOT export anything to a real version of Maya if you get one...I learned that the hard way!
My
I hope this pays off for them in the long run. I like to play with as many programs as I can. I might Maya just to get the basics. And even though I have no artistic talent and this is not exactly my field, there may just be some day when some company I am consulting for is looking for a particular program and I'll say 'I remember using Maya a while back and it seemed like a great program'
"Maya Personal Learning Edition 5 offers almost every feature found in the full commercial version of Maya Complete(TM) 5 including an industry-leading set of modeling, animation, rendering and effects tools." so which goodies do we lose?
I've always wondered why high end software shouldn't be free for personal use. It's a win-win situation: Free advertising for the provider, free education for the user.
The truth is that companies who use pirated software for commercial use will do so in any case. Software which is used for content creation should be free to learn for all.
Now then... when will the music software industry start catching on?
.: Max Romantschuk
Getting 19KB/Sec. Anyone got Bit Torrent file up? Or can anyone put one up?
.sig
It's not like anybody who wanted it didn't just download it off Kazaa anyways. Now, instead of alienating possible users of their software by going after people who download it, they are giving it away for free and are coming off smelling like roses.
Huh, finally a business plan that works.
Chaos will always win out over order because chaos is more organized
At least now I (and many like me) won't have to pay any money just to dabble with Maya.
Why do you think they're releasing it? The more people who use your software, the better chances that big industry guy X will pick it up. That's what made MS so big, and I'm sure the Maya folks are doing exactly the same thing.
It's been a long time.
What happened with the linux version? AFAIK Maya have a version for Linux, but don't seem to be included in the "for free" offer.
On stories like these, how about a little background? Like, what is Maya? I know, I know, a real nerd would be running it already and doesn't need to be told. And I know I could find out by visiting the site and reading the about page.
I'm not saying that people submitting stories about OpenOffice.org or Mozilla should always include a sentence describing the project. But lesser-known projects like these could use a one-sentence description as part of their write-up.
Time to /. a 500mb download. That'll teach em for givin' stuff away for free.
It's not stupid. It's advanced.
It watermarks all your images, and even some of the UI panels, making it next to useless.
Send lawyers, guns, and money!
"At least now I (and many like me) won't have to pay any money just to dabble with Maya. "
Like you ever paid for Maya just to dabble with it. That's the biggest crock of shit I've heard in.....
Well, since that 24 hours for Windows patches article.
...and "No", VMWare or Wine don't cut it. I want native.
- - - If the sun is a star, why can't I see it at night?
Apparently they are only giving the Windows and OSX versions away, even though linux versions exist.
True genius is grasping a situation like a peice of fruit, and peircing it just right so that it drains dry.
Watch them reconsider this when they see how much bandwidth they burn today thanks to /. :D
"I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
-Hoban Washburn
They put out their free version a LONG time ago. This really isn't new.
i.e. useless for making money, useful for learning. I remember Bryce 3D having something similar.
><));>
Well, artists (those who have troubles computing powers of 2) are not the only ones learning Maya. Why not include the SDK for us programmers? :|
Alias is only releasing the Windows and Macintosh ports of Maya for free. Neither the IRIX, nor the Linux ports are being released under the Personal Learning Edition.
Black and grey are both shades of white.
Maya Personal Learning Edition has been available since 2002. Unfortunatly plugins don't work, it comes with almost no textures, and it watermarks your output. I'm still using my educational copy of 3DSMaxR2 when I feel like messing around with 3D.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
Finally - I can "test" software legally. ;-)
Just Winblowze XP and 2000
512MB required minimum? Sounds kind of steep.
I was in NYC a few month's ago, at a bar with a producer, talking up Linux, telling them about all the big animation studios that are moving over, and his response was basically, "Sorry, we're on Maya, we're not considering anything else". Don't get me wrong, distributing their great product for free is a huge bonus, but think of what could be done if their Personal Learning Edition(TM) 5 was open source. Not only could we port it to a REAL computing platform (nothing against Apple!), but the technology could benefit so many applications that have no direct competition with MAYA. Kudo's to Alias Systems for making the first step, but let's hope they go even further. Let's hope we some some of this technology GPL'd.
You could download Maya Personal Learning Edition from thier website since 2002 (at least).
This has been around since maya 4. It IS NOT the full version of maya. It saves in a format not compatible with the commercial version, doesn't include mental ray and it watermarks renders. It is useful for learning maya or just playing with it. Its not suitable for creating anything useable, even for your star wars fan films. You'll have to keep using the crack.
Sig removed because it was obnoxious
No Free Maya for Linux this time
-- EOF
At least several months ago, I downloaded Maya PLE... the free version, for those who want to learn how to use this powerful tool. Basically, the only thing that has changed in the past several months - aside from the upgrade from 4.5 to 5.0 - is that there's a neato newspaper article about it!
:D
Strangely enough, I downloaded v5.0 last night from the kind folks at Alias... no slashdot effect for me
-agent oranje.
It's not the full version of their software that's free, just the Personal Learning Esition of the software that they've been giving away since Feb. of 2002
Slashdot's already been there, in fact
Yep, CowboyNeal posted it. Let the ridicule commence in ..3 ..2 ..1 ...now!
-- Fighting mediocrity one bad post at a time.
This should be clairfied. Its the personal learning edtion, which has always been free.
But, it uses its own file format, and watermarks the images and viewports.
In America we are imprisoned by our fear of them.
