What if Softimage died?

[sonictk]

So I really don't want to beat this dead horse (and I dislike polls like these because all it does is fracture the community...) but...in recent days there have been some credible rumours going around that 2015 will be the last release for XSI and after that it will be considered EOL; it goes on to imply that this announcement will be made official march 4th.

Obviously I'm not as longtime a user of XSI as most of you veterans are, but this makes me sick. Especially since the dev team is based in my home country now.

I don't want to (or invite) ranting about why this would be a silly decision from the artistic/TD point of view, all I really want to know is, since the forums/mailing list do not seem to be discussing or even hinting about it, can someone from Autodesk seriously come out and confirm if this is rubbish or true, whether privately to the community or via official public statement now?? Even if XSI is not making money for Autodesk and it has to be stopped in order to balance profits which is a perfectly sound business decision from accountants' points of view...I would think you at least owe it to your longtime customer base, the ones that keep people interested in movies, TV commercials, games all around the world not to drop this news ONLY so soon before the 2015 suite release. It just makes me think you want the news to be drowned out in the ensuing discussion over the 2015 features.

(And to think just last year your product managers went on record saying that the future of XSI was not in doubt...)

Again, the possibility exists that this is completely unfounded and completely bogus. (and I REALLY want to believe it is, since I personally cannot believe Autodesk would make such a decision now, when there is no real alternative to ICE and character animation in one package for an animator like me. Yes not all of us use Maya as our preferred tool even if I work with it on a day-to-day basis in school) And just a few days ago I would have rubbished such rumours like every other year has the same "XSI is dead" stuff coming up around this time, since I was aware that 2015 development was still ongoing. But a few tweets and other postings from some people have popped up that don't seem to be made out of malice...

Again, emphasis on I really would rather not this become ranting or outbursts asking AD to rethink business strategies/etc. I just would really like confirmation/denial that these rumours are true and if I should continue with my R&D work that I'm doing with ICE to overcome some of the shortcomings I'm running into with my current Maya rigging workflow. As a soon-to-be-graduating student, I think it's not too unfair to ask that...?

[MauricioPC]

I've Just searched Softimage Facebook and I couldn't find it, bit I'm in a mobile, so maybe it's. not showing for me.

I don't use Twitter that much and demos are local, so you reach far less people. Gadly we have FXGuide who makes in depth reviews and articles about projects , movies and even BiFrost. How the hell do they do that?

Cheers.

[Hirazi Blue]

@sonictk - Thanks for posting!

[MauricioPC]

If that is truth, I'll switch to a C4D+Houdini study and get on with my life AD free.

[sonictk]

@sonictk - Thanks for posting!

Hmm...I just hope Autodesk at least allows someone to respond so that can get a solid answer, I don't want anyone to get in trouble or anything by leaking stuff, forgot to mention that when I posted... -_-"

I know it's only a week away until the rumour is (hopefully) proven false, but I really want to know obviously since that's what I'm presenting a lot on in my rigging/animation reel soon when I want to look for a job in a couple of weeks. (And I guess I could assume everyone here would be interested to know as well, though obviously I cannot speak for the community...)

I wish I could just say that I could port my XSI workflow to Houdini or C4D or something like that, but the reality is there is nothing like ICE for people who don't have the benefit of having a full TD team backing them and it's really useful for me as an animator to know I can always spruce up stuff using quick ICE prototypes instead of dealing with nParticles and nDynamics...like if I want my guy to swing a huge sword and stuff like that smashing stuff around...

Sure, probably bigger studios and pros will use more complicated simulation (pulldownit, krakatoa etc.) and have dedicated FX/sim TDs to take care of these things...but for small one-man-team me I really like being able to do a simple version on my own while I can focus on animation without having to learn Yet Another New Tool Not so simple to just drag-and-drop that workflow around...

[Eugen]

So I really don't want to beat this dead horse (and I dislike polls like these because all it does is fracture the community...) but...in recent days there have been some credible rumours going around that 2015 will be the last release for XSI and after that it will be considered EOL; it goes on to imply that this announcement will be made official march 4th.

Where did you get that from?

[owei]

I hear this "rumor" from all over the world for weeks now. If somebody from AD will step up and deny it, how great would that be...but, if no one will, like they did all the times before, I guess everybody can draw the conclusion...personally I think we reached the end of the road..would be very happy if not...but this time it seems serious..

[sonictk]

So I really don't want to beat this dead horse (and I dislike polls like these because all it does is fracture the community...) but...in recent days there have been some credible rumours going around that 2015 will be the last release for XSI and after that it will be considered EOL; it goes on to imply that this announcement will be made official march 4th.

Where did you get that from?

There are some tweets from people around that have been discussing it, here is one of them:
https://twitter.com/sanders3d/status/438453216498688000

There are other things going around as well that I don't know if I should publicly discuss because I don't want people to get in trouble (even if they are friends of friends)...and like owei said this time it seems a lot more credible than previous years. Otherwise I wouldn't have posted about this now. =\

EDIT: There is also this:

http://area.autodesk.com/expertchallenge#ask

Again, HIGHLY STRESS this is not proof in any way. But it is not normal, since XSI was included last year.

[Mathaeus]

The problem is, in my view, that Maya LT is in no way a comparison to Modo. Yes, Modo is more expensive now, but aside from texturing, Modo modeling tools are way better than Maya, it has sculpting, etc etc. And if you take a look at the Maya LT videos introduction (which seen to be done for children) and the Modo ones (posted on vimeo by The Foundry), even the approach of introducing the app is wrong. Again ... IMO.

