NYC 3December event...XSI name being dropped in favor of "Softimage"?

[Kris Rivel]

So who all attended the 3December thing in NYC last night?  I was unable to go due to work load but curious to know what went down.  I here that XSI wasn't shown at all?  Just Mudbox and other stuff?  Not a shocker I guess but a bit unbalanced if true.  Also, I hear that "XSI"...the name will be dropped?  It will now be called "Autodesk - Softimage"?  I'm fine with that to be honest...never liked the "XSI" part too much.

Kris

[Alan Fregtman]

Does XSI stand for anything? I've always wondered.....

---
Unsubscribe? Mail Majo...@Softimage.COM with the following text in body:
unsubscribe xsi

[Jordi Riera]

eXtend SoftImage :)

-J

--
- Jordi Riera  
- Lighting/Rendering TD
- http://www.kenderland.com
- http://www.linkedin.com/in/jordirieralightingtd
- +33 676 490 306

[Kris Rivel]

"eXtreme SoftImage" :-)  Just kidding.  Isn't it some file format name invented when SI was in Microsoft hands?

Kris

[Bradley Gabe]

Some of us were around at the time the naming took place during the Sumatra beta, Softimage held a contest. So we know the true origins; XSI means NL3D.

[Raffaele Scaduto-Mendola]

Hey Chris,
I was there... showing my support for the SoftImage/XSI crew.
On the main room, XSI was demoed by mark schoenegel and Jennifer
Goldfinch was there.
In the presentation room, Mudbox, 3DStudio and Maya were shown, but I
just had such a dandy time hanging out in the main hall..

Also as a side note... but I would check with Phil Avanzato, I think
there will be a "hack" meeting to play with XSI Ice nodes this coming
Thursday at SVA.
Check with Phil to make sure its happening.
My understanding is this is NOT a demo/rep but just a informative trying
out ICE nodes experiment/workshop (again check with Phil).
And since I am still very interested in using ICE for character work, I
will be attending.

Cheers,
RSM

> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> No virus found in this incoming message.
> Checked by AVG.
> Version: 7.5.552 / Virus Database: 270.9.13/1826 - Release Date: 12/3/2008 9:34 AM

[Matthew Carpenter]

X - Was influenced from the .X DirectX format and ActiveX.  Sumatra was already trademarked, and NL3D got shot down early.

S -Soft

I - Image

 

---

[Hans Payer]

I always assumed the X stands for eXtreme. so it was eXtreme SoftImage. I though it fit the trends of early 2000s, when the word extreme was placed in front of so many words.

--
Hans Payer

[Raffaele Fragapane]

Wasn't there a rather funny, and somewhat sad, story behind the name Sumatra going *poof* because of copyrights at some point?
Something to do with wanting to buy it and then some brilliant hotshot pissing the owner off? :)

[Luc-Eric Rousseau]

I believe the name 'Sumatra' was dropped purely for marketing reasons, to reboot the product.  After a frantic search for a new name, the application was then named after the .xsi file format, to indicate its game pipeline friendliness.  Back then, a lot of plans were built around .xsi, and the app called XSI would be the authoring tool for it.     This didn't go as smoothly as expected, as the first version of XSI ironically did not support .xsi and with the emphasis on Mental Ray and NURBS-only tools, the game story wasn't there.  The origin of the name was stated in an official press release: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_/ai_60827346

 

 

From: owne...@Softimage.COM [mailto:owne...@Softimage.COM] On Behalf Of Raffaele Fragapane
Posted At: Wednesday, December 03, 2008 9:01 PM
Posted To: xsi
Conversation: NYC 3December event...XSI name being dropped in favor of "Softimage"?
Subject: Re: NYC 3December event...XSI name being dropped in favor of "Softimage"?

 

Wasn't there a rather funny, and somewhat sad, story behind the name Sumatra going *poof* because of copyrights at some point?

[Kris Rivel]

Soooo....can anyone confirm that its going to be called "Autodesk Softimage" instead of XSI?

Kris

[dyon d]

Will it be? really. Good, I never liked XSI

[Norm Olsen]

I for one really like the name XSI. It's nice and short and simple and has a 'nice ring to it'. But using 'Autodesk Softimage' as a product works too.

---

Date: Wed, 3 Dec 2008 22:46:01 -0800
From: dyo...@gmail.com
To: X...@Softimage.COM

Subject: Re: NYC 3December event...XSI name being dropped in favor of "Softimage"?

Will it be? really. Good, I never liked XSI

[Chris Marshall]

Norm Olsen wrote:

But using 'Autodesk Softimage' as a product works too.

yeah, but without the Autodesk bit.

[Morten Bartholdy]

When people ask me which 3D app I use and I say XSI they always go "say
what" and when I explain it is from Softimage they say oohh. Autodesk sounds
clunky though, but i guess it can't be helped.

- MB

----- Original Message -----
From: "Norm Olsen" <nrg_...@hotmail.com>
To: <x...@Softimage.COM>
Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2008 8:30 AM
Subject: RE: NYC 3December event...XSI name being dropped in favor of
"Softimage"?

I for one really like the name XSI. It's nice and short and simple and has a
'nice ring to it'. But using 'Autodesk Softimage' as a product works

too.Date: Wed, 3 Dec 2008 22:46:01 -0800From: dyo...@gmail.comTo:
X...@Softimage.COMSubject: Re: NYC 3December event...XSI name being dropped
in favor of "Softimage"?Will it be? really. Good, I never liked XSI
_________________________________________________________________

[Morten Bartholdy]

I like the part "Hence, the famous software..."

- MB

S -Soft

I - Image

[Stefan Andersson]

I never really liked the name XSI.... being named after a fileformat... *sigh*
I liked the name Sumatra better than xsi, but also understood why it
couldn't be named Sumatra. I wouldn't mind at all having 'Softimage'
as the program name.

It went from Softimage Creative Environment, and almost became
Softimage Interactive Creative Environment :)

Anyhow, Autodesk|Softimage 7.01 works fine...

And Autodesk..... DONT YOU DARE PUT A YEAR AFTER IT INSTEAD OF A
VERSION NUMBER!!!

there... now I've said it.

/stefan

--
Stefan Andersson / vfx supervisor / Swiss International AB
S:t Eriksgatan 48 B / SE-11234 Stockholm / Phone: +46 8 662 24 60
myBlog: http://sanders3d.blogspot.com

[Jennifer Goldfinch]

Hi..

THANK YOU to everyone who attended 3december the other night.. It was
great to have so many familiar faces at our first Autodesk event. XSI,
or Softimage, wasn't part of the main presentation because the schedule
was planned weeks ago, and it was too late to add to the agenda, since
presenters were being brought in.

So we had our table in the main lobby, where Mark had a pretty good
crowd interested in XSI 7, and we used that opportunity after to chat
with our customers and education partners that were there.

I love visiting NYC, thanks again everyone who welcomed us at their
studios over the last 3 days!

See you soon..

Jen

PS Sumatra was a trademark issue, a small accounting software company in
New Zealand owned the rights to that same and would not sell, according
to the lore.

PPS Officially, the name right now is Autodesk SOFTIMAGE|XSI 7.

[Dan Yargici]

I have to say I disagree with everyone who prefers "Softimage" to"
XSI". I think "XSI" works better on a number of levels.

The word Softimage always had a pretentious air about it if you ask
me, the name XSI put that to bed in my mind.

Autodesk | Softimage sounds like a step backwards and the result of a
corporate boardroom debate. Autodesk | XSI just has a stronger
identity for me...

I understand there's the Softimage heritage to consider, but are we
really that precious about what is, in effect, just a word?

DAN

[David Barosin]

Just a thought but I wonder if changing the name will complicate searches on the XSI wiki and other support archives. 

[Jennifer Goldfinch]

What if we call it "I want that one"? :)

-----Original Message-----
From: owne...@Softimage.COM [mailto:owne...@Softimage.COM] On Behalf
Of Dan Yargici
Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2008 7:28 AM
To: X...@Softimage.COM
Subject: Re: NYC 3December event...XSI name being dropped in favor of
"Softimage"?

[Kris Rivel]

Good point.  People would have to search for both keywords I guess.

