Torn
Hi All, Not sure if a consensus was reached on this, but I’m torn between which way to turn in learning a new package. Want to stay away from Maya as much as possible (since I already know it pretty well) and will continue to use Soft for as long as I can, but thought it worth at least starting to look at an alternative since it will probably mean more employment options. At the moment I’m looking at the three main alternatives; Houdini, C4D and Modo. I like Houdini, having had a very brief look into it already. I also like the look of Modo 801 – particularly with the tie-up with other Foundry tools (which I assume will only get stronger in the future). But Cinema 4D also has some nice tools – particularly Xpresso which seems to be heading towards the ICE direction from what I’ve seen. I’ve also been sideways looking at Blender – although at the moment I just can’t seem to battle past the interface! Anyone have any insights into these that they can share that may help sway my decision? Again, apologies if this has done the rounds already! Cheers T.
OT nice Softimage work
penny dreadful trailer by the mill http://www.themillblog.com/2014/04/behind-the-work-penny-dreadfuls-just-like -you-trailer/ using that software that's dead. a Adrian Wyer Fluid Pictures 75-77 Margaret St. London W1W 8SY ++44(0) 207 580 0829 adrian.w...@fluid-pictures.com blocked::blocked::blocked::blocked::mailto:adrian.w...@fluid-pictures.com www.fluid-pictures.com blocked::blocked::blocked::blocked::http://www.fluid-pictures.com/ Fluid Pictures Limited is registered in England and Wales. Company number:5657815 VAT number: 872 6893 71
Re: Torn
Difficult one I guess ;) Forget the software, where do you want to be in 2 years? When you go on a trip you first pick your destination and then figure out how to get there right? just some thoughts... On 1 May 2014 10:41, Tony Naqvi i...@tonynaqvi.co.uk wrote: Hi All, Not sure if a consensus was reached on this, but I’m torn between which way to turn in learning a new package. Want to stay away from Maya as much as possible (since I already know it pretty well) and will continue to use Soft for as long as I can, but thought it worth at least starting to look at an alternative since it will probably mean more employment options. At the moment I’m looking at the three main alternatives; Houdini, C4D and Modo. I like Houdini, having had a very brief look into it already. I also like the look of Modo 801 – particularly with the tie-up with other Foundry tools (which I assume will only get stronger in the future). But Cinema 4D also has some nice tools – particularly Xpresso which seems to be heading towards the ICE direction from what I’ve seen. I’ve also been sideways looking at Blender – although at the moment I just can’t seem to battle past the interface! Anyone have any insights into these that they can share that may help sway my decision? Again, apologies if this has done the rounds already! Cheers T.
Re: OT nice Softimage work
Nice! Thanks for sharing. I think Softimage will be kept in a lot of studios as part of their pipelines. People know it can't be replaced too soon. Hope someday Autodesk realize the wrong move they did. On Thu, May 1, 2014 at 5:16 AM, adrian wyer adrian.w...@fluid-pictures.comwrote: penny dreadful trailer by the mill http://www.themillblog.com/2014/04/behind-the-work-penny-dreadfuls-just-like-you-trailer/ using that software that's dead. a Adrian Wyer Fluid Pictures 75-77 Margaret St. London W1W 8SY ++44(0) 207 580 0829 adrian.w...@fluid-pictures.com www.fluid-pictures.com Fluid Pictures Limited is registered in England and Wales. Company number:5657815 VAT number: 872 6893 71
Re: Torn
I'm still struggling. There's a lot to take on board.
Re: How to offset instance animation in ICE?
FYI offsetting animation will slow things down a lot, in my experience. Just get it working, then switch it off until render time if you can.
Re: Torn
the question is what is your area of expretese what do you wanna do, are you cahracter animator, effects guy, simulations cloth, lighting rendering.. al full generalist and wanna deliver final product from modeling to final rendering. that can help out choosing On Thu, May 1, 2014 at 1:07 PM, Chris Marshall chrismarshal...@gmail.comwrote: I'm still struggling. There's a lot to take on board.
Re: Torn
I've gone for a blender-houdini-nuke thing adding modo to the pipe as soon as resources become less scarce :) i would keep on with blender, you'd be surprised where you can fit it into your pipeline. currently, it's my main modeller, idea/face shape sculpter (skin mesh + dyna-topo is fantastic) and story board/previs tool current work is due to wrap in a couple of months so i've planned to take some time off to really get to grips with houdini/nuke -- Jon Swindells jon_swinde...@fastmail.fm On Thu, May 1, 2014, at 02:54 PM, Mirko Jankovic wrote: the question is what is your area of expretese what do you wanna do, are you cahracter animator, effects guy, simulations cloth, lighting rendering.. al full generalist and wanna deliver final product from modeling to final rendering. that can help out choosing On Thu, May 1, 2014 at 1:07 PM, Chris Marshall [1]chrismarshal...@gmail.com wrote: I'm still struggling. There's a lot to take on board. References 1. mailto:chrismarshal...@gmail.com
Re: Torn
Complete generalist, working in tv, corporate, architecture, medical, FX, simulations etc etc. It's probably easier to say what I don't do, which is any character stuff, though I've done a bit of that too. Everything else is included. So software of choice in this scenario.Softimage. Obvious alternative choice of software.None As a small company with limited resources, we don't want to have to build a 'pipeline' of software, just to do what Softimage already does in one hit. I appreciate times are changing, but I'm not jumping until I'm sure which way to go. Nuffsed yo! ;-) lol
Re: GridData on Linux-Issue
I tested the InsertRow-Example and it failed becouse insertRow() was introduced in XSI2014. So i have to rearange my code a bit to overcome this limitation... but still i thing there is another Error. As you can see in the ErrorLog, accessing the StringParam works, but the GridParam dont... I`m not sure if this is a Linux or a XSI2013 issue Here is the OutPut i get, by running my DebugCode: # ERROR : Traceback (most recent call last): # File Script Block 2, line 74, in vu_txManager_DEBUG_PPG_OnInit # updateData() # File Script Block 2, line 58, in updateData # gridPar.InsertRow(0) # File /usr/Softimage/Softimage_2013_SP1/Application/bin/win32com/client/dynamic.py, line 496, in __getattr__ # raise AttributeError, %s.%s % (self._username_, attr) # AttributeError: unknown.InsertRow # - [line 57 in /nfshome/vincent/Autodesk/Softimage_2013_SP1/Application/Plugins/txManager_v08_Debug_v001.py] # ERROR : Property Page Script Logic Error (Python ActiveX Scripting Engine) # ERROR :[55] # ERROR :[56] print PPG.string: + PPG.string.value # -- Works # ERROR : [57] print PPG.grid: + str(PPG.grid) # -- Unknown # ERROR :[58] gridPar.InsertRow(0) # ERROR :[59] # ERROR :[60] ### # ERROR : Traceback (most recent call last): # File Script Block 2, line 74, in vu_txManager_DEBUG_PPG_OnInit # updateData() # File Script Block 2, line 58, in updateData # gridPar.InsertRow(0) # File /usr/Softimage/Softimage_2013_SP1/Application/bin/win32com/client/dynamic.py, line 496, in __getattr__ # raise AttributeError, %s.