Softimage/XSI- worth learning?

Cortes

I'm using my autodesk student license to try out Softimage. Who here on polycount uses it? I started out with Max and am now considering learning this software.

For somebody fairly proficient in max's modeling and rigging tools and (slowly) learning Maya, how does Softimage compare? I plan to do what I'm learning in Max, which is model, rig and animate characters, ultimately with the possibility of making them game ready. Xsi's rigging tools seem to me superior to max, but this is just after a cursory view of the program. I'm sure max can do a lot of what xsi can, but it just seems... easier in xsi. I'm also attracted to ICE and Face Robot, anybody use these?


Documentation (good tutorials) isn't as plentiful as max but I think it won't be too hard to learn.

So is it worth taking the time to learn XSI?

cryrid

Can't hurt to give it a try. You might even fall in love with it's toolset.

renderhjs

never tried it because I could never get my hands on it, I think that is also kind of the reason why its not that commonly used as Max or Maya. People work with what they learned using well. If a software is to expensive or hard to get other ways (you know...) it fails in the big run because not many people will adopt it.

That being said I heard many praises and positive things about XSI. Its supposed to be a excellent all around package with some impressive tech like their ICE simulations, or their animation tools, rigging stuff and modeling. Just like Max and Maya it comes with Mental Ray.
I don't know if that cooperation with Valve (before they were acquired by AD) really helped them much to gain weight in the game industry. Its not a bad tool at all but very hard to get your hands on.

Yozora

If the tools are that much better then it probably is worth learning for personal use.
I only tried the demo of XSI but I felt comfortable with it's modelling tools within a day after setting up my hotkeys. Never tried rigging or animating though.

cryrid

Anyone can get 80% of it for free if they'd download Mod Tool.It doesn't seem as common in the game industry over here, but in Japan Softimage seems to be the tool for a lot of games, from Marios and Zeldas to the latest Final Fantasy's and Metal Gears.

j_bradford

I'd say yes. Soft has a pretty bright future in the modeling area, since they just previewed modeling in ICE at 3December (autodesk event). The modeling toolset is already extremely good, so having ICE puts the sky as the limit now.

If you want to see the preview check out http://area.autodesk.com/3december/montreal and go to Part03, 11:40 minutes.

Cortes

How do the rigging and animation tools compare with max? For example, can you just import a mesh from max, fire up face robot and work from there?

Anybody rig any characters in xsi? How does it translate into making game assets, like say modeling and rigging a character to use in udk or the like?

I've been looking at this video for example:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seU63bus3Yc[/ame]

Up to this point I've found no equivalent tutorial for max involving constructing a rig like that. (Well, I haven't found a complete tutorial for softimage either that is free, lol).

The problem is lots of the tutorials for it are dead, like on the ed harris site

Would I just be better off learning Maya if I wanted to rig?

My main goal here is character modeling and animating. I'm trying to build a decent portfolio that has animated character rigs, so I'm just comparing xsi and max and maya. I also have no idea how to take what I've made in max or any program really, and bring it into a game engine, but I'm sure I'll learn that quickly.

maze

I haven t used XSI a lot, just played a little with it, but the school I am attending is an authorized softimage center (Softimage comes originally from Montreal, so there is a huge user base around here, lots of local vfx houses are using it currently, like hybride, oblique fx, rodeo fx, modus fx to name a few) , so I have many friends using it. It does look very user friendly imo, having the tools section per usage (modeling/animation...) does help to get an organized ui by default.

Being now an autodesk product, it does share good compatibility with other packages, but is still cheaper than max and maya if I am not wrong.

I remember going to an autodesk conference some months ago, and they were showing the new ICE method for rigging, gotta check that is wicked.

mystichobo

I use both it and 3ds.
I like Softimage's Modeling Tools, to me they feel a lot more intuitive (simple ways to add loops, extrude polygons etc).

xvampire

I use softimage for personal purpose, its pure art.


symmetrical skinning is really helpful for rigging
and I just learn ICE node lately, its little bit technical, but i just force myself to learn it, to make a complex long hair. its really helpful


btw
im not familiar translating softimage asset into game asset, should learn udk first lol
one another thing is , i cant find good real time shader for softimage beside ultimaper ... ultimaper is not that friendly for multiple light and alpha map

cryrid

UDK shouldn't be a problem. If you're looking into rigging for games, learning to set up a shadow rig usually ends up being a more sure-fire way to make sure everything translates correctly. One thing you may need to keep an eye on with Unity is which version of Crosswalk you're using to export to .fbx (one would work better with animations but sucked for things that needed 2 UV channels, while a different version was the opposite. Unity3 was released since then and I think there's be another update to Crosswalk as well, so I'm not sure what the current situation looks like).

As for shaders, MentalMill shaders were easy to export for XSI (I have two up at http://cryrid.com/art/?page_id=11, and some more saved offline/elsewhere). The earlier versions of Xoliul's shader would work fine as well. At least around version 7 of Softimage/XSI; I haven't gotten to test 2010/2011 so things there's always the chance for something to break since then.