When is the release by the way?
On Wed, Mar 27, 2013 at 12:22 PM, Grahame Fuller < [email protected]> wrote: > About Preserve UVs, that has always been available even with explicit > projections. Just drag the TextureOp node above the Modeling region marker. > When you hover the mouse over the TextureOp node, the popup should say > "reading just above Modeling". > > gray > > From: [email protected] [mailto: > [email protected]] On Behalf Of Matt Lind > Sent: Tuesday, March 26, 2013 07:56 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: RE: Softimage 2014 > > The issue with Softimage is the pieces are there, but don't play together > nice enough. The tools were adequate in the day years ago. Production has > evolved quite a bit since then but the Softimage modeling core has not. > Many of the tools I need to create for our artists cannot be done in the > Softimage API due to lack of a developed core for things like being able to > preserve textures and materials (clusters) when updating topology, or being > able to control where operators appear in the construction history. > > Example 1: Mirror plane. > > This is a tool from 3DSMax where the user is given an implicit plane and > can place it to slice a mesh and have it symmetrized across the plane. > Softimage can do this much with the slice operator and symmetrize > operator. BUT the 3DSMax version has the ability to continually read user > input to update the mesh further (eg. Push/pull point positions on the > original mesh and have the symmetrized half update in real time). > Basically it's symmetrical modeling across a user defined plane of > symmetry. The user can add as many planes as desired to build up organic > geometry very, very quickly. Softimage's modeling architecture is limited > and cannot read further user input because it occurs higher on the > construction history than the symmetry and slice operators. There is also > no way to force those operators higher on the stack as they're bound to the > modeling marker. Softimage cannot support multiple planes either or else > instability results. > > Example 2: Preserve UVs > > I'm always pounded for this one. It's a tool which allows users to > manipulate vertices in the 3D viewports while preserving the Texture UVs as > they're moved. Eg. When a vertex is translated in one direction, the UVs > associated with that vertex are pushed in the opposite direction to allow > the vertex to 'swim' through the projection. Softimage has a 'swim' > feature, but only for implicit projections which is useless in a games > development pipeline as 99% of all assets use explicit UV projections. > Again, like with the mirror plane, Softimage is limited by how it's > construction history is organized to read further input from the user once > the operator is applied. > > Example 3: Locking topology > > In a games development environment, assets are usually created piecemeal. > A character isn't a solid seamless mesh. The customizable features > presented to the customer are often built as separate objects, but these > objects must assemble together to appear like a seamless mesh. This means > any work to the vertex placement or sample data such as user normal, vertex > colors, and texture UVs must be locked down along the seams to prevent > artists from accidentally making modifications to these portions of the > mesh. Softimage provides no ability to do this. The best option on the > table is an ICE operator placed at the very top of the construction history > to lock the user specified vertices. However, this falls short in that if > the user clicks the 'freeze' button, the operator will be frozen and > removed from construction history. Again, limitation of the core > architecture. > > Example 4: Paint. > > The paint tools in Softimage are lacking. They were designed for painting > weight maps to alter envelope weights and deformers - that's it. The paint > brush for vertex colors is just an extension of that and not very robust. > There is no color palette available to load/save colors to use in other > scenes, or even the current scene beyond the palette borrowed from windows. > There is no ability to compare colors side-by-side on adjacent polygons > without having to dig into user preferences to turn off selection > highlights, then turn it on again when you're done with your comparison. > Very clunky. There are no tools available to modify topology via paint. > The best option available is pushing points via the push operator which > is, back to the beginning, a weight map tool. We need more than > deformations. We need a paint tool that can destructively edit the mesh by > adding vertices, edges, polygons, and samples. We need the adjustments for > the brush to be informative and customizable to accommodate modeler's > needs. Falloff options, brush tip shapes, intensity controls other than > simple hardness applied uniformly, angular attenuation, operator > assignments, and so on. A 'push' tool has been around forever, where is > the accompanying 'pinch' tool? Max and Maya are far in the lead in this > area. Softimage's paint tool qualifies technically as a paint brush, but > it's not a painter's tool. It's designed more for somebody who does other > things and needs an interface to quickly do a few short tasks rather than > tagging points manually with rectangular selections all the time. Again, > production has since evolved quite a bit. It's about time the tools do too. > > > Matt > > > > > From: [email protected]<mailto: > [email protected]> [mailto: > [email protected]] On Behalf Of Sebastien Sterling > Sent: Tuesday, March 26, 2013 3:53 PM > To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected] > > > Subject: Re: Softimage 2014 > > >>>EricT, Yes i know, they flat out say so in the intro "building on NEX" > i don't approve of just buying up third party plugins and highlighting them > as core features, more so with free where like "Grease Pencil" i wonder if > Mr mootz ever gets love letters from AD hounding him for his Em series > > >>>Andreas and Raffaele, it's not about the grass being greener, i > recently had to fight really hard for the right to use softimage in the > company i'm currently working for, no one should have to do that. also i > think you are forgetting maya's god awful hit detection when selecting, as > well as the unintuitive UI hogging abomination which is the "tool settings > panel". > > When it comes to modelling the thing i like most about SI is how clean and > stream line it is, how few things come between user and creative process. > So now i don't want to leave softimage ( i only just got here) i want > innovation and new things to come to it. > > > >>>Matt L, i'm not a dev, but its all there the deformers the brush the > maps, none of these things need to be built, surely they can be hooked > together somehow, i believe someone tried back in the day on rRay, only it > seemed to be exclusive for 32bit... > > On 26 March 2013 22:52, Jason S <[email protected]<mailto: > [email protected]>> wrote: > That's what I was gonna say.. remains to be seen if that would remain true > in the real world.. > > > On 26/03/2013 5:47 PM, Sebastien Sterling wrote: > http://www.autodesk.com/products/autodesk-maya/features > > This update (Accelerated modelling tool set) pretty much seems to > obliterate any advantage Softimage has over maya modeling wise > > >
