Capabilities that might improve Softimage in the market

[Bullit]

These are the things that i think could improve greatly the Softimage position. Some i think are voids in the market.

Cloth: there is no reliable cloth tearing. 3dsMax mcloth and cloth are buggy, almost nightmarish thing.

Retopoly by points: ICE could extract points from Mesh objects and retopologise them. Lots of meshes that came are a mess and need time spending retopologising. Many of them are just architecture and other urban objects that have a boxed form.

AND/OR

Retopoly with adaptive subdivision: A mesher, or something above a mesher could use adaptive subdivision to retopology a mesh. Currently meshers are unable to mesh a 4 points point cloud with straight sides, they make the most complex objects but are incapable to mesh a simple one.

One of important uses for a retopo tool like this could also be preparing objects for RBD simulation proposes since a closed mesh is necessary for breaking.


Motion Graphics Retopology - This is just an invented buzzword to mean those objects like an an house made of wood planks, a stone road/wall, a roof, or those objects that a more creative client asks to have its surface with some basic solids or other objects. Like a car made of lights, boxes, etc.. , the question here is the rules that are needed to be implemented.
I would say a good idea was to have a texture map that we paint with different colors/gray scale and to each color a different instance will be applied in a certain position, also i think could be helpful guide curves.


Just plain MotionGraphics, including sound etc.
This is not a whole market void but will improve greatly the appeal of Softimage for many small/medium studios.

[Nizar]

Improve Softimage Market Position?

is obvious SI disappearing from everywhere. Try to read a magazine, any 3d/digital art magazine, you don't find nothing related to softimage (no tutorials, no article, no case studies, no review, no plugins... nothing). Make a tour into CGTALK softimage subforum, or try to find it into some community forum (CGarena, polycount etc. etc.), in many forum no one know it, or thinking is just dead.

Many new students don't know at all the existence of another, third (?), 3d generalist package owned by ADSK.

this is a dead horse... but some years ago ADSK employers said the future is (was?) bright, the perception I have now is exactly the opposite.

So improve what? SI is practical forgotten, there is nothing to improve.

[EricTRocks]

Improve Softimage Market Position?

is obvious SI disappearing from everywhere. Try to read a magazine, any 3d/digital art magazine, you don't find nothing related to softimage (no tutorials, no article, no case studies, no review, no plugins... nothing). Make a tour into CGTALK softimage subforum, or try to find it into some community forum (CGarena, polycount etc. etc.), in many forum no one know it, or thinking is just dead.

Many new students don't know at all the existence of another, third (?), 3d generalist package owned by ADSK.

this is a dead horse... but some years ago ADSK employers said the future is (was?) bright, the perception I have now is exactly the opposite.

So improve what? SI is practical forgotten, there is nothing to improve.

How is any of the above helpful or productive? It's fine you feel this way but there are others who aren't in the same frame of mind. Many still have confidence in the product and see more awesome work done with it (Pacific Rim for a recent example). The topic of this thread is things that would help improve Softimage in the market, not whether you think it's dead or not. If you do think so, start a new thread and discuss there.

[Nizar]

How is any of the above helpful or productive? It's fine you feel this way but there are others who aren't in the same frame of mind. Many still have confidence in the product and see more awesome work done with it (Pacific Rim for a recent example). The topic of this thread is things that would help improve Softimage in the market, not whether you think it's dead or not. If you do think so, start a new thread and discuss there.

Agree, my fault... but is the actually feeling I have about. Very happy if anyone has another mind state about actual softimage position, I have not notice about, and the circuit I'm usually follow (and mentioned above) didn't give me a nice scenario.

[Bullit]

I seeing more interest in Softimage due to ICE, but that is not the subject of this post. If you don't want to add anything to the topic just stay quiet.

[SamHowell]

Improve Softimage Market Position?

is obvious SI disappearing from everywhere. Try to read a magazine, any 3d/digital art magazine, you don't find nothing related to softimage (no tutorials, no article, no case studies, no review, no plugins... nothing). Make a tour into CGTALK softimage subforum, or try to find it into some community forum (CGarena, polycount etc. etc.), in many forum no one know it, or thinking is just dead.

Many new students don't know at all the existence of another, third (?), 3d generalist package owned by ADSK.

this is a dead horse... but some years ago ADSK employers said the future is (was?) bright, the perception I have now is exactly the opposite.

So improve what? SI is practical forgotten, there is nothing to improve.

People have been saying this stuff for as long as I've been using Softimage (10 years). Way before Autodesk had anything to do with it. It has been the underdog for a long time and here it still is, despite what people say. It's something a lot of Softimage users revel in, much like Houdini users aswell.

Anecdotally I hear many studios and artists are using Softimage as a compliment to Maya and Max, much as Autodesk planned. We have ICE to thank for this.

As for improving market share, Softimage should be the natural rival to Cinema 4D. ICE is agreat tool for motion graphics and Softimage is pefect for small studios (many of which use Cinema 4D).

[Hirazi Blue]

People have been saying this stuff for as long as I've been using Softimage (10 years).

