Bifrost vs ICE...

[MauricioPC]

I saw all the videos from the Vision series and I think you guys are addressing all that. I even said I liked what seemed like a prototype of new icons and some interface changes in a Maya screenshot, that I though was your work.

I didn't find the screenshot you were referring to, but what I'm doing at Autodesk is I'm managing the main maya UI team, and remotely supervising a couple of others team, like the ones that implemented some softimage workflows in Maya 2015 EXT1. But I also directly program one piece of architecture used for bifrost visual programming. There is definitely a lot of UI changes coming to Maya, but I'm not necessarily directly responsible for it - we have a team of UI designers and program managers making the decisions. Stuff may be implemented by developers who report to me, especially if it's cosmetic, or in the outliner/node editor/general UI. The animation team has their own team doing their own workflow-specific UI, and so does the modelling team and the rendering team (hypershade/render window), etc. There is a large army of people working on new things.

What drives me crazy is that you decided to took Softimage out of the picture before Maya was ready to take it's place.

of course, autodesk did that, not me specifically. ;) On the flip side, it's probable that there would have never been a good moment to end Softimage.

I'm sorry, I wasn't referring to you, but I guess you know that.

In any case, what I've been seeing does looks exciting. I think 2016 will bring a lot of more cool stuff.

[McNistor]

Start learning Houdini, you'll thank me later.

[MauricioPC]

Start learning Houdini, you'll thank me later.

I am.

[Bellsey]

my 2p's worth.

Some very interesting comments and opinions from people over the last week of so.
Luc-Eric has pretty much summed up alot of what I would of said. Sure we've 'killed' Softimage, but the product isn't really that dead yet. I've spoken to many studios and user of the last few months and many will be continuing to use Softimage for some time yet, all the way up to the official end of support date, and probably beyond.
Many people have said about the lack of a direct ICE replacement, but Luc-Eric is right, I don't think there would ever been a good time to announcement retirement of Softimage. Is it possible Autodesk could of kept Soft going until Bifrost reached a particular point?, well yes maybe, but personally I think that would of complicated things even more with the annual "The Future is Bright" email threads. Right or wrong, the decision was made and we're moving forwards.

In relation to Marcus's presentation, I think he made some very fair comments. An experienced ICE user may find the notion that the system is hard to use difficult to accept, but I believe there's some element of truth to this. With the exception of the ICE graph itself, I don't think the UI experience of ever quite got there. The ICE toolbar was a good start, but it felt kinda late and never seemed to continue.
The comments on Bifrost potentially being just as hard to use as ICE are fair, but I think usability is at the forefront of the team. As has been previously mentioned on the mailing list, we have three user personas we work with: generalists, tds, and programmers.
The first phase release of Bifrost in 2015 to make it easier for generalists to get something going and it does exactly that. It's certainly easier than what Naiad was (imho). There's already been alot of good feedback from people around that and other things, so as Luc-Eric has said, the UI work in general is continuing.

[Hirazi Blue]

I don't think the timing of Softimage's demise is at issue.
If anything, the handling of the inevitable could have been a lot better.
It's the resulting trust issues the "the annual 'The Future is Bright' email threads" actually seem to address BTW.
;)

[Bullit]

If Bifrost is to be more than just an incomplete fluid sim there is no reason at all to use the current existing version as an example of anything because it is not representative.

Edit:
I think the timing of Softimage demise is precisely the big issue. Starting from just after "Future is Bright" and the reunions in London, to a change without proper replacement. Everything was/is wrong.

[MauricioPC]

I saw all the videos from the Vision series and I think you guys are addressing all that. I even said I liked what seemed like a prototype of new icons and some interface changes in a Maya screenshot, that I though was your work.

I didn't find the screenshot you were referring to, but what I'm doing at Autodesk is I'm managing the main maya UI team, and remotely supervising a couple of others team, like the ones that implemented some softimage workflows in Maya 2015 EXT1.

I was talking about this part of the animation presentation. Don't know if it's only a previz, but I liked the way it's seems to be heading.

[Hirazi Blue]

I think the timing of Softimage demise is precisely the big issue. Starting from just after "Future is Bright" and the reunions in London, to a change without proper replacement. Everything was/is wrong.

Sorry for the misunderstanding: I am still working from the assumption that Softimage was doomed from the moment of the acquisition and that everything thereafter should be counted as the extremely poor management of its demise...
;)

[Bullit]

Ah...

[luceric]

I didn't find the screenshot you were referring to, but what I'm doing at Autodesk is I'm managing the main maya UI team, and remotely supervising a couple of others team, like the ones that implemented some softimage workflows in Maya 2015 EXT1.

I was talking about this part of the animation presentation. Don't know if it's only a previz, but I liked the way it's seems to be heading.

Looks like you found something there! I think you might be the only one on the internet who did!

[MauricioPC]

I didn't find the screenshot you were referring to, but what I'm doing at Autodesk is I'm managing the main maya UI team, and remotely supervising a couple of others team, like the ones that implemented some softimage workflows in Maya 2015 EXT1.

I was talking about this part of the animation presentation. Don't know if it's only a previz, but I liked the way it's seems to be heading.

Looks like you found something there! I think you might be the only one on the internet who did!

I'm glad that this may be the direction. Also I finally finished looking at all presentations and it was nice to see the PMs talking about what they have in store. Of course we don't know how long it'll take, but it does look good.

And the animation PM said they are actively looking at Softimage and Motionbuilder to bring better tools for Maya. I loved that they acknowledge the short-comings of Maya. The first thing to make improvements is to realize there's a problem.