offical features for softimage 2014 & we have a NEW logo

[SreckoM]

^^ Could not agree more.

[angus_davidson]

Ideally while I would really like a default alternative to MR (this is very much a personal opinion) I dont think its a good idea for something like Arnold or vray to be brought in and managed by ADSK. What would be awesome is if you could opt for a choice of renderer and you get the license only. That is the development is still kept separate and very agile and VRAY/Solidangle would get a much better revenue stream.

When I was still working development we did something very similar for a big corporate (admittedly very different business, but the fundamentally the same business model) We took them from doing everything themselves to just maintaining the core and then getting the people who understood the various end products the best develop the business equivalent of a 3D plugins. It allowed them to

a) Tighten up their product a lot more and make it more bug free and feature rich.
b) Give their customers a wider choice of options because they had a bigger set of very solid addons.

Alternatively just allow people to buy the products without MR if they so choose. (Thats just the Scottish heritage talking. I hate having to pay for things I dont want or use) The difference would allow folks to buy their own renderer and possibly another plug in or two. (which would mean good things for 3rd party devs)

On that note. It might be very worthwhile putting up a page showcasing the amazing plugins you get for SI. Mootzoid etc would do no shame at all to the ADSK website.

[talent103]

Maya actually got some pretty decent upgrades this year. This article gives a good overview of yesterdays unfold event.
http://lesterbanks.com/2013/03/maya-201 ... old-areas/

[mattmos]

Daniel, thanks for poking your head above the parapet.

I mostly rig and animate characters for commercials/promos/idents/short films. So I guess the things that matter to me may not be so important to people using it for other purposes, but here's what I'd like to see:

1, ICE - please continue to build the basics out, rather than creating secondary featured tools like crowds. Ability to mute an icetree like any operator in the stack, better contextual interaction, setting data on groups, anything to streamline and expand its core capabilities.

2, Rigging tools update - the inbuilt softimage rigs really are starting to creak now, and don't contain enough features requested in modern rigs to be useful. I'd love to see a modular system like GEAR along with a decent way to provide a good envelope starting point as in the Species plugin. Its a shame ICE kine hasn't gone anywhere, as if you provided a bunch of compounds for limbs, spine etc I'm sure it would be useful.

3, Shape manager update - it feels very unfinished, there are lots of useful tools in GEAR's shape tools menu for resetting, mirroring, splitting etc.

4, ICE-based hair system. melena and kristinka are two examples of what can be done but focusing on ease of use, styling, simulation, caching.

5, Viewport interaction speed for rigs and in general with large numbers of objects.

6, UV editor needs an overhaul, like already said its quite alien to the rest of the package, proportional tool needs some visual representation for example.

7, Referencing is too open in its default state, it should be pretty locked down with the ability to enable things as needed, rather than trying to switch options off all the time.

I could go on for a while, but run the risk of watering down what's important to me. Thanks for listening!

[McNistor]

Daniel, thanks for poking your head above the parapet.

I mostly rig and animate characters for commercials/promos/idents/short films. So I guess the things that matter to me may not be so important to people using it for other purposes, but here's what I'd like to see:

1, ICE - please continue to build the basics out, rather than creating secondary featured tools like crowds. Ability to mute an icetree like any operator in the stack, better contextual interaction, setting data on groups, anything to streamline and expand its core capabilities.

2, Rigging tools update - the inbuilt softimage rigs really are starting to creak now, and don't contain enough features requested in modern rigs to be useful. I'd love to see a modular system like GEAR along with a decent way to provide a good envelope starting point as in the Species plugin. Its a shame ICE kine hasn't gone anywhere, as if you provided a bunch of compounds for limbs, spine etc I'm sure it would be useful.

3, Shape manager update - it feels very unfinished, there are lots of useful tools in GEAR's shape tools menu for resetting, mirroring, splitting etc.

4, ICE-based hair system. melena and kristinka are two examples of what can be done but focusing on ease of use, styling, simulation, caching.

5, Viewport interaction speed for rigs and in general with large numbers of objects.

6, UV editor needs an overhaul, like already said its quite alien to the rest of the package, proportional tool needs some visual representation for example.

