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Maya now Free for Personal Use 411

Posted by CowboyNeal from the get-your-movies-on dept.
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.
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Maya now Free for Personal Use More

Maya now Free for Personal Use

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  • 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?

    • yep (Score:2)

      by Kircle ( 564389 )
      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.
    • 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...
    • haven't they been offering the commercial edition for free on Kazaa since it was released?? :)

  • Nothing new here (Score:5, Informative)

    by mmp ( 121767 ) on Thursday October 16, 2003 @11:36PM (#7237144) Homepage
    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.
    • I always find it annoying when somebody puts out an announcement that Foobie Bletch 5.7 has been released, with an URL for the Big!! Announcement!! web site that says that the Personal Edition now supports the Skins and Graphics Accelerators that were introduced in Foobie Bletch Professional 5.1!! and an FAQ that tells you how to work around the popular bugs in the installer and Doesn't tell you what the bloody product does!

      So The Maya Family of Products [alias.com] are a bunch of tools for video animation and specia

    • From the first link in the article -

      Maya Personal Learning Edition 5 Offers:
      A new hardware rendering option using the power of next-generation graphics cards. Get near software-quality images at often dramatically faster speeds.
      A unified rendering workflow for easy and consistent access through a common interface.
      Animation enhancements to constraints, forward/inverse kinematics and ghosting for added flexibility.
      Maya Paint Effects(TM) to polygon conversion for a whole new range of looks plus mor
      • Blockquoth the poster:

        Ooo ooo I know! It's an office suite! What? That's wrong? Damn I wish the site said what it was! These clues are too hard to figure out!

        Yes, and information on the first page of the linked site definitely helps me decide if I should bother clicking through and checking out the site. It must be nice, having a pipe so wide that your bandwidth is clairvoyant... We'll leave aside the obvious case of slashdotted sites.

        The person to whom you replied was making the entirely reasonable

    • The Maya PLE is fairly limited -- watermarked images, a non-commercial-Maya-compatible file format (so you can't just use PLE for modeling seats, for example), resolution caps and a few others.

      Again, the 'don't get me wrong' caviat: it's awesome that Alias is allowing students and people trying to get into the CG/VFX fields a chance to be honest while learning the software. A lot of us (myself included) used *cough* other means to learn the products back in the day, then bought in (or had our companies buy
  • 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'
    • Home computers now have an amazing array of artistic tools available. Between my digital camera, camcorder, and Mr. Firewire, it's theoretically possible to shoot some still pictures and video, title them and edit amazingly smooth transitions, rivaling the production abilities of some smaller hollywood facilities.

      Sadly, I still jiggle the goddam camera, and mostly shoot video of the inside of the lens cap.

      Spielberg doesn't have to worry about missing a paycheck yet. :-)

    • Another Idea: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by ciaran_o_riordan ( 662132 )
      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 [blender.org] 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

  • Finally! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Max Romantschuk ( 132276 ) <max@romantschuk.fi> on Thursday October 16, 2003 @11:38PM (#7237155) Homepage
    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?
    • Or even just offer it for a lower price, but maybe higher than the student price.

      I once talked to a lady at Wolfram about offering a version of Mathematica for interested end-users who were no longer students. Told her I'd gladly pay $400 or so for it. (The student version was like $130 and the full version like $1200.) She actually seemed to take the suggestion seriously, but I never heard anything back regarding a decision.

  • duh. (Score:2)

    by Sj0 ( 472011 )
    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.

  • Linux Version? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by gmuslera ( 3436 ) * on Thursday October 16, 2003 @11:41PM (#7237171) Homepage Journal
    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.
  • Time to /. a 500mb download. That'll teach em for givin' stuff away for free.

  • Except for the fact that... (Score:4, Informative)

    by G-funk ( 22712 ) <josh@gfunk007.com> on Thursday October 16, 2003 @11:42PM (#7237179) Homepage Journal
    It watermarks all your images, and even some of the UI panels, making it next to useless.
    • I haven't used Maya, so I'm no authority, but it looks like it's in the same realm as blender [blender.org]. 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
      • To say that Maya is in the same realm as Blender is to say that Linux is in the same realm as Minix.

        The fact is, Maya has Blender beat, hands down. Hell, Alias' previous 3D animation package, PowerAnimator, probably had Blender beat too.

      • 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 an
    • Game-development wise, it locks down all 3rd party plug-ins and will only store to a properietary "learning edition" file format.

      There's no practical way without hacking it to get to the geometry; thus making it useless for indie game development.

      • thus making it useless for indie game development.
        That must be why it's called the "Personal Learning Edition"...
        It's there to allow you to play and learn with Maya, not for developing any kind of product (including indie/free stuff).

