01: Autodesk Acquires Alias On 4 October 2005, the entire 3D industry gasped when Autodesk announced that it would acquire arch-rival Alias for $182 million in cash. The surprise sent shockwaves throughout the community, as can be seen on CGTalk. Main points of the acquisition:
· Autodesk purchases Alias for $182 million cash
· The deal will be finalized in Q1 2006
· Business as usual while merger is finalized
· Focus on integrating workflow and interoperability between the products
· No immediate plans to cull any product lines, but continue them as per normal
· Both companies to continue normally with mutually exclusive product releases as planned
· Alias to leverage Autodesk’s massive distribution and marketing channels We're waiting to see the ramifications of the acquisition! Announcement - Autodesk Acquisition of Alias CGTalk Thread
2005 - The Year of Consolidation
There it is folks! The CG Top 20 of 2005, as compiled and voted by the community. With major acquisitions such as Adobe/Macromedia and Autodesk/Alias all happening in 2005, this year has truly been a year of consolidation. What it holds for the future of the industry, we'll wait and see... Wishing you all a very happy and blessed Christmas, and grand New Year! See you in 2006! Leonard Teo
The CGSociety
1
Autodesk Acquires Alias
2
Pixologic ZBrush Continues Prevalence
3
Adobe Acquires Macromedia
4
3D Industry Embraces 64-bit
5
King Kong
6
Dual Core Goes Mainstream
7
Pixar RenderMan for Maya
8
Apple Announces Move to Intel Processors
9
XBox 360
10
Alias Maya 7
11
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
12
Sin City
13
Softimage XSI 5.0
14
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
15
The CGSociety launches
16
Maxwell Render
17
Autodesk 3ds max 8
18
SOFTIMAGE | FACE ROBOT
19
Pixar LPics Interactive Lighting System
20
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
CG 2005 Retrospective Voting List
The full list of items compiled by the community for the CG Retrospective 2005 is on this CGTalk thread. Voting was performed on a basis of giving each item a score of 0-5 (0 was default). Each member was given the ability to vote once and score everything. The CG Top 20 list is a result of public voting. If an item is not on this list, it might have ranked lower than the top 20, or might not have been significant enough to be suggested by the thousands of people who viewed the thread. As the process of compiling and voting was public, there is no conspiracy or bias from the CGSociety towards the items listed in this Top 20.
The voting list as compiled publicly by the community was:
3D industry embraces 64 bit
9 - Shane Acker
Adobe Acquires Macromedia
Alias Maya 7
Apple announces move to Intel processors
Apple releases iPod with Video features
Autodesk 3ds max 8
Autodesk Acquires Alias
Avid Completes Acquisition of Pinnacle
Chicken Little Animation/VFX
Chris Landreth wins an Oscar for 'Ryan'
Corpse Bride Animation/VFX
Doom The Movie VFX
Dual Core goes mainstream
EXPOSE' 3. d'artiste: Character Modeling, d'artiste: Matte Painting
eyeon Software Fusion 5
Fantastic Four VFX
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Animation/VFX
finalRender Stage 2 for CINEMA 4D
Five Major Filmmakers Support TI’s Digital 3D Cinema
Flowline fluid dynamics
Gorillaz 'live'
Grand Theft Auto Hot Coffee Mod
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire VFX
Howl's Moving Castle animation/vfx
King Kong VFX
Luxology modo 103
Madagascar Animation/VFX
Maxon BodyPaint R2.5
Maxon CINEMA 4D R9.5
Maxwell Render
Michael Eisner Resigns from Walt Disney Co.
NVIDIA GeForce 7 series released
Pixar LPics Interactive Lighting System
Pixar Renderman for Maya
Pixologic ZBrush continued prevalence
Playstation Portable
Project Orange - Open Movie Project
Robots animation/vfx
Serenity VFX
SGI delisted from the NYSE
Shadow of the Colossus game
Side Effects Software Houdini 8
Sin City VFX
Softimage Face Robot
Softimage XSI 5.0
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith VFX
The CGSociety launches
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe VFX
The Henson Digital Performance System
The Island VFX
War of the Worlds VFX
XBox 360