7, Referencing is too open in its default state, it should be pretty locked down with the ability to enable things as needed, rather than trying to switch options off all the time.

I could go on for a while, but run the risk of watering down what's important to me. Thanks for listening!

Approved.
To that list I'd add a muscle system.

[angus_davidson]

Would love to not have to start SI from the batch file. Students bugger up the shorcuts so often it would be great to be able to pin SI to the start menu properly.

[McNistor]

Would love to not have to start SI from the batch file. Students bugger up the shorcuts so often it would be great to be able to pin SI to the start menu properly.

You might be aware of this solution, but just in case you aren't:
go to - C:\Users\your_username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar\...
go to Properties by RMB the XSI's icon and change the target. Be aware that the system puts a "(x86)" by default after Program Files (like this C:\Program Files (x86)\ so if you're windows x64 that will be a problem.

[angus_davidson]

Its what I use to put it there when I first install the lab. But students being students they very quickly delete it. (same with the one in the start menu). grrrr unfortunately they need to be admins of their machines for other course requirements so I cant really shut then down much either.

[dobby]

disappoint.. still no point to update from 2012.
who needs a "high quality viewport"?

Maya actually got some pretty decent upgrades this year. This article gives a good overview of yesterdays unfold event.
http://lesterbanks.com/2013/03/maya-201 ... old-areas/

those modeling tools are nice

[Ramon]

never try new features in 2014 ver.
Stupid update. Whole year develop crowd nodes. Amazing!!!

[t4d]

Dream additions - ... new render Arnold or Vray

do you really want this? that ad is responsible for arnold or vray integration?
its good like it is with arnold and vray.

good point if we got Arnold in 2014 we would not get any features Solid angle would add in 2015 onwards.. Sorry your right,

the History of Autodesk speaks for itself..

[ojo3D]

disappoint.. still no point to update from 2012.
who needs a "high quality viewport"?

Maya actually got some pretty decent upgrades this year. This article gives a good overview of yesterdays unfold event.
http://lesterbanks.com/2013/03/maya-201 ... old-areas/

those modeling tools are nice

Yeah ... but those modeling tools is Nex plugin, so you can't say it's something new. In all three apps the updates were small and most was fixing bugs and improving stability, etc. Of course if your are paying for a subscription, I understand the frustration, but if the software is more robust and stable and works better, it's good too.

What was cool in the unfold presentation was that the guy presenting Max was telling everybody about good aspects of Geppetto and then when it was time for the guy presenting Softimage, he kind of said: "well, if you wanna use crowd simulation ... this is not geppetto". I don't remember the exact words, but kind of THIS is crowd simulation.

I know the focus of Softimage now (as market by Autodesk) is Character Animation and Procedural VFX. But it would be nice to see something on the motion graphics territory. If you count that Softimage is cheaper than 3ds Max and Cinema 4D and has ICE, how easy it would be to sell that for motion graphic artists? Just throw in a good integration/communication with After Effects or even Composite for that matter.


I'm a student, but have worked and am working as an editor and motion graphics guy. So for me Softimage is the most appealing software. I don't see 3ds Max or C4D as better options. The only problem for me will be to learn a bit of archviz in it, because I know here there's lots of jobs for that and the income in the future will be nice.

-- EDIT --

Since I've been living under a rock, I just found out about Motion Tools by Gustavo Boehs. Crazy work!

[Maximus]

disappoint.. still no point to update from 2012.
who needs a "high quality viewport"?

Maya actually got some pretty decent upgrades this year. This article gives a good overview of yesterdays unfold event.
http://lesterbanks.com/2013/03/maya-201 ... old-areas/

those modeling tools are nice

Yeah ... but those modeling tools is Nex plugin, so you can't say it's something new. In all three apps the updates were small and most was fixing bugs and improving stability, etc. Of course if your are paying for a subscription, I understand the frustration, but if the software is more robust and stable and works better, it's good too.

What was cool in the unfold presentation was that the guy presenting Max was telling everybody about good aspects of Geppetto and then when it was time for the guy presenting Softimage, he kind of said: "well, if you wanna use crowd simulation ... this is not geppetto". I don't remember the exact words, but kind of THIS is crowd simulation.

