What if Softimage died?

[MauricioPC]

The 2014 release was just the start, there's already been improvements made for the Extension release, and more to come.

It would be cool to hear that about Softimage.

[Lord Futzi Voldemort]

Or enter a calculation in maya like 90/7 in a rotation field (rotate the object 90° around the y axis and enter /=7 in the channel box for the y axis. Hint: the correct result is 12,857)

Not sure if that's a real bug or just a bizzare design. since you entered 7 instead of 7.0, the result is an integer (surely you must have guessed that /= 7.0 would give you the floating point result). there is no other way to round values to integers, so if that behavior changed something else would have to be done to replace it. I'll ask, but anyone can log this as an small annoying thing

Yes, that's the point. There seems to be a philosophy in maya development: Good stuff, implemented in the most inexplicable way. ;)
The same thing works flawless in SI. Enter 7/ and you get 12,8571. If youre used to it and do it in maya when jumping between apps and you do not check the value, you end up with a messed up scene. BTW try 10+50%. ( set y rotation to ten and enter +=50%). A good laugh. It works with translation strangely though....

The modelling toolkit in maya does not work with the snap buttons, only with the snap hotkeys.

because that's a toolbar for the standard manipulator and nex's tools is a different tool with its own snapping engine (and button, and hotkeys). but in the next release of maya, all the maya and nex tools and manipulators are more unified, with various nex replacing the older stuff. the entire modeling workflow is in the middle of being updated.

Again: yes, that's the point. That is what happens if you add new stuff on top of old stuff instead of rewriting the old stuff because it is cheaper...
Anyway, it's nice to hear someone talking about upcoming stuff in AD software eventually, and to be fair, with the nexgen tools, maya got state of the art selection tools for the first time in history. I will miss the old tut videos though, where always after a selection the presenter would orbit around his object to see what he has selected on the backside accidentally.... ;)

Although... I do not understand, why you are not tackling the most pressing issues first:

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@bellseye

If I want to snap one vertex onto another it doesn't matter what coordinate system I use.


@janimation

As xsisupport pointed out, you buy one seat for the whole suite, so you can't have a sim running on one computer while you do something in mudbox on another, or have someone work in maya and another one in SI, which makes the suites the most expensive 3d single license a user can buy and it is completely uninteresting for smaller studios, that look for a cheap way to get multiple licenses in a package ;)

[xsisupport]

@janimation
As xsisupport pointed out, you buy one seat for the whole suite, so you can't have a sim running on one computer while you do something in mudbox on another, or have someone work in maya and another one in SI, which makes the suites the most expensive 3d single license a user can buy and it is completely uninteresting for smaller studios, that look for a cheap way to get multiple licenses in a package ;)

What you might do is get a suite and a handful of licenses for the product that you need to run concurrently. Let's say you need to run three Softimage always, so you get two (or three) soft and one suite. Softimage will always take the single-product licenses first, leaving the Suite license available for the person who needs to run Mudbox or whatever.

Depends on the math [what's cheaper?], which I did not do.

[MauricioPC]

If nobody saw it! Viva la ICE!




We often read that Autodesk is making Maya the wonder-boy of M&E, but Media and Entertainment isn't only Games and Films. What is AD doing to push Maya also for the broadcast market? From what Maya is today, I believe Softimage or 3ds Max are more capable of doing the kind of work required.

That's why I always say ... make Softimage the broadcast side of AD. It'll continue to be developed, ICE may be improved among other things. And we can use it for whichever we want.

[luceric]

Although... I do not understand, why you are not tackling the most pressing issues first:
<picture of small annoying things forum>

I am not.. sure.. what you mean here. (Small Annoying Things by definition aren't "pressing") If you mean, why aren't "you" working on the small annoying things forums suggestions.. SATs has a dedicated teamand they've plowing through that stuff versions after versions and continue to do so. There are 50 SAT items publicly flagged as fixed on the site as of today. The max team has been plowing through their list just the same.

[Lord Futzi Voldemort]

Only a few quotes how AD advertises SI today - depending where you look.

Softimage mainpage:
"Softimage 2014 features
Autodesk® Softimage® 2014 character animation software offers an enhanced, high-performance creative toolset for artists working in visual effects and 3D game development."

Softimage (products by category, film and television)
"3D character animation and visual effects software."

AD online store
"Produce more realistic, sophisticated crowd simulations with a new enhanced CrowdFX crowd simulation feature. Work faster with large scenes and adjust characters’ behavior with greater ease, then export CrowdFX simulations to Autodesk® Maya® 2014 software for integration into existing scenes."

Wikipedia (not by Autodesk of course - I hope ;) ):

"Softimage is primarily used in the film, video game and advertising industries as a tool to generate digital characters, environments and visual effects. Examples of films made with the help of Softimage are Thor,[4] Predators[5] and District 9.[6]"

Softimage page (german)

"Die leistungsfähigen Kreativwerkzeuge in der Charakter-Animationssoftware Autodesk® Softimage® wurden für Artists und Technical Directors entwickelt, die in den Bereichen 3D-Spieleentwicklung und visuelle Effekte arbeiten."

