Pasting into the list for posterity (because I'm sure the blog's gonna go offline any time now.)
--------------------------------------------------- Thanks for all your brilliance!! Posted by Mark Schoennagel, 19 hours ago Hello fellow Softies, Well I'm sure you all read the news yesterday that our beloved Softimage is officially being retired by Autodesk. Since tomorrow will also be my last day on the job, I thought I would write you all a little note thanking you for almost 30 years of brilliant work and dedication to Softimage! From the "Pseudopod "in the Abyss back in 89' which happened to be the first ever 3D character to grace the silver screen, all the way to the wickedly cool work Animal Logic just finished up for the new Lego Movie, Softimage has truly been a revolutionary tool in our industry. Well I guess for most of us it's not really a tool now is it? It's more like a religion whose brand get tattooed on your sleeve... it's the oil to someone else's watercolor, hell it's the reason many of us get out of bed in the morning!... There is really nothing quite like our industry and our vastly different, but oh-so similar softwares , er- I mean religions now is there?? I guess that's why I have been so proud to be your Softimage evangelist these past 20 years because what I've witnessed has been truly humbling and pretty damn mind-blowing all the same!! Thinking about the past, it's quite funny looking back at just how far we've come... When I first joined Softimage in 1994 Microsoft was our proud new owner, Inverse Kinematics was still rather new, Mental Ray for Soft was wowing us with volumetric lights (well sorta), and the environment variable to exceed 30,000 polygons in a scene was introduced! Reflecting on all that I'm not even sure how to put those years of product and technology development into perspective. Last year I saw Whiskey Tree in San Rafael using Softimage to create single scenes for the film Elysium with over 3,000,000,000,000 polygons!!! (that's Trillllllion, not billion, not million but T-Trrillllionnn) Or how about The Mill's PETA advertisement with those amazing apes?!?... you just can't help but be left in awe at how far we have come. So to all of you Softimage artists and TD's out there who pushed, and to those who will continue to push the envelope congrats and THANK YOU! So with that how about instead of turning this post into a bunch of negativity and complaining how about we raise a glass and give praise to the best damn 3D animation software ever created!!! Softimage!! Long Live Soft!!! PS, I mentioned a few projects, if you're curious, here are some great links: The technology pipleline that Whiskey Tree used for their work in Elysian. This is obviously not from the film but gives you an idea! How friggin awesome is that!??! https://vimeo.com/71148018 I hope you the crew at Animal Logic wins an Oscar for this one too like they did for Happy Feet!! https://www.fxguide.com/featured/brick-by-brick-how-animal-logic-crafted-the-lego-movie/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ_JOBCLF-I The Mill's 98% Human. Brilliant!! http://www.themill.com/work/peta/98-human.aspx http://themillplus.com/peta-98-human-behind-the-scenes/ Lastly, I was in New York this past December presenting some ICE goodness at the Max and Maya User Groups and thought I'd share my last ever Soft demo with you all. It's a pretty cool comprehensive ICE demo of a shot reconstruction inspired by the genius work at La Fourmi in Germany. They did a spot for a Subaru that aired a couple years back that is just full of wicked ICE effects. I didn't quite to it justice, but here's my attempt. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHwJ1XFrPUE ...and so as Ozzy would say, Thank you, good night, I love you allllllll!!!! man I've always wanted to say that!! mark On Thu, Mar 6, 2014 at 4:19 AM, Rob Wuijster <[email protected]> wrote: > Great Siggraph that year :-) > > Rob > > > \/-------------\/----------------\/On 6-3-2014 4:25, Jason S wrote: > > Mark from 2006 showing from where XSI came from : ) > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzj3VITdN5A > > > On 03/05/14 19:05, Sebastian Kowalski wrote: > > drunk but... > showing off a part of the most game changing project of my career so far, > coming from a guy like mark.. holy crap..now i am fucking emotional.. > the subaru dandelion was made by reinhard preissner and fabian schaper. > two unsung and quiet heros of this great community.. > > thank you mark for years of infectious enthusiasm. > > .sebastian > > > Am 06.03.2014 um 00:31 schrieb Graham > Bell<[email protected]><[email protected]>: > > > > > To me, he's always be The Guv'nor. > > :-) > > > From: "[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]><[email protected]> > "<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> <[email protected]>> > Reply-To: "[email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]> <[email protected]> > "<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]><[email protected]> > > > Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2014 20:07:25 -0300 > To: "[email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]> <[email protected]> > "<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]><[email protected]> > > > Subject: Mark's good bye > > http://area.autodesk.com/blogs/marks/thanks-for-all-your-brilliance > > <winmail.dat> > > > > > > > > > ----- > No virus found in this message. > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > Version: 2014.0.4335 / Virus Database: 3705/7157 - Release Date: 03/05/14 > > > >
