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Exploring New Dimensions
Discreet, Softimage and Alias executives say corporate changes won't harm 3D software users
 By Lisa Taylor
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The rumor mill began grinding away last fall when Discreet's parent Autodesk announced that “changes were a coming.” Then Softimage underwent some restructuring. A few weeks ago, there was talk of layoffs at Discreet, and Alias' announcement that it was parting ways with SGI. Leading up to this, Avid acquired NXN, makers of alienbrain, and rumors suggesting that Softimage would soon be on the receiving end of a round of Avid layoffs surfaced.

It’s been a tumultuous time for the Big Three 3D animation software makers, and users of 3ds max, Softimage|XSI and Maya are concerned about what the future holds for their favorite tools. We talked to Discreet, Softimage and Alias to find out what’s true, what’s not, and how it will affect users.[an error occurred while processing this directive]Discreet and 3ds max
“To quote Mark Twain,” says Discreet General Manager, Paul Lypaczewski, with a chuckle, “rumors of max’s demise are greatly exaggerated.”

Lypaczewski, who is also executive vice president of Autodesk, is referring to rumors that have been circulating since Discreet underwent a course of layoffs in its San Francisco office two weeks ago. The layoffs affected, “a minority of our 3ds max development team,” he states.

The story behind the recent layoffs goes something like this: In November 2003, Autodesk made the announcement that it would lay off between 550 and 650 of its more than 4,000 employees in order to reduce costs and raise operating margins to 18% to 20% vs. 12% in the previous quarter. The Discreet division, which according to Autodesk financial statements has itself been operating at a deficit for the past six quarters, was asked to restructure in order to help bring these operating margins in line with the new goals.

Paul Lypaczewski
“The recent layoffs are really part of a process that began two years ago,” explains Lypaczewski. “Last year the [post-production] systems side of the business was affected. Layoffs are the hardest part of the job and we made sure we handled this with the utmost professionalism. One never does this without consideration as to the impact; however, it’s a matter of taking a mature approach to running the business so we can be a healthy company. It goes without saying that we wouldn’t do any of this without insuring that there is a vibrant and healthy development team around the max product.”

One of the many stories that immediately began circulating was that the San Francisco office would be closed entirely, and all development moved to the Montreal office. Says Lypacewski, “We are looking at the opportunity to invest in Canada and some of the cost structures in place there – so yes, we will be putting some animation activities up there. This is not, however, to the exclusion of our doing things in San Francisco. We have a strong, talented team in San Francisco and in the United States at large. There will be some core 3ds max development in Montreal, but then there have always been core development activities for max in Montreal – it’s really more of an adjustment in that regard.”

Lypaczewski says that he doesn’t foresee the recent changes disrupting the current 3ds max development cycle. As far as long-term impact on the development of the product, Lypaczewski had only this to say: “We want to ramp up our animation business and are looking to hire in the Montreal office.”





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