Just as a side note, I don't use Modo, I don't like it very much.

No at all. When it comes to modeling, Modo has a few nice tools but in very basic area of extruding, nothing more. Even damn relax doesn't work properly. No even basic lattice, no modifiers for modeling.... Far behind Blender, not even comparable to monster set of tools in Maya - don't forget the all modeling tools already are in LT, too. Modo viewports are still weak and unpredictable. Good for people who imagine modeling as moving the vertices, that's all.
I got Modo for case of archiviz rendering (which I'm not doing, so just in case). Today I'll be happy to exchange Modo for Maya LT - but this is not possible, unfortunately. For 'possible case' of archiviz, once there are decent Blender integrations with Octane and V-Ray, I'm afraid Modo lost it's last argument.

[Pooby]

I'm pretty certain that the rumour is true and I can't even begin to express my loathing for Autodesk right now.. but I will for sure.

I'm sure there was some now expired, 5 year support promise that was in the buying contract that they reluctantly kept to, in the most half assed way and now they are free of that and can drop it.

Apart from the credible rumours, Its been pretty clear for months that Luceric has been trying to tell us this without using the actual words as I'm sure he'd be in trouble with his bosses if he did. Whether its been though AD's suggestion or his own, conscious or subconcious, the message of MOVE TO MAYA has been pretty clear even before I heard rumours.

For me, moving to a workflow from the 1990's isn't an option and on the up side, I really don't need AD to keep tinkering with Softimage. it will still be, by a long margin, the best solution for what I'm doing. In fact I'm about to buy a bunch of new licences and set up a studio that will still be based around Softimage (for the forseeable future) and increasingly, Fabric Engine and possibly Houdini. One good thing to come of this is that I wont have to keep paying any money to AD any more so that'll save a chunk each year and give me a warm feeling.

[SamHowell]

Goodbye Autodesk. Hello SideFX.

[angus_davidson]

Just another opinion by myself on the subject of how Autodesk sees Softimage.

This month, the great The Mill won three awards in the VES event for best commercial for broadcast using solely Softimage. Now, I'm no marketing expert, but if this were my company and this were my software, wouldn't I make a HUGE article, interviewing The Mill artists about WHY they choose Softimage, whats GOOD in Softimage, what where the challenges, how they approach it, etc etc etc.

What a nice opportunity to market Softimage as the PERFECT tool for small, mid-sized studios, to use Softimage as the tool of choice for broadcast. Hell, I doubt The Mill guys wouldn't be up for this since they already released a cool making-of on the subject on their vimeo channel.

But what has been done? Actually, nothing ... not even a mention on The Area, Autodesk site, Autodesk Facebook, nothing.

Now, maybe it's just me ... but I think it was a very good opportunity that they simply let is pass. Hell, even an marketing intern would figure this out if there was even this taking care of Softimage marketing.

-- EDIT --

WAIT!!! Scratch that ... you don't need to create a article or a interview of a video, The Mill already done it for you ... you just need to SHARE IT!

Why the hell wouldn't you use this to promote Softimage is beyond comprehension.

Ok, you're accusing Autodesk of doing nothing, well I contest that. In fact, it's totally untrue. At the time this went out, articles were posted on the Facebook pages, and twitter feeds. And I should know, because I posted them. I don't have the exact numbers, but the Facebook pages views were very high, well into the high thousands.

As I have said many times before, we can't just rock up and expect The Mill to do a customer storie around a particular spot that they have done. Though we have done that, it's not always possible. The Mill have clients as well, and we have to respect their relationships as well. The Mill, BBDO NY. and Peta had already produced some breakdowns and 'making of's', around this campaign so links to those were posted as well.

And at any events that I presented at, this was one of the Softimage customers examples that I would show and tell.

Just to back Graham up here I did get announcements on twitter and facebook. The problem is if your following the wrong autodesk one (and there are many) you may not see it

[Cacoman]

We all think that ADSK owes us truth and certainty about Softimage.

But unfortunatley that is not going to happen as no employee will break his NDA, specially in this forum.

I've hear those rumors too from strong sources. After last few years hearing ADSK is going to kill Softimage and this latest "strong" rumors. I have already made up my mind.

Make sure that without Softimage, Autodesk is not going to see my money anymore. All my money will be destinated to the developers that will continue to support Softimage with new improvements.

[rray]

No path to Maya for me as well, with the main difference I'm seeing that in Maya we're meant to only follow the supported workflows. In SI every feature is constructed as just a building block of a workflow. Sure with Bifrost we'll see a little XSI light in Maya, but I doubt that this mentioned workflow philosophy will ever change.

Anyway I'll keep updating my site for as long as new plugins come out.

[Pooby]

No path to Maya for me as well, with the main difference I'm seeing that in Maya we're meant to only follow the supported workflows. In SI every feature is constructed as just a building block of a workflow. Sure with Bifrost we'll see a little XSI light in Maya, but I doubt that this mentioned workflow philosophy will ever change.

Anyway I'll keep updating my site as long as new plugins come out.

Thats fantastic to hear.. I'll double my efforts.
XSI is only dead when everyone gives up on it.

[Cacoman]

Paul where is the link to tip your Fuzz?

I haven't download it yet. But I will at this precisley moment.

@rray.

Thx a lot!