Comment Re:Nice work if you can get it (Score 1) 305
Consider the latest Keurig machines. Some doofus at Keurig decided that only official K-cups will be allowed to use their machines hoping that the public would get used to it and not buy k-cups that aren't compatible thus driving them out of the marketplace at which point they jack up the prices. What's happened though is that the consumer rejected it and the hacker community hacked the machines to work with 3rd party k-cups. It's a bit like Napster was to the long-entrenched record labels who enjoyed being able to sell you 11 crappy songs for 1 good one.
This is how the 3D animation marketplace has been evolving. Autodesk owns the two most popular software products so they can charge more for them. Sure, there are a couple of second-tier tools and some open-source stuff but if you want to work for the major VFX or game companies, you'd better know Maya and/or 3D Studio (not the Pixar's of the world as they write their own stuff).