I uploaded all of the XSI learning movies from VAST to YouTube for those who can't access VAST or just don't have time or hard drive space to download them all. These videos can be viewed in fullscreen at 720p HD. All praise should go to the creators of the content. Enjoy!

Modeling

Selection

Selection overview
Selection options
Selection tools
Selection filters
Component selection
Selection loops
Selection explorer
Selection wildcards
Parenting
Changing selection

Manipulation

3D style manipulators
3D SRT manipulators
Local and global modes
Additive mode
Reference and planes
Proportional
Snapping
Temporary pivot
Symmetry
Child compensation

Components

Points, polygons and edges
Cluster overview
Cluster overlaps
Cluster editing
Cluster groups
Edge smoothing and creasing
Weight maps overview
Face maker weight maps
Display modes
Relative mode

General Modeling

Modeling sections
Construction modes
Topology operators overview
Contextual menus
Extrude and duplicate
Adding components
Symmetry modeling
Transferring properties
Polygon modeling, part 1
Polygon modeling, part 2

Modifiers and Deformers

Polygon topology
Dissolve and collapse
Knife
Bevel
Curve, cage, spine, surface, volume
Lattice
Deforms and weight maps
Waves and particles
Relax and smooth
Shrinkwrap

Surfaces and Curves

Topology types
NURBS topology
NURBS to mesh
NURBS modeling, part 1
NURBS modeling, part 2
Curves topology
Curves editing
Lofting

Object Tools

Subdivision surfaces overview
Duplication options
Clones
Instances
Army maker
Particle instancing
Groups
Reference models, part 1
Reference models, part 2

Texturing

Materials and Textures

Materials
Material Editor relational view
Texture projections, part 1
Texture projections, part 2
Polygon texturing
UV dataset
Multiple projections
Texture projections camera mapping

Texture and Layer Editor

Texture Layer Editor introduction
TLE overview
TLE map lookup mask
TLE clusters
Texture Editor introduction
Head texturing
Unwrapping UVs, part 1
Unwrapping UVs, part 2
Unwrapping UVs, part 3
Contour stretching UVs

Animation

Animation Structures

Where animation lives, part 1
Where animation lives, part 2
The model structure, part 1
The model structure, part 2
Child compensation
Marking Sets
Function Curve Editor overview

Transformations

Transforms
Transform setup
Pivots and neutral pose
The rolling cube

Animation Mixing

Introduction, part 1
Introduction, part 2
Introduction, part 3
Mixing with f-curves
Mixing with expressions
Transitions
Bridge transition
Equalize
Templates
Static poses

Sources and Clips

Sources
Clip properties
Time properties
Relations between clips
Offset map, part 1
Offset map, part 2
Offset effect
Parent clipping
Pose offset

Shape Animation (morphing)

Introduction
Construction modes
Cluster shape combiner
Shape mixers modes
Shape reference mode
Animation to shapes
Plotting shapes into animation clips
Selecting and replacing shape keys
Shape merging
Cluster and weight maps

Working with Audio

Audio options
Markers

Constraints

Position
Pin
Curve Path
Orientation, Direction
Object to Cluster
Multiple points
Bounding Volume
Pose, Distance, Scaling, Symmetry
Up Vector

Skeletons and IK Solvers

Chain concept and behavior
Move joint tool
2D vs. 3D chains, Preferred angles
IK rotation plane, joint limits, stiffness
IK-FK blending
Setting joint axes, mirroring limbs
Shadow bones
Neutral pose and pivot
Chain constraining

Enveloping (skinning)

Introduction
Envelope setup
Weight editing
Multiple envelopes
Reference pose

Character Rigs

Proportional guide
Foot roll
Arms, hips and fingers
Symmetry, chest and spine
Shoulder, belly and ears
Character setup
Roll and skin options
Shadow rigs
Dog leg rig
Quadruped rig

Character Development Kit

Tail creation
Tail spring
Tail parameters
Tail animation
Tail IK-FK blend
Control spine creation
Control spine example
Scripting commands

Animating Deformations

Introduction
Interpolation of enveloping shape
Cluster material and UV interpolation
Corrective shape modeling
Quaternion roll distribution
Pose based deformers
Relaxing geometry
Cage deform

Setups

Link keys
Device drivers
Blending constraints
Constraints example
Linking constrains
Camera blocking
Animation mixer – Hand setup

Simulation

Rigid Body Dynamics

Rigid body environment overview
Establishing scale
Laying out your components
Active vs. passive objects
Applying constraints
Setting collisions

Rigid Body Dynamics Concepts

Animation and initial state
Working with center of mass
Ghosting
Hierarchies: managing rigid rigs
The dynamics operator
How adaptive collisions work
Collisions settings
Caching simulation to the mixer
Optimization technique

Rigid Body Dynamics Examples

Self-propelled multi-leg rig, part 1
Self-propelled multi-leg rig, part 2
Walking machine, part 1
Walking machine, part 2
Walking machine, part 3
Drawbridge, part 1
Drawbridge, part 2
Drawbridge, part 3

Hair Concepts & Workflow

System overview
Surface hair
Spline hair
Building a mesh to work with Hair
Transferring and using weight maps
Working with combing
Working with clumping
Proportional and general deformers
Adjusting parameters for fine tuning
Creating curly hair effects

Hair Examples

Working with symmetry
Working with dynamics
Obstacles
Transferring UVs
Texturing surface hair using scalar state
Texturing spline hair using scalar state
Hair shader: volume vs. geometry
Hair shader: settings overview
Hair geometry shader
Using detail shadow maps

