Over the past months, I have been documenting the history of Softimage in what I hope will become the first comprehensive historical book dedicated to the software.
This is not intended to be a technical manual, nor a nostalgic "Softimage was the best" book.
Instead, my goal is to document the people, ideas, innovations and events that shaped Softimage, as well as the lasting influence it has had on visual effects, animation, game development and modern computer graphics.
To help make this historical record as accurate and complete as possible, I'm looking to connect with people who were part of that journey, including:
- Former Softimage developers and engineers
- Product managers
- Technical Directors
- Artists who used Softimage in production
- Beta testers
- Trainers and educators
- Members of XSIBase, SI Community and other historical communities
- Anyone with interesting stories, memories or historical material related to Softimage
- Photographs from SIGGRAPH, NAB, GDC and other industry events
- Pictures of Softimage booths, presentations and product launches
- User Group meetings, workshops and training sessions
- Behind-the-scenes photographs from studios using Softimage
- Historical brochures, flyers, posters and promotional material
- Conference badges, giveaways and other memorabilia
Whether it's personal projects, student work, demo reel shots, production stills, portfolio images, making-of material, screenshots or other examples of work created with Softimage, they all help tell the story of the artists who used the software.
If you own photographs, artwork or historical material and would be willing to let me reproduce it in the book, I would be honoured to include it (with your permission), and full credit will always be given.
Many of these photographs, artworks and personal archives exist only in private collections. My hope is to help preserve them, and the stories behind them, before they are lost.
Whether you contributed to the software itself or simply created something with it, your story is part of Softimage's history.
If you think you can help, or if you know someone who might, I would be delighted to hear from you.
Thank you for helping preserve an important chapter in the history of computer graphics.
Matteo