Kris

[Dan Yargici]

Another thought... does the Autodesk aquisition mean we're going to
see Will Mendez tattoo him self with a menagerie of stylized animals?

They can call it whatever they want if that's the case!

Was/is he still at soft? haven't heard his name in quite some time...

DAN

[Stephen Blair]

Will Mendez has been gone for awhile now.

[Robert Chapman]

hahah only if its said in the style of little britain

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x230i_little-britain-i-want-that-one_blog

2008/12/4 Jennifer Goldfinch <jgol...@softimage.com>:

> What if we call it "I want that one"? :)
>

[Stephen Davidson]

Either way, what is going to happen to the .xsi file format?
Will that change also? Seems a little drastic, just for some
marketing identity. The name(s) never really mattered to me.
I just concentrate on the features. Being able to flawlessly
import a Maya file, with all the surfaces mapped and scaled,
with animation, is what I'm looking forward to, from this buyout.

Best Regards,

Steve Davidson

(954)552-7956
www.3danimationmagic.com

-----Original Message-----
From: owne...@Softimage.COM [mailto:owne...@Softimage.COM] On Behalf Of
Dan Yargici
Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2008 7:28 AM
To: X...@Softimage.COM
Subject: Re: NYC 3December event...XSI name being dropped in favor of
"Softimage"?

[Matt Lowery]

I seriously don't think that is ever going to happen Steve. Unless Autodesk ends up writing a next generation piece of 3Dsoftware that they foolishly split into 3 seperate packages..... (wait that could happen).... XSI, Maya and even 3DMAx just don't have enough in common under the hood for complete interoperability to be possible. It would be a waste of resources for Autodesk to try and do that. I'm not even convinced that FBX will ever get to the point where it's seemless between all three apps.

[Arvid Björn]

"Autodesk XSI" has the air of a company claiming someone else's success, similar to Apple Shake and Autodesk Flame. I still think of it as Nothing Real Shake, owned by apple, and Discreet Flame, owned by Autodesk. Similarly, I want Softimage to remain in the title. XSI is "just" a product, but Softimage is a seal of quality, why throw away all those years of building a positive feel about a brand? I don't get why they threw away Discreet either.

--
senior 3d artist | stockholm.postproduction | www.stopp.se

[maurice & joanna]

Our long-term goal is to continue to develop FBX/Crosswalk technologies to
enable more efficient data transfer between any application needing 3D data
- Autodesk's, 3rd parties and in-house tools. However given that each
application operates on different data sets differently this is going to be
an evolutionary process, since in my experience the only applications that
are 100% interoperable are the same ones (and even then there can be
problems). As long as applications have unique features (and that is the
beauty of most apps) there will always be a level of translation

However by working with the industry on standardizing broader aspects of the
data exchange process we hope to facilitate the movement of rich data
including animation between applications.

Maurice

[kim aldis]

They could call it 'I have a tiny ... '.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owne...@Softimage.COM [mailto:owne...@Softimage.COM] On
> Behalf Of Dan Yargici
> Sent: 04 December 2008 14:02
> To: X...@Softimage.COM
> Subject: Re: NYC 3December event...XSI name being dropped in favor of
> "Softimage"?
>

> Another thought... does the Autodesk aquisition mean we're going to
> see Will Mendez tattoo him self with a menagerie of stylized animals?
>
> They can call it whatever they want if that's the case!

[kim aldis]

I couldn't care either way and I'm not really sure what the fuss is about.
It doesn't make it go faster or slower, doesn't make it easier or harder to
use. Call it Bob if you like, makes no difference to me.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owne...@Softimage.COM [mailto:owne...@Softimage.COM] On

> Behalf Of Dan Yargici
> Sent: 04 December 2008 12:28
> To: X...@Softimage.COM
> Subject: Re: NYC 3December event...XSI name being dropped in favor of
> "Softimage"?
>

[Halfdan Ingvarsson]

...elbow?

- ˝

[Bob Cobb]

i would love it if they called it Bob especially if I got residuals

No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com
Version: 8.0.176 / Virus Database: 270.9.13/1828 - Release Date: 12/4/2008
8:05 AM

[Chris Marshall]

'Autodesk:Bobimage!'
Now we're getting somewhere!!!