%s % (self._username_, attr) # AttributeError: unknown.InsertRow # # PPG.string: Test # PPG.grid: COMObject unknown 2014-05-01 2:50 GMT+02:00 Thomas Volkmann li...@thomasvolkmann.com: What is the error you get? It seems to work at my end (except for i being undefined), and the GridData.InsertRow example from the SDK is working fine as well. It's 2014SP2 though on Fedora20. cheers, Thomas On 04/30/2014 08:08 PM, Vincent Ullmann wrote: Hi List, a plugin i write a few weeks ago, workes fine in Softimage for Windows, but doesnt in Softimage for Linux. I made a little Debug-Version (see attatchment). What basicaly failes might be this line: [54] gridPar = PPG.grid.value Does anyone know how the get the GridData-Parameter from a PPG-Callback (eg. _onInit) ?? Cheers Vincent TestSystems: - multiple Windows7-Mashines + XSI2014 vs. - CentOS 6.2 + XSI2013
Re: Torn
You should go toward C4D since it's the one I'm planning to get into :) (and some houdini too) Read that message and obey. Le 01/05/2014 14:49, Chris Marshall a écrit : Complete generalist, working in tv, corporate, architecture, medical, FX, simulations etc etc. It's probably easier to say what I don't do, which is any character stuff, though I've done a bit of that too. Everything else is included. So software of choice in this scenario.Softimage. Obvious alternative choice of software.None As a small company with limited resources, we don't want to have to build a 'pipeline' of software, just to do what Softimage already does in one hit. I appreciate times are changing, but I'm not jumping until I'm sure which way to go. Nuffsed yo! ;-) lol
RE: Torn
I don’t know what we’ll go to when Softimage is eventually phased out of our pipeline. (more than one app, that's for sure) But we’ve been evaluating C4D and its far better than I thought it was going to be. (Based on its perception in the industry) There is some really cool stuff in there. I’m looking forward to testing it a bit more once my current project is wrapped up. Ed From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Mirko Jankovic Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2014 9:06 AM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: Re: Torn Or stay with softimage till there is actualy something like it.. maybe next. Couple years On May 1, 2014 3:02 PM, olivier jeannel olivier.jean...@noos.frmailto:olivier.jean...@noos.fr wrote: You should go toward C4D since it's the one I'm planning to get into :) (and some houdini too) Read that message and obey. Le 01/05/2014 14:49, Chris Marshall a écrit : Complete generalist, working in tv, corporate, architecture, medical, FX, simulations etc etc. It's probably easier to say what I don't do, which is any character stuff, though I've done a bit of that too. Everything else is included. So software of choice in this scenario.Softimage. Obvious alternative choice of software.None As a small company with limited resources, we don't want to have to build a 'pipeline' of software, just to do what Softimage already does in one hit. I appreciate times are changing, but I'm not jumping until I'm sure which way to go. Nuffsed yo! ;-) lol
Re: Torn
Have any of you tried TurbulenceFD with C4D? It truly is startling how good it is. Stuff I really struggled with is easy. On the other hand, stuff that was easy in ICE, well, I reserve judgement until I know more, but TurbulenceFD doesn't seem to have the controls to art direct the fluid (gaseous only, not liquid) to do exactly what I want if it isn't physically natural. Yet. In FX work, that is obviously of high importance, but I don't have enough time with it to say for sure. C4D is really quite good at a LOT of stuff, though. Stuff we struggle with usually, that we just accept as hard or we have accepted as something that just takes a long time. In C4D, many of these things are not only fast, look good, but EASY. How often does THAT happen? I am in the same boat as others here. I am evaluating C4D, Modo, Houdini They all have their strengths, and one major weakness (they aren't Softimage). On Thu, May 1, 2014 at 9:10 AM, Ed Harriss ed.harr...@sas.com wrote: I don’t know what we’ll go to when Softimage is eventually phased out of our pipeline. (more than one app, that's for sure) But we’ve been evaluating C4D and its far better than I thought it was going to be. (Based on its perception in the industry) There is some really cool stuff in there. I’m looking forward to testing it a bit more once my current project is wrapped up. Ed *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Mirko Jankovic *Sent:* Thursday, May 01, 2014 9:06 AM *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com *Subject:* Re: Torn Or stay with softimage till there is actualy something like it.. maybe next. Couple years On May 1, 2014 3:02 PM, olivier jeannel olivier.jean...@noos.fr wrote: You should go toward C4D since it's the one I'm planning to get into :) (and some houdini too) Read that message and obey. Le 01/05/2014 14:49, Chris Marshall a écrit : Complete generalist, working in tv, corporate, architecture, medical, FX, simulations etc etc. It's probably easier to say what I don't do, which is any character stuff, though I've done a bit of that too. Everything else is included. So software of choice in this scenario.Softimage. Obvious alternative choice of software.None As a small company with limited resources, we don't want to have to build a 'pipeline' of software, just to do what Softimage already does in one hit. I appreciate times are changing, but I'm not jumping until I'm sure which way to go. Nuffsed yo! ;-) lol -- Perry Harovas Animation and Visual Effects http://www.TheAfterImage.com http://www.theafterimage.com/ -25 Years Experience -Member of the Visual Effects Society (VES)
Re: Torn
All good advice On 1 May 2014 14:19, Perry Harovas perryharo...@gmail.com wrote: Have any of you tried TurbulenceFD with C4D? It truly is startling how good it is. Stuff I really struggled with is easy. On the other hand, stuff that was easy in ICE, well, I reserve judgement until I know more, but TurbulenceFD doesn't seem to have the controls to art direct the fluid (gaseous only, not liquid) to do exactly what I want if it isn't physically natural. Yet. In FX work, that is obviously of high importance, but I don't have enough time with it to say for sure. C4D is really quite good at a LOT of stuff, though. Stuff we struggle with usually, that we just accept as hard or we have accepted as something that just takes a long time. In C4D, many of these things are not only fast, look good, but EASY. How often does THAT happen? I am in the same boat as others here. I am evaluating C4D, Modo, Houdini They all have their strengths, and one major weakness (they aren't Softimage). On Thu, May 1, 2014 at 9:10 AM, Ed Harriss ed.harr...@sas.com wrote: I don’t know what we’ll go to when Softimage is eventually phased out of our pipeline. (more than one app, that's for sure) But we’ve been evaluating C4D and its far better than I thought it was going to be. (Based on its perception in the industry) There is some really cool stuff in there. I’m looking forward to testing it a bit more once my current project is wrapped up. Ed *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Mirko Jankovic *Sent:* Thursday, May 01, 2014 9:06 AM *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com *Subject:* Re: Torn Or stay with softimage till there is actualy something like it.. maybe next. Couple years On May 1, 2014 3:02 PM, olivier jeannel olivier.jean...@noos.fr wrote: You should go toward C4D since it's the one I'm planning to get into :) (and some houdini too) Read that message and obey. Le 01/05/2014 14:49, Chris Marshall a écrit : Complete generalist, working in tv, corporate, architecture, medical, FX, simulations etc etc. It's probably easier to say what I don't do, which is any character stuff, though I've done a bit of that too. Everything else is included. So software of choice in this scenario.Softimage. Obvious alternative choice of software.None As a small company with limited resources, we don't want to have to build a 'pipeline' of software, just to do what Softimage already does in one hit. I appreciate times are changing, but I'm not jumping until I'm sure which way to go. Nuffsed yo! ;-) lol -- Perry Harovas Animation and Visual Effects http://www.TheAfterImage.com http://www.theafterimage.com/ -25 Years Experience -Member of the Visual Effects Society (VES) -- Chris Marshall Mint Motion Limited 029 20 37 27 57 07730 533 115 www.mintmotion.co.uk
Re: Torn
This is quite true. Depending on what you actually intend to achieve, it may affect your decision. Even though I lean a lot more towards the technical side of things, I needed a software package that would be able to do pretty much everything. I jumped on Modo several months ago, and I've been quite comfortable with it. I've actually started duplicating in Modo some ICE compounds and nodes I used often. I think I'm pretty much set with Modo at this point. I also do some stuff in Houdini, and will eventually get into Blender and see what I can do with it. Looks like this would be the solution for me. I do expect tighter integration between Modo and the rest of The Foundry's portfolio to make things nicer in the future. I've also heard great things about C4D. I guess downloading the demos for all the apps that interest you and doing some tutorials will give you a better idea of how they feel. After all, you've still got two years to figure out where to go. Good luck! Sergio Muciño. Sent from my iPad. On May 1, 2014, at 7:54 AM, Mirko Jankovic mirkoj.anima...@gmail.com wrote: the question is what is your area of expretese what do you wanna do, are you cahracter animator, effects guy, simulations cloth, lighting rendering.. al full generalist and wanna deliver final product from modeling to final rendering. that can help out choosing On Thu, May 1, 2014 at 1:07 PM, Chris Marshall chrismarshal...@gmail.com wrote: I'm still struggling. There's a lot to take on board.
RE: Torn
I addition to what Perry listed, I found a few very small things in C4D that are nice. (Keep in mind, I have limited experience with C4D) A preference that changes icons in the interface from pictures to text. ☺ An “increment and save” option. You can have more than one scene open at a time. You can also copy/paste between them. When moving things, you get a line that shows you where the object is moving from. If you use After Effects, it’s integration looks fantastic.
Re: VERY OT: Nice ICE - Ron Jeremy video
MWHAHAHAHAHA ! Le 01/05/2014 18:46, Matt Morris a écrit : Never thought I'd see this, a 'safe for work' Ron Jeremy video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9utvHzU883I
Re: Torn
Torn is the right word I think! I am sticking to SI till it no-longer has any juice left for the industry, like a dried up squeezed lemon. I still see that it is quite future proof in many areas, even without it’s advanced “viewport” so even after 2 years of updates and bugfixes, it should still do well afterwards a couple years - minus sculpting or realtime previz. GPU rendering and CPU rendering will still be ahead of the league with third party render-engines, you know the ones I’m talking about. It will remain future-proof for some time yet. But personally I am delving more into Blender, with it’s GPU+CPU render engine included, node based modeling addons (free) and soon node based strands and particles (in development) and other features that are progressively being developed - not to mention it’s 20 year old mature well rounded toolset - developed outside of commitees and corporation, even investment…. *Warning* My explanation is extensive and written below, needed to get it out there! Read at your own risk! Out of principle I see Blender as a powerful tool, not to mention video editing and Nuke like compositing all in the same package…. free… and open to development personally or as a community. If you’d invest cash into a software, with Blender, it is directly with a developer or into the foundation, or into a project to “test” and push and develop the software, like the Gooseberry Project. Out of conviction for future proof development in a software I’d invest hours (if not the majority of my life) of knowledge into it…. makes me want to stick to Blender. (because it’s guaranteed development by the demand of the artist, by investment directly into a developer, by open knowledge of what is being developed; and anyone has voice as to where it will go, how it will go) I see hair, bullet physics, particles, great modeling toolset (with many awesome plugins), a grease pencil, NLA animation systems, dopesheet, keyframed animation systems, shape and morph animation with corrective blendshapes optional, full body IK and FK, node based shader system for Cycles, multi-scene management within the same session, sculpting, dynamic topology in sculpting, multires mesh sculpting, advanced UV editor and unwrap with texture painting directly into it, integrated game engine with game logic (also node based in some ways), and a VERY customizable interface with few icons, etc etc.. yes, it is not optimized in many areas… but it runs on a mac, on Linux, on pc…. And it’s trying to push systems for node based manipulation, aka, ICE a la Blender. And it’s free… With a Blender pipeline, I wouldn’t need to purchase any Adobe Suite or any other software to compliment editing or post-fx, sculpting software, not even purchase 2D software (can be replaced with Krita, Gimp or Inkscape) or for anything else for that matter… just time and education for using such a software in the team… but here in Colombia (to my opinion) it’s much more popular than C4D or Houdini.. concerning compatibility with students/other studios without having to turn to Max or Maya. As a generalist studio, it would be the best bet, considering the startup and the cost of a multi-software pipeline, which we simply can’t afford every time