Fabric Engine ceases development

Oh, Autodesk (#) (replace the name with some other big generic software predator, if you like), but why?

My guess is absorbed into Unreal

A real shame.. The lack of any explanation does raise some questions. Maybe their tech will be reincarnated in due course?

That must be the worst case for such a tool that wants to be deeply integrated into a pipeline. Well, let’s see what the reason is and whether it will resurface someplace else…

Prediction: Added to Max…developed for nine months, then abandoned in highly unstable condition.

The fact that they can’t comment could be good or bad news. I’ll hope for good news. 🙂

Everyone here appears to feel bad about this, but did anyone of you actually ever use it? I would not be surprised if the end of development was simply caused by the lack of interest.

To me, these guys never did a good job of explaining what Fabric actually is, and neither did they do a good job of putting it out there for users to play with. There was no “Download Fabric” or “Try it today” button on their site. There was just this usual cryptic paragraph saying “contact us, and we’ll figure out some deal”.

That is the exact kind of marketing Eyeon did, which nearly killed fusion before Blackmagic has bought it. They also always showcased a different tool or tech built on top of their Engine, making it hard to understand what form their Engine actually has for typical end user. With Houdini, it’s at least clear – you get a full DCC app with complete UI and engine plugins for other software like Max, Maya or UE4. With Fabric, you get those plugins too, but what is the base product? They never did a good job showcasing that.

So in the end, it had this consistent image of very inaccessible high end, complex tool designed to be integrated in the pipelines of big studios, and since there was already strong competition from Houdini, I indeed would not be surprised if the reason for EOL was simply a lack of interest, not acquisition.

The software used to cost around $20k-40K (I think yearly??)
It was a quite useful tool, but you also need programmers and highly trained people to get something useful out of it.
Maya is heading towards this procedural approach anyway, so let’s see where we get in the next couple of years.

I wonder what big companies that had developed a “software agnostic rigging system” (but based on fabric engine!) will do now… change it all again, probably. (DNeg I am looking at you!)

I don’t think Autodesk bought them or any other between software devs since i guess they would announce it at least like it was not that long ago with MASH with the proper announcement and what not. Considering they probably had who know how many users at very least they could’ve said what is going on – dead and buried or sold and integrated somewhere else.

I think the reason people are thinking maybe they’ve been absorbed in some way is because no information/explanation sounds like an NDA is in force, which might not make sense if they were simply winding up development? Perhaps the radio silence/suspension of service is part one of a transition. Or perhaps they were vulnerable and someone just bought their tech to take it off the market and doesn’t want to shout about it. These are only a guesses of course.