what the hell?

[gustavoeb]

“We’re expanding the Maya pipeline with Softimage technology,” he says. “It’s the Softimage team that are working on Project Skyline. We chose Maya because it’s the most flexible, but you can have a Max pipeline and use Skyline.”
http://www.3dworldmag.com/2011/03/04/au ... -3d-world/
let the guys work in softimage for christ sake!

Moderator edit: please use the URL tags - HB

[Hirazi Blue]

I think the following quote from Chinny @the Mailing List is in order, before this gets out of hand:

For the nth time, please stop reading into stuff. 2.5 years and 5 releases after the acquisition Softimage, we are still doing business as usual.

Some of the Softimage team did work on this project given their experience with ICE. But Skyline is not ICE.
Skyline is a way to edit animation when connected to a game engine.

(Quoted from here)

As an aside: The only thing Chinny and some other people at AD|SI do not seem to understand, is that the ability to read something into a statement has very much to do with the way the statement was originally made...
;)

[gustavoeb]

sorry Hizari. I do feel like Softimage has evolved a lot under Autodesk, that is true.
I just got a little upset about that quotation coming from an AD person.

[Bellsey]

..sigh...

Chinny's right, people are reading too much into things, and Hirazi we do understand about the context of how comments are made. If anything, it's perhaps others that don't quite understand this.

Articles like the one in question are often short, covering many subjects and are trying to pack in as much information as possible. As they don't really go into much depth, its easy for comments to appear generalising and maybe out of context.
But with Skyline, there's has actually been alot of information put out there after it was shown at GDC including this good Q&A eith Eric Plante and Mathieu Mazerolle, which explains alot more about Skyline and also elaborating perhaps a little more about the Softimage influence.

http://www.cgchannel.com/2011/03/qa-aut ... line-team/

So there is good information out there, people just need to perhaps take a breath before maybe posting or questioning something.


Stand down people, move along, nothing to see........

[Hirazi Blue]

@gustavoeb - no need to apologize... ;)
@Bellsey - The whole "take a breath before posting" is totally uncalled for. All this high and mighty "you're reading stuff into it" & "take a breath before posting" directed at the user base should be preceded by a "think before you post/publish/check publications by others" for all the people at Autodesk.

[Bellsey]

I think you're being very unfair here, you accuse us of not understanding the context of the information we put out publically, yet people who post forum comments predicting doom and gloom for Softimage based on the odd quote, are doing exactly that.

We're not being 'high and mighty' either, we're just being to be as honest as we can and 'correcting' (for want of a better word), what people maybe thinking and perhaps they've got their wires crossed. I don't blame people for posting to forums but very often there's extra info out there which they don't know about or haven't seen. I'm just making a suggestion of perhaps finding out more before posting, but if people don't want to do that, that's fair enough and their prerogative.

[Nizar]

@gustavoeb - no need to apologize... ;)

... becose we all hate URL tags

I think it is the usual story by autodesk: "Don't worry if we don't publicize XSI", "don't worry if we talk about XSI like a companion (and not like a full, capable suite)", "don't worry if the Softimage Team publicize the Maya superiority", "Don't worry, dear XSI user, if Skyline is a Maya project, you can have it in your Max pipeline... "

[Bellsey]

we can keep going round in circles on these types of threads, but I honestly don't know what else we can say, that we haven't already said, many times.

[Nizar]

we can keep going round in circles on these types of threads, but I honestly don't know what else we can say, that we haven't already said, many times.

Please, don't misunderstood what I mean, I respect your work and your effort, this is not a sentence of circumstance.
You said "yet people who post forum comments predicting doom and gloom for Softimage based on the odd quote", ok, I think the error come from AD directly, if I talk to other people who do not know XSI, they blaming my choice, since it is widely accepted that AD is not going to push XSI. Why all the doubts about Maya acquisition, even from the customer base, disappeared after a few release and are still there with XSI? It is all a lack userbase confidence in AD or Autodesk don't win the user reluctances?

I agree about the "companion" publicity, it has sense, but not this other one (I understood Skyline project remove manpower from XSI development and put it in a Maya project).

[luceric]

I'm going to have to agree with Hirazi here, it's exactly what the quote says. And I've heard this comment before from autodesk reps so it's not going to be something that's going to go away.

The fact behind this are that indeed people who used to work on XSI have been working for years on this project skyline. It's not 'the softimage team' as the team that reports to me and actually works on the Softimage product. That is just a very strange way to put it but from Marc petit's point of view, they are his old colleague the time he used to work himself at Softimage in the mid 1990s to around 2004. it's a small CG world in Montreal: At Autodesk there may be 100 people who used to work in some capacity related to Softimage at one time or another. There are ex-softimage people in every team.

[Nizar]

The fact behind this are that indeed people who used to work on XSI have been working for years on this project skyline. It's not 'the softimage team' as the team that reports to me and actually works on the Softimage product. That is just a very strange way to put it but from Marc petit's point of view, they are his old colleague the time he used to work himself at Softimage in the mid 1990s to around 2004. it's a small CG world in Montreal: At Autodesk there may be 100 people who used to work in some capacity related to Softimage at one time or another. There are ex-softimage people in every team.

Thanks, this, IMO, make all in a different perspective (so no XSI resource steal). But why Skyline is not a XSI product related product? I can understood Maya is more flexible, but why can be include in MAx pipeline and not in XSI based pipeline?

[Bellsey]

comparing the Maya acquisition to the Softimage acquisition isn't a fair comparison, becuase the whole circumtances were different, and the M&E business was also in a different situation as well.

Chinny, Luc-Eric and I have commented many times regarding peoples perception of Autodesk not pushing Softimage, in various ways, but it seems that people perhaps aren't willing to listen. That's harsh I know, but thats how it looks.
Autodesk can appear secretive, but we try and be as open as we can, within the rules in which we have to operate. And myself and the team in which I operate are willing to dialog with customers.

I understood Skyline project remove manpower from XSI development and put it in a Maya project.

No one ever said the people were specifically moved from Softimage and on to Skyline, or that Softimages development was or has been compromised. All Chinny said was that some of the team worked on the project given their experience in working with a node-based workflow, namely ICE. But Skyline is not ICE. If you read the article I posted, Eric talks about the workflow and how ICE has help shape it for Skyline.
Also Skyline is not a Maya project, it's Middleware which is a whole seperate group headed by Marc Stevens. After the acquisition some Softimage people, including Marc Stevens did move into the Middleware group as well, so it's not the Softimage team per se, but MarcP has perhaps generalised them as the 'Softimage Team' to keep it simple.

[Nizar]

Also Skyline is not a Maya project, it's Middleware which is a whole seperate group headed by Marc Stevens. After the acquisition some Softimage people, including Marc Stevens did move into the Middleware group as well, so it's not the Softimage team per se, but MarcP has perhaps generalised them as the 'Softimage Team' to keep it simple.

Ok, thanks, you was very clear
but do you will agree, however, that it seems a little ambiguous without an explanation and is easy to misunderstand?

Other point, why skyline can be integrated in Max pipeline and no words about a XSI pipeline?

comparing the Maya acquisition to the Softimage acquisition isn't a fair comparison, becuase the whole circumtances were different, and the M&E business was also in a different situation as well.

I don't know, can only say from a user (or fanboy ) point of view it was the some.

[gustavoeb]

Thanks Luc I think that really clarifys the subject.

Bell, I do think you guys are doing a good job with comunication. I do think right now the perception of the user base is a lot better then it was post aquisition, and is in fact a good perception. The nice releases that you guys have being puting out lately help a lot also!

Misscomunication in such a large company, or at least missunderstanding on the userbase side is comprehensible I think, but I do understand it must get to your guys nervs some times.

Again, sorry for starting the thread with a controversial subject

[Lord Futzi Voldemort]

..sigh...

Stand down people, move along, nothing to see........

Yes, but where exactly is nothing to see? And what is it, that´s not there? Is it a secrect?


Just kidding....


Achim