im just impressed they put that whole game together with a particle plugin!
On Fri, Sep 14, 2012 at 10:01 AM, Marc Brinkley <marc.brink...@microsoft.com> wrote: > Since its Friday in OZ and people need a little SI love > > > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSvgYb59YeA > > > > Nice little behind the scenes video here from the upcoming fighting game > Dead or Alive 5. (Which is considered to be one of the best fighting games > made) > > > > _______________________________________________________________________________ > > Marc Brinkley > > GO GO GO > > Microsoft Studios > > I got my Mojo working > > marc.brinkley [at] microsoft.com > > > > From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com > [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Bradley Gabe > Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2012 5:54 PM > > > To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com > Subject: Re: In case you missed it.. > > > > I find it amazing that XSI, once considered the laughingstock of the dcc > animation apps with respect to its particle system is now surviving mostly > because of the strength of its particle system. > > And the irony of course is, ICE is not really a particle system and > marketing it as such has always been shortsighted. > > > > ICE is a custom operator construction kit. Particles effects are merely one > output you can get from the system. > > > > On Thu, Sep 13, 2012 at 7:40 PM, Nick Angus <n...@altvfx.com> wrote: > > I should have clarified, I meant Houdini only for > assembly/effects/rendering, certainly not for modelling/rigging/animation… > > > > N > > > > From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com > [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Raffaele > Fragapane > Sent: Friday, 14 September 2012 10:32 AM > > > To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com > Subject: Re: In case you missed it.. > > > > I've got to say I'm puzzled by the threats to drop AD products to move to > Houdini if they were to discontinue Soft. > > > > Houdini is a great software for a number of reasons, and has a broad range > of applications, not to mention probably the most open and solid approach to > assets out there. I do keep eyes on it regularly, every release, and I used > it in the past for more than a handful of shots. > > That said, do the people making these threats work on a relatively narrow > type of shots? Because there is much where Houdini simply can't hold onto a > market, not in terms of dialogue with the client base (which is somewhat > narrowly focused for the largest part), nor in terms of features and actual > turn around time for a task. > > Character tools in Houdini in example are daunting to put together, and > performance, even when you try and squeeze every frame out of it, is simply > not there. > While I'd probably love the troubleshooting, asset cobbling and technical > animation process in Houdini, if I was asked to turn around an animation rig > in it, even without considering the sheer amount of tools and API work we > layered on top of XSI or Maya, I'd have to literally triple my quotes, and > would be very hard pressed finding any competent staff with some domain > knowledge to take on it. > > We all like to say that the application isn't important, skills are portable > and so on, and to an extent it's true, but the whole extent of rigging, > shaving the development edges off, is largely domain knowledge of the app, > and in Houdini's case even more so, because it might be transparent and > intuitive for somebody approaching it from the right angle, but it's a very > hard software to migrate button pushers to, and still more than a small > challenge to find your way through if you come from Max, Maya or Soft. > > It was simply never taken far along enough the rigging and animation route > by enough people for the tools to get there. Even Maya, with its current > unbelievably tall stash of broken nuggets and idiosyncrasies, is a much more > well rounded tool for that. > > The shops that tried to have it end to end have -all- tanked (of course not > because of Houdini, but it does mean no single client ever pushed them > consistently in those regards for longer than a year or two), and if you ask > the very, very large number of people around here who had their induction to > Houdini in DrD (which also tanked) for things other than FX, the majority I > talked to literally said they would turn down a job rather than light a shot > in Houdini again (as did anmators from CORE when we took them on for > Charlotte's web years ago when I was in RSP). > > The few who actually enjoyed it tend to be those who had extensive > troubleshooting in their responsibilities, or were more than a bit of the > technical persuasion. > > That's the problem I have with this monopoly, and with the competing offers > coming out. Like it or not there are TWO truly character and animation > capable applications suitable for the mid-sized team and up, and that's Soft > and Maya, and it shows that that market is cornered, because it's been > stagnating for years. > > So, go ahead, try to pull together a functional rig and then animate it in > Houdini, and let me know how it goes. I did, several times, and while I > enjoyed the process, and would like to believe I have the foundations > knowledge to deal with a software like H, it's a long hard walk to get > things out, with many missing tools in the way. > > Yes, you can quickly cook up a VOP or a SOP of some description to do many > of those things, but then when you're restricting the domain to such a small > patch, ICE will smoke the hell out of any other app for such things anyway, > so why would I want to use something other than Soft if that was my thing? > And on top of that Soft piles up tool after tool and UI for skinning and > deformations that, while long uncared for, are still best of breed. And it's > a sad statement that Soft's skinning/weighting toolsuite is the best OOTB > experience out there, because it's been practically untouched since 1.5. > >