something gets upgraded or outdated. That “feature” of being free and built by the people/foundation saves my studio thousands of dollar per seat every time we need to upgrade or expand. And unlike the death of my old pal trueSpace, my first love; and now SI, my second love… I might place my chips in a software that doesn’t depend on the economics of a business nor corporation, but of the very artists/developers/studios that use it. What happens if Autodesk goes bankrupt, or sells the entire ME division? What if it purchases C4D, it’s competition? What happens if The Foundry turns into a cash and user base hungry Autodesk like system from huge success in the future? What if SideFX decides to retire for “personal” reasons? What if management for development in Modo suddenly changes and it’s artist friendly solutions develop to something we no-longer want or need? Concerning the “dreaded” interface, I have used Gimp and Inkscape some time, and well it’s just a “Linux” kind of mentality to the interface - just different, with it’s own logic, but not any less efficient than most other interfaces (not considering the genius easter-eggs in SI UI dominating most others, of course). I found it hard to learn, yes, but just as easy as learning Z-brush or Maya from scratch… which I tried briefly. Concerning community and tutorials, there is no short to help you out with such a thing as learning it, you won’t ever be stuck learning how to use it with it’s huge arsenal of tutorials or an experienced community. Concerning development, I do think it’s still catching up, but in other areas (even compared to AE or Premiere, or to other major 3D packages)
Re: Softimage-Projects from Filmakademie
NICE !?! On 1 May 2014 22:11, Vincent Ullmann vincent.ullm...@googlemail.com wrote: Hi everyone, iam happy to show you some of the work we did here at Filmakademie during our third year of studies. These are Trailers produced for the ITFS-Festival in Stuttgart, but we were totally free in terms of story, design etc. They just had to be maximum 1 minute long. In total we had, from the very first Idea, till the final delivery about 5 months. So for the real production only about 3 month were left. *Phosphoros:* In this trailer we tried to take something disgusting and make it appealing to the viewer. https://vimeo.com/93345597 (Password: ITFS2014) WebSite: http://phosphoros.net Some Breakdowns: Rig: http://vimeo.com/92522044 Totale: http://vimeo.com/93522159 Thorax: https://vimeo.com/93522158 Wing: http://vimeo.com/93522573 3D-Team: Manolya Külköylü (Director, Concept, Design and Animation) Philipp Mekus (Director, MosquitoModelling+Texturing and Compositing) Francesco Faranna (Producer) Kiril Mirkov (Bulb+Envoriment Modelling,Textuing,Shading and Lighting+Rendering) Hanna Binswanger (Rigging) Johannes Franz (Particle Effects) Vincent Ullmann (Pipeline, MosquitoShading and Lighting+Rendering) For the Bulb and Envoriment our Workflow was quite simple, using Softimage and Mudbox for Modelling and Textures. The Bulb had 2 Versions. The Default one, and a special one for the CloseUps were the Topological-Pole was in the center of the Deformation. We had to combine these to Versions for one Shot using ICE. The Mosquito was modellt in Cinema4D, sculpted in zBrush, retopologized in 3dCoat and Textured in Mari. We painted 4 UV-Tiles for Diffuse, Spec, SpecRoughness, Bump and some special Maps like Transparancy on the Wings or GlowEffets on the Body. Also some Maps were animated in Nuke using good old Roto-Splines. The GlowEffects on the Body were made using some textures and multiple layers of SSS and Emission The big Veins inside the Wings, were procedualy made in Houdini, then somehow build into the Rig and animated Rigging and Animation was made in Softimage and cached using Alembic. The Particle Effects were mostly done in Houdini and renderd with Mantra. Only the Particles inside the Abdomen were cached via Alembic and renderd in Arnold. For Lighting we brought everything back to Softimage and renderd out a couple of Passes: - The Light from the Bulb - The Lights from the Envoriment - Some Volume Scattering - Some DustParticles - UtilityPass (Normals, Pref, P, UVs) - MattePass Comp was done in Nuke and editing in Premiere *Elevator:* https://vimeo.com/93345598 (PassWord: ITFS2014) Some Breakdown: Shameless self Promotion in my Reel at 0:58 and 1:12: https://vimeo.com/92148829 (Password: 2014_Reel_vu) Team: Valentin Kemmner (Director, Design, Sculpting and Animation) Mareike Keller (Producing) Jessica Tegethoff (Rigging) Nathalia Alencar (Texturing) Manuel Revior (Compositing) Vincent Ullmann (Pipeline, Shading,Lighing,Rendering) For the Pith of this Trailer, the Director build the Characters and Set as Minitures and Animated the hole Shot in one Weekend. Then it took us 3 Month figuring out how to replicate the hole thing in 3D. ;-) Modelling, Rigging and Animation was done in Maya. Scultping in Mudbox and Texturing in Mari (1 8k Tile for each Character and 7 8k Tiles for the Set) Shading, Lighting and Rendering again in Softimage with Arnold. Caches were done with Alembic. And Compositing of course in Nuke *Spiegelei:* Last but not least, a third 3D-Trailer we produced. This was not realy a project focused on the final result, but more on learning and trieng new stuff. https://vimeo.com/93532984 (Password: ITFS2014) 3D-Team: Peter Lames (Director, Compositing and lot of everything else) Tobias Müller (Producing) Jessica Thegetoff (Animation of the Ambulance and Doctors) Hanna Binswanger (Rigging of the Doctors and Shading+Rigging of the Ambulance) Johannes Franz (Smoke Effect for Ambulance and Coffee) As said, we experiemnted a bit, so litteraly every 3D-Package was involed in this Production: Modo for all the Design and Animatic-Stuff, the Egg, the Stoller, etc etc 3dsMax for Ambulance Modelling and Shading+Rendering Maya+MtoA for Shading+Rendering the Doctors Softimage for Rigging+Animation of the Doctors+Ambulance, Rendering the Floor (with SitoA) and creating the cationTabe (at the end) with ICE Hope you enjoy watching them. Besides these 3 Trailer, a couple of other Trailers were produced (even without Softimage and Arnold). You could watch them here: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheFilmakademie/videos Cheers Vincent
Re: Houdini Engine for Cinema4D