Yep, they did. Used it once. I remember that version inserted a watermark into its renderings. Plus the file format for the "free" edition wasn't compatible with the commercial edition. Very good for evaluation, but worthless otherwise.
-- Kircle
Maya is not free. Maya PLE is free. Maya PLE has always been free. Maya Complete and Maya Unlimited still cost money.
Maya PLE puts a huge watermark over everything and has not much in the way of features. *Please* reality check articles before putting them on the main page. I don't read Slashdot for blatantly false news.
This is the Personal Learning Edition, which as others have noted, puts a big ugly watermarks your images, it even puts the watermark on your work windows so you can't just do screen caps for output. It is not possible to use Maya PLE for real work, just for learning the program functions, and even that can be tough working behind the watermarks. PLE cannot import or export data from real Maya versions, nor can it use plugins. It's pretty much useless for anything except learning the program basics. Of course, the full Maya release is pirated to hell and back, anyone who really wants the full version can get it if they want it. Or you could get a lower cost educational version if you're eligible.
I also note that Maya for MacOS X doesn't match the features of the other versions. No 3D Invigorator, no Maya Unlimited (no cloth, fur, etc). Maya is a speed demon on dual proc Macs, they really need to get the damn Mac versions up to speed.
Some fuckwit in charge of the site there has decided to disallow downloading if they don't get a HTTP referrer. This breaks my download manager, and there's no way I'm going to get 130Mb on 56k modem before my ISP session time limit is up.
Oh well, off to Kazaa then....
Cthulhu loves you.
I'm not familiar with Maya or any kind of 3D modelling/rendering/animation app, so I can't really speak to the specifics directly, but I am familiar with a few other kinds of creative software: Pro Tools, Digital Performer, Fireworks, Flash, Photoshop. I have licensed copies of some of these, and unlicensed copies of 1 of them.
In each case, my finished project is a sound or graphics file that I could have created with any number of apps. Sometimes I use this stuff for work I get paid for... so my question is, how is the company that produces this software supposed to shake me down?
Libertarianism is rich wolves and poor sheep playing gambler's ruin for dinner.
That is his point - He is saying that in the past, had he wanted to dabble with Maya it would have required paying a rather large sum of money, and thus was not something a sane person would do.
Now, on the other hand, it is merely a matter of a 500 meg download. ("merely", that is, for those of us on a dialup. Oh well.)
Shawn Poulsen (Fruan)
"On Slashdot, many obvious things are insightful." - Annonymous Coward, 2000/7/9
Now if only we could have the same for POV-Ray! Oh wait...
Well how about Blender! Oh yeah..
Oh well, woo hoo for Maya!
----------
Check out my blackbox styles
reference here.
Bizarrely it was only this morning that I thought, I wish there was a free or cut-down version of Maya available. It would be a huge help for a small, non-commercial game that I'm working on as a hobby. And now my hopes have been answered! Sort of...
The trouble is that it's so cut-down that it can't really be described as "free for personal use". The watermarks prevent you from doing anything useful with what you create, even non-commercially. The lack of SDK and plug-in support prevent it from being used for non-commercial game development. It even uses a different, non-standard file format.
In my opinion, this is nothing more than an advert for the full version. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but please let's not give credit where it isn't due. There's no community spirit here. No generosity for non-commercial game developers who could really benefit from a free version of Maya. This is a 133Mb advert and the download is even set-up in such a way that you can't use a download manager without some tweaking.
Could have been great. Isn't.
If you think it can even compete with 3D Studio Max/vis let alone Maya, you're on some serious drugs.
...I'll make sure to tell him I saw you could get her for free on the Internet. ;-)
Maybe if a few of us suggested this as a feature request
click here if you support linux!
Anyone have a torrent available?
(And the next time I hear someone say "Yankees Suck" I'm going to fucking punch their lights out. Well, no, not really, but I am so sick of hearing that I really can't wait for a Yankees World Series victory. If the Yankees "suck," why did they beat you? Apparently the Red Sox must have some form of "super-suck," logically.)
that's a link link to a free version of maya for win/lin/mac, just what alias promised!
I haven't used Maya, so I'm no authority, but it looks like it's in the same realm as blender. Blender is free as in freedom (GPL), available for GNU/Linux, M$ Windows, MacOSX, FreeBSD, and a few Unices. It's maintained by it's user community, and it's 100% Free Software, so it'll never be crippled etc.
Ciaran O'Riordan
Expert in software patents or patent law? Contribute to the ESP wiki!
I tried it with "Red Sox" instead of "Yankees" and found it lacking. I replaced "Really and Truly Suck" with "Immature Losers Who Totally Suck".
I can here it now.
It doesn't support linux, oh boo hoo, I am going to whine and cry now.
Or, use Blender this proprietary software is evil and must be eradicated!
Anyone have screenshots or images produced with the watermark?
agent oranje is right, Slashdot is wrong - Maya Personal Learning Edition has been free to download for a LONG time, this news article, if you'd bothered to read it, is announcing the "highly anticipated" release of Maya PLE v5.0, not the first free download availability of Maya.
Even if it's purely a personal project, nobody will like to see that stupid watermark in the background. It's not really free, it's just a free demo.
With Maya now free for personal use; but only on Win2k or XP, and iTunes also recently released for only Win2k or XP... finally a solid rason to upgrade?
I've been using Win98SE for, well, 5 years now.
I've resisted for this long due to XP's Activation Crap. Guess its finally time to pirate a corporate edition.
Be sure to check out Maya's Fake or Foto challenge Can you tell the difference between real photos and CG? It took a bit of scrutinization, but I was still able to answer all of them correctly on the first pass.