(translated by me:
The efficient creative tools in the character-animation software Autodesk® Softimage® were developed for artists and TDs, who work in the fields of 3d game development and visual effects.)

So now what is Softimage?

[Lord Futzi Voldemort]

Although... I do not understand, why you are not tackling the most pressing issues first:
<picture of small annoying things forum>

I am not.. sure.. what you mean here. (Small Annoying Things by definition aren't "pressing") If you mean, why aren't "you" working on the small annoying things forums suggestions.. SATs has a dedicated teamand they've plowing through that stuff versions after versions and continue to do so. There are 50 SAT items publicly flagged as fixed on the site as of today. The max team has been plowing through their list just the same.

The distribution of suggestions clearly shows maya's weakness, which is the UI. Nothing has happened there since v. 2011. Modelling is only place 3.

[bergj]

Although... I do not understand, why you are not tackling the most pressing issues first:
<picture of small annoying things forum>

I am not.. sure.. what you mean here. (Small Annoying Things by definition aren't "pressing") If you mean, why aren't "you" working on the small annoying things forums suggestions.. SATs has a dedicated teamand they've plowing through that stuff versions after versions and continue to do so. There are 50 SAT items publicly flagged as fixed on the site as of today. The max team has been plowing through their list just the same.

The distribution of suggestions clearly shows maya's weakness, which is the UI. Nothing has happened there since v. 2011. Modelling is only place 3.

Wait....what? Nothing is wrong with the UI. What are you talking about? What do you have problems with? Dont trust polls like that/

[ace63]

Have you worked with Maya before? The UI is a horrible mess when you are coming from Soft.

[bergj]

Have you worked with Maya before? The UI is a horrible mess when you are coming from Soft.

yup, 3+ years

[luceric]

Although... I do not understand, why you are not tackling the most pressing issues first:
<picture of small annoying things forum>

I am not.. sure.. what you mean here. (Small Annoying Things by definition aren't "pressing") If you mean, why aren't "you" working on the small annoying things forums suggestions.. SATs has a dedicated teamand they've plowing through that stuff versions after versions and continue to do so. There are 50 SAT items publicly flagged as fixed on the site as of today. The max team has been plowing through their list just the same.

The distribution of suggestions clearly shows maya's weakness, which is the UI. Nothing has happened there since v. 2011. Modelling is only place 3.

modeling tools is UI.

NEX is only about providing a new UI on the existing modeling core in Maya. It doesn't add any modeling operators of its own to a scene. And who says the viewport is not about UI, changes to the outliner node editor and many other things that have been done.

[Lord Futzi Voldemort]

modeling tools is UI.

Uhm, no. UI is the interface that enables the user to access and use tools. UI is the panels you guys keep adding with every tool. If you manage you access all new tools in one unified panel, than you have improved the interface without changing the tools.

Is the outliner dockable? Can I have multiple outliner instances?

[bergj]

Is the outliner dockable? Can I have multiple outliner instances?

Maybe

[Bellsey]

Have you worked with Maya before? The UI is a horrible mess when you are coming from Soft.

yup, 3+ years

I have to agree, there isn't a great deal actually wrong with the Maya UI. That isn't to say it's perfect and couldn't do with improvements here and there. But then you can also say the same thing about Soft. Both have their strengths and weaknesses.
Soft does have some nice touches though, but there's also things that bug the hell out of me, even now.

Now when it comes to Max, well don't get me started....lol


Btw, I've been using Maya and XSI since they were first launched.

[Lord Futzi Voldemort]

Is the outliner dockable? Can I have multiple outliner instances?

Docked + second instance

Now switch your Viewport to quad. Or tear the outliner off and dock it beside the AE. Docking doesn't mean switching a panel to a view. Also you don't have two instances of the outliner. You have one instance with two halfes of an outliner. You can't have two floating outliner. That's a fact.

[Lord Futzi Voldemort]

Have you worked with Maya before? The UI is a horrible mess when you are coming from Soft.

yup, 3+ years

I have to agree, there isn't a great deal actually wrong with the Maya UI. That isn't to say it's perfect and couldn't do with improvements here and there. But then you can also say the same thing about Soft. Both have their strengths and weaknesses.
Soft does have some nice touches though, but there's also things that bug the hell out of me, even now.

Now when it comes to Max, well don't get me started....lol


Btw, I've been using Maya and XSI since they were first launched.

I think you guys never really used the Si UI. The factory layouts do not remotely reflect what you can do with it.
This is how you work with maya. If your screen doesn't look like that, than because you spend a considerable amount of time to open and close windows and tidy up your desktop when you actually should concentrate on your content.

This is how the same thing looks in Si, if you take half an hour to find you how to use it properly.
No floating windows, no browsing through menues to find the right editor. All parameters edited in one place. No obstruction, no moving windows around or opening and closing them.

You can even configure it so that it behaves like maya. Except that you can not forbid the explorer to open in more that one instance. ;)