Patrick blattner just posted to the poser list that he has been let go by MC. Metacreations is axeing almost all of the 3d Personnels and products!!! Is Poser Dead?!!!!!!! ScottA

Looks like some idiot of a consultant convinced them to focus only on one product... Listen... hear the slow ticking? That's the count down to Metacreations going bankrupt becuase they stop developing one fo the most suggseful applications in the last 5 years and put all their nuts in one sack....

Yep, Poser, Canoma, Carrera, Painter, KPT, Bryce, everything will probably be sold to other companies such as Adobe, Corel, etc. Either that, or the people being let go will start another company. I cannot believe this is happening. I guess it is all about corporate gains, venture capitalism, and the bottom line... $$$$$$$. Metastream is HUGE with ecommerce, and they are projecting to make billions of dollars off of it. That seems to be all the damn investors, and Board of Directors care about. Meanwhile all the people that use their low cost graphics solutions are shit out of luck. So we all get screwed unless they decide to sell those products to other vendors. Happens all the time though. Happened when Aldus became Adobe, and when Geocities became Yahoo, and when Visio became Microsoft. My bet is sooner rather than later, some company will buy all of these products from Meta, and we will be back in business. Only time will tell. co(V)(V)union

This may be a reflection of Meta's history more than anything else. They were forged via mergers of different companies with different products, and never really integrated those product lines. For example, how many rendering/raytracing engines was Meta maintaining? As far as I could tell each of Meta's 3D products (Bryce, Poser, RDS, Infini-D, etc) had its own separate rendering engine. I'd wager that the products shared very little code in total. That means entirely seperate engineering efforts to support and revise those products. This is a very costly business model to develop products with. Contrast this with Adobe: Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign share a great deal of code. The Photoshop code base is levereged even more to produce Photoshop LE with little additional cost. There are other examples: NewTek delivers Lightwave and its less expensive cousin Inspire, Maxon delivers Cinema4D GO, SE, and XL at different price points, and both comapnies do so without duplicating so much engineering effort. I wonder how profitable MetaC really was. And profit is what its all about: no company is in business to make cool stuff without regard to the bottom line. As far as I could see, Carrara was the attempt to begin unifying the MetaC product lines. I was expecting to see RDS and Infini-D be discontinued in the coming year (probably along with a "Carrara Lite" introduced with limited features at a lower price). I was also expecting Carrara to share a lot of the backend code with Bryce.

In light of that last statement, wouldn't it be better for us if someone like Adobe did buy Meta's 3D operations? Maybe they'd develop something along the line of Poser with a renderer using Bryce technology. And maybe it wouldn't be like pulling teeth to export from program to program, something that's never made sense to me with Meta. A nickel and I get change back! -Gary Seven

Erm, hit the send button too soon. Continuing: I was expecting RDS and Infini-D to be discontinued in favor of Carrara. Meta also made a big deal about Carrara's modular architecture and extensibility. I was expecting that Poser and Bryce would eventually become plug-ins which would add "Rooms" to Carrara to perform their specialized functions. So that way Meta would reduce the incremental costs of developing their products, while still getting the same revenue stream (because the Poser and Bryce Rooms would still cost extra, roughly what Meta was making from them before). Maybe I'm just an idiot, and this was never Meta's plan. Or maybe time caught up with them, and they're going to find someone else to buy into that plan and take their current product line off of their hands. They'll go off to persue this booming eCommerce thingy they want to go do.

I always hated MetaCreations. ALways. I am not at all surprised. I am just thankfull that Poser4 is advanced as it is. Even if there is never a another version, it still rocks. We are the ones developing the meshes and textures that make it so good. Is it coincidence that Zygote got into the Poser brokerage game? I wonder if thwy will still bother making there own Poser stuff. Who cares. Our stuff is better.

They still OWE us a goddamn patch! I paid for a program that's supposed to render at 300 dpi, dammit, and I don't have it!

it doesn't benefit the company to open-source it ummm anton, yes we are the ones developing for poser...all my best models were made by you and the other guys on here, but then again, poser4 is so much better than poser3...even if we keep developing, the other 3d programs will go ahead while poser will lag behind until it's no use to use when other stuff will do the same and easier It'll just take longer to die out :/ which is a real pity, because poser was one of the only programs where someone like me can plug in the characters and props he wants and come out with a nice looking 3d scene SewerRat

In their news release they are letting 100 employees go. Anounced 11 days before Christmas! One heck of a Christmas present for those 100 employees! Greedy bastards! All they care about is their bottom line. Never mind that those future numbers they are touting are probably wrong and generated by someone trying to justify their job. It's never a good idea to put your eggs in one basket. Didn't their mothers tell them that!

Hi Folks! We should remember that MetaCreations did not create Poser--Fractal Design did. As has been noted, the MetaC empire was built from mergers and acquisitions involving Fractal, Ray Dream, Specular, and the original HSC software. Along the way they jettisoned some pretty innovative people, like Adam Levine, Kai Krause, and many others. Perhaps the bright side of this news is that folks like them will emerge with new ventures to take the next incarnations of Poser, Infini-D, and Bryce to new levels. The dramatic changes in this industry are affecting everyone. Could anyone have predicted 3 years ago that Apple and Microsoft would look like they do now? I'm hopeful that all the software we use and love will continue its creative evolution under someone's banner if not MetaC's. Peter (Dr Zik)

11 days and with one one or two days notice... I talked to a couple of industry head hunters who already have Meta employees resumes on their desks. I willnot hesitate to let the clients I deal with know that as a web-site and e-coomerce developer I will boycott any metacreations product made after this hidious action. The employees arenot being given the consideration they are due and neither are the consumers who have (up untill this point) purchaced their products. And if anyone wants to know if I'm serious they can call me tomorrow at my office: (716)886-6521 ext 269. If I'm not there leave a message. Ikyot (Paul Telesco)

After the fallout, we can hope that the REAL backbone of the Meta team ends up somewhere that will keep everything good going.

Hi Folks! In January 2000 I will begin teaching a college course on 3D design and animation, with a focus on the home or small business user. It's sobering to think now that the software I had chosen to be the core tools of the course--Infini-D, Poser, and Bryce--may be unavailable by the time the course ends in May. You can bet I'll be watching these developments closely. Peter (Dr Zik)

Paul, I have talked to ex-MC employess in the past. Some very high up in the system. This is the way they have treated the workers from day one. This is business as usual for them. ScottA

Look at it this way folks.......We don't have to worry about upgrading every 4-6 months anymore. ;)

Hi Folks! One of my current co-workers is an ex-Specular/MetaC employee, so scott's comment resonates with me. At the same time, I hope the Meta graphics line ends up in the hands of a fresh new company with cash, creativity, innovation, and humanity, rather than in the hands of another industry giant. Adobe is already overextended, Apple needs to focus on its own core strategies, NewTek is just fine as it is, and Microsoft--well, never mind. Peter (Dr Zik)

Just so that you all know, I know of a program that is being created right now that would've blown away Poser, well, still can NOW. It will be released next fall and will be able to do Bryce-like renders and have a price tag LESS than what Poser costs..... Just so you know, there is HOPE out there. Jack

Well, that was my first reaction, however, upon some wild speculation... This sounds like: Press Release - "Part One". It seems very likely to me that they have already made a deal with a buyer for the product line. Ok, trying to consider their options tactically, 1) Why would a company make such announcement prior to obtaining the best deal they could get for the product line? It would kill current sales revenue as well as severely undermining the strength of their negotiating position in any subsequent sale of the line. 2) If they did already make a deal, and they announced the divestiture simultaneously with the restructuring for single product focus, it could give the appearance that the move was a defensive reaction to current or anticipated financial difficulties. This makes stockholders nervous and prices go down. 3) By announcing the new single product focus first, it helps project the image that this is a shrewd proactive maneuver by management to maximize the potential of a unique market advantage. Further, by announcing financial projections first, then, subsequently, announcing the deal for the sale of the product line which meets or exceeds these projections, it gives the impression that management is firmly in control of the situation. This makes shareholders confident, less likely to sell, and stock prices go upward. Sound reasonable so far? Ok, why then would they sack 100 people who were presumably the heart & soul of the product development and support teams? hmmmmmm - back to the drawing board. "With all this crap, there's gotta be a pony under here somewhere" -Eternal Optimist Nance

who wants a pony? just something else you have to take care of -Eternal Pessimist SewerRat

Hopefully, Play, the owners of Amorphium and Electric Image, can make a bid to acquire Poser, Bryce, and Carrara.

Jack, How dare you leaving us hanging like that! We need more information. Like all of you, I hope these packages land with a company that is committed to developing solid products (remove the quirks and bugs) and provide innovations at a reasonable price.

Ecockrell, I will inform everyone of the news as I can. That is the best I can do. Just know that all isn't lost. Jack

TO: Jack D. Kammerer I do hope that we can use/import our POSER models to our New Hope.

Yes, it will support (heard told) Poser features and imports, cr2's, Pz3's and the like. As well as other programs like Truespace, Max, Lightwave and more... a very nice program!! Jack Oh and fast too!!!

There is the minor issue that Meta doesn't own poser. Larry's Ghost Effects owns poser, according to the copyright.

i've heard that too, kevin ed