Don't get me wrong, it's great that they released the PLE for evaluation purposes, but beware what you're buying. The $2000 buys you a license to run the software on one computer. Not one computer at a time. One computer. Upgrading your motherboard? Buy another license. Contrast this with Newtek's Lightwave which comes with a USB key and both Mac and PC versions. Install it on as many computers as you like, you can only run it on the one with the key. I think Maya is a better animation tool, but I won't buy it because I need to have it on a laptop and a workstation. I can only use it on one at a time, but I'm not buying two copies. Granted, they offer a floating license version for another $500 or so, but that requires an internet connection. What a hassle. Alias fed me a crock of bull at Siggraph that they're having "trouble" implementing the USB version that they plan to have one day. Would that trouble be letting go of the white-knuckled grip that's squeezing the funds out of their users pockets? Just my two pesos.
It will pay off. They're giving away nothing substantial - it's a crippled piece of software, and in return they'll get publicity from the watermarking, and more users because people can learn Maya at home now.
:)
Tinkering with an array of apps is cool, but I'd tinker with Blender instead of this piece of cripple-ware. Blender is Free Software (GPL), so you get the full version, no loaded marketing tactics. It works on all major platforms (M$, GNU, MAC, and others).
The diference between Maya and Blender, is that you can give someone a complete copy of Blender, rather than just recommending it. OpenOffice.org is a similarly cool thing to give to people. M$ users always think there must be a catch
Ciaran O'Riordan
Expert in software patents or patent law? Contribute to the ESP wiki!
.. what is the point ? Blender will always be intrinsecally better, since it is GPL.
If you are into hating something else more than liking what you use, Linux will work out great for you.
I hear that. I'm actually from the midwest, though I spend a lot of time in NY because my girlfriend lives up there. Anyways, Saint Louis is serious baseball country, and it's expected of people to be Cardinals fans. Even though the Yankees aren't in the same league, it's still almost fighting words here to tell some people that I'm a yankees fan.
I don't root against the Cardinals. They have some of the best fans in baseball. For that matter, the Yankees have great fans, too. And it was really disappointing the times Cardinals fans booed Tino Martinez. But I just root for the Yankees more than the Cardinals.
What I also really get sick of is the people who blame the Yankees for baseball's economic problems or say their championships are unfair because they somehow had an unfair advantage. Every time someone or some team has a dynasty, those who root against them will claim they're cheating. It makes me sick.
The blurb on Slashdot is misleading. I thought Alias was offering Maya for free, not Maya Personal Learning Edition, which has been offered since at least version 3 or 4. Personal Learning Edition is a whole different ballgame, since it's got a whole bunch of watermarking features in it (which basically visually degrade the quality of any work you make with it). It makes learning Maya easier, but it's not really worth it unless you either work for someone with the full version or you've got a lot of money to spend on it.
And I belive Alcimedes was saying that if anyone wants to dabble with a program like this, he'd just pull it off kazaa. This simply legitimizes it...
Do yourself and SGI a favour and buy the $20 book. I just did. Maybe I'll actually learn Maya for once...
There exists no way of exchanging information without making judgments. --Bene Gesserit Axiom
I mean, people use it for art and all. When it renders your artwork with a huge watermark over it, you just feel angry and uninstall it a minute later. Artists are fussy people. I applaud them for making a version for people to take a spin with, but unless you can see your work completely undisturbed, there is nothing to learn. I never know if the picture is how I want it if theres a huge crappy watermark all over it. Just an opinion...
So The Maya Family of Products are a bunch of tools for video animation and special effects, and come in different flavors with different prices and feature sets. And as the parent article says, this one appears to be yet another set of features added to the personal edition.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
It's all nice and good that Maya's free for noncommercial use, but the watermarks are terrible. They say that they're "unobtrusive" and won't prevent people from evaluating your work. In reality, they're horrible. They're put over every last work surface imaginable, as well as your renders.
Now, compare this to that of Side Effects Software's Houdini. They give you a full modelling/animation/compositing suite, with only a tiny watermark that appears in the bottom-right. Before you go saying that this is a small and useless piece of software that nobody's heard of, it has had roles in The Grinch who Stole Christmas, Fight Club, and Final Fantasy 10. Check out their references.
Also worthy of praise, they have a Linux version out too. I'm trying to put it onto a LiveCD so that I work with it wherever I'd like.
At least now I (and many like me) won't have to pay any money just to dabble with Maya.
.
So, Tony was pimpin' her out, eh? Figures. Beer-brewing freak. You can take the boy out of the Mafia . .
I'd be careful "dabbling" with Maya, though. When she turns herself into one of these and rips your gonads off, you'll think "personal use".
Glad to hear a friendly voice.
e =documentation&file=index
Although Blender was always available zero-cost, it only became Free Software in September 2002. Since then, the new developer community have improved the documentation along with the code.
The interface is indeed quite unusual, but when you get used to it, it's very efficient with key bindings for most tasks.
You'll what you're looking for at:
http://www.blender3d.org/Education/
And there's more tutorials, articles, and docs linked from:
http://www.blender.org/modules.php?op=modload&nam
Ciaran O'Riordan
Expert in software patents or patent law? Contribute to the ESP wiki!
There already is a free version of Maya. It's the pirated copy. You can get it at a big torrent site that I won't name.
. . . most of us weren't aware of that fact, so this IS nice for the rest of us, bringing it to our attention.
Has anyone tried or read anywhere that the native Linux version of Maya can be run on FreeBSD's linux compat?
