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this theme by far starrting softiamge vs <put name your favorite programs>
well I asking about Rigging and Animation in Softimage because I cant understand what programm can and what cant do
For example Modeling I can modeling anything in Softimage very fast but cant modeling very accuracy
at nowa day using over9000 software for modeling its pretty normal аnd a sign of good manners if I can say that

did some research I hear about .alembic with it I can do same like simply rigging in softimage other step in any other programm, polishing in another programm?
thats question

CafeNight wrote:did some research I hear about .alembic with it I can do same like simply rigging in softimage other step in any other programm, polishing in another programm?
thats question

Alembic doesn't transfer any rig or deformers, only point cache. Meaning, you'll have an animated mesh and you won't be able to modify that animation because you don't have the rig anymore. You can only edit the speed, import certain frames, and other limited options.
It is mainly used to send a finished animation to another software for rendering, or to send an animated asset to a scene in another software.

So for effects, and finished animations, very useful. For rigged characters, not at all. Well, useful if you only want to render them.

With FBX (and Collada although I don't use it anymore) you'll be able to export / import weighted meshes with simple standard bones. Again, no rigs, no constraints, no deformers other than the envelope. It can also export / import hard edges, normal clusters, simple materials and some other stuff. Very used in games.
Useful for characters, but since you will only be able to export/import your bones, envelope and unconstrained controllers you will have to rig it again.

There isn't any format that can export / import rigs, constraints, etc. for multiple 3D packages. It is possible to write an export / import tool with programming skills, but it would have to be project specific to work with specific tools. There is no a "one fits all" format.

Bellsey wrote:

Draise wrote:I thought XSI was being used on Silicon Graphics machines on unix systems when Maya was still being called Alias and Windows still wasn't a thing.

I think I need to fact check this..

Both PowerAnimator and Softimage3D were on SG machines. In '96-97 Soft3D was launched on the windows NT platform. I recall where I worked at the time we all had SG machines but then moved to Intergraph workstations running NT when we upgraded to Softimage 3D 3.7

Alias kept PowerAnimator on unix only because they were about to ship Maya. Maya launched first on unix, but had an NT version on Beta. The following year they started shipping Maya on unix and NT.
Then in 2000, XSI 1.0 launched on SG and Windows, then in '01 both Alias and Softimage started supporting linux.

Fascinating! I love history.