Autodesk today announced that it has closed the acquisition of essentially all assets of Softimage, a competing developer of 3D animation and effects technology for the film, television and games markets. The $35 million sale was announced late last month when Autodesk signed a definitive agreement to purchase the company form Avid Technology Inc.
‘We welcome Softimage customers, strategic partners and employees to Autodesk,’ says Marc Petit, senior VP of Autodesk Media & Entertainment. ‘This acquisition brings advanced 3D tools to our entertainment portfolio; tools that are known and loved by the 3D entertainment community. With production pipelines becoming entirely digital, and the convergence between games, film and television content, this acquisition is expected to complement and accelerate Autodesk’s work in building real-time, interactive 3D authoring tools.’
Marc Stevens, former general manager of Softimage, has joined the management team at Autodesk, which intends to maintain and expand the Softimage product line. Autodesk will sell stand-alone versions of both the SOFTIMAGE|XSI and SOFTIMAGE|Face Robot 3D software products, and the SOFTIMAGE|Cat character animation plug-in for Autodesk 3ds Max is expected to be integrated into the Autodesk 3ds Max product line. In addition, the SOFTIMAGE|Crosswalk interoperability solution will be integrated with Autodesk’s own interoperability technology.
Autodesk plans to continue to use the Softimage trademark, and the Softimage brand will become part of the Autodesk brand identity. While there are no immediate changes to the names of Softimage products, Autodesk intends to make alterations to product branding with the next software releases.
The Softimage online store is temporarily offline as Autodesk works to integrate it with its own online store. Within a few weeks, Autodesk expects to make Softimage products available online for customers based in the United States. Over time, the company intends to add Softimage products to its e-stores for all regions where other Autodesk products are sold online. For further information on the acquisition, go to www.autodesk.com/softimage.