How about SoftImage, since they have a learning version too.
This is only a bit more open version of what many companies have done for years.
Ever notice how Dreamweaver and Photoshop never really came with much anti-piracy measures beyond the basic serial-number?
The idea is self-training specialization. A million people pirate Photoshop, and train themselves in it's use. They then get hired by companies for those skills. the company is then obligated to go with Photoshop because "Everyone knows how to use it". Ka-ching. Instant secured licenses.
Sure, you're not gonna make Cash off of the end-users who can't afford the triple-digit licensing fee, but you have companies who will order a seperate license for Each user on the Graphic Arts team, their laptops, their desktop computers, and a few extra in case they want to hire a few more people.
It's a beautiful business plan that involves the users, sets a standard and guarentees a secured market for -years-, and in the end, makes everyone happy!
Useless? Its called PERSONAL LEARNING EDITION, Not the personal profit edition. There is absoltely nothing preventing an interested user from learning the basics and beyond of Maya. It's not like a nag box pops up EVERY time you want to open hypershade or outliner.
Watermarking is annoying of course but if this product is intended to give users a free method to LEARN, a watermark isnt going to interfere with that. You will still see accurate results of your render.
If you claim it is useless I really need to ask what it is you are trying to do with it? If you want to use it for billable hours, yes it is uselss and this product is not for you.
On the other hand, If you are trying to put together some work for a demo reel to get a real job in the business this PLE will do just fine.
As someone who receives and views artist reels every week, the watermark does NOT bother us. We are judging the quality of your work which will shine even through a watermark. In fact If I saw a reel come through that was watermarked to shit, it would tell me that this artist chooses to use legal software rather than cracked copies like everyone else. I would admire that kind of integrity in a prospective employee.
When I was teaching myself 3d animation it was with an educational edition of 3dsmax which I actually had to pay for from the University bookstore. When I later got into the business and I expanded our CG dept, we stuck with 3dsmax because it was what I knew. Had Maya Personal Learning Edition been around during my self teaching days, I would have given it a shot. If that were the case perhaps I would have a shelf full of Alias software now where all our Discreet boxes are.
Alias knows that the future 3d artists of tomorrow are young kids with no money. They choose to embrace them and provide free software and tutorials and learning resources. They are expecting a return on that investment and will probably get it. It also stregthens the community, now many more people can write "maya for beginners" books or publish online tutorials because maya is available to everyone, the audience grows.
Brilliant scheme that is so simple. Try before you buy, get em hooked while they're young. Win their loyalty now and they will come back as paying customers in the future.
Everyone wins in this situation.
This is the LE edition, updated for Maya 5. Severely restricted and stripped. There's been an LE edition for over a year.
- Javascript On
- Javascript Cookie Access On
- Javascript Cookie Creation On
- HTTP_REFERER On
- Javascript HTTP_REFERER Access On
- Something else, obviously, since after turning all of the above on AND giving them a valid e-mail address (along with fake personal data, obviously) it STILL wouldn't work for some reason.
Geez, anything else? Perhaps their Privacy Policy was written by ex-KGB personnel?
Get a clue, please. Just cos your download is free doesn't mean you have to restrict it to the privacy unconscious subset of your potential downloaders. Like you really NEED all that crap. You're just a dumb web programmer. HTTP GET
I leap for joy at the prospect of using these links to further my knowledge of the wonderful software Blender!
Dude, Get A Life!
Oh yeah, for sure you're no authority. Blender is like Maya in the same way a Yugo is like a Ferrari.
Nobody uses blender in real production work. They're all using Maya and Renderman. Blender might be cool for a few geeky experiments but nobody's going to hire you for a serious animation gig with only blender on your resume.
But there is one downside to the ubiquitous PLE edition. I've been studying Maya for about 2 years, and now that I'm thinking of getting really serious, I pick up a magazine for pro animators and they inform me all the entry level Maya production work is being sent offshore to Korea and India. I'm sure the Koreans and Indians love Maya PLE.
you can request the software be shipped with a hardware dongle. Move it and your license file as often as you like. This will cost an extra $100 or so and only works with win32 computers.
Another option is to bind your license to a pcmcia ethernet card. Get an adapter for your desktop, and use the existing slots on your laptop. This would work for Linux as well. Keep the license file and card together and you can run the software on most any computer.
Still another option, bind your license to a PCI ethernet card. (Linux also) Put that card in any machine you want to run the software on.
As for the floating license, it too binds to an ethernet device. The machine running the software only needs to be on the same network as the machine serving the license. This does not mean Internet.
Finally, if you do have to change your motherboard and have not taken one of the options above, you can fill out a simple form to get a new encryption for your new hardware.
This is all simple flexlm stuff and would apply (sans dongle) to most software of this type. I agree with the USB key thing, but you still have options open to you.
No, they make it very clear that you should only download the items listed on their site if you already own a legal copy. It's more for backup/personal use than anything else.
The headline is highly misleading. Maya is not free software by any stretch of imagination, it's not even open source software. There are strings attached, be careful.
Sincerely,
Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
"Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
Radiance Rayshade RenderPark Moonlight 3D Ayam
All data is speech. All speech is Free.
"Nobody uses [Linux] in real production work. They're all using [Windows] and [Macs]. [Linux] might be cool for a few geeky experiments but nobody's going to hire you for a serious [Sysadmin] gig with only [Linux] on your resume."
There's no community spirit here.
"Community spirit"? Give me a break. What have YOU contributed to the "community" in terms of source code?
