First of: I do share some of the emotions presented here over the last couple of days regarding the retirement of softimage: just sad...
Looking forward I would also like to encourage people to consider Blender in their evaluation-process as well. Dan already pointed out some stuff that is worth having a look at. I wont deny there are a couple of loose ends here (there are a few in maya, modo, c4d, houdini as well...) but I do believe an investment (be it time or money) will pay off quickly, especially for the small to medium sized shops. For me it already did (in that [a] I know I will always have a tool that will get most of the jobs done, [b] I can develop whatever I want without SDK restrictions, [c] future is always very transparent) If it doesnt work out for you thats fine (you could still report WHY if you feel like it), but if you are hooked consider spreading some love (and a couple of coins maybe?) - Valve got involved through sponsoring and got some game-related tools plus cycles-texture-baking out of it ( http://www.blender.org/foundation/development-fund/ ) - you can support the next institute project: 'gooseberry' ( http://gooseberry.blender.org/ ) - you can pay/hire a developer directly ( e.g. here http://www.blendernetwork.org ) Have a good one! Philipp > Angus Davidson <[email protected]> hat am 10. März 2014 um 16:19 > geschrieben: > > Blender is the application that with support has the best chance of being > built into the application people want to use. > > Was fiddling around with it last night and they have solved a lot of my > frustrations with the UI (this is the 2.70 RC version) > > Kind regards > > Angus > > --------------------------------------------- > From: Dan Yargici [[email protected]] > Sent: 10 March 2014 03:08 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: [OT] Some musings regarding Blender... > > I started to write this post at the end of last summer and it sat unfinished > in my Drafts folder, so I've just corrected a couple of things and I'm > throwing it out there as is.... > > DAN > > > I've recently (well, on and off over the last year or so and more frequently > of late) started learning Blender and trying to integrate it into my > workflow/toolset and far from being painful, I have found it to be quite a > refreshing experience. > > I'm working on the premise that it's something I will always have at my > disposal wherever I happen to be working due to it being free and on all > platforms. As I don't work in large shops with rigid pipelines it's not > really an issue in circumstances where the asset or shot can be worked on in > isolation and it's in these situations that I've tried to incorporate it into > my work. > > The obvious cost implications of working with a 'foreign' piece of software > in a company, and the time required to get the myriad license systems out > there working will not gain you fans in the IT/Tech/Engineering department. > As Blender is free and easy to install (if you don't want to you can just > extract and run it - I run it off my USB stick) you can also soften the blow > with regard to company politics. > > Things as a Softimage user I like - here are some examples: > * Sculpting - it works well for simple to moderately detailed sculpts. There > are a wide range of sculpting tools available (all the usual suspects - > inflate, crease, smooth etc...) and you can use all the tools for 'regular' > modelling also. With the recent introduction of dynamic topology, it also > became much more powerful. > > * Texture paint - not exactly rocket speed in all circumstances but I've been > happily painting 4k textures on moderately detailed meshes using procedurals, > stencils and regular brushes for a couple of weeks and hit very few snags. > They are planning to merge in some improvements in 2.71. > > * Procedural Textures - can be used by everything, you can use them to > texture, paint, mask, sculpt, filter particle emissions. Whatever you like. > > * Rendering - Blender comes with two renderers - 'Blender Internal' and > 'Cycles'. Blender Internal is the older legacy renderer and Cycles is the GPU > accelerated (CPU also supported) renderer being actively developed going > forward. I won't write a ton about it, you can read a little more here > http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Ref/Release_Notes/2.61/Cycles > There are also a ton of alternative 3rd Party renderers. Even Vray recently > announced official Blender support. Blender has a node-based Render-Tree like > interface. > > * Smoke simulation - fairly well rounded and featured, with minimal issues > and constantly being improved. Support for wavelet/FFT high resolution > detailing, adaptive domains, the ability to advect the simulation with > particles (and vice versa), and much more. VERY fast to render if you use > Blender's internal renderer (however with the rather huge caveat of the lack > of motion blur). Cycles integration expected soon-ish > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYNr0ZtyD1c > > * Dynamic paint - same concept as Helge's pixel particles, but without the > particles, and fast. Really well implemented IMO. > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcWXFtnh2bk > > * Modelling tools - While I'll always prefer modelling in Softimage, some of > the modelling tools in Blender are great and there are some that are really > well-suited for re-topology. Soft's Alt-pivot is great, while Blender has the > same idea (well, it's pretty much the basis of operation in Blender), it's > pretty clunkily implemented in comparison. > > * Interface/GUI - It feels quick, slick, modern and adaptable next to > Softimage's tacky, rounded, cheap-looking abomination of a 'look' (I've never > liked it, in case you didn't guess :)) > > * Camera Tracking - Blender has a pretty solid, basic and fast camera > tracker. Not a serious replacement for the competitors but usable even in > it's current state. A lot of developments expected soon. > > * Compositor - Blender has a fairly feature-rich compositor. Probably as > useful as the FXTree, not a replacement for Nuke obviously... > > * Development - there is so much buzz around development for Blender, and you > get to have a chance to see and influence it all. Here you see a post from a > developer at Pixar who wants to integrate OpenSubdiv support in his spare > time! > > http://www.blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?319079-Advice-for-test-OpenSubdiv-integration > > Another thing I personally appreciate is that they're not against throwing > out the old to bring in the new. This is something I feel Softimage has been > too rigid on. I understand and appreciate the reasons and what the guarantee > of feature retention means to some, but in the case of Softimage, I'd argue > that it's not always been a benefit for the user base as a whole. Especially > with regard to the way I use the software personally. Just my opinion. > > Anyway, there's plenty more but I'll leave it there. The point I'm trying to > make is that I think everyone, whatever they intend to use as their 'main' > workhorse package, should support Blender, and by that I also mean > financially. I've committed to donating 5 dollars a month and I'm sure I'll > up that in the future as I exploit more and more of it's features. If they > can make this much happen with what they receive now, imagine what they'd > manage with some decent support. > > You can visit these sites to see more of it's capabilities. > http://www.blenderartists.org/ > http://cgcookie.com/blender/ > > This communication is intended for the addressee only. It is confidential. If > you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately > and destroy the original message. You may not copy or disseminate this > communication without the permission of the University. Only authