Softimage2014?

[angus_davidson]

Nixx I think its just that there are a lot of things in Si that were just never developed to the extent that that should have been. Things that promised to be great , but that can never be more then average because the focus continually shifts.

Also bear in mind that I come from a point of view of teaching people who have never used 3D before to be able to be fairly competent generalists (which is still more useful then jumping right to a specialisation here in South Africa) SI was without doubt the best teaching tool on the block. However the more they focus everything around ICE the harder it becomes to teach. It is just not intuitive at all to people just starting out.

Not that you cant do amazing things in ICE. you most definitely can and I am in constant awe at what people are able to do. However now that is coming at the expense of things that should have been finished first. As mentioned earlier in the thread there are bugs that have been going for years.

SI needs for someone to draw the line in that sand and say . This is What SI is going to be used for. Unfortunately we are no better off answering that question then we were 6 months ago.

[nixx]

Nixx I think its just that there are a lot of things in Si that were just never developed to the extent that that should have been. Things that promised to be great , but that can never be more then average because the focus continually shifts.

Also bear in mind that I come from a point of view of teaching people who have never used 3D before to be able to be fairly competent generalists (which is still more useful then jumping right to a specialisation here in South Africa) SI was without doubt the best teaching tool on the block. However the more they focus everything around ICE the harder it becomes to teach. It is just not intuitive at all to people just starting out.

Not that you cant do amazing things in ICE. you most definitely can and I am in constant awe at what people are able to do. However now that is coming at the expense of things that should have been finished first. As mentioned earlier in the thread there are bugs that have been going for years.

SI needs for someone to draw the line in that sand and say . This is What SI is going to be used for. Unfortunately we are no better off answering that question then we were 6 months ago.

Agreed. I was just pointing out that "developing ICE" is, in essence, the same as "developing Softimage". It's just the new framework that Softimage is built on now.

I 'm not sure I agree that it's not intuitive. Or at least if it's not, it's not the fault of ICE as a building system, but rather the lack of proper factory compounds, proper workflow scripts, integration, etc. For example : imagine if Get > Sphere would add an "empty geometry" with an ICE tree in its modeling stack, and in it, a "make sphere" compound. Then, if you selected a few points and moved them around, a new "move points" factory node would automatically be added (in the same ICE tree), after the last node. And so on, you see what I mean.

Granted, we 're not nearly there yet, but I think that ICE as a development framework is not to blame for that. And I think we 're in a transitional period, which is bound to cause problems with user-friendliness, workflow adjustment, etc.

[McNistor]

Maybe integrated with a more useful schematic view? One can dream... but I would not bet on it...

If the big studios that are using XSI will want it, you'll get it.

[gaboraa]

Lets make some serious money and buy Softimage from Autodesk:P

[angus_davidson]

Somehow I doubt they would sell ;)

To be honest I am getting a bit despondent about 3d apps in general. Maybe its my form of a midlife crisis as I cant afford a sports car and a young mistress ;)

Just cant shake the feeling we should be so much further along then we are now ;)

[jamination]

Somehow I doubt they would sell ;)

To be honest I am getting a bit despondent about 3d apps in general. Maybe its my form of a midlife crisis as I cant afford a sports car and a young mistress ;)

Just cant shake the feeling we should be so much further along then we are now ;)

you are 100% correct. We should be.

[Bullit]

Yes but that applies to all software. Starting with OS, on this i am even seeing it going backwards.
While hardware improves all the time.

[angus_davidson]

I agree on the OS point of view. I have to be in Windows 8 for part of my work and its not a great place to be. I am much happier on Mac Os X or Linux (using Linux Mint as a distro atm mostly because Ubuntu is taking design decisions for me that I really dont like) One of the reasons I would like a Mac version of SI is not because I want to get into a pissing contest with the Windows folks, its mainly because in my experience, Maya, Mudbox, Modo are far more stable and solid in their Mac incarnations then their Windows counterparts.

Seriously I want an OS that has the speed and functionality of , lets think. yeah the hackers in Die Hard 4 ;) thats a good starting point.

[adrencg]

Somehow I doubt they would sell ;)

To be honest I am getting a bit despondent about 3d apps in general. Maybe its my form of a midlife crisis as I cant afford a sports car and a young mistress ;)

Just cant shake the feeling we should be so much further along then we are now ;)

Autodesk owns Softimage so they can keep it right where they want it. You could probably say that about many of their acquisitions.

[angus_davidson]

For my personal projects I am looking into splitting more into using specific tools for my project now.Even though we teach SI as an all around solution I am now at point where I will only bring things in to soft when I need to rig and render.

[sOBE]

Another Maya sneak peek, it looks nice. I am waiting for soft one...

[Maximus]

https://draster.com/nex-1.5/
they just integrated that probably.

[Falam]

Another Maya sneak peek, it looks nice. I am waiting for soft one...

This is awesome.

[mirkoj]

shrink wrap and new polygon with snap to faces is almost like that

I'm just really hoping that they won;t start doing to Softimage what they are to max and maya... purchasing bunch of 3rd party solution and then poorly integrating them.. just throwing them in and calling that new version...
I mean everyone would be happy if SI comes with pre installed GEAR but that is not new version worth subscription .....

Sometimes it feels that time of big improvements in new version is long gone.. remember before waiting each new version with new and new breakthrough? yea back in maya 2.5 era.
Does it seems that big 3 are finished with those times and now only the other programs are at that point? Partially because they are just making those segments and adding functionality but is it really possible that they added EVERYTHING possible and that there is no option for improvements at all?
I mean, completely changing modeling tool set for something more modern is not bad for example, never mind that it will take a bit more learning but if it is improvement.. and there are a lot of tools out there that SI can learn from.. it is not bad thing to implement something that other figured out and it is working better than you do. After all it wouldn't be first time

[iamVFX]

[Bellsey]

Sometimes it feels that time of big improvements in new version is long gone.. remember before waiting each new version with new and new breakthrough? yea back in maya 2.5 era.
Does it seems that big 3 are finished with those times and now only the other programs are at that point? Partially because they are just making those segments and adding functionality but is it really possible that they added EVERYTHING possible and that there is no option for improvements at all?
I mean, completely changing modeling tool set for something more modern is not bad for example, never mind that it will take a bit more learning but if it is improvement.. and there are a lot of tools out there that SI can learn from.. it is not bad thing to implement something that other figured out and it is working better than you do. After all it wouldn't be first time

This is something that I have mentioned before. 2D/3D software and the way in which we use it, is changing. It's actually been like this now for the last few years. However many users still judge the software based on literally how many 'new' features there are, upon a new release. I'm not saying that everything possible has been created, but I do perhaps think that in terms of the underlying systems, etc, maybe alot actually has?

I've chatted with people I know at other software vendors, and they've said similar things. The other tricky thing is that, whilst there are alot people who want 'new' features every release (and who are the harshest critic when expectations aren't met), there's also (probably) an equal amount of people on the other side, who want no new features - just refine what's there and fix as many bugs as possible. Tricky balance to archieve.

There's an interesting quote from a CTO of one of the big VFX studios, and he was asked what's the next big product/feature. His response was that it's not a product, but a pipeline.
I was visiting a studio last year, and we were discussing roadmaps and features (I won't name the products, but it wasn't Soft), and whilst talking about a particular feature/system, they said that they didn't want Autodesk to waste time and money in developing something radically new as a replacement. What was there was actually good and sound, it just didn't work quite like how it should. Just refine/fix it.
It was a vaild point, but whilst that's great, there does still have to be some forward thinking and R&D for new stuff, as sometimes it can be better to do something new.