"Free" as in "Freeloader"!
when you know a girl called Maya, this story conjures up more than just raytraced pool balls :S
Invoicing, Time Tracking, Reporting
I'm glad we have the real edition in our university lab, open to students 24x7 (along with matlab, mathematica, studiotools, photoshop, etc.) Seriously, people complain about being "poor students"... well, you may be poor but most universities provide for their poor little ducklings!
So shame that this is crippled, but if you're looking to do anything CONSTRUCTIVE which would take tons of time and effort, you gotta to pay to play.
well said ;-)
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Anyone have info on Rhino?
Is Maya in the same league?
The Maya/Alias/AutoCAD/Discreet site pops up an uncancellable cookie.
Not a good sign.
To some extent, I agree with your point. It is kind of childish to use M$, Microshaft, etc. (although MICROS~1 still cracks me up... I'm a geek, sue me). I do have serious issues with the amount of control they want to have over my computer, however, so I don't use their stuff.
The problem is, as you've realized, this IS Slashdot. Not only is it positively FILLED with MS-hating Linux geeks, but it's run by an OS company. If you can't deal with seeing anti-MS comments, what are you doing here? If you wonder why there's very few anti-Linux comments, you need to realize that your colon doesn't have any answers.
Yeah. I just said you've got your head up your ass.
"Verbing weirds language." -- Calvin
I figured I'd save myself the download and buy it off their website...on the web-order form it was $20 or $25 for the PLE and eh...right above that was listed the full version at a meager $2000 or something :) ;^)
:)
:D
<< ah what the heck, let's click on THAT checkbox instead >>
The PLE came in a nice DVD case, with an extra free DVD filled with tutorial/video material, showcase stuff, etc and a little booklet with other helpful hints. The CD contains the Windows and Mac OS X version btw
And yes, there is a frigging ENORMOUS blue watermark in the background. Cannot be removed. I do believe the software can only be used for a limited time or something...but I'd have to check on that. (This is not the latest version BTW) There are other limitations as well, as mentioned above, no or limited compatibility with the full version of Maya being the major one.
Obviously it is a learning tool only.
But still, always a good skill to have on your CV - proficient in Maya
There is a linux version, but AFAIK it only works with specific kernels and distributions and hardware. (An older version of RedHat with a specific type of graphics card? Something like that...)
*(Not available for Mac OS 9 or earlier)
(Not available for IRIX or LINUX)
Linux loses again!
I tried it a couple days ago when it came out. I thought it was some sort of crippled demo with a time bomb but it was just the full version with a bunch of "non commercial use only" messages splattered all over. This is great for people that are curious about it but can't spend the dough just to see if they like it. It pretty much keeps a big fraction of the experimenters from trying to dowload a warez copy.
The one thing I did not like was I found some commands that require the 3-button mouse, which I only use at the office.
Pedro
----
The Insomniac Coder
I use povray a lot to make pictures and movies for work. Could anyone tell me how Maya compares ?
for once again kicking Discreets butt...
how long until
I learn best when I play around with something myself, as opposed to taking a class. When I was first looking into getting into digital animation in the late 90's, Softimage was king and very expensive for anyone. Even an academic license was in the thousands of dollars, not to mention the cost of the hardware to run it.
So, you may have watermarks to deal with and you can't move file formats to the full version, but when you're starting to learn or just seeing if you like this field enough to persue a career, this is an invaluable opportunity.
source code hidden like the worst of microsoft's. DON'T BUY THIS CAPITALIST TRAP! ONLY USE GNU/FREE/OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE! (going back on my meds now... :P)
If it were done when 'tis done, then t'were well it were done quickly... MacBeth
Maya has had a PLE around for quite some time - I tried it but I could not stand the watermarking. (The version I had watermarked all of your project views!) Although if someone is seriously considering entering the industry Maya is the defacto standard in a lot of places (for movies and such anyways). For the hobbiest I can strongly recommend Cinema 4D.
How hard is it to find pirated full versions? I don't think its too difficult- Are those copies I see on the P2P networks PLE versions? I think if someone serious enough about using and learning such a complex piece of software, they'd steal a full working version, if they could.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signature_bloc
Sounds a bit like McDonalds!!
As cunning as a fox, which has just been appointed professor of cunning at Oxford University. http://www.kinlan.co
The parent just clarifies that Maya is indeed completely useless for the purposes given in the blurb, namely to create content for your own non-commercial applications. /. blurb, thought, "oh, Maya is now a free download for non commercial applications. Thanks a lot, Alias. Now I can record the video for my next game. :)" (yeah, some people think in smilies), this is useless.
Instead, what we see here is the PLE, which is old news.
For someone who read the
I guess the question I have is: if you use the PLE, how does this help you when showing a demo reel to get a job? Somehow I don't think that watermarks smeared across a demo reel will help impress recruiters? The opposite if anything?
Would recruiters care?
They simultaneously made the software available with their 19.99 DVD that teaches you how to use Maya. That is really smart.
Windows
Mac OS X
Linux 386
Linux PPC
FreeBSD
Irix
Solaris
NetBSD
Developer site: www.blender.org
The watermark is still there. I have to admit this is a major disincentive for me to move from the 2.0 version.
Quod scripsi, scripsi.
No Irix Version??!?! SACRILEGE!!!!!
This is why I own an SGI box, for apps like this.
I got this a while back with the learning DVD for $20 total. I have been considering a switch from 3DS because I'm tired of the constant $1695 'upgrades' that are hardly more than a couple of bugs fixes.
