There's No Business Like 3D CGI Software Business
The history of ???? ?????? ???????????????? for the entertainment industry is frequently overlooked, yet it is fascinating.
Here's a quick overview.??
At the beginning of the 80s, the same phenomenon of state intervention gave rise to pioneering companies in ???????????? ????and ????????????????.-
Remarkably, the ??????, which pioneered research into ???? ??????, had major players in ??????/??????, dominated the hardware sector, was a leader in the entertainment industry... was relatively absent from this revolution in ???? ?????? for entertainment.?
Created in 1984, ?????????????????? was one of the few US players to focus on this type of use, even though Evans & Sutherland had already explored the growth potential of this market in the mid-70s, seeking partnerships with Disney among others.
The "serious" ??????/?????? and military markets certainly seemed too juicy to waste time with the showmen.??
Then came the time for consolidation and FuSac :
There will still be FuSac :
领英推荐
In the end it's ????????????????, a ???? ????player who, as early as 1982, took the gamble on ?????? software for the anemic ???? platform with ??????????????, who wins the bet.
And the little ???? ???????????? on ???? that many people regarded as a toy in its early days, had in the meantime made quite a name for itself.
If there's one moral to be drawn from this, it's that the ??????/?????? market, who is still ????????????????'s cash machine, is far more solid and profitable than entertainment. (A figure from Autodesk's annual financial statements : despite the company's stranglehold on commercial entertainment offerings, these only account for 12.7% of turnover.???)
And, secondly, that the ???????????????? ????'s gamble against the wonderful ???????? ???????????????????????? was a good one.
What’s truly impressive is the data presented in the document submitted to the SEC for Autodesk's IPO in 1985, just three years after the company's founding.
The sustained growth and, most notably, the impressive profitability stand out, especially when compared to the figures of other companies that focused on 3D for entertainment.
In the end, the true Eldorado lay more in CAD than in Entertainment, which largely explains the ultimate success.
Although Autodesk now has a significant share of the ???? ?????? entertainment software market, there's one fact that still surprises when I mention it to my industry colleagues, so much so that many of them don't believe me : ?????? ?????????? ?????? ?????????????????????????? ?????????????? ???????? ???? ???????? ??.??% ???? ????????????????'?? ?????????? ???? ?????? ???????? ???????????? ????????.
The realities of the ???? ?????? software market : growth and profits are driven and has been for a very long time driven by industry, not entertainment!
A huge thank you to all these pioneers of???????, ??????????????????, ??????????|?????????????????? ??
And today's frontier explorers are much more likely to be found in Unreal Engine, Unity, Adobe Substance 3D and the remarkable Blender.???
3D Animator
6 个月Quite a bit of history is absent here. Aside from what Jordi has already mentioned there was Ampex, Cubicomp, Apollo, Crystal Topas, Digital Arts, Evans & Sutherland, Intelligent Light, Pinnacle, and so many others. So much of this history preceded what we think of as the internet today that you wont find most of it online. But in the beginning there were dozens of companies all trying to become major players. Alot of them crossing over from video to embrace the new digital paradigm. Companies like Cubicomp once boasted in the late 80’s of having more of its animation systems deployed than any other developer. At $60K, compared to the cost of Wavefront or Alias, this was quite possibly an accurate boast. I worked on five Cubicomp Picturemakers in three different locations. Finding a Wavefront or Poweranimator in those days was a difficult prospect. Cubicomp, for a brief moment anyway about 87-90, was a major power player, if not the leading player, at the time. Sadly however the company failed in spectacular fashion after acquiring Vertigo and making some very bad mistakes. Softimage would take advantage of the moment by appealling to many former Cubi users and quickly filled that vacuum with a far superior product.
Media and Entertainment professional, with an eye on technology/state of the art/innovation and another on business/revenue/excellence
6 个月Prisms, Vertigo, were CGI software from North America (canada if I am not wrong, Prims was precursor of Houdini). In the netherlands was ElectroGIG 3D-Go, all on SGI in the times of TDI/Wavefront/Alias/Softimage. Lightwave and 3D Studio were strong on Amiga and PC respectively.