Of everything I've read. Some ones say "Go run switch to Maya we already started. It is unavoidable Maya is the choice".
Well good for you. Don't try to convince the rest to follow steps. Some of us will stay put. Others will flee. It depends on what is your busisness approach and what are your goals. On my behalf I do not work on what a company like ADSK dictates. I make my decisions on what I think is the more profitable solution for what I do. You want to do the transition and run to Maya. Do it, and stop trying to evangilize others to follow your steps. The devs will stop doing things for Softimage. Maybe, maybe not. They have a business to run and as far as there are people buying what they are producing for a "dead" software, I believe they will continue to bring wonderful things to it. Many devs have already stated their positions. As long as there are Softimage users, they will continue their support. This are the devs that trully hava a passion for what their are doing. And what a challange for them to keep a "dead" software alive and improve what ADSK has not done in years. Not only for Softimage, but as for Maya and 3D MAX. What trully improvements have we seen in this other two softwares. Specially Maya. Maya is years behind Softimage. So you are going to switch all of your pipeline to a more expensive one and less efficient just because ADSK says so. Well, go ahead be my guest. I am not trying to convince anybody to stay put with Softimage. I am only expressing my paticular point of view. We all are grown ups here and we are responsible for our decisions on what to use to deliver what brings food to the table. I am not switching to Maya even that Softimage is dead not because I am a Softimage fanatic or blind. I've switched from other softwares before. Softwares that are still alive but were not an option for my workflow, or simply beceause I found something better that allowed me to work faster and better. I know the concepts of 3D modelling, rigging, animation, lighting and rendering. The software is just a tool to apply this concepts and deliver a job. And I don't see the reason to drop my tool, just becuase the guy that builds the tool decided to put their money in some other tool that IMHO is not an inferior tool only, but really a bad one compared to the tool I use for what I do to bring food on my table. You want to go into a big studio that uses Maya, go and learn Maya. I just finished a scene in 5 minutes that was urgent. Something that would have been impossible to do in Maya in that time. My client is happy, I am happy. Did he cared about what I used? Not at all. He didn't ask me "Hey what did you use?". Or I never have been asked "Are you using Maya. If you don't use Maya I won't hire you". What really surpises me is not the fact that ADSK is killing Softimage. I really don't care about it. I have a tool that works for me and it does not need spare parts to continue working as alwasys. What surprises me about ADSK is the lack of vision, stupidity and that we don't have any loyalty or respect to ADSK, as ADSK has no respect or loyalty to us. All I see is some moles in this list trying to convince us to continue with ADSK and start the "unvevitable" transition to Maya.... Something they haven't achieved at all in this past years. Au contraire I see a big opportunity for devs here. As now we are not spending our money anymore in stupid subscriptions, all of our money will go to those devs that will continue to bring good things for Softimage. Even that is "dead". So choose your poison, 2014-02-27 22:55 GMT-06:00 Matt Lind <[email protected]>: > That's easier for those in linear format production divided into discrete > departments which are separable and work on projects which have definitive > end dates. > > > > I'm on a project which has been under development for nearly 9 years and > is expected to be on the market as an iterated product for several years. > We cannot switch so easily. Even if we rewrote our tools and had them up > and running today to accommodate a different 3D product, we still have 9 > years of backlog to support to the end of this project's days - that's a > lot of content. The ability to exhume and modify that data, if necessary, > could be a real problem down the line as operating systems, graphics APIs > and other infrastructures continue to evolve. For example, although I can > still run Softimage|3D on my home computer, I'm limited on the type of > hardware, graphics cards, operating systems, and subset of features within > the application that function correctly. I do not have an old compiler > compatible with the application to write plugins to get data out if > necessary. > > > > > > > > Matt > > > > > > > > > > *From:* [email protected] [mailto: > [email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Tim Crowson > *Sent:* Thursday, February 27, 2014 8:38 PM > > *To:* [email protected] > *Subject:* Re: new upgrade policy > > > > "It'll be fine for a few years..." > > > That's my point exactly, Steve. We're not talking in terms of weeks or > months, but in years. There's a lot of life in Softimage still, and based > on the events of the last few years, that life is not contingent solely > upon AD's actions. Softimage is an extensible tool that will allow it to be > viable for, as you said, a few more years. I don't think that's denial > though. If anything it's an acknowledgment. > > I totally agree with what Sylvain said as well. Move things intelligently > and not all at once. With the life left in Softimage, we should all have > plenty of time to figure out our transitions. > > -Tim > > On 