I really good overview of this news, watch the interview in the middle of the page: http://www.fxguide.com/quicktakes/fmx-2014-houdini-engine-for-cinema-4d-realflow-2014/ On 24 April 2014 20:11, Marc-Andre Carbonneau marc-andre.carbonn...@ubisoft.com wrote: *“Artists with Houdini or Houdini FX licenses will be able to run the Houdini Engine using their existing keys. For artists who only need to work in a host application, a new Houdini Engine license has been created. Houdini Engine workstation licenses will be available for $495 annually while floating licenses for use in a single facility will start at $795 annually. Volume pricing will be available for floating licenses »* *“The new Houdini Engine license is being merged with the Houdini Batch license so that it can also run batch processes on the farm “* It means half the price for Houdini-Engine and free Houdini-Engine licenses for Houdini tech artists + render batch licenses for everyone ! Also documentation for Houdini-Engine API was there but hidden now it’s official : http://www.sidefx.com/docs/hengine1.6/ *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Cristobal Infante *Sent:* 23 avril 2014 10:42 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com *Subject:* Re: Houdini Engine for Cinema4D Houdini Engine offers more than just a ppg to change a few values. You can for example create a forest digital asset, take it to C4D or Maya and use your local models as instances. So that's where the benefit is, you essentially created a tool that you can reuse. A bit like fabric I guess? By the way there is a Houdini Engine API so it can be ported to any aplication. So expect to see this implemented in other apps and game engines in the future. On Wednesday, 23 April 2014, pete...@skynet.be wrote: Nice insight, Luc-Eric. See how you downplayed it as doing the particles - AD's standard description of ICE and Softimage. Is that company prescribed reply to competitor's initiatives? What I read here, is an opening for C4D and Maya studios to get (a) Houdini artist/s to collaborate with the rest of the team, opening up new possibilities. Perhaps shareholders don’t care much for cross platform solutions and collaboration, but studios and artists do. -Original Message- From: Luc-Eric Rousseau Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2014 3:36 PM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: Re: Houdini Engine for Cinema4D Sounds pretty cool! C4D could use more proceduralism, and extra tools. Is it becoming a real Softimage alternative by this? I'm willing to be that if you had it, you'd never use Houdini Engine in Cinema 4D. This doesn't give you any procedural authoring in C4D, just the ability to run an asset that was authored in Houdini, typically with a simple PPG of settings. As a freelancer looking for an alternative to ICE, it would quite a waste of time to author the graph in houdini and do all the work to package it up to run it in C4D. In real life, you'd probably just do it all on the houdini side and cache out or render there. Or more realistically, if you spent that much time in C4D that this would be hugely important, you'd likely do everything there except for the occasional case when you can't.. and then you probably would not have had spent enough time with Houdini to be at ease with it to solve the problem there efficiently. You'd probably end up doing the particles in C4D's thinking particle instead. On Wed, Apr 23, 2014 at 4:59 AM, Eugen Sares sof...@mail.sprit.org wrote: Cross-posting from si-community: http://www.. maxon.net/en/news/press-releases/singleview/article/maxon-announces-partnership-with-side-effects-software.html http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_contenttask=viewid=2720Itemid=66 Sounds pretty cool! C4D could use more proceduralism, and extra tools. Is it becoming a real Softimage alternative by this? Besides, did anyone happen to attend the Maxon presentation on FMX yesterday? Diese E-Mail ist frei von Viren und Malware, denn der avast! Antivirus Schutz ist aktiv.
RE: Torn
Sorry if i put this straight: Your bottom line is that free/opensource software is the way to go? That's terrifying. We still have the problem of discount prices in the industry. Companies gone bancrupt because of this and the situation should really concern us. Not the US/VFX sector alone. Artists around the world working 10-16 hours sometimes to give profit to a job or their companies working for. 3D-Animation is ridiculous cheap these days and making the software available for free would be the worst. Hardware is already cheap and become cheaper each day. Software is also cheaper today compared to ten years ago. Just take a look what comes out in the end: High quality work, thats good. But achived by monkeys often doing work barely for free! Just because it's so cool to do 3D? The problem is, everything becomes cheaper every day. Even daily rates. But it's a business and thinking of it as a 'ideal world' where everything should become cheaper or even free scares the hell out of me. sven From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Andres Stephens Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2014 8:14 PM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: Re: Torn Torn is the right word I think! I am sticking to SI till it no-longer has any juice left for the industry, like a dried up squeezed lemon. I still see that it is quite future proof in many areas, even without it’s advanced “viewport” so even after 2 years of updates and bugfixes, it should still do well afterwards a couple years - minus sculpting or realtime previz. GPU rendering and CPU rendering will still be ahead of the league with third party render-engines, you know the ones I’m talking about. It will remain future-proof for some time yet. But personally I am delving more into Blender, with it’s GPU+CPU render engine included, node based modeling addons (free) and soon node based strands and particles (in development) and other features that are progressively being developed - not to mention it’s 20 year old mature well rounded toolset - developed outside of commitees and corporation, even investment…. *Warning* My explanation is extensive and written below, needed to get it out there! Read at your own risk! Out of principle I see Blender as a powerful tool, not to mention video editing and Nuke like compositing all in the same package…. free… and open to development personally or as a community. If you’d invest cash into a software, with Blender, it is directly with a developer or into the foundation, or into a project to “test” and push and develop the software, like the Gooseberry Project. Out of conviction for future proof development in a software I’d invest hours (if not the majority of my life) of knowledge into it…. makes me want to stick to Blender. (because it’s guaranteed development by the demand of the artist, by investment directly into a developer, by open knowledge of what is being developed; and anyone has voice as to where it will go, how it will go) I see hair, bullet physics, particles, great modeling toolset (with many awesome plugins), a grease pencil, NLA animation systems, dopesheet, keyframed animation systems, shape and morph animation with corrective blendshapes optional, full body IK and FK, node based shader system for Cycles, multi-scene management within the same session, sculpting, dynamic topology in sculpting, multires mesh sculpting, advanced UV editor and unwrap with texture painting directly into it, integrated game engine with game logic (also node based in some ways), and a VERY customizable interface with few icons, etc etc.. yes, it is not optimized in many areas… but it runs on a mac, on Linux, on pc…. And it’s trying to push systems for node based manipulation, aka, ICE a la Blender. And it’s free… With a Blender pipeline, I wouldn’t need to purchase any Adobe Suite or any other software to compliment editing or post-fx, sculpting software, not even purchase 2D software (can be replaced with Krita, Gimp or Inkscape) or for anything else for that matter… just time and education for using such a software in the team… but here in Colombia (to my opinion) it’s much more popular than C4D or Houdini.. concerning compatibility with students/other studios without having to turn to Max or Maya. As a generalist studio, it would be the best bet, considering the startup and the cost of a multi-software pipeline, which we simply can’t afford every time something gets upgraded or outdated. That “feature” of being free and built by the people/foundation saves my studio thousands of dollar per seat every time we need to upgrade or expand. And unlike the death of my old pal trueSpace, my first love; and now SI, my second love… I might place my chips in a software that doesn’t depend on the economics of a business nor corporation, but of the very artists/developers/studios that
