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I went to the Maya site in search of the indie license information. Interestingly enough, they hide that as well as MAXON hides cost information about their perpetual license upgrades. I did not find any information on the indie licensing. I had to do a wider Google search (check here) to find that it was $250/year. It is apparent that Autodesk is setting the price ceiling on subscription licensing fees and that MAXON's position will always be competitive to what Autodesk does (eg. something lower). Maya's licensing fees are absolutely horrendous and death to the hobbyist: no perpetual licenses and $1620/year. As a hobbyist, nothing would drive me to Blender faster than should MAXON follow Maya's subscription plan . But nothing would keep me perpetually dedicated to Cinema 4D faster than if MAXON followed Maya's indie plan. So obviously, something drove Autodesk to offer an indie license and I am pretty sure that it wasn't just because they wanted to be nice people and feel good about themselves. It was probably something we all expected: Their customer base of indie users was bigger than they expected and they lost a good chunk of that base when they implemented their high cost subscription plan. Where that base went (Houdini, Blender, C4D) is anyone's guess, but it represented enough revenue to Autodesk that they took it seriously and wanted it back and thus implemented their indie pricing plan in key markets only (obviously markets with a lot of indie users ---- proof enough that they weren't just being nice guys but trying to win back customers). I think MAXON is trying to dance somewhere in between with a subscription plan that is acceptable to everyone. Whether or not the hard core hobbyist buys into their middle ground approach will become evident over the next couple of months as the last of the MSA's expire and the hobbyist is faced with a choice: submit to the subscription plan for however long you want to keep using C4D or pay the higher cost of a perpetual license. So...if history is any judge....I say we stand our ground. No matter how exciting the next release looks, hold onto R21. Every company sets budgets predicated on a prediction of future revenue. Given MAXON's recent acquisition costs (Redshift and Red Giant), their cash reserves may not be what they once were...some of their cushion could be gone. So meeting their revenue targets could be something they deeply care about more about now than they did in the past. Therefore, if that revenue is unexpectedly less than what they predicted, they could change plans in favor of the hobbyist. That is what Audodesk did. So hold tight people and see what happens. "We are in the endgame now" Dave

If such a time ever comes when I leave Cinema (which isn't looking immediately likely) then this is definitely a viable option. Making stuff in Maya might be a bit like painting a hallway through a letterbox, but nobody can deny it has ALL the tools, specially in the modelling and rigging departments, though it is strong pretty much everywhere TBH... I have traditionally massively disliked Autodesk and the things they do, but this sort of exceptionally reasonable pricing definitely makes me dislike them a bit less. But only a bit because I bet they only did it because they felt they had to 🙂 CBR

And if you do get the call, surely you are the only person they can compel to share what you specifically got paid - the company that paid you are under no obligation at all to give them that project-wide info because the contract is not with them - it's with the artist. Or am I missing something obvious here ? CBR

I strongly suspect they are doing this so big companies - games companies, tv production studios, etc etc - dont just hire 'freelancers' with indie licences, to avoid the cost of buying full commercial licences. I'm pretty sure those big companies would be the prime targets of the Autodesk legal depatment for any infringements. I think you'd be pretty unlucky as a small time freelancer with a range of small clients to get the call.

My last Gothic horror animation, Cask of Amontillado was chosen for the "Another Hole in the head" film festival in San Francisco. This year it is online like many other festivals and I might be asked to do a Q&A as well. online means anyone anywhere can see it now so I hope I reach a lot of people and they like the film! https://www.ahith.com/mrholeheadswarpeddimension

Nope, this is only for US. Autodesk changed their terms for each country (sneaky bastards 😛 ) So for instance, in Brazil, we cant make more than 50k per year (in US is 100k) but we still have to pay the same rental price. Also, we have this budget limitation by project, of 100k. There is a sneaky similar limitation like that for Japan users for instance, there was a big discussion around that.