Well, I reviewed the video, played with the PLE a few days and I can not understand where a lot of people say it is better than 3DS. The rendering looked like crap - poor anti-aliasing etc even on the higher quality settings. In short, the trial learning edition taught me not to buy, probably not what they intended. But, I thank them for putting it out there and letting me decide.
Now I wish Lightwave would offer the same thing.
slashdot troll = you make a compelling argument I do not like the implications of.
As stated in previous posts the biggest issues with PLE are the giant disruptive watermark and the non-compatibility of PLE files with the normal version of Maya, so that if you decide you like the program and want to upgrade you lost any work you did in PLE.
Just deal with the watermark, what do you expect from a free version of any software? As for the file compatibility issue, MEL (maya's scripting language) works just fine in PLE. I wrote myself a little PLE to MA (Maya ASCII) converter utility.
I understand about the personal learning edition being just that. The problem is, I don't have a desire to waste my time making something cool that I can't show my friends without haveing a lame watermark on it.
Not that I want everything for free. How can I motivate myself to use this version to learn, knowing the whole time that if I come up with something cool, I'll have to completely redo all the work over again in a licensed version just to get rid of the lame watermark.
Perhaps the licensed version came with a tool to convert the lame personal edition created projects to the licensed version without the watermark??? Kind of a differed payment type thing. There isn't much difference between, I paid my money then learned or learned then paid my money... They get there money either way and I get all my work.
Ascalante: Your bride is over 3,000 years old.
Kull: She told me she was 19!
...and it has an "apprentise version" which allows you to try. Check out www.sidefx.com
Say I later start a company to do the stuff I've learned for profit. Would I risk committing a crime by using my personal use version? I think not.
If this hypothetical statement held true, then the Business Software Alliance would never exist.
Many companies, of all sizes, do rationalize their illegitimate use of software in order to save money.
Jay (=
You know what? When you buy the licensed version, I bet you can just reopen the file you have saved.
As far as I know the watermark is dynamically created everytime you render, NOT in the Maya scene description files themselves - otherwise you can edit them away easily, because it's format is so well understood.
So your concern is a non-concern.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
You also lose the ability to move your files into the professional/commercial version. Say you spend months working on the Personal Edition, and create some great work. You then decide you want to throw down and buy the real commercial version. Guess what? You can't import those files into the real version. You are stuck with watermarks on your work, or forced to have to re-create the work.
Read the FAQ:m aya/ma ya_ple/faq.shtml
http://www.alias.com/eng/products-services/
You can't read files created in the personal edition with the paid version. Makes me wonder.
You would think they want this functionallity. So that people like the product and upgrade.
Now any work you do in this version, is just playing.
Only on Slashdot can a company give away a free shareware version of their product and have it be called "crippleware" by some ignoramus.
"Sufferin' succotash."
Hello, they do. Pro Tools LE is the free, limited-edition version of Pro Tools.
And, of course, Cakewalk has its various limited versions of its products like Sonar.
"Sufferin' succotash."
There's also a free version of SOFTIMAGE|XSI, that runs on Linux. SOFTIMAGE is generally considered to be Maya's primary competitor in the high-end 3d graphics industry, though Maya seems to be more popular at the moment (then again, that appearance could just be caused by Alias's advertising). There's also a free version of Houdini. Houdini is kind of a niche product in the cinematic effects industry, very powerful though not as well known as either Maya or SOFTIMAGE.
Maya Personal Learning Edition includes most of the functionality of Maya Complete. A few changes have been made so that Personal Learning Edition is unsuitable for production use and to reduce the size for downloading. These are the main differences:
.mb); only the Maya Personal Learning Edition file format (.mp) can be saved.
... menu item has been removed
Performance
Maya Personal Learning Edition is limited to using a single CPU. The commercial version of Maya will take advantage of multiple CPUs resulting in faster performance in areas such as software rendering, IPR and Paint Effects.
Watermark
A watermark text image appears across all rendered images and in some Maya Personal Learning Edition panels. The watermark does not appear when working in wireframe mode.
Rendering and Image Output
mental ray is not available.
The Maya vector renderer is not available.
You cannot output 16-bit rendered image formats.
Camera's film fit offset and film offset are limited to 0.
Rendering is limited to a single CPU.
Images from the following tools have been limited to 1024x768:
Software rendering output in Render View and batch mode
Hardware render buffer
Paint Effects canvas mode and scene mode
UV snapshot in UV texture Editor
3D Paint Tool
Mac OS X: The command line rendering utility has been renamed from "Render" to "Render5PLE" to avoid conflict with the commercial version of Maya.
File Format and Data Input/Output
You cannot write standard Maya software files (.ma,
Particle disk caching is not supported.
Text dump from the Blind Data Editor window is not supported.
Exporting skin weight maps and character maps is not supported.
API and Plug-ins
The API developer's kit is not included with Maya Personal Learning Edition.
It is not possible to load plug-ins from the commercial version of Maya or third party plug-ins.
MEL
The scriptEditor -writeHistory option is not available.
The following MEL commands are not available: system, fopen, popen, fwrite, fprint and cmdpipe.
The script editor output section is limited to 75 lines of output.
The script editor > Save Selected
User Interface
The background color's value (in HSV space) of interactive window is
limited to [0.3,0.9].
There are tools that will allow you to use Blender as the modeller, and convert the saved file to POV-ray format. The best of both worlds.
