XSI in production

[steven07]

So I figured I'd ask everyone since it seems everyone here is an expert at SI and has been using it for quite a while and in a variety of settings. I was just wondering what's the reason you've chosen XSI rather than "B" (B just being any other 3D package). Specifically in a production setting.. This can range from freelance work to feature film.. I'm just generally curious. After a few years of looking fir the right 3d app I've finally settled on XSI for several reasons and was wondering what everyone else thought who's been in the field longer than I have..
Thanks in advance!
Steven

[Diurno]

well, i passed from 3dmax 8 to softimage 6.5 3 year ago, the two main reasons were:

-cause xsi has an approach totally different from 3d max, for example in modeling, on Si you have the total control on a object, otherwise in 3ds i remember that crazy thing of put every single modificator in that sort of row on the object.... for me totally unconfortable

-in the production, si is a complete software, i can model, animate, simulate, composite and render with it; when i worked with 3ds i remember that i need a bunch of complementary sofware, like vray,fumefx,cat........

[steven07]

Thanks for your reply! I've been hearing that a lot. that is, that XSI is a complete package. And although a lot of people think there's a lot of things missing (which is true), as far as production goes, it's the perfect package to get things done quickly and efficiently

[Hirazi Blue]

As I am "merely" a hobbyist, I can't answer your question about using it in production. The problem with questions like that, is, however, that if you put them to a "Softimage friendly" community like ours, you'll quite obviously get "Softimage friendly" answers. And forums like CGTalk have long ago banned any threads comparing software (and rightfully so, because they tend to get "messy" rather quickly). It's a bit like walking into a church and asking the people, what's the best religion...

This is, however, not meant to discourage further discussion on this topic...

PS - They lured me in with Softimage|XSI 4.2 Foundation, because at the time it was an unbeatable package considering the "low" price...

[steven07]

I'm sorry I should have said this before.. I didn't mean to start a discussion about which software package is best.. I just want to know how everyone got started in XSI instead of going for X or Y or Z and what made them choose XSI over another package. I don't mean for it to be a "because X and Y suck at B" but more of a "Well XSI does A and B really well and that's why i chose it" type of discussion

[Hirazi Blue]

Yes, I understood that. My point is merely that comparing features IMHO can never be truly done unbiased. But I am known to be wrong... (quite often, actually) ;)

My remark was in no way meant as a typical moderator reprimand...

[steven07]

I guess an unbiased answer is alright with me then ;) I just want to know why XSI users are XSI users. Maybe instead I should ask what about XSI attracted everyone to use XSI?

[scottsch]

I started on XSI because Maya was a mess for poly modeling and XSI Foundation was an excellent product for the cost. XSI did so many things right in version 5 - it was based around polygon modeling and it showed, whereas Maya was based on Nurbs and slowly was migrating over to full polygon support haphazardly.

Also mental ray support in XSI version 5 was miles and miles ahead of Maya's.

In short, instead of spending all weekend on the forums trying to find a workaround for a Maya flaw, I could spend time actually working on something in XSI. I still tend to think of Softimage as a very refined, highly improved version of Maya. I kept using Softimage because their upgrades (pre-autodesk days) were HUGE upgrades that made leaps and bounds in features.

Nowadays the big 3 are pretty much equal but I would still prefer to use Softimage much more than the others. SI needs more shader/render setting presets to be more new-user friendly I think. I tend to create way too much from scratch whereas in 3dsmax you can do a lot of drag-and-drop out of the box.

[Rez007]

I definitely agree with the preset library issue...Softimage's can, and should, be beefed up a lot more (especially making it more current). Most packages seem to have a nice library of shaders and presets, except for Softimage.