I agree with Sergio. Lets not oversimplify the user experience. Of course ICE is not a simple user interface as it is not just some menu/buttons/PPG to clicks on. But it is very well designed for what it does and it does is quiet well ! I'm still impressed by such technology knowing that XSI was not design for ICE at its beginning.
Cheers Guillaume Laforge PS: As soon as I'm hearing the word "user experience", I'm scared and run far away from any Apple store :). On Wed, Nov 20, 2013 at 10:18 AM, Sergio Mucino <sergio.muc...@modusfx.com>wrote: > I guess I'll have to be a part of the minority here. I had never worked > with XSI before 2 months ago (although curiously, I got started in 3D with > Softimage ~ 18 years ago). I jumped into ICE a few days, and it literally > took me less than an hour to wrap my head around it. Granted, I'm not using > it for super advanced stuff yet, and my experience with XSI is limited to > the rigging department, but I found ICE to be one of the most user-friendly > node-based environments I've used (along with Modo's schematic workspaces). > I was delighted with how easy was to understand what the nodes do. Their > names are clear, and their ports have names that actually depict what they > do (in contrast to Maya's nodes, which require plain experience to > understand what they do... and good luck if you're trying a few nodes by > yourself at first!). Maya's nodes could really use a kick in the butt (a > hard one) in the usability department, and Softimage should be the model to > follow here. > As for the rest of the Maya UI goes, I really don't understand what is the > problem people have with it. I find it easy to go around once you know > where things are (which will happen with ANY application you move into > anyway), and I can work at a pretty good pace with it. I guess it's just a > matter of familiarity... SI was difficult for me the first week. After > that, I was able to start being productive. > Anyway, I don't want to make this unnecessarily longer than needed. I just > wanted to share my experience with SI in the usability department (and > being an ex-software designer, I tend to unconsciously keep an eye on these > kind of things). > Okay... my only pseudo-nag is the overall plastic-y look of the SI UI (and > it's brighter-than-I'd-like, non-customizable gray color scheme). It looks > like my blender at home. That's all! *ducks* ;-) > > > On 20/11/2013 7:58 AM, Luc-Eric Rousseau wrote: > > Given the rate of development judging by past releases I'd say it's off by > at least another > three years, and even only if you guys manage to cram Bifrost into it in a > usable way like ICE > was crammed into Softimage, and do some major rework of the GUI. > > ICE in a conversation about usability? It's the most complex thing you > need to spend time learning in Softimage, and I think most users have > not wrapped their heads around it (? would need some statistics). I'll > never be at ease with it myself, you need to need it and invest in it. > > This isn't the right thread for it, but it's always good in any case > to send feedback about what you think makes Softimage more usable. It > often boiled down to familiarity as opposed to actual ease of use > (which should be measurable on a new user). You will always find > your way around and be more productive in the software that you're the > most invested in, it becomes second nature to you. You've got the hot > keys burned into your muscle, you've got your habits (sometimes > workarounds), etc. It depends when you learn it, too. There is an > Anthony Rossano book out there about XSI that teaches new users in the > first chapter how to make XSI awesome by turning all the preferences > back to Softimage|3D emulation modes. F** those sticky keys and > manipulators, right? There is a certain age (the 30s?) when we stop > learning new things if we don't push ourselves in the butt.. > > On Wed, Nov 20, 2013 at 3:22 AM, Stefan Kubicek <s...@tidbit-images.com> > <s...@tidbit-images.com> wrote: > > Luc, that sounds like Maya will finally have it's user interface replaced > with a usable interface. > It's still a pity, I'd much rather see you working on Softimage than on > anything else :-/ > > Five years ago I was arguing with a former colleague that if you'd start to > develop Maya in > the right directions it would still take at least five years to get it up to > the reliability > and userfriendliness we have in Softimage, and only if Softs development was > stagnant during > that period. In hindsight this estimate was overly optimistic. > Given the rate of development judging by past releases I'd say it's off by > at least another > three years, and even only if you guys manage to cram Bifrost into it in a > usable way like ICE > was crammed into Softimage, and do some major rework of the GUI. > > In an attempt to think way out of the box I suggest we find a way to sneak > someone Softimage-affine into the > top ranks at AD$K to make decisions that are right for us instead of > shareholders only. > Any one around here with pointed elbows and a background in political > engineering willing to conspire ? ;-) > >
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