Guess what maya is in it for the money.h do.mp4
this is really old news.
theres a really great software package out there called blender. ive been using it for about 4 months now. its well documented, has a large comunity, and it works great. this is opensource software, runs on any platform that you can imagin, and it does just about anything you want to do. forget about maya, get blender and make movies. here is a quicktime movie i made in blender.
www.adint.net/slashdotmed.mov
or
slas
or slashdo.mpg
read up a bit, somebody posted that this is not true at all. your information is non-information
i sell illegal drugs
You said:
>Brilliant scheme that is so simple. Try before >you buy, get em hooked while they're young. Win >their loyalty now and they will come back as >paying customers in the future.
Man that sounds like drug dealers dealing out crack, "Here, here's a sample to see if you like it". Only thing is a crack habit is probably cheaper than a Maya one...
Still it is nice of them to make it so you're able to mess with the real software without emptying the cookie jar.
Rhino is nice for what it does, but its a totally different animal ( pun unintentional )
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Check out this thread which has a screen capture of an alpha version of the new Blender 2.3 UI.
what?
"Why use this when you can get X? It's not Maya , but it..."
/. went and put up a misleading headline, per usual, and treated this as news despite the PLE being instituted nearly 2 years ago. You wanna bitch at someone, bitch at Pater for not doing his homework on this one.
"This doesn't let you do X! Z does and it may be no Maya but it's..."
The point is that this IS Maya. If you have no interest in Maya them move on. No one is saying that you shouldn't be using X or Z for your project or self-gratification. A|W went out of their way to give people who are interested in training up or evaluating Maya, a very complex and far from 'hobbyist' bit of software, a chance to do just that. That's it. Nothing more.
Of course,
- I am made of meat.
From a quick look at the Newtek site, I see that there's a screamernet node client for Linux, but not a user-interface version.
Why hasn't Newtek done a Linux version of Lightwave?
DG
Want to learn about race cars? Read my Book
Actually, regular Maya cannot open files created on PLE. This is to prevent studios from putting PLE on all their workstations and only having one legit copy of Maya on the machine that will submit the rendering to the render farm.
I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
The Blender interface has always been very functional but not easily accessible to new users.
Right now, the Blender interface is getting a complete make-over. When it is finished, all the obscure hotkey functions will be available on menus. Window and button layout should be nicer too.
3D Studio Max has gMAX. gMax is usually used as a level editor for games that support it, but it lets you try out most of the things you can do with 3D Studio Max. Saving is in an encrypted format and you can't export anything useful.
Maya, of course, has this free version with huge, annoying "watermarks" on everything and no useful exports. But it's the full Maya. Maya pricing starts at $2000.
softimage doesn't offer a free version of XSI, and the list price is $13,000.
And, of course, there's Blender, which is free, open source, maintained by a community, and incomprehensible. The Blender community is redesigning the user interface, which may help.
This is Maya PLE and everybody knows it so why lasso more people into the net of confusion? Please update the message to Explain that the newest version of Maya PLE, a free educational copy with watermarks and format restrictions, has been released.
Thanks
Ka-ching, ka-ching
I like the idea of having such a release especially for students that need to learn some more of the professional stuff. While blender is gaining popularity, because of it small download and price, it still lacks several fetures needed, like a raytracing engine, for professional work.
While this is cool and all, chances are I will still use Blender for my hobby work because it is free and allows me to do the level of work that I am at. Again, I am a hobbiest, not a pro, but I know of two shops in town that is using Blender over other packages for at least some of their work, like animated logos and such, because of the cost.
"The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money" - Thatcher.
So you'll be giving your game away free, right? Lets try not to bite the hand that feeds too publically, lest they take it back, eh.
This is another piece of Windows software that claims to require 2K or XP only. What are the necessary feature(s) provided by 2K and XP that aren't supported in 98/Me?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Okay, some idiot modded my non-information up. Mods please bring it back down. Thanks.
...is the one you're riding.
The poster isn't complaining about the price of Maya Complete. He's not even complaining that they offer a Personal Learning Edition. He's saying that a "free for non-commercial use" version would not be a bad thing. Maybe he's right. Maybe the Alias lawyer who nixed it is right.
Your point about buying a single copy of the commercial license for a whole studio full of "personal learners" is a good one, but you obfuscate it by claiming the parent poster said things he (or she) did not say. But a carefully worded license for each version would take care of any personal-learner shops that cropped up. And I don't think it would be hard to spot a shop with 1 license, 40 artists, and an explosion of art. It would be roughly on a par with looking for a shop that does multiple installs from a single license.
It would be an interesting question whether allowing a shop with 20-40 artists to work with Maya PLE until the company was ready to render for publishing would produce more sales or less. Some companies would probably say, "We've got millions invested in this art, why worry about the measly cost of 40 licenses?" while others might say, "We're behind budget here, can't one license do everything we want?" Whichever side predominated, it wouldn't be hard for Alias to tell which was which.
Eternal vigilance only works if you look in every direction.
Now then... when will the music software industry start catching on?
Pro Tools has a free version available here
Very promising.
Is this what's supposed to be in the end-of-October release, or is this scheduled for release later on?
Maya PLE is just marketting bumph / student-buy-in software. This aspect is not hidden in any way, after all it's called the ***Personal Learning*** Edition.
You can't use it to generate output for a garage startup company without funds (even if the license allowed it, which it doesn't), because it largely obliterates output with a huge watermark, and doesn't output in the commercial Maya format.
PLE really deserves to be treated with disdain, not encouraged. The only purpose it serves is to create future Maya advocates for the company.