Re: Softimage-Projects from Filmakademie
Should work now. ;-) 2014-05-02 0:48 GMT+02:00 gareth bell garethb...@outlook.com: Fantastic work Vincent. Phosphoros is beautiful and Elevator's a chuckle. P.S. The link to your reel/breakdown doesn't work -- Date: Thu, 1 May 2014 22:31:07 +0100 Subject: Re: Softimage-Projects from Filmakademie From: sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com NICE !?! On 1 May 2014 22:11, Vincent Ullmann vincent.ullm...@googlemail.comwrote: Hi everyone, iam happy to show you some of the work we did here at Filmakademie during our third year of studies. These are Trailers produced for the ITFS-Festival in Stuttgart, but we were totally free in terms of story, design etc. They just had to be maximum 1 minute long. In total we had, from the very first Idea, till the final delivery about 5 months. So for the real production only about 3 month were left. *Phosphoros:* In this trailer we tried to take something disgusting and make it appealing to the viewer. https://vimeo.com/93345597 (Password: ITFS2014) WebSite: http://phosphoros.net Some Breakdowns: Rig: http://vimeo.com/92522044 Totale: http://vimeo.com/93522159 Thorax: https://vimeo.com/93522158 Wing: http://vimeo.com/93522573 3D-Team: Manolya Külköylü (Director, Concept, Design and Animation) Philipp Mekus (Director, MosquitoModelling+Texturing and Compositing) Francesco Faranna (Producer) Kiril Mirkov (Bulb+Envoriment Modelling,Textuing,Shading and Lighting+Rendering) Hanna Binswanger (Rigging) Johannes Franz (Particle Effects) Vincent Ullmann (Pipeline, MosquitoShading and Lighting+Rendering) For the Bulb and Envoriment our Workflow was quite simple, using Softimage and Mudbox for Modelling and Textures. The Bulb had 2 Versions. The Default one, and a special one for the CloseUps were the Topological-Pole was in the center of the Deformation. We had to combine these to Versions for one Shot using ICE. The Mosquito was modellt in Cinema4D, sculpted in zBrush, retopologized in 3dCoat and Textured in Mari. We painted 4 UV-Tiles for Diffuse, Spec, SpecRoughness, Bump and some special Maps like Transparancy on the Wings or GlowEffets on the Body. Also some Maps were animated in Nuke using good old Roto-Splines. The GlowEffects on the Body were made using some textures and multiple layers of SSS and Emission The big Veins inside the Wings, were procedualy made in Houdini, then somehow build into the Rig and animated Rigging and Animation was made in Softimage and cached using Alembic. The Particle Effects were mostly done in Houdini and renderd with Mantra. Only the Particles inside the Abdomen were cached via Alembic and renderd in Arnold. For Lighting we brought everything back to Softimage and renderd out a couple of Passes: - The Light from the Bulb - The Lights from the Envoriment - Some Volume Scattering - Some DustParticles - UtilityPass (Normals, Pref, P, UVs) - MattePass Comp was done in Nuke and editing in Premiere *Elevator:* https://vimeo.com/93345598 (PassWord: ITFS2014) Some Breakdown: Shameless self Promotion in my Reel at 0:58 and 1:12: https://vimeo.com/92148829 (Password: 2014_Reel_vu) Team: Valentin Kemmner (Director, Design, Sculpting and Animation) Mareike Keller (Producing) Jessica Tegethoff (Rigging) Nathalia Alencar (Texturing) Manuel Revior (Compositing) Vincent Ullmann (Pipeline, Shading,Lighing,Rendering) For the Pith of this Trailer, the Director build the Characters and Set as Minitures and Animated the hole Shot in one Weekend. Then it took us 3 Month figuring out how to replicate the hole thing in 3D. ;-) Modelling, Rigging and Animation was done in Maya. Scultping in Mudbox and Texturing in Mari (1 8k Tile for each Character and 7 8k Tiles for the Set) Shading, Lighting and Rendering again in Softimage with Arnold. Caches were done with Alembic. And Compositing of course in Nuke *Spiegelei:* Last but not least, a third 3D-Trailer we produced. This was not realy a project focused on the final result, but more on learning and trieng new stuff. https://vimeo.com/93532984 (Password: ITFS2014) 3D-Team: Peter Lames (Director, Compositing and lot of everything else) Tobias Müller (Producing) Jessica Thegetoff (Animation of the Ambulance and Doctors) Hanna Binswanger (Rigging of the Doctors and Shading+Rigging of the Ambulance) Johannes Franz (Smoke Effect for Ambulance and Coffee) As said, we experiemnted a bit, so litteraly every 3D-Package was involed in this Production: Modo for all the Design and Animatic-Stuff, the Egg, the Stoller, etc etc 3dsMax for Ambulance Modelling and Shading+Rendering Maya+MtoA for Shading+Rendering the Doctors Softimage for Rigging+Animation of the Doctors+Ambulance, Rendering the Floor (with SitoA) and creating the cationTabe (at the end) with ICE Hope you enjoy watching them. Besides these 3 Trailer, a couple of other
Re: Torn
Its a tough one for sure, Modo looks very nice, I really really like the UI. Great hand on tools... some very quick and slick (but non-liniar) modeling tools.. Painting and sculpting... Nodes that look like they are getting more powerful by the day.. very nice default render engine. Consistency seems to be a theme in the design. Cons- I am concerned about the speed and depth of its character animation tool set as well as the lack of relational modeling. I wish they would partner with FE to leverage its speed for moving characters.. to me the one who cracks character speed AND great deforms with out sacrificing workflow will come out on top. Not sure how pipeline friendly it is at this point when it comes to scripting, referencing and render scalability. not much in the way of 3rd party render engines the add ons and plug ins seem gimicky and poser like.. and its user base is small. Houdini - if we get bigger again it would make sense to have a few cuts of this and a few power operators. But as it stand its too heavy handed for almost everything we do, from what I can tell. And its view-port speed makes me cry... not a tool that I would like I don't think.. C4d- Very popular in the Advertising world, AE interaction is crazy good. Some very solid and unique tools (raybrush) unbeatable motion graphic tools. Giant user base. Cons- I