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Hi guys,

This is my first post here.

I want to learn to make 3D character animations. I'm currently trying to learn to use Softimage as I liked the Face-Robot and i thought it was fairly easy to learn. So it started out well. But now i have spent about 2 weeks with the rest of the program and I'm not learning much. i have looked at all tutorials available but i just get confused and don't know which function I'm looking for. I'm getting headache. GIVE ME ICONS, please. I'm terrible to remember words, names etc, but I can easy remember things if i can relate it to a picture like an icon or equal. I also think it is a daunting task to learn all 900 SoftImage keyboard short cuts, especially when same key combination can have 6-10 different functions depending where in the program you are at the moment.

I can hardly be the only one who have these problems. I'm very efficient in many other programs like Solidworks, SolidCAM, Autocad, MS Office, Photoshop etc. But i will soon give up Softimage. But before i quit i have to ask, are there any custom made icon button based "skins" to Softimage out there that would help me?

I have read that Maya is larger and more complex but easier than Softimage to learn. Should i go for Maya instead?

I NEED help...

Thanks,

    >Hi guys,

Hi

    >I think it is a daunting task to learn all 900 SoftImage keyboard short cuts

Sure, but you only learn those you need. Same as any other software, really.

   >GIVE ME ICONS, please.

You can use shelves and make custom ones. Also, I've seen a couple of customized UIs that incorporate more icon-based buttons but never seen them being shared.

    >I have read that Maya is larger

Nope.

    >more complex but easier to learn.

That's contradictory, isn't it?

    >Should i go for Maya instead?

Absolutely. Always try all the options available.



Cheers

if you found some toolbars with icons out there and didn't learn the real menu structure, then you wouldn't be able to follow the user guide, tutorial and documentation. so that would just make things a whole lot worse because you'd be isolated.

try 3DSMax.. the ribbon and various animated tooltips were made to get learners up to speed on modeling and animation -- and then you have CAT for character animation.

Maya... if you do go that way, please come back later and tell us how well that went..

Hey..!

You will have to consider that most 3d apps for DCC will not follow the same logic and workflow as the CAD software. Each package has it´s own type of logic. 3dmax is pretty much old school in comparison to soft, or even maya, I guess and in my eyes the worst choice you could make. The UI is so ugly and messy and sometimes you will have to scroll for ever in certain windows to get the info you need.
Find a person that is familiar with soft and let him or her explain it to you, that will always help a lot, I guess ;)

cheers,
oli

Cmon Softimage is the easiest to learn software out there, I learned it about 1 month so if a dumb like me can learn it within 1 month you could do better:) Joking aside, there are no icons because there is no need to, you don't want to memorize stupidly crafted icon for a tool, you should learn their names and thats all;)

want icons, get an iPad:
http://www.123dapp.com/sculpt

Icons? Could anything be more confusing than small pictures compared to a word? The lack of icons is one of the things which makes working with SI a pleasure.

Icons are for maya and max user, softimage doesn't need them, really

UI Icons?

No thank you.

Cheers,

J

I have a strict "No Icon" Policy... I mean just look at that HUUUUGE select arrow eating up the top right of the UI... Who the h*ll put that there? Did anybody ever click it (apart from out of curiosity...)....

ChrB wrote:I have a strict "No Icon" Policy... I mean just look at that HUUUUGE select arrow eating up the top right of the UI... Who the h*ll put that there? Did anybody ever click it (apart from out of curiosity...)....

I've seen people use icon-buttons to navigate around the scene in C4D and Max. It was the weirdest thing ever, but than again, not everyone spends 6-12 hours a day in front of a 3D package.

ChrB wrote:I have a strict "No Icon" Policy... I mean just look at that HUUUUGE select arrow eating up the top right of the UI... Who the h*ll put that there? Did anybody ever click it (apart from out of curiosity...)....

I've been using XSI for almost 6 years and I think I clicked on that button about four times, twice by accident!
Whenever I dabble in an application with lots of icons I can't remember what half of them represent. I usually have to hover the mouse cursor over them until a tool tip or something pops up.

Since this thread has mainly been poking fun and Maya / Max bashing I'll post some links that may be helpful:

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/in ... D=12544118

http://www.youtube.com/user/AceMastermi ... eos?view=1

http://softimage.wiki.softimage.com/ind ... :Tutorials

https://vimeo.com/groups/softimagetutorials

http://www.digitaltutors.com/training/s ... -tutorials <- I feel dirty for putting it on the list but it may be good for getting started.


Definitely go through the help documentation as it is really good and should get you going quite well. Even without icons I think most of us just use our reflexes to go to the correct menu and select the correct item. You get used to it. Also if you have icons for all the menu items in Softimage then you'd then have a problem of seeing the different between them.

Having little to non icons feels very akward at first sight, but in a app with a gazzilion different commands you soon will start feeling it is a good choice. Ok we could use some icons for commands that are used all the time, and that people have absolutely no doubt what they mean.
When you get into maya the first time you need to hover every single icon to find a certain function.
That said animation is a totally different thing run cad. I for one never used a cad program and if i were to do so I surely wouldn't start modeling a car, for example.
Rigging a face or a human body may be ridiculously complex, depending on how good you want the result.
Try some easy stuff first, not to get frustrated easily

EricTRocks wrote:Since this thread has mainly been poking fun and Maya / Max bashing I'll post some links that may be helpful:

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/in ... D=12544118

http://www.youtube.com/user/AceMastermi ... eos?view=1

http://softimage.wiki.softimage.com/ind ... :Tutorials

https://vimeo.com/groups/softimagetutorials

http://www.digitaltutors.com/training/s ... -tutorials <- I feel dirty for putting it on the list but it may be good for getting started.


Definitely go through the help documentation as it is really good and should get you going quite well. Even without icons I think most of us just use our reflexes to go to the correct menu and select the correct item. You get used to it. Also if you have icons for all the menu items in Softimage then you'd then have a problem of seeing the different between them.

Thanks. I found some new interesting tutorials in your useful links. Thanks again.