    • 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.
      • 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.
        Instead, what we see here is the PLE, which is old news.
        For someone who read the /. 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.
      • 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 ca

  • Oh please, biggest BS line ever (Score:4, Funny)

    by Alcimedes ( 398213 ) on Thursday October 16, 2003 @11:42PM (#7237180)
    "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.

  • Damn, no linux :( (Score:3, Informative)

    by incom ( 570967 ) on Thursday October 16, 2003 @11:42PM (#7237185)
    Apparently they are only giving the Windows and OSX versions away, even though linux versions exist.
    • I'm fairly experienced with Maya for Linux (it runs on Red Hat only, and each version of Maya is only qualified for a single version of Red Hat with very strict dynamic library version rules).

      In short, it's an absolute bitch to configure and get running properly, and it assumes and (in some cases) requires that you have high end hardware. How many students do you know who just happen to have a Wildcat collecting dust in their Linux box? Own one of the two sound cards that's qualified for it?

      Regardless, th
  • Watch them reconsider this when they see how much bandwidth they burn today thanks to /. :D
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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 cou
  • You could download Maya Personal Learning Edition from thier website since 2002 (at least).
  • This has been around since maya 4. It IS NOT [alias.com] 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.

  • Maya PLE was already free... (Score:5, Informative)

    by agent oranje ( 169160 ) on Thursday October 16, 2003 @11:47PM (#7237220) Journal
    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!

    Strangely enough, I downloaded v5.0 last night from the kind folks at Alias... no slashdot effect for me :D

    • 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.

  • pssst! (Score:3, Informative)

    by mrpuffypants ( 444598 ) * <mrpuffypants&gmail,com> on Thursday October 16, 2003 @11:47PM (#7237221)
    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 [slashdot.org]
    • Watch out!

      The next Dup is almost ready! Subscribers can see it first ! (You must log in to use this feature)
  • 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 cour
  • 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....

  • 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

  • Yes! (Score:3, Funny)

    by PovRayMan ( 31900 ) on Thursday October 16, 2003 @11:57PM (#7237287) Homepage
    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!
  • reference here [southparkstudios.com].

  • Not as good as it sounds (Score:3, Informative)

    by Andy Smith ( 55346 ) on Friday October 17, 2003 @12:04AM (#7237321)
    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.
    • Get off your high horse. This isn't new. Maya PLE has been available since at least 2002.

      Maya Complete is already fairly cheap as it is, at least as far as professional-level programs go.

      It's called the Personal Learning Edition for a reason. The SDK and plug-in support are disabled so that you can't do the majority of your studio's work on Maya PLE and then buy one Maya Complete license when you're nearly done for rendering.

      Don't blame Alias when they give away a watermarked version of their bread and b
  • ...I'll make sure to tell him I saw you could get her for free on the Internet. ;-)
  • 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 [space1999.net] and rips your gonads off, you'll think "personal use".

  • Same idea... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Delphinios ( 43483 ) on Friday October 17, 2003 @01:22AM (#7237638)
    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!
    • Yes, why do you think the 'educators & students' version of microsoft office is avaialble at best buy for 129?

      maybe because no one will pay almost 500$ for what they percieve to be a word processor program.

  • Select your operating system | View System Requirements
    • Windows 2000/XP Professional (133 MB download) (Not available for Windows 98/ME)
    • Macintosh OS X (110 MB download)
    • *(Not available for Mac OS 9 or earlier)
      (Not available for IRIX or LINUX)
    If one has to buy Windoze or another proprietary OS to use it, whatever is offered is not free. :'(
  • when you know a girl called Maya, this story conjures up more than just raytraced pool balls :S

  • 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.
  • Anyone have info on Rhino [rhino3d.com]?

    Is Maya in the same league?

    The Maya/Alias/AutoCAD/Discreet site pops up an uncancellable cookie.

    Not a good sign.
  • 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 :)
    << 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, t
  • 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 onl
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • OK, it's not Maya. But Blender [blender3d.org] is a free as in beer OSS program for 3d and character modelling. I figured it could use a plug. You can even buy how-to books at your local store and get the software with them. Downloads available for:

    Windows
    Mac OS X
    Linux 386
    Linux PPC
    FreeBSD
    Irix
    Solaris
    NetBSD

    Developer site: www.blender.org [blender.org]

  • Read the FAQ:
    http://www.alias.com/eng/products-services/m aya/ma ya_ple/faq.shtml

    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.
  • There's also a free version of SOFTIMAGE|XSI [softimage.com], 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 [sidefx.com]. Houdini is kind of a niche product in the cinematic effects industry, very powerful though not as well known as either Maya or SOFTIMAGE.

  • Non-commercial applications... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by stickyc ( 38756 ) on Friday October 17, 2003 @11:26AM (#7240655) Homepage
    "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. :)"

    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.

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