never got its way of thinking while using body paint for years.. Trying to customize the interaction is nuts.. too many navigation commands that should be the same thing. Default render engine has pros - but serious cons (MB) never used thier advanced render engine. Character tools up to snuff?? I never looked too deep. Maya- Strongest of the non softimage packages for characters...Biggest user base, lots semi easy and unique tools such as paint effects, oceans, and a host of others. Robust poly and Nurbs toolset, Amazing viewport, GL caching, Cloth, Hair options and like soft I know that it has the years of battle ridden code, while dated can get any job done, and its easier the get the folks to do it. Character speed is second to none. Great 3rd party renderers. Very customizable. Did I say huge and talented user base? Cons- there are a lot.. but the first one is that the interface is a mess, too many different node editors that behave completely and none of them do what ICE does (yet). It needs a BIG clean up, look at Modo interface, seems very clean in comparison. I will need an extra TD on every job at least, causing us to raise our prices and making us less competitive. I have no confinence in the AD culture... they DO have a great team, but they need to revert to the culture of Discreet logic, Softimage and Alias. They need to be independent from the mother ships rules... Take a cue from The Foundry, not adobe... Softimage- Awesome all all rounder, best pass system, fast, great 3rd party renderers... and then there is ICE. Most flexible character tools for for working non linear. Did I say ICE?? Cons- its going awayuser base.. tied too deeply to windows The more I think about it the more I want to build an Alembic/Arnold/Redshift/ Nuke pipeline and use all of the above. Ween off the Softimage tit slowly... trying the milk the others have to offer a bit at a time. See what time offers us. Unlike some of you guys I wont rule Maya out because there are to many good people that can drive that boat... even if AD pissed me off. Greg On Thu, May 1, 2014 at 1:14 PM, Andres Stephens drais...@outlook.comwrote: Torn is the right word I think! I am sticking to SI till it no-longer has any juice left for the industry, like a dried up squeezed lemon. I still see that it is quite future proof in many areas, even without it’s advanced “viewport” so even after 2 years of updates and bugfixes, it should still do well afterwards a couple years - minus sculpting or realtime previz. GPU rendering and CPU rendering will still be ahead of the league with third party render-engines, you know the ones I’m talking about. It will remain future-proof for some time yet. But personally I am delving more into Blender, with it’s GPU+CPU render engine included, node based modeling addons (free) and soon node based strands and particles (in development) and other features that are progressively being developed - not to mention it’s 20 year old mature well rounded toolset - developed outside of commitees and corporation, even investment…. *Warning* *My explanation is extensive and written below, needed to get it out there! Read at your own risk! * Out of principle I see Blender as a powerful tool, not to mention video editing and Nuke like compositing all in the same package…. free… and open to development personally or as a community. If you’d invest cash into a software, with Blender, it is directly with a developer or into the foundation, or into a project to “test” and push and develop the software, like the Gooseberry Project. Out of
Torn
De niro, quietly but clearly express how I feel about this subject. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8Oe9SteE3Mfeature=youtube_gdata_player On Thursday, May 1, 2014, Andres Stephens drais...@outlook.comjavascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','drais...@outlook.com'); wrote: **pardon my large rant, you have been warned =P** Concerning economics of opensource software, I see no danger. Work is not free, nor knowledge. Artwork; be it stills, previz, concept, animation, or FX… may have a price driven by knowledge/experience and quality driven by time it takes to do it. I am not sure why the prices dropped, but mainly yes, it was (in my opinion) because of the catch 42 syndrome: making digital media production became much easier (thus less knowledge/experience is needed with more quality for less time - thus logically dropping prices) through easier software, better hardware. Unfortunately I see the industry has forgotten a standard - the basis of why digital media costs what it costs. The demand for quality has exponentially grown with the software and the hardware exponentially, thus the demand for less time for more quality has exponentially grown also, and due to the facilitating software and hardware there is less demand for knowledge/experience (or so one thinks). Unfortunately that has been muddied, and due to the “it didn’t take you as long as 5 years ago for something 10 times as good, it must be cheaper!” things are where you think they are, with doom and gloom and competition with monkeys. Concerning opensource software, I am not saying it’s “free” software, just available without a direct transaction type free. If you want to keep it alive, you directly invest in the developers and projects, or develop it yourself paying your own developers with cold hard WORK. What is a software without it’s developer? Concerning the particular case of Blender, you can invest (and I encourage it) directly with a developer or a project or a piece of code - not just the software. It gives you more power as to how you want your tool to work, and how it will be developed over the longterm. Concerning making life cost the “worth the trouble” when it comes to the media industry and what it takes to make media, giving the artist a good run for the money he is given, then yes, the death of Softimage was GREAT for the industry. We can keep charging MORE for the “time” and knowledge/experience we would need to do the same job, a job we could have done “easier” in Softimage - a tool that makes us do more with less time. Forget efficiency! But I differ, just because a tool is more available or “easier” to use or more “efficient” at doing a certain task does NOT make the job cheaper. Yes, Time drives price, Time drives Quality. Efficiency of the tool drives Time, and Quality. Knowledge of the tool drives Time and Quality and Efficiency. Experience drives Time and Efficiency. Cost for your project should be based off the (Quality=Time) + (Time/Efficiency) + (Knowledge*Experience[=Efficiency]). So, less time you are given drives for less quality, thus the amount that would cost. More time, more quality, more expensive. Less time, due to efficiency, similar quality, would give you more cost, thus adding to the cost; then the knowledge you’d need to achieve the experience which drives for such efficiency would also drive that cost to more. So the more knowledge you have grows your experience, experience drives efficiency - it took time for that knowledge that drives experience, so that costs. All experience drives