For myself, I just want to be heading in a direction of somewhere I actually want to be. When I think of spending the next 5 years maintaining a pile of python to make render layers barely work, I just want to cry. And all of that just to take a massive step backwards. I really just can't.
The alternative of open collaboration between studios to build something *good* is not only an alternative to despair, it's actually amazingly exciting. I absolutely can't wait to start using and contributing to a project like this. So many studios suddenly find themselves in this situation now, with real urgency. This is a massive opportunity. Like Stephan just said, if this isn't the right moment, I don't know what is. On Tue, Mar 4, 2014 at 5:22 PM, Stefan Kubicek <s...@tidbit-images.com> wrote: > @Felix: I totally agree on the bundling forces part. > I've been on the Fabric Beta since over a year and am pondering over > making a standalone application ever since. > I have both plans for a hair/fur editing app as well as a general-purpose > 3D application (at least the foundation of that) that can be extended and > built upon by me and others. Blender comes very close to that ideal but it > looks almost like a dead end compared to what FE already has to offer > (accessibility of the API, Multithreading, Qt, etc), plus it would take a > lot of changes to shape it into what I'd like it to look like, and that > will be hard to gety ba the ecisting developers and communits. > So far I've been held back by having to earn money in actual production, > the (very) little time left gets mostly eaten up by my family. > I've been thinking of kickstarting it, but there's a whole slew of steps > involved to make that happen successfully. Is anyone familiar with the > Blender business model? They do have permanent paid staff, right? Where do > they get their funding from? > > @Andy J.:Thanks for summing it up so nicely and comprehensively. I need to > disagree on the modeling part though. Even in XSI I miss a lot, especially > in terms of symmetrical modeling and sculpting. There is huge potential for > improvement in any existing application out there. > > If anyone (individuals and companies alike) is out there who is interested > in collaborating on such projects or just wants to share advice and or/ > ideas, whether technical or financial - I'm all ears. > If this isn't the right moment in time I don't know which one is. Will, > need and technology is there. Right now. > > > > > > > Great post Andy! I'm probably biased, because I'm mainly working as a > lighter. But after thinking about the future for the last couple of days, I > came to the very same conclusion. Lighting and scene assembly is the > biggest hole to fill. Houdini will be a great replacement for FX and with > stuff like open VDB, alembic, partiio, etc it should become easier to move > stuff in and out. Modeling can happen anywhere since a while. > Rigging and animation isn't that easy. But animation isn't that technical > and animators usually don't take long to switch. Rigging is more difficult. > But Maya isn't that bad in rigging. And now there is Fabric. And I think > for rigging it is already 90% of where it should be. People like Eric are > already building stuff with it. And the advantage here is that rigging is a > very modular and job specific process. With a few solvers and deformers > you're already up and running, and everything else, you build on top as you > need it. And that's the problem with a Fabric scene assembly application. > You'd basically need to build a complete and highly complex application > from scratch which covers all your needs. Otherwise you won't be able to > work with it. And from what I know that's what keeps many people in smaller > studios from using fabric in this area. It's just financially impossible to > build such an application from scratch. I was really disappointed when I > heard that the Fabric guys won't continue Stage for now (although I > understand their reasons). And all the other efforts I know of (except for > Steven's Arnold connection) are happening inside studios and most likely > won't be shared. > So now that Softimage will be gone, isn't there room or even need for > collaboration here? Before everybody tries to build something themselves, > shouldn't people try to bundle forces? And I'm not only talking about > individuals here. I'm talking about small to medium size companies who > couldn't afford to build something like this alone. > > > > > 2014-03-04 20:39 GMT+01:00 Juhani Karlsson <juhani.karls...@talvi.com>: > >> Now I`m interested about this mailing list too - its full of Kings! >> Is it going to stay? If not where should we go? >> >> Fabric definetly has bright future if you just keep on pushin - and Caron >> that sounds really good : ) >> >> >> On 4 March 2014 21:35, Paul <p...@bustykelp.com> wrote: >> >>> I'm going to be going Fabric too for sure. >>> >>> On 4 Mar 2014, at 19:17, Jonah Friedman <jon...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> >>> you can create arnold scenes with the kl language! this is a step toward >>>> my own scene assembly tool. i am imagining something between softimage and >>>> katana. >>> >>> >>> That sounds exactly like a place I want to be. <3 >>> >>> >>> >> >> >> -- >> -- >> Juhani Karlsson >> 3D Artist/TD >> >> Talvi Digital Oy >> Pursimiehenkatu 29-31 b 2krs. >> 00150 Helsinki >> +358 443443088 >> juhani.karls...@talvi.fi >> www.vimeo.com/talvi >> > > > > > -- > ------------------------------------------- > Stefan Kubicek > ------------------------------------------- > keyvis digital imagery > Alfred Feierfeilstraße 3 > A-2380 Perchtoldsdorf bei Wien > Phone: +43/699/12614231 > www.keyvis.at ste...@keyvis.at > -- This email and its attachments are -- > --confidential and for the recipient only-- >
