Re: Why does AD bother with desktop Compositors?

I admire your optimism. I love combustion and want nothing more than to see it developed.

Things are getting tighter in budget, not looser.
AD is cutting headcount, not hiring additional staff.
Accountants look at what is generating revenue and what is not.

Things that are generating revenue will have resources allocated to maintain them. Things that don't, will not.

combustion had a tiny but talented development team even at it's peak. (look at the credits in After Effects development alone....it's astounding)

They have essentially cut all marketing for combustion (ever see even a web banner for it?). Which means if someone new hears about it, they found it by accident, or saw someone else using it. What possible revenue could the software be generating for the company?

I'm a loyal fan of combustion, but after hearing about some of the schematic changes (branch selection), I was less inclined to upgrade to 2008 myself.

So what development and support assets do you give to a product that is generating next to no revenue, when you have less assets to work with.

It's not like AD will pull it off the market. It essentially costs nothing for them to leave it alone.

I don't have any inside info. I'm just looking at the big picture.

I still use it regularly (along side AE now) when I need roto, tracking, some times of stabalization, quickie matte generation, but my needs are simple....I have no need yet of these advanced file formats. The only deal breaker for me is that we will be migrating to Vista 64 Ultimate soon. If doesn't work in that environment would mean building a dual boot with XP.






Alex Udell

Editing, Motion Graphics, and Visual FX

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