Upgrade to Unlimited at reduced price? Worth it?

[Venkman]

I ave an opportunity to upgrade my copy of Maya complete to Unlimited for a reduced price of $2500. That is still a big hunk of change (and tough for me to swallow), but is it worth it?

Some people I have talked to have stated that Maya cloth stinks, that I should just buy syflex instead.

but what about you guys? Is Maya cloth any good?

Fluids obviously have their lust worthy uses for 'splosions and fire and cool geeky stuff like that.

How about Maya hair/fur? Is it as useful as Shave and a haircut? Maya hair fur does at least integrate into renderman.

Anyhow, I was wondering if everyone thought it was worth it.

[danlefeb]

Anytime I'm faced with the question of whether or not a product is worth the cost I figure out if my projects can make it worth the cost. In other words, if you can't make the same amount of money on your client projects with Complete in relatively the same amount of time, then you don't need Unlimited. Remember that the products themselves are just the tools to the end result...it doesn't really matter how you reach the end result. When you show your work to your client, are they gonna say "You didn't use Syflex for that did you?" No, because all they care about is 1) whether or not it looked good and 2) whether or not you stayed on budget/on time. I'm sure there are people that could do the exact same thing in the built-in features of Maya that others couldn't dream of doing in Syflex, etc. and vice versa. Really it all just comes down to time. If you can believe that you can save enough time to be worth $2500, then it'd be worth it.

I guess the main point is this: Time is money. If you have a need in fluids, cloth, etc. that Maya Complete simply can't fulfill, then you may need Maya Unlimited. No one else can determine if you have that need though because no one else knows your projects, time constraints and budgets like you do.

Another consideration is whenever you get a "special deal", make sure its legit. Unfortunately there's a lot of scams out there and you can never be too careful.

[Venkman]

Hey, thanks for your reply! I am just thinking out loud, but...

Basically, I do not do work right now with Maya that makes any money. Occasionally I integrate it into my flash work at the office. I am working on a couple of video game projects that will have full motion video cutscenes and I could definitely see using cloth and fluids (possibly hair) - it may help me get a new job doing something more focused on 3d.

I was thinking more like does Syflex totally outperform cloth? I know it is faster, but the integration of Maya Cloth seems like it might have hidden advantages, like working directly with the Maya dynamics and fluids systems (as shown by some tutorials on this site!)

And does Shave and a haircut offer any positives beyond Maya Hair and Fur? Maya hair does work with renderman, which I could see using at some point in the future- and shave and a haircut does not work with Renderman at present.

I guess what it comes down to is, do the third party tools offer a significant advantage besides price (or not price, as is the case with Syflex $2000= OUCH!).


Another consideration is whenever you get a "special deal", make sure its legit. Unfortunately there's a lot of scams out there and you can never be too careful.

I assure you the deal is legit, it is an upgrade path offered from Autodesk. Apparently they do something like this every once in a while.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=8140788&linkID=5926280

[Venkman]

Also I was just thinking of one advantage Maya's plugins have- you don't need to worry about them working when a new version is released.

Hmmm. I guess people are waiting for Maya 8 versions of some of their tools right now.

[moonie]

I have always seen maya as something that should be bought by companies or small groups. 2500$ is way too much for a single man and his hobby. I ... erm... just downloaded a torrent and I got it for free. It's not the right way but it's not fair either to set the prize so high. the same goes for photoshop, after effects and all the other way too expensive programs

[danlefeb]

Venkman - If its mainly just a hobby, I personally wouldn't upgrade until I felt that I couldn't live without it...but once again, it all depends on your situation. If $2500 isn't that much to you, it may take much less time for it to be worth the cost. Personally, I don't have Syflex so I couldn't tell you if its worth the extra $2000 for it is worth it but I'd probably look at it this way: for the extra $500 you get fluids, hair/fur, etc. Any way you look at it, as a hobbyist, the purchase would be an investment. The main question is, how much of an investment can you afford? If it were me, I'd take the risk that the special price may go up and wait until I feel extremely comfortable in Maya Complete before upgrading. You never know, you may find out down the road that you can achieve the results you want without even needing cloth, etc.

Moonie - If you're a hobbyist who doesn't want to pay the prices for software, then you should get the PLE software - thats what its for...it shouldn't matter if it has a watermark if you're doing work that you're not trying to sell. Software packages such as Maya, Photoshop, AE, etc. can generate a huge amount of income and the prices they cost are a small price to pay for the amount of money they can generate. Basically, they can pay for themselves very quickly. There are plenty of software tools such as Photoshop Expressions that are cheaper products intended specifically for the hobbyist who isn't willing to pay prices for a product that won't pay for itself.

[Venkman]

Thanks for the advice. I've got some thinking to do!

Oh and Moonie? You are the reason companies charge more over time. Don't pirate software. Try going to Siggraph and telling people that you pirated it and see the reactions of the developers personally. They don't appreciate it and neither do the paying customers.

If the price is too much there are other software programs that are either free or cheaper.