The fact that statements like this are still being made after all these years doesn't make them untrue, obviously. The undercurrent of discontent simply has never been properly addressed in all these years IMHO. The only "serious" response I can recall was an accusation towards a large part of the community of fear mongering, which wasn't all that helpful to alleviate fears and doubts of that user community. In that light it's not very surprising these kinds of statements keep popping up. Which BTW doesn't necessarily mean they are true, just that they never have been properly addressed.
;)

[Draise]

...just because it is not popular to the social mediums, doesn't mean it isn't popular.

Think.. Arnold, not even on the public market, no tutorials anywhere, and it's a huge and highly respected engine, also mainly built for SI.

Some pro's, mainly for what I'd like it to do:

-A systematized ICE kinematics rig constructor already incorporated - like GEAR.

-A systematized ICE muscle rig setup wizard

-Better compositing nodes - tailored to 2D animation and/or motion matching and compositing (so 3D + 2D can work better - animestudio/nuke) - would be a good deal to get an All in One package, instead of having to buy more software for those functions

-Stability

-More artistic how-to's and tip's-n-tricks for the social mediums from us, the community that openly use SI. Contribute SI content to these social mediums.


Just because a software tool is not so popular, doesn't mean the artist and the technician should hide their abilities; thus that is what ultimately makes a software popular, because of the artist and the technician who uses it and the work they are proud to show off and/or share. (Mari, Arnold, Houdini, Maya, Blender, etc etc - we judge on final results, the final product, not the toolset - we only brand the toolset because of the final product - not on function)


Show the internet and the CG community what you do, explain how you did it. Any student or Si colleague would love to learn, would aspire to do the same with your toolset (SI plus whatever you use) and the audience and word would spread.. "SI is a good tool for __________ art/technique I saw/heard about the other day."

[Bullit]

Thank you Draise to get the thread somewhat back to the topic.

[Hirazi Blue]

It is somewhat unclear to me, what you really want this discussion to be about. Do you want it to be solely about your suggestions "that might improve Softimage in the market" or do you want to discuss additional suggestions. Maybe if you define your topic a little better, staying "on" it might be easier for all involved.
;)

[AlanMc]

All,

I think this has been mentioned in many other places, but here goes:

1. Update the FXTree and build in ICE capabilities;
2. Nurbs toolset or access to T-splines;
3. (not really capabilities) More lectures/tutorials from the Autodesk University.

Best Regards,

Alan

[gdebello]

All,

I think this has been mentioned in many other places, but here goes:

1. Update the FXTree and build in ICE capabilities;
2. Nurbs toolset or access to T-splines;
3. (not really capabilities) More lectures/tutorials from the Autodesk University.

Best Regards,

Alan

I'm with AlanMC, better Nurbs toolset, currently using some curve tools from Keyvis http://www.keyvis.at/cg-tools/tools-for-softimage/.

Creating vehicles would be a lot easier using a better Nurbs toolset than polys.

Glen

[Bullit]

Well my first post is explicit, but again, new capabilities, new ideas, that Softimage should have to get ahead of the competition.

Edit:
Things that you found by yourself or know from others that are difficult to achieve by any application and that kind of an improvement by Softimage could make it be adopted in other places.

I said for example cloth simulation/cuts, adaptive mesher/retopology and motion graphics retopology.
There are no good cloth simulators in the market. They have a convoluted, unreliable way to make cuts and tearing. Automatic or near automatic retopology is also not good or impossible.

[luceric]

"improve softimage in the market" I assume means some people are going to switch or shell out 3500$ to adopt softimage in some capacity. IMHO the question could be: who would these people be and what are they using right now?

Because users want the tool in the app they use, it's much simpler and safer. Good enough in the app you use is better than great in an app that's going to require learning and data conversions with all sort of headaches. nCloth, for example, is vastly recognized to be the superior cloth solution, and it's a lot easier to justify going to do animation/sim in Maya if that's not the app that you're already using, given that it's what everyone uses. If you were a staunch Max user, you'd probably try one of the other cloth plug-ins. There is great stuff in houdini, modo, maya, max; you're probably not using any of it, you're sticking to softimage and stuff like XSI Hair because it's there and you can hack it. The stuff like retopo is more the domain of plug-ins, and there are few real technical reason why it should be developed only for Softimage

[Bullit]

There is no superior cloth solution all are mediocre.

The stuff like retopo is more the domain of plug-ins, and there are few real technical reason why it should be developed only for Softimage.

That is a bizarre affirmation since this supposed to say where Softimage should put its resources.

A clean mesh is easily exportable.
This reminds me of a tool that was sometimes adopted for one reason different from its main propose: Rhino modeler just because of its great and varied exporter.

[Mathaeus]

A clean mesh is easily exportable.
This reminds me of a tool that was sometimes adopted for one reason different from its main propose: Rhino modeler just because of its great and varied exporter.

Yeah, but Rhino is about 1k, and license is friendly. There are upgrades, not lovely subscription. To say it honestly, If I'll be owner of facility, I won't be happy to invest into software, used by one or two guys in city.
Maybe cloud computing thing will help, if... SI will be transferred. I think AD already did the best, by supplying SI into suites. Now people, be free to kill me because of my last sentence .