Sketchbook says that is has “a roadmap of updates planned, many of which are based on requests from Sketchbook users. The Sketchbook apps – Sketchbook Pro for macOS and Sketchbook for Windows, Android and iOS – are currently in the process of being moved from Autodesk to Sketchbook on the corresponding app stores.Īll Some are currently still available for free and, with Autodesk having ended sales of the commercial version earlier this year, there’s no information on how the new owners plan to fund development. New updates planned, but no real details yet The announcement has come as welcome news for many veteran Sketchbook users, with concept artist and illustrator Richard Yot describing it on the Foundry forum it as “my favourite drawing app of all time”. “If fantasy, industry folk lore, and the state of current affairs have taught me anything, it is that under the right conditions, at specific points of time and space, indeed, anything is possible.” “The plot has suddenly thickened,” he posted on LinkedIn earlier this week. The new firm is headed by CEO LeeAnn Manon and chief product officer Chris Cheung: both Autodesk veterans, although neither was working for the company at the time of the spin-off.Ĭheung was previously part of the SketchBook Pro product team at Autodesk, before going on to head up work on Mischief, Foundry’s now-discontinued digital sketching software. “After careful consideration and evaluation, we found the perfect home for SketchBook with a company formed by people who previously built and evangelized the SketchBook brand.” “While we value SketchBook and feel an obligation to the community … we also recognize that much has changed at Autodesk,” wrote Autodesk VP for automotive, concept design and XR Thomas Heermann. This week, Autodesk broke that radio silence to announce that development of Sketchbook has been taken over by a new independent company, Sketchbook Inc. Now developed by the people ‘who built and evangelized’ the brand The app’s social media accounts also went silent, with tweets from Sketchbook pausing in December 2020. The spin-off marks the latest change of ownership (and name: it has now lost the capital ‘B’) for Sketchbook, which was orignally developed by Alias and acquired by Autodesk along with Maya in the 2000s.Īt Autodesk, it went through a number of further changes in format and pricing, eventually ending up in 2018 as a free app for Windows, macOS, Android and iOS, with a separate commercial Enterprise edition.Īfter that, things seemed to stagnate: the last update to the desktop version was in 2019, which was to remove the need to log in to use it, although the mobile editions were updated more recently. The apps will continue to be available from the Apple, Google and Microsoft app stores, where they can currently be downloaded for free, but delivered by their new owners.Īnother change of owner for the veteran digital sketching software Scroll down for news of the price changes.Īutodesk has spun off SketchBook, its digital sketching software, to a new company, Sketchbook Inc. Sketchbook features a radial/pie-menu user interface and has painting and drawing tools such as pencils, markers, and brushes.Originally posted on 25 June 2021. It uses pressure-sensitive features of digital drawing pads, tablet computers, and smartphones to create effects similar to traditional materials. A screenshot tool is also included for annotations, allowing one to show content during meetings, and to add notes for review. The program can also create flipbooks or animations, and it supports layers with the ability to import from and export to Adobe Photoshop (.psd) format. Other features include rulers, brush customization, and canvas rotation. When Autodesk acquired Alias in October 2005, they slowed down Sketchbook Pro development for a time. Version 2.0 was released in July 2005, under Alias Systems Corporation.Ī beta version of version 3.0 was shown at MacWorld 2008 on display with the Axiotron Modbook. In April 2008, Autodesk SketchBook Pro 2009 was released to the public, followed by SketchBook Pro 2010, a year later. Autodesk continued to have a beta program for testing new versions of SketchBook Pro.
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