Where is softimage?
polycounter lvl 4
I'm new in this forum, so forgive me if I'm wrong, but seems to me here there is no softimage users.
softimage is a great software, with fast and efficient tools inside, but seems becoming unpopular or relegated to some VFX shops, also in this forum I don't see related topic about.
if my memory is not wrong, softiamge under avid was one big player in videogame field, under AD suffer a bit about wrong marketing but the development is constantly and ICE is a great tool. What happened?
softimage is a great software, with fast and efficient tools inside, but seems becoming unpopular or relegated to some VFX shops, also in this forum I don't see related topic about.
if my memory is not wrong, softiamge under avid was one big player in videogame field, under AD suffer a bit about wrong marketing but the development is constantly and ICE is a great tool. What happened?
Replies
there are softimage users around here, the forum is just more focused on what people create, not so much the 3d package.
And also Autodesk just NOM NOM's everything that isn't nailed down by a Open Source License
I'm constantly impressed with XSI and it's features, and the work artists make with it... never got into it though.
XSI's future is a bit uncertain. It seems to be bundled with 3ds max and maya for certain subscription packages.
Avid cancelled the Foundation release, not Autodesk, and AD decrease the price, from 5000 and more to 3500 and included the FaceRobot plugin (alone it worth 100.000 $
Development continue on softimage, but is practical ICE centric (the rest of the application is good too, IMHO only UV and Hair is outdated). To confirm the solid future about Softimage you can see what is the principal software chosen by Solid Angle for merge their acclaimed rendering (arnold), first softimage and with a bit of retard Maya (also look at mootzoid and excortex plugin, lagoa etc.). Softimage is live and kicking.
What surprising me is softimage practical ignored or disappear (or almost) in videgame field...
Maybe I just stopped keeping track of such things, but it seems to me these efforts have dwindled down.
They never had a market following in games. Cuz Max was cheaper for devs per seat than Soft, in the beginning, was. And their focus way back then was films or broadcast. I am aware that Japan gamedevs love their Softimage and Lightwave, but not in North America.
All AD products can do film, games, broadcast, archit, etc. But their brand is tied to their historical markets. It is no longer one soft is technically superior over the other. Blender can do what big name softs can do but it just does not have the market following. Not enough pro user to risk dumping millions of bucks to make films or games. Even if it is open source you still have to pay salaries to run serious studios.
Cinema 4D practically owns the motionagraphy biz cuz I think they had a headstart building their niche market before XSI came up with ICE.
When the career advice given is to learn Maya over Max if you want to go into film, it is more of a practical advice cuz that is where they have a huge market (with supervisors, tds, etc. who have been using it since Jurassic Park ILM era). But in truth, a Max exclusive studio can pull off just the same quality (look at Blur - although they use a mixed bag of apps now).
XSI is good but how well are they doing building the market for their brand.
ICE is not intended for motion graphic, with it you can doing motion tools (like this: http://www.gustavoeb.com.br/mtools/ ), sometime people thing ICE is only particle, wrong idea, ICE is practical all you can think (very close to Houdini procedural approach)
I'm not in the game field, only now approached the this world, and for these reason seems very strange to me a so capable software (and more cheaper then maya or 3dsm) has a so low audience. I think AD marketing suck...
probably because it's the only major app that comes with japanese docs and a fully translated UI from what I know.
Sculpting in Zbrush and Photoshop for textures obviously though.
What's the name of the studio?
Is not exactly one button export/import operation, but is a nice example (actor X work smoothly with last softimage release) :
[ame="
the some process for Unity
Species is a sort of poser inside Softimage, cam generate model just rigged and can be what you want (woman, male, fat, muscle etc. etc.), just ready with UVmap and can be modified as any other meshes inside (or outside if you export it) softimage. On Vimeo you can find about 12 tutorial where is described all Species functions.
I don't mean softimage is better than 3dsm or maya, what I mean is XSI is a capable software wrongly underrated
Yes Ryswick, I would like to know this studio.
http://community.softimage.com/