I think I'm going to switch to 3DS Max

[pluMmet]

curly- If it's character stuff you want and you already have si then you would be a fool to purchase Max instead of getting Species.

"The animation rig has been designed with a mixed pipeline in mind. The deformations of the meshes are driven by null (locator) objects and thus allows users to export the mesh along with the deformers to other packages such as Maya or any others that support FBX."

With si once you get retargeting set up between whichever systems you have into si it will be just as automatic as what you saw from your friend.

I just came from Max myself and all I can say is that high level control in si is amazing and rivals low level control in most anything else.

I.C.E. is way more versatile then anything else I have run into.

Of course with low level control most any application can do anything but unless you have a team of people that is mostly too much of a time suck.

Best of luck with whatever you decide.

[csaez]

I honestly think softimage is a great DCC for small/medium shops, you get a lot out of the box and give us the ability to customize it in a pipeline-friendly way. For freelance or 1-band-men could be too much work get up and running in some areas, you get a lot of control about what's going on but there're not so much 1-click solutions already built-in.

So, maybe isn't too crazy switch to another package, depends on what are you looking for.

My 2 cents...

[Maximus]

Both max and maya are quite disappointing without external plugins/renders. So good luck with that.

[Soth3dlife]

even though I think leaving Softimage for that reason doesn't make any sense I can understand how some people feel like. It loos like the popularity of softimage has been focused on ICE in the last few years. After all these back and forth with all the rumors about putting ICE into Maya or Max and suddenly this cortex shows up...

I guess people say: I love softimage because I find it the coolest software ever; awesome modeling, rigging and animation tools plus MR completely integrated and now you can use Vray, Final Render, 3Delight and the famous Arnold. In addition it's got this awesome ICE tool that makes awesome effects, tools, and so on. But it never becomes as popular as it should! I'm working with Maya or 3Ds Max at work but never Softimage and when a watch the Avengers making of all the screens show Maya, but isn't Softimage cool?. Is it as cool as I think or it's me that I am a fanatic? Why should I keep using a software that just a couple of online communities like?

Softimage is also my favourite software. It might not have, by default, the coolest retopo tools of the market ( I don't realy give a fuck about such tools because I work in an environment pipeline where retopotools don't work. Actually for me it's more a Videogame tool than other thing but that's my own point of view ) but I can still make the same process by using Softimage deformers in differents oprators stacks and the modeling workflow it's just what I look for, I'm not saying the best cuz that depends on the person, I'm saying that it's just does what I want it to do. I might not have Iray ( who does want it? it's so F*** unstable ) but what I love about CG is not architecture it's animation and VFX so I don't need such tools. All the animation tools are so F*** intuitive and just work! I've got Biped and Gear plus FaceRobot for retored people like me who get scared when listen to the word "rigging". I feel like I can do everything within softimage for my own projects. I can start the preproduction, modeling proxies, unwrapping in Softimage, using biped to test the proxies, render the test shot and make simple compositing within Softimage ( yes, I'm still that sort of people who tests everything in Softimage before going to the final product, then is when I use tools like Nuke ) and then go to each one of the production states and change everything. I love the delta referencing, It's a little bit buggy sometimes but... what other reference systme is not?


This is the last time I'm gonna write down a post like this cuz I sincerly got fed up. This is not soccer, it is not about making your team win. Softimage is not a team, it's a tool. It used to be the standard in the industry but it is not anymore, but it's popularity it's growing despite what some people say. You are gonna give up softimage because there's a cortex s*** for Max? that's up to you. I haven't worked professionally with Softimage in 2 years and everyday I miss this tool or that tool or that process that I love in Softimage I don't have it in Maya ( I'm not saying that Maya is stupid, I like some of its tools but I still prefer working with XSI ). The funny thing is when you show your co-workers, classmates or whatever tools or stuff that XSI does ( gator or Unfold for example ) and they just freak out.


Do whatever you want, I would understand your point of view but I'll never think like you. Cortex, CAT,Node editor, Graphite tool etc are no reasons to stop using the software you like at home, just like ICE or the XSI animation tools were not a reason for maya and Max users to stop using their softwares. Sorry if I sounded pissed off it's not what I wanted.


By the way, I've read all kind of complaints about Softimage's new dev team... don't pay attention to that, it's not the original crew but it's a bigger team that was trained by the old one. Doesn't it sound like fresher ideas and more support? How do you know that they are gonna improve the SDK like heaven? we haven't seen their work so until we see Autodesk Softimage 2014 don't start to complaint about them, it's just unfair.

Cheers and sorry for the extra extra offtopic

[Kerro Perro]

Now that's a proper rant!

Well done sir!

[Soth3dlife]

hehhe sorry about that, I just wanted to share my point of view

[Nick3d]

Seriously?you're complaining about the retargeting in Software because in Max is automatic? And because now they're developing an ICElike tool?
Ipisoft to Softimage: extract the bvh file for 3dcs studio from Ipisoft,import in Softimage,retarget > under 2 minutes to do that....and if you save your target skeleton you can reuse it for other mocaps....I posted some examples on the Species forum,take a look at it how quick it is to setup...
Ice for Max: seriously?there is an extensive documentation about it and what you have to do is to learn it properly so you can customize everything...then dvd, YouTube tutorials and so on....

But if you're happy with the modeling tools and especially the animation tool in Max (my god this is lame ) well good for you....

But really,switch to Maya, at least is a decent software instead of copied tools that works not that good in Max...

But yeah,they have Vray....learn to use Mental Ray!if you know how to use it is waaaayyyyyy faster....

[Nizar]

But yeah,they have Vray....learn to use Mental Ray!if you know how to use it is waaaayyyyyy faster....

Is a serious statement?

I return to day upon mental ray, because I like the quality of its light and rendering, also I love work inside sofimage and hate the import/export worflow, but mental ray seems anything but faster

[j3st3r]

Condolences, man...Deep condolences

[SamHowell]

Hi,

I saw a friend of me importing an ipisoft biped bvh file and autmatically retargeting the mocap to 3DS Max CAT system.

It works and in Softimage the workflow is much harder -> using motor. A company called esphere is developing an ICE system for 3DS Max. They call it cortex.

There's not so much reason anymore why I should look further at Softimage. I'm going to buy a license of 3DS Max. (The purpose of this post is not to insult you. But to explain that Softimage is losing their last advantage. Also when you look at how simple the retargeting of mocap works, look at the wrapit retopo plugin etc...

Thanks for heaving a good time at this forum.

3D applications are just tools. Use whatever works best for the job required. Luckily for us Softimage is best in most situations.

You will be back.

[Cacoman]

Retargeting slow?

I don't know if perhaps in Max the BVH file is imported and you have your rig moving in a one single "push the red button" action.

Mean no harm here. But from a blank new scene to having a full character dancing around with a BVH file with Species it takes me like 20 min. Once you have the template, MOTOR is a lighting bolt with a plethora of options to adjust it and plot the action, then go the Fcurve editor and clean, smooth curves, correct rotations and finally add another animation layer to even enhance the animation.

Try to do that with MAX and let's see how far you can go.

Perhpas MAX has the "push the red button solution" for importing the BVH. But I think you are focusing only in one small detail of the whole picture. Take out Species of the equation and let's step back. Right from scratch.

Build a character, build the rig, envelope the character, weight the character, make the corrective shapes where it applies, tag the rig, import the BVH file, plot the curves, clean the curves and add secondary animation.

Now we are talking. If you tell me that working the whole process in MAX is a one "push the red button" solution I, that consider myself a Softimage champion will uninstall Softimage and switch my faith and hails to MAX. But really... I don't think so.