Friday Flashback #472

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Stephen Blair

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Oct 22, 2021, 7:41:43 AM10/22/21
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https://xsisupport.com/2021/10/22/friday-flashback-472/

XSI Foundation, une petite merveille à ce prix-là


Gregor Punchatz

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Oct 24, 2021, 6:41:23 PM10/24/21
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Damn I miss that sexy software!!

On Fri, Oct 22, 2021 at 6:41 AM Stephen Blair <stephe...@gmail.com> wrote:
https://xsisupport.com/2021/10/22/friday-flashback-472/

XSI Foundation, une petite merveille à ce prix-là


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Gregor Punchatz
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davids...@gmail.com

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Oct 25, 2021, 4:00:25 AM10/25/21
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Do you still use it? As for me I open it to get some old models but I’m often using Houdini and Maya.

 

 

David Saber

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Gregor Punchatz

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Oct 25, 2021, 1:41:05 PM10/25/21
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No… I have one old machine that still runs it,  but it’s a pain to get started up. 

There have been times however in the last few weeks, I really wish that I had it easily available for certain modeling tasks that are just stupidly difficult In Maya 

Scotty Wilcox

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Oct 25, 2021, 6:45:17 PM10/25/21
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Having been heading towards Blender - seemingly safe from ADEE  (Autodesk Extinction Event)
my hotkey hand has forgotten how to drive XSI.
I couldn't even remember how to open the render tree.
Sad times but also less grieving.
I miss passes with partitions :(




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davids...@gmail.com

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Oct 26, 2021, 4:45:58 AM10/26/21
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Yeah same for me , all my Maya keyboard shortcuts come in the way when I use XSI? Especially for the ALT key.

And yes, there’s nothing like passes and partition in XSI . Even in Houdini it’s less intuitive.

 

 

David Saber

+ 33 6 26 13 25 98

 

Pierre Schiller

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Oct 26, 2021, 11:13:37 AM10/26/21
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Want to know what pains me?
It's 2021 and no software does 2 click automatic ik bone chain.

Like, this is absolutely basic. Who cares about any other setup for rigging (you can always rig your way around from this basic setup anyways). The default should be 2 click auto ik chain, let me have a checkbox for FK (or even better: a slider). No ther software besides XSI does this.

Take it from someone who's been on:
Carra, wings3d, Blender, Maya, Modo, Lightwave and 3Dsmax.
Even Do-ik (from AE) doesn't do this by default.

If anyone can do this for a Blender addon on gumroad, I'l pay for it.

Cheers.

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Bryan Scibelli

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Oct 26, 2021, 12:02:47 PM10/26/21
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Although my rendering happens now in Maya and some in Blender (Thanks to Redshift development), almost everything 3D that I work on goes through Softimage.  It is still easily the best modeler for most poly based models, as well as the Cluster with Center placing Nulls exactly where they are needed for rigging, and the ability to rig to Nulls, and not just bones are why I can't move away completely and will use Softimage until it stops working.

I use Softimage to clean and prepare models from CAD imports that have issues.  Here is an example of Softimage being vital to cleaning up a mangled CAD import:

Bryan Scibelli
VFX Supervisor / DIT / Colorist


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adrian wyer

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Oct 26, 2021, 12:03:04 PM10/26/21
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still drop in once a week to speed model something that would take 10 times as long in maya... oh and the occasional 'play time' in ICE

 

as long as it runs, i will still have a use for it

 

a

 

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Sven Constable

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Oct 26, 2021, 12:20:50 PM10/26/21
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I’m using XSI it as the main 3D application. 3dsmax just for data import/export. Bought some redshift licenses just before they went to subsciption this year.

I don’t expect any issues when I’ll move to Win11 some day or the other. Usually MS is exceptional backward compatible when it comes to older software.

 

Sven

patrick nethercoat

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Oct 26, 2021, 1:01:24 PM10/26/21
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We're all clearly still feeling the pain.
I have to use Cinema 4D. Many lovely tools in there, and Redshift is excellent, but of course it's the basic things that make you cry. 
The fcurve editor pisses me off so badly. 
Clusters with centre nulls, and passes/partitions for sure are deeply missed.

Anyway. Hi kids. 

On Tue, Oct 26, 2021 at 5:40 PM Ersin Süpke <in...@ersin-graphics.de> wrote:
I,am using MOI to convert and prepair the CAD Step Data from Customer. Export as FBX with quad and n-poly to Softimage.
Softimage is working very well here, i'am so happy with that. Yes, don't want to miss Passes and Partitions. And the UI is time ahead since 20 Years. Look at Apple everything has round corners like Softimage  xD I don't like the UI of Maya, Max, Houdini. In Maya 3 or 4 Pulldown Menus for Mesh editing. Everytime i'am searching for the simplest editing tools. =O
And yes, i need with Maya 3 Times longer for modelling as Softimage. As specialy vertex editing and snapping, etc. 

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Sven Constable

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Oct 26, 2021, 1:51:27 PM10/26/21
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Even XSI ist still ahead in some areas, it lacks in physics simulation so bad. Speaking of ‘out of the box’ features. You can do modern sims by building them in ICE from scratch if you’re really into it, but Lagoa (as an example of ‘built in features’) is way beyond modern environments.

Early this year I did very extensive tests with Lagoa to simulate snow, especially wet snow/wet sand. Like inter-particle friction driven by impact, when a snowball hits a wall.

The main Lagoa node is not editable and does not have certain parameters to simulate that kind of stuff. I find wet snow/sand very difficult to simulate with Lagoa.

Some dudes like Eric Mootz would be able to write some kickass sim nodes to achive that. Even with GPU acceleration! It’s still possible to integrate that into XSI.

The framework is there...:(

 

Sven

Walter Volbers

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Oct 26, 2021, 2:21:02 PM10/26/21
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What a crap, and what a masterstroke from the softimage developers!

i can't complain either,
except for rendering, I'm still allowed to do everything in Softimage - ice-modelling-rigging and animation.
And I've been working with softimage for more than 25 years now and have no alternative that is better or faster.

Softimage 3klicks including menu draw-skeleton blender more then 14steps to get something similar puuuh!

But nice that there are still a few who see it similarly,
starting with the FridayFlashback-letter

I hope it still continues with win11!

Walter Volbers
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Jens Lindgren

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Oct 26, 2021, 3:21:21 PM10/26/21
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The crazy thing is, even after so many years with no development, Softimage is still so far ahead that if Autodesk picked up Softimage development again right now, with a minimal team (2-3 people), and adding UDIM, OSL, basic USD, MaterialX, OCIO, Python3, etc. Basically just putting in open source toolsets. They could release Softimage 2023 in april and still be number one after so many years. That's basically the innovation that has been going on since Softimage was canceled. Just support for open source standards.
Heavy FX sims are probably best to do in Houdini but for everything else... AD, just needs to add the open source tools/standards, release a new version and cash in!

I've single handedly continued the support for SItoA since Softimage was canceled. I know the Softimage SDK and I know how easy it is to do development in Softimage so I'm dead serious and 100% sure that this could be done with a tiny team.
And heck, if AD doesn't want to do the development, just open source it. They are competing with Blender and Houdini and are loosing right now. Maya and Max wont win that battle.. but a free Softimage might.

//Jens

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adrian wyer

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Oct 27, 2021, 11:58:32 AM10/27/21
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damn it, where's the 'up-vote' or 'like' button in this post!

 

Adrian Wyer
Fluid Pictures
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4 Bath Place
Rivington Street
London
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