Allegorithmic is joining the Adobe family (part 1)

[King Mango]

I wanted to buy Maya out the gate. When Autodesk went to subscription only (with that laughable pricetag to boot) I bought Modo instead. Straight up bought the perpetual, not the indie.

Yaknow, people may diss the Foundry but they did ok by my book when they "changed Modo to subscription."
  - Got a perpetual?  It's all yours forever.
  - Want a perpetual?  Sure, we got those, too.
  - Want maintenance to keep your perpetual updated?  Sure thing, and you keep the latest copy of the software forever, even if maintenance expires!  Hey, if you get maintenance when you first purchase Modo, we'll even knock $200 off every year, as long as you maintain it.  Let's reward the loyalty.
  - Just want the software for a couple of months?  Here's the subscription options.  You can't keep the software after it runs out, but this'll get you through your current project.
 
It's like... something for everyone.  And so much better than -any- plain subscription model.  I can't understand why more companies (Autodesk, Adobe, etc.) don't offer both and everything in between.

I have to agree but Adobe will kill perpetual. What can you currently buy perpetual from Adobe? Unless I'm uninformed, nothing.
This is my biggest complaint. I want to return to game design and bought Painter a month ago. I would have bought a perpetual license from Maya but now I rent LT. At the end of this "rental" I will not renew, I will move to Blender. Autodesk lost money on me. 2k give or take iirc.
I have used Adobe's photographer bundle for three years now but now that there are robust alternatives to Lightroom and Photoshop, I am going to let that subscription expire as well. Adobe lost 700-ish bucks on me.
I love the community, and I love the support of devs like Wes and Jeremie. Joining this niche of artists had an underground feel to it.
At the end of the day, WE ALL want to take our passion and turn it into financial reward and security. I wish Allegorithmic all the best on their new journey.
But I hope Allegorithmic understands that we counted on Painter and Designer to help US turn our passion into financial reward and security, and at the core of this shitstorm, that is the reason for such a violent reception. A lot of us feel as if our dreams have just had the carpet yanked out from under. And that's scary.

[flcc]

It's like seeing someone you love move definitively to another country.

Very sad in fact, because I won't follow you into the adobe CC lands !

[JamesArndt]

It's not as if Adobe couldn't see where this workflow was headed for several industries that utilize texturing. We could all see several years ago that texturing was moving away from the "flat" workflow in Photoshop and moving to this kind of material and texture generation. Photoshop ends up being the last spot in the pipeline, just for corrections and final touches. It makes sense that they would want to take control of where the industry was heading and have authority over that. An acquisition of Allegorithmic makes sense from a smart business perspective. It will help Adobe stay relevant in these specific industries. From a user's perspective, this is not a good move, not by a long shot. Adobe has no history of giving it's users control and flexibility in licensing or usage, they have a history of exerting control over the entire process. I can't speak for everyone, but for myself, Creative Cloud is insidious and strips away the fine control I try to have over my software and hardware. Adobe isn't about giving freedom or control to the users, it's about exerting it's will ON its users. So why would anyone of sound mind think this announcement would be welcomed and congratulated. It isn't celebrated and that's clear by 30+ pages of direct user feedback.

My hope is some new company steps up and creates something new, something that represents what Allegorithmic once did, and something that puts control back into the user's hands and out of the hands of a monolithic corporation. I just can't see how Allegorithmic didn't have faith in themselves? How they couldn't see their own value far above and beyond a corporation such as Adobe? You guys were and are disrupting several industries, creating new tech with procedural generation that didn't have to look...procedural. You were very focused on your users and offered flexible licensing plans, showing you set each user and their needs as a priority. You were setting an industry standard and moving PBR forward. I can't believe, after what you've accomplished so far, that your engineers could not have exceeded and improved what you've already built. Created and grown something to stand alongside Adobe products....not be assimilated by them. To be generically thrown into some Adobe suite of tools. You guys could have made a better choice, but that's my own opinion.

[Froyok]

And all the while the evidence was right under our noses.......

I'm sorry but this had nothing to do with the announcement from yesterday. You are trying to push for a narrative that doesn't exist here.
At that time it was just a partnership like we did many times before. We also integrated a Snapchat/Lens-studio shader and template for example. We do many integrations and exporters for other application inside Substance Painter. Our next version will also have a new one.

[midnightbadger]

Can't say that I'm not disappointed by this move but then I've hardly been able to use painter since the 2.0 update because I used a custom Mac with Nvidia GTX 980Ti which you decided you couldn't support due to lack of resources... you now have infinite resources at your disposal, will this stance now change?

I have however had to switch to an AMD GPU because of the Mojave/Nividia issues... will you be supporting those of us with AMD hardware or does your Nvidia backroom exclusivity deal still stand going forward?

I have a perpetual license and would only wish to renew if you added cross UDIM painting (essential for VFX industry) is that something that the resources of Adobe Corp can help you with or have you already nailed it and are waiting to release in the next update?

Or have you nailed UDIMs already which is why Adobe were keen to seal the deal, now that you are a viable film industry alternative to Mari and will only be released when you go fully Creative Cloud subscription?

[trist]

And all the while the evidence was right under our noses.......

I'm sorry but this had nothing to do with the announcement from yesterday. You are trying to push for a narrative that doesn't exist here.
At that time it was just a partnership like we did many times before. We also integrated a Snapchat/Lens-studio shader and template for example. We do many integrations and exporters for other application inside Substance Painter. Our next version will also have a new one.

Methinks the humour of the previous post has evaded you.

No need to get defensive.  Save your energy for when you have to explain to us all why substance has become subscription-only.

[Weezer]

Can't say that I'm not disappointed by this move but then I've hardly been able to use painter since the 2.0 update because I used a custom Mac with Nvidia GTX 980Ti which you decided you couldn't support due to lack of resources... you now have infinite resources at your disposal, will this stance now change?...

Slightly off-topic, but Painter has worked with the Mac Pro and GTX980Ti for a while now – that's the exact same setup I have. It mysteriously started working again several releases ago!

[dirk0901]

Wow... congrats! Money rules... Nothing will change? Ridiculous! Guys... it's up to us!... Adobe won't see my money... RIP Allegorithmic...

[portland12345]

Sigh.

Of all companies you could have joined up with you found Adobe.

Let me guess off of Steam in few months.

Off to insane subscription model we go huh?


...................

To the people that worked on substance, I have nothing but praise. Honestly it's an incredible piece of software.

I am gonna disable updates on my steam and keep using substance 2018 forever. That is all I can say how I feel about this merger.

[magicnono]

Now, nothing will really ties you to provide new features, you are big brother bouhhhh

[juricakrizanic]

Trying not to be salty, just giving my objective feedback regarding the topic:
For me the main selling point of Allegorithmic's software was the flexible business model itself. Personally, I use substance only occasionally as I keep most of my work in Houdini. That being said, there is absolutely no way I'm paying a monthly subscription for something I don't use on a daily basis, no matter the price. Yes, I'm aware licensing won't change for now, but we all know adobe, hence the reserved "for now" part. From the very start, the main selling point was the ability the buy perpetual licenses and have that software lying around until I needed it and if I liked new updates enough, I was willing to pay for the upgrade. And I had faith you were going to deliver those worthy updates (and you did so far, so thanks for that). Part of which was because you needed those worthy updates to keep selling your product. Forgive my skepticism, but with subscription only based business model (led by no one else but adobe), I kinda doubt those worthy updates will be happening.

I've been able to dodge adobe so far and unfortunately, I won't jump aboard this train with you. Now my only wish is to keep my perpetuals for the software version I payed for, adobe not being able to scam me into their subscription down the road and repress the sad memory of all of this happening. Allegorithmic not being corporate is what gave me confidence in it's future, this software package just lost all it's appeal to me. Hope it was a fine sum, as many hearts were broken for it.

You were to bring balance to the force, not leave it in darkness

[kevin.frey]

Taking the time to digest all of this and shed some of my initial anger and fear, I do believe Allegorithmic and Adobe have plans to continue developing these tools with amicable intent.

I even believe Adobe may have plans to introduce a 3D plan in their CC crapfest, containing these tools and perhaps others.

The transition may even be less horrible than we're all predicting and for a time thereafter things may be different, but not necessarily bad.

I also believe that won't last. I suspect in time, after the honeymoon period, Adobe will decide to sell and market these tools as they have all their others, which will leave everyone who can't afford them in the dust.

My sub expires in 310 days. I'll ride this out for a while and see what happens, but I'm still very wary. Allegorithmic has been a great ally and I want to give them the benefit of the doubt about this change. I can wait to see what announcements they have coming before committing to jumping ship right away.

My expectation is Adobe will do what Adobe does and stagnate innovation while asking for more and more money.

[brandonwhix]

Hey guys, not sure if it’s ok to share here, but I’ve been following the discussion about using Blender 2.8 and it’s new texturing features and wanted to toss my hat in the ring here.

I’m a Blender Foundation Certified Trainer and I have an educational company called The Orange Guild that’s running a Blender 2.8 Migration Workshop next week for 4 days.

If you’re interested in learning Blender 2.8 for the upcoming release and don’t have any experience or just want help with the new features transitioning from Blender 2.79 then this workshop is a great shortcut.
In a portion I’ll be discussing Blender’s PBR workflow and it’s new real-time rendering engine EEVEE. If you’re interested check out the page here:

https://theorangeguild.com/migrating-to-blender-2-8-workshop

It’s available to purchase through the weekend and will start 10am central time Monday morning.

Thanks guys!

[volker]

The last line in a related CGChannel article says it all:

As 3D artist Virgil Sisoe put it: “People pay Allegorithmic because they really want to do so. People pay Adobe because they are forced to do so.”

[Rawbdiel]

You guys have been doing an amazing job since the beginning. I haven't used Photoshop to create textures in a long time. I can see why they needed to acquire you guys. Hopefully you can continue to grow and create a better product.