Been messing around with Arnold and like the results I'm getting but the price point of $1,200 just seems way too steep. Especially for someone like me who is using Houdini Indie which comes in at $200 a year. Even the daily rental cost of $7.5 a day (with a $400 minimum) is too pricey.
I feel like you either:
Use the free watermarked version, which you can't really use for your reel.
Pirate it.
Pay for a $1,200 license.
If they charged $100 a year for a limited license they're going to bring in a lot more money from people who wouldn't have considered getting a license to begin with no?
Maybe I'm being naive but with Houdini Indie (and Mantra) being so affordable, Pixar giving RenderMan and The Foundry giving Nuke non-commercial versions away for free it feels like most companies are realizing that it's easier to develop loyalty if you're willing to work with potential customers' budgets.
Arnold belongs to autodesk so they know exactly how to earn money.
I dont think they will make a low cost version because the cirrent income stream is good with a low cost version it could hurt there income.
The reason why SESI have made a indie version is that in the indie market there sales where in the 0-2% range. So a new product ala houdini indie didn't hurt there business model.