2/27/2014 10:26 PM, Steve Parish wrote: > > I see that everyone is at different stages at the moment, > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%BCbler-Ross_model#Stages > > > > Refusing to accept the fact is still stage 1! Its pretty obvious that one > has to adapt or die. Who knows any compositors who will only work in Shake? > It'll be fine for a few years but as soon as Arnold isnt being released for > Soft (for example) you'll have to make a decision as to whether you want to > stay in older versions or use the new technologies. > > > > The advice that Sylvain gave in another thread was pretty wise, change one > department at a time. Rendering and lighting is a good start particularly > if its an Arnold pipeline. > > > > I'm obviously crushed, but the writing has been on the wall for a long > time. What's sad is that this kind of feels like the end of the road for > the generalist. What could be achieved with a small crack team of XSI > generalists now literally requires twice as many specialists with TD's > supporting the scripts to make it all work. In terms of switching to > non-Autodesk software, looking around the city at the available jobs, thats > not really an option. > > > > I know I'm going to be the guy that moans how "easy this would be in > Soft..." > > > > Good luck! > > > > Steve P > > > > > > > > On Thu, Feb 27, 2014 at 10:35 PM, Francisco Criado <[email protected]> > wrote: > > clap clap clap clap! best words so far by now... > > the day i'll see a better 3d software than softimage, i'll do the move, > meanwhile and after 15 years it gave me all the tools that i need to make > my work and have fun while i do it, with the price that i'm almost out of > the local market that look for 3d mayans. > > Hoping to see again in the job boards studios looking for softimage > artists... > > those are my 2 cents. > > > > F. > > > > On Thursday, February 27, 2014, Tim Crowson < > [email protected]> wrote: > > I still see no reason to jump ship at all. Unless they Soft devs working > on Maya introduce not only ICE to Maya, but some amazing improvement that > only exists in Maya, maybe. But I'll wager that ICE is not the only reason > people have built pipelines around Softimage. People seem to think that if > you axe the product now, it ceases to function. "We're going to stop making > hammers now, so whatever hammers you bought from us will no longer work." > > But when AD purchased XSI, they purchased a mature toolset that has stood > the test of time and has gone largely untouched since the acquisition! When > someone tells me that AD will 'cease upgrades' for Softimage, I think to > myself 'haven't they been doing that for some time now?' The core toolset > for which we (Magnetic) use Softimage is intact and reliable as ever. We > don't rely on ICE to the degree some of you do, but we do rely on the > following: > > - the modeling toolset > - passes/partitions/overrides > - referenced models > - operator stacks > - animation toolset > - API and customizability > - raw performance and stability > - the flippin component tweak tool > - etc... > > And if I understand correctly (I wasn't into XSI at the time of the > acquisition), these are feature sets that AD didn't contribute, and have > barely touched. So in my view, they've already been 'not upgrading' > Softimage for years. > More tragically though, the ceasing of development on Softimage would > trigger a slow death of 3rd party development for it, especially if people > get all gloomy and doomy and jump ship. All the 3rd party effort that has > been poured into Softimage tools over the last few years has been amazing > (!), and has done far more to enhance my productivity than anything AD ever > did (apart from, admittedly, improving the underlying platform for > ICE-based solutions). Redshift comes out of nowhere like a champ, > revolutionzing our renders. Eric Mootz, year after year, provides bridges > for people get the power of ICE without needing the underlying technical > know-how (as do many others!). Jeremie Passerin and Miquel Campos give us > rigging tools. Eric and Chris give us a jump on characters with Species. > Ben and Helge deliver the most robust, feature-friendly alembic > implementation available to the public. rray.de/xsi is rife with > contributions that are functional improvements to the system and provide > real solutions to real problems. If Softimage ceases to be officially > developed/supported , these 3rd party powerhouses will eventually stop as > well. And that's when we'll see the death of Softimage. And that day will > suck. So I'm more than happy to prolong this as much as possible by > supporting our 3rd party friends (and I wish I could buy more of their > licenses myself) who have been doing more to strengthen and improve > Softimage than AD has in years, because I think that's what will keep the > product alive as a viable solution for VFX. > > > *Tim Crowson**Lead CG Artist* > > > *Magnetic Dreams, Inc.*2525 Lebanon Pike, Bldg C, Suite 101, Nashville, > TN 37214 > *Ph* 615.885.6801 | *Fax* 615.889.4768 | www.magneticdreams.com > [email protected] > > *Confidentiality Notice: This email, including attachments, is > confidential and should not be used by anyone who is not the original > intended recipient(s). If you have received this e-mail in error please > inform the sender and delete it from your mailbox or any other storage > mechanism. Magnetic Dreams, Inc cannot accept liability for any statements > made which are clearly the sender's own and not expressly made on behalf of > Magnetic Dreams, Inc or one of its agents.* > > > > > > > > -- >