Hair Optimization

Hair operators
Volume vs. geometry render times
Pipeline optimization technique

Particle Introduction

System overview
Event overview
Accessing the data
Creating a simple smoke trail

Particle Concepts

Sketching particles
Inter-particle avoidance and collisions
Sprites
Sprite animation controls
Sprite render times
Object instancing
Particle goals
Particle goals: curves
Particle shader basics
Gradient

Particle Examples

Scripted events: reading data
Scripted events: writing data
User parameters
Scripting goal behavior, part 1
Scripting goal behavior, part 2
Scripting goal behavior, part 3
Render tree: gradient control using vector info
Render tree: gradient control using UVs

Rendering

Render Tree Basics

Introducing the Render Tree
Extracting position information
Extracting rotation information
Extracting UV information

Render Tree Techniques

Applying UV perturbation
Creating a Wipe Mask
Adding perturbation to the Wipe Mask
Using the mask in FX Tree composite
Using weight maps to control displacement maps
Baking lighting information into color at vertices
Color at vertices continued
Altering rendering based on raytracing state
Introducing the Color Matte shader
Using Color Matte to change surface shading

Creating Effects with the Gradient Shader

Introducing the Gradient Shader
Caustic effects
Flame animation
Instanciating the flames using the Sprite Shader
Distance and layered fog
Custom illumination with the Incidence Shader
Non-realistic illumination models (toon)
Rim light effect on skin-like shading
Fake subsurface scattering look

Elliptical Filtering

Introducing Elliptical Filtering
How Elliptical Filtering works
Why flickering and shimmering occur
Using Elliptical Filtering
Converting a texture to a Memory Map
Creating a Memory Map with pyramidal levels
Extracting pyramidal levels from a Memory Map

Bump Mapping

Introducing Bump Mapping
How shaders relate during Bump Map computation
Applying a local Bump Map
Global vs. local Bump Mapping
Object scaling vs. Bump Map parameters
Resolving flickering with Elliptical Filtering
Resolving flickering with distance-based modulation
Creating surface water drops with Vein
Using procedural shaders as a Bump Map source
Blending and mixing multiple Bump Map sources

Lighting

Light types
Area lights
Shadow Maps
Volumic Shadow Maps
Volumic Shadow Maps for hair
Introducing Caustics
Caustics in use
Introducing Global Illumination
Global Illumination in use
Radiance Control

Final Gathering

Introducing Final Gathering
Final Gathering accuracy
Final Gathering radius
Accuracy vs. radius
Setup and workflow
Radiance Control on indirect light levels
Image-based lighting
Using auto-compute to set Final Gathering
Photon & Final Gathering management for render farms
Using ray type to optimize Final Gathering

Render Passes Explained

Introducing Render Passes
Controlling the Pass Camera
Render options
Shader stack
Partitions
Overrides

Render Passes in Use

Matte pass
Ambient and diffuse pass
Specular pass
Shadow pass
Volumic light pass
Caustic pass
Global Illumination pass
Final Gathering pass
Image-based pass

Antialiasing and Adaptive Sampling

What is aliasing
How aliasing works
Render resolution vs. antialiasing
How adaptive sampling works
Antialiasing tuning tips, part 1
Antialiasing tuning tips, part 2
Different filter types
Filter types illustrated
Diagnostics
Threshold example
Jitter example
Rapid motion shading rate

Motion Blur

Introducing motion blur
How motion blur works
Motion blur theory – recap
Introducing motion blur threshold
Motion blur threshold example
Motion blur modes
Rapid motion and motion blur

BSP Tree

Introducing BSP tree
BSP tree parameters
How BSP tree works
BSP tree and render performance
BSP tree statistics
BSP tree tuning setup
BSP tree render tests
BSP tree render test results
Using the BSP tree tuner script

Rendermap: Concept and Examples

Introducing rendermap
Using unique UVs
Multiple objects to a single texture
Multiple objects to multiple maps

Rendermap: Extracting Normal Maps

Manually extracting normal map
Applying the normal map
Optimizing normal map extraction
Using GPU Surface FX

Rendermap: High Resolution Maps

Introduction
Basic setup
Calibrating the camera
Extracting the displacement map
Applying the displacement map

Displacement Maps

Introduction
Simple displacement
Discontinuity
Tessellation parameters
Tuning the parameter
Fine approximation
Scaling vs. length view
Displacement math introduction
Math nodes: Unary, Basic, Bias gain
Extracting displacement using scalar math

Great effort, thanks...
Anyone who does want to download them: look at this post by Rork

That is indeed an admiring feat. Have no idea what vast is, but surely is more convenient to have such stuff on youtube. Knowing what we know about a certain owner company, that SoftimageHowTos channel is bound to stay a mockery of what it should be.

Just to clarify things to "newer" Softimage users: the content vast.ws graciously placed online (and were made available by Rork as a download and by AceMastermind on youtube) were the so-called "Softimage XSI Production Series DVDs" (read a review here) that were made accompanying version 4 of XSI (but are for the most part still very valuable). Vast.ws, however stopped being available for viewers outside of the US (&Canada?) at some point - and as an European I have no way to check if they are still available inside of the US (&Canada).
Parts of the "Production Series" found their way to the original Softimage website, but that doesn't exist either anymore, now does it?


PS - When watching this, keep in mind the Particles mentioned here do not exist anymore in the latest versions of Softimage (as we've got ICE now)

Wow!
Thats the most impressive feat of uploading I have ever witnessed.

Hats off to you sir.

Indeed! Amazing job. Good man!

I want to buy you a beer or two.

Awesome!

Nice work

I added this thread to the tutorial series I started.

rob

Ace indeed. Thank you for compiling these. Found a link to this thread on the area home page (top left). Still have those videos as DVDs but now I prefer watching them in the youtube.