your efficiency, thus driving the cost for more - even if it’s less time but similar quality. All those factors drive how much your work is worth. So, a tool that saves you time, the hardware that makes it easier for you to drive the quality, and the time you save for more quality SHOULD NOT drop the price, because granted, the knowledge of your tool and the experience you’d need for efficiency should actually drive the price, not “how easy it is”. The industry needs to realize that for the time it took for similar qualities of more time in the past is because of the “experience” and “knowledge” that drives efficiency, and due to efficiency it is now taking less time, but should have the same if not more cost. They still think the experience and knowledge is the same as it was 10 years ago, thus dropping prices, but really it isn’t. They forget the factor of efficiency. I can see the fear you have that a developer would miss out because prices are dropping for the artists because he’s much more efficient (thanks to him we can do what we do today). So companies that develop software have lost, because the artists is being shorthanded because the industry has forgotten that efficiency and less time for more quality SHOULD make it MORE expensive - not less, and the artist lives with that, not affording to invest in more efficiency, being
Dart Throw Compound equivalent?
Hi Guys, like all of you I've been spending a lot of time trying to decide where to from here? One of the tools I use constantly in my day to day job is Julian Johnson's awesome Dart Throw ICE compound, for spritzing (those small condensation drops that appear on cold drink cans and bottles). It's unique feature is that it prevents my instance spheres from touching/overlapping each other. You can't have drops of water overlap or penetrate each other as in the real world they would simply merge into one drop. Does anyone have any idea if there is an equivalent particle tool in other apps, or does one of our alternatives have an ICE-like tool that would allow the development of one? I've been assessing Blender, Modo and C4D and currently leaning towards Blender. Thanks guys, Steve -- *Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed with the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.* - Mark Twain
RE: Torn
I’ve been looking around at alternatives to Softimage and not having any luck. Modo have some great features, but the interface is just crap. There are way too many different layouts for things that should mostly be done in one or maybe 2 different layouts. Things like snapping rotations (or snapping in general) seem to require you to click checkboxes or be enabled in other menus where in Softimage, you can just hold down a modifier key to enable most of those functions without dropping your current tool. Modo seems full of tons of one use tools, whereas in Softimage I have a few tools that I use most of the time that cover 99% of what I need to do. I was looking up rigging in Modo the other day and it’s a mess. After you draw out you bones you have to go in manually and correct all your individual joint rotations so they work correctly. In the amount of time the guy built a basic spine I could have had the entire character skeleton done in Softimage with working IK. After massing with Modo for a short time I usually give up in frustration at the terribly slow and clunky interface. Sure I could probably get used to it in time and be productive, but why should I have to settle for such and inferior and slow UI and workflow. The whole layer based approach to modeling makes me want to punch kittens. I also tried Blender which seems to get a lot of praise because it is free and has all these gee-whiz features, but again, the interface on that program is horrid. Sure it’s better than the old one, but it’s still terrible. Also, all the development seems to be on these qee-whiz features and some things like beveling are mostly useless. This is one of the problems with open source programs, no one wants to write the simple mundane features, they would rather write the big flashy features so they can brag about them and the simple tools get left unfinished, on never even added. When I initially switched from lightwave to Softimage, everything was just amazing. The workflow was amazing, the documentation and tutorials were some of the best I’d ever seen at the time (these have both declined since Autodesk took over). Being able to get help with a tool by hitting F1 while in the tool and having the help open to the information for that tool was just amazing. Being able to crate basic tools or automat repetitive tasks by just copying from the history to the script editor was great and allowed me to do things I could never have done with my meager scripting abilities. All the things that make Softimage a great tool have been in there for years most of them since V4 or 5 which was the time I started using it. It’s just mind boggling that there really isn’t another program out there that even comes close to workflow and ease of use that Softimage has had for years. Where I work I do 3d animation part time, sometimes not using Softimage for weeks, and it’s great that Softimage has such a great interface where I can still find even the most rarely used tool without spending tons of time searching for it. With Modo I have trouble finding tools I used 5 minutes ago. So I’m probably going to be sticking with Softimage for quite some time. On a side note, it looks like Autodesk is putting even less effort into developing Mudbox than it is with Softimage, so I gave 3- Coat another try and I’m really impressed with it. I hated it when I used it several years ago, but now it blows Mudbox out of the water and is much, much more user friendly that the mess that is called Zbrush. I did some retopo work with 3d-coat recently and I like it much, much more than Topogun. I absolutely love the Voxel sculpting tools. So, it looks like Autodesk is going to be missing out on any future money from me. From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Mirko Jankovic Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2014 6:06 AM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: Re: Torn Or stay with softimage till there is actualy something like it.. maybe next. Couple years On May 1, 2014 3:02 PM, olivier jeannel olivier.jean...@noos.fr wrote: You should go toward C4D since it's the one I'm planning to get into :) (and some houdini too) Read that message and obey. Le 01/05/2014 14:49, Chris Marshall a écrit : Complete generalist, working in tv, corporate, architecture, medical, FX, simulations etc etc. It's probably easier to say what I don't do, which is any character stuff, though I've done a bit of that too. Everything else is included. So software of choice in this scenario.Softimage. Obvious alternative choice of software.None As a small company with limited resources, we don't want to have to build a 'pipeline' of software, just to do what Softimage already does in one hit. I appreciate times are changing, but I'm not jumping until I'm sure which way to go. Nuffsed yo! ;-) lol