Bob Cobb wrote:
> i would love it if they called it Bob especially if I got residuals
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owne...@Softimage.COM [mailto:owne...@Softimage.COM] On Behalf Of
> kim aldis
> Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2008 11:29 AM
> To: X...@Softimage.COM
> Subject: RE: NYC 3December event...XSI name being dropped in favor of
> "Softimage"?
>
> I couldn't care either way and I'm not really sure what the fuss is about.
> It doesn't make it go faster or slower, doesn't make it easier or harder to
> use. Call it Bob if you like, makes no difference to me.
>
>

---

[Eric Lampi]

Personally I prefer Autodesk|SoftImage.

People know SoftImage, not so many recognize XSI.

E

Freelance 3-D Animator, F/X Artist

----- Original Message ----
From: Chris Marshall <chris.m...@eclipsecreative.co.uk>
To: X...@Softimage.COM

[Halfdan Ingvarsson]

That would just be a bad idea all around.

Why, yes, I do own a copy of MS Bob.

- ½

[Thiago Costa]

thats creepy

2008/12/4 Halfdan Ingvarsson <hing...@softimage.com>

[Byron Nash]

That's just what we need is a little dose of MS Bob in XSI.

[Matt Lowery]

Tell you what... it's a good thing that no one from Autodesk is reading
this thread... what with us having just finished telling them what a
serious and professional bunch we are. No fluff on this list, no sir ;)

[javier]

BOB: much better name than XSI, or why not use the feminine, you know, to get on with the times and make it sexy  --  Roberta -- I like that.

[Bob Cobb]

oh god I remember that program and packaging.

-----Original Message-----
From: owne...@Softimage.COM [mailto:owne...@Softimage.COM] On Behalf Of
Halfdan Ingvarsson
Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2008 12:54 PM
To: X...@Softimage.COM
Subject: RE: NYC 3December event...XSI name being dropped in favor of
"Softimage"?

That would just be a bad idea all around.

Why, yes, I do own a copy of MS Bob.

- ½

-----Original Message-----
From: owne...@Softimage.COM [mailto:owne...@Softimage.COM] On Behalf Of
Bob Cobb
Sent: 04-Dec-2008 11:42
To: X...@Softimage.COM
Subject: RE: NYC 3December event...XSI name being dropped in favor of
"Softimage"?

i would love it if they called it Bob especially if I got residuals

No virus found in this incoming message.

[Jennifer Goldfinch]

Um... there are people from Autodesk on this thread! Lots of us, in
fact! :)

Jen

[Halfdan Ingvarsson]

You're with Autodesk? But I was talking to you only last week. What's going on?

- ½

[Thiago Costa]

Now I get why the porn theme at the Siggraph party... Ron Jeremy and such.
It's incredible what money can do :D

2008/12/4 Halfdan Ingvarsson <hing...@softimage.com>

[Adam Seeley]

Hi,

The last time we used Referenced Material Libraries it was in 5.11 and they were a bit flakey, especially when used with Referenced Models.

What's the general feeling about them now?
Are they stable enough to invest time into properly?

Some old glitches were:
* XSI would delete the contents of a Ref. Material Library if the Scene crashed whilst saving.
* Ref. Materials falling off Partitions.

Anyone using them in anger?

ta,

Adam.

[Norm Olsen]

I concur, it would be nice without the Autodesk name.. but rather difficult to launch an Autodesk product without it's own name. The odds of just using Somftimage | XSI is about as good as the Toronto Maple leafs or Ottawa Senators winning the Stanley Cup (and believe me.. those odds aren't good at all).

---

Date: Thu, 4 Dec 2008 09:50:30 +0000
From: chris.m...@eclipsecreative.co.uk

To: X...@Softimage.COM
Subject: Re: NYC 3December event...XSI name being dropped in favor of "Softimage"?

Norm Olsen wrote:

But using 'Autodesk Softimage' as a product works too.

yeah, but without the Autodesk bit.

---

Win a trip with your 3 best buddies. Enter today.