Only on Slashdot can some idiot named "Overly Critical Guy" repeat the same comments over and over again until no one really cares what he says. Unless of course you've found your way onto some other message boards? Looks like Newsforge has a karma system now, are you going to polute their message boards as well?
Who cares? I, for one, most certainly do. I'm sure there are lots of people on Slashdot who don't want to violate the copyright law.
Sincerely,
Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
"Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
I'm honestly not sure what the projected release date is. But from what I have seen Blender is very good about the "release often" philosophy.
what?
Maybe normal people don't know wtf binaries, rpms, tar, xzf etc. are.
Why can't a web page say "if you are running a popular GNU/Linux distribution on a use a Dell, Gateway, or other PC with an Intel or AMD processor, then download this RPM file, right-click the file you downloaded, and then choose Install"?
Will I retire or break 10K?
Your mouse wheel is a third button. Try clicking it like a button rather than rolling it.
What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey
The artiste's catch 22. You need money for the industrial tools however you have to have reels to show employeers you use industrial tools.
Im all for alias trying to watermark but the mark is SO BLATENT I switched to another package (Blender) as it was distinctly annoying to model with the watermark in 4.5. It was like trying to drive with a very dirty windshield, It hindered the the 3d input with the 2d watermark stuck on top when trying to do shape placement with just basic shading turned on.
At 2k USD a pop for Maya 5 complet version Im having to try Sketchup3d --> Blender3d which if it works for me is the cheapest solution.
You're right on - a friend of mine has now been taking 3d animation at FullSail for a few years now (he's due to graduate soon).
Anyway, back in high school we started toying around with the 3d animation - he was much more into than I (and consequently that became his calling).
As far as the PLE - FINALLY! Being a college student myself, I don't understand why companies don't shell out freebies to us - I mean, a) we're broke b) we want to use your product c) we'll hack it just to play around with it
Meaning? -- The majority of piracy at the collegiate level is done simply out of an 'educational' mindset - students want to play with 3dsMax (I have a free demo) or Maya (the PLE looks inviting). Why jail the kids who will one day be shelling out big bucks to your company because they grew up using and liking your product?
Personally, I find no rhyme or reason as to why companies get all in arms over 'personal education'. I mean, let the world freely evaluate! However, I firmly believe in the correct licensing at the business level - and I will stand by that.
I'm just glad that my college has a deal where they provide each CS student with VS.NET (legal, valid, legit) - it'd be terribly hard to program without. Furthermore, when I'm 'old' I'll definitely shell out the bucks to invest in the proper software that I'm familiar with!
I only have the 4.5 and 4.0 version taht runs off linux. Very well I might add. Any word of Maya 5 for linux floating around?
Still no Linux PLE, Alias? Kinda amature-like don't you think? /. rejected my submition on that issue I might add.
Well, that's no problem. We'll just have to get the Houdini Apprentice Edition.
They've had free non-commercial versions for all OSes since almost a year now. Linux too.
To bad Alias won't get the message and *still* not release a Linux PLE.
Oh, well, Houdini is the better package anyway, so what am I complaining about?
Check out www.sidefx.com and look for Apprentice Editition. Houdini Master with all the features free for non-commercial use. It kicks Maya up and down the street btw.
It's been available since way back then when
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
As a moderator, the best I could do is mark it Troll or flamebait. I chose troll. Some negative moderation suggestions to slashdot:
Didn't RTFA
Misinformation
Or something... Even "Pulling out of ass" would be better.
Anm
[goes to look]
:)
Actually, the interface looks more like my idea of how to do it -- with room to WORK. I messed with Bryce a bit, and was soon ready to kill whoever designed it -- or better yet, steal their 48" monitor.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
... she is a kind of sweet pretty girl, makes my heart beat faster every time there's an ambiguous title like this. "Maya now Free for Personal Use".
It comes with a version of Maya PLE made to just work with UT2003 and it's dev tools
0 03_pc/
Make you own characters and levels.
Not entirely free but you get the full game as well.
http://www.us.atari.com/games/unreal_tournament_2
Kaydara released their Motionbuilder 4.0 Personal Edition over a year ago. Looks like Alias is just catching up.
Rhino is primarily for 3D Modeling - especially for product design which requires spline based modeling (NURBS)
Maya (unlimited) does NURBS modeling, polygonal modeling (games and animation) and Subdivision surfaces which has some of the advantages of both.
It also has fur rendering, cloth simulation, particle systems, physics simulation, and a host of animation tools (inverse kinematics, skeletons, keyframes, blend shapes).
Maya is also incredibly extensible, supporting plug-ins (comes with API), custom user interfaces and scripting.
In fact, Maya is a few binaries tied together with scores of scripts.
I've been learning Maya for the last year after work (we have a site licence) and it's a world unto itself.
They made a deal with Atari to bundle a special version of PLE with Unreal Tournament 2003 but I haven't used that.
You don't work for the tobacco industry, do you? ;-)
RenderMan didn't have a raytracer until fairly recently. For movies such as A Bug's Life where a raytracer really was needed, Pixar ended up using Larry Gritz' BMRT (Blue Moon Rendering Tools), a RenderMan compliant raytracer.
Ironically enough, Pixar ended up suing ExLuna for infringment of intellectual property, which ended up in ExLuna's products (including BMRT) being pulled from the market.
So how did Pixar get by all those years without a raytracer? Well, there are a lot of shader tricks that can be done, as well as clever use of lighting. Radiosity, reflections... all these effects can be simulated.
All this is to say that the real limit of tools isn't so much the tools themselves, but what people do with the tools.