I know the focus of Softimage now (as market by Autodesk) is Character Animation and Procedural VFX. But it would be nice to see something on the motion graphics territory. If you count that Softimage is cheaper than 3ds Max and Cinema 4D and has ICE, how easy it would be to sell that for motion graphic artists? Just throw in a good integration/communication with After Effects or even Composite for that matter.


I'm a student, but have worked and am working as an editor and motion graphics guy. So for me Softimage is the most appealing software. I don't see 3ds Max or C4D as better options. The only problem for me will be to learn a bit of archviz in it, because I know here there's lots of jobs for that and the income in the future will be nice.

The abyss there is between C4d and Softimage in terms of motion graphic and artists is the ease of use. While c4d is built around an artist mindset, ICE is built for techincal developers and people that have high skills to control particles, datas and everything at a really deep level (when SDK allows you).
While in C4d for example you can dig deeper with the nodal system and achieve every effect you want, on first glance and at first impact you are presented with a complete package that works out of the box without you having any knowledge of the math behind a particular tool, or the math and mechanism you need to learn to make a motion graphic effects work.

in ICE is way more complicated to a point where its not even comparable. This is not Softimage is better than C4d. I'm just pointing out the Motion Graphic field only, so lets not start with the usual answers like "ICE is not only for TD" etc. If Softimage wants to go into motion graphics territory they only have one chance, make ICE easier accessible to everyone, with presets, compound, effects, built in mechanism, ease of use, fewer steps to setup, and on top of it give users a render engine fully updated, not an half finished crap like the current situation of Mental Ray. c4d proprietary render is insanely fast for those effects, its quite unbelievable.

In my opinion Soft is very distant yet from a motion graphic field, because ICE is way too complex for the majority of people who are artists and do motion graphics, and the other 50% is because we dont have a render engine.

[ojo3D]

The abyss there is between C4d and Softimage in terms of motion graphic and artists is the ease of use. While c4d is built around an artist mindset, ICE is built for techincal developers and people that have high skills to control particles, datas and everything at a really deep level (when SDK allows you).
While in C4d for example you can dig deeper with the nodal system and achieve every effect you want, on first glance and at first impact you are presented with a complete package that works out of the box without you having any knowledge of the math behind a particular tool, or the math and mechanism you need to learn to make a motion graphic effects work.

in ICE is way more complicated to a point where its not even comparable. This is not Softimage is better than C4d. I'm just pointing out the Motion Graphic field only, so lets not start with the usual answers like "ICE is not only for TD" etc. If Softimage wants to go into motion graphics territory they only have one chance, make ICE easier accessible to everyone, with presets, compound, effects, built in mechanism, ease of use, fewer steps to setup, and on top of it give users a render engine fully updated, not an half finished crap like the current situation of Mental Ray. c4d proprietary render is insanely fast for those effects, its quite unbelievable.

In my opinion Soft is very distant yet from a motion graphic field, because ICE is way too complex for the majority of people who are artists and do motion graphics, and the other 50% is because we dont have a render engine.

Sorry for changing the subject of the topic. And while I do get what you are saying, having tried Max, C4D, I do find Softimage more intuitive. Of course, when it comes to ICE I'll probably bang my head against the table a few times. But with a tool like Motion Tools (that I've just discovered) and a $ 500 difference, I think it's a nice alternative. And if you put the other possibilities, it's way cool.

Of course I'm a guy who wants to work with this in the near future, but who want to play with animation and other stuff too, so I see Softimage as the most complete package because of the possibilities.

I'm really looking forward to learning more about it. And let's go back to studying it on the friday holiday.

[Pancho]

Ice actually is very artist and user friendly. As long as you can express in words what is supposed to happen, you can easily (in most cases) transfer it into ice compounds. I have the feeling that many users are just afraid to use it, like many users rather stick to a layered texturing system, than go nodal ( e.g. Modo ).

[angus_davidson]

Somewhat sad that the cracked version of Si 2014 is available for download before we get it on subscription