[Matt]

The only issue I have had with them (since 6.0 I believe) Is that if you delete a ref model in a scene, the matlib does not delete, and can not be deleted (xsi gives an error warning), maybe there is a way around this? I have just dealt with it.

I am using ref models with partitions and overrides with no problem though, so that must have been fixed.

We usually keep everything referenced, and in the render scene make everything local (if possible) to be safe.

--
Matt

CG artist
The Embassy Visual Effects

[Alan Fregtman]

Seems that still holds true. Referenced matlibs don't go away.

Is there a trick to this like with undesired render options, where
merging with a fresh new scene gets rid of them?

-- Alan

[Adam Seeley]

You can get rid of ref mat libs, you just need to shimmy a bit. (7.01)

1. Right click on the matlib & Unlock all Levels.
2. Delete the Library from the Material Manager.

Also, deleting all the materials within the unlocked ref mat lib & changing the storage of it from External to Internal will help you nudge it out of the scene.

Adam.

________________________________

[Rene Neumann]

We are using referenced matlibs in our character pipeline and if you know how to workaround the pitfalls, it's working quite well for the moment. Anyway, there are still some issues and I already reported some bugs within this context, which made it to the "known issues" list. If you need me to, I can search for the IDs.

Here is what I found out so far (I'm using 7.01):
1. Exporting a material library attaches all image clips included in the complete scene (not only the ones belonging to the materials of the chosen lib). This can make matlibs extremely large and export / import process really slow. So before you export a matlib - delete all the ones you don't export and remove all unused image clips.
2. Also, opening, saving and reopening a scene always reloads all image clips attached to the referenced materials, but does not remove the old ones. So, if you don't take care for this, you end up with a lot of duplicates from the same clip (noIcon_pic120 is my favorit ;) )
3. Altering a referenced material (e.g. I was deleting a bumpmap from it) can crash XSI, if you open a scene this material is referenced in. The only way I found to workaround this is to delete the library file, open the scene this lib was referenced to - you will get an error XSI can't find the file -, remove the library and reference it from new.
4. What was already said is, removing a referenced matlib requires unlocking it. Anyway I had it several times that removing a material library crashes XSI. However, since I have no clear repro steps (and it doesn't happen too often), I didn't report that one yet. Workaround from 3 works for this issue as well; if the file was not found, removing the lib is no problem.
5. If you change your materials from being stored externally to internally (what was recommended above), make sure you do NOT lock the library after doing so, because when you reopen the scene the material will be gone. Locked material libraries loose their included materials when you open a scene, however, it works when the library is referenced externally.

Whhooo, it's quite a text for my first post on this list, but I hope it helps ;).

All the best
René



Adam Seeley schrieb:

[Alan Fregtman]

The tips are much appreciated, Rene.

Regarding #2, when you say reopening the scene "reloads" the
imageclips, do you mean that new ones get made and plugged to where
they should be? So without doing anything, there's a new imageclip for
each imageclip from a referenced material everytime you save?

That seems like quite a big annoyance. Anyone have a script to get rid
of the duplicates?

[bilkaxsi]

if you work in xsi 6.x.
it is possible to unlock Referenced  materials by script  and deleted it  like a standard material.
if you need I can give you an script.

regards


Madjid CHAMEKH
TD @ Pinka Studio

[Rene Neumann]

Yes, basically it is, like you said, but with one minor difference. I'll try to explain:
Actually the materials - and so the image clips - are stored externally, so if you open a scene without the external reference, there should be none of them, right?! But if you save a scene, to me it looks like XSI somehow releases the image clips from the material and saves them seperately. However, if you reopen the scene, you still got the ones from the session before - although they are now connected to nothing -, plus the clips enclosed in the referenced material, so you created a duplicate...

So in fact (and that's the difference) there's not a new duplicate each time you SAVE a scene, but each time you OPEN it.

It's still annoying anyway (especially when you alter referenced materials, you continue to keep old, maybe no longer existing image clips in the scene you referenced that in). But you can easily workaround, by clicking "File" -> "external Files" -> "Delete Unused Sources/Clips..." each time you opened a scene. It works quite well for me, don't know about your setup there...

René


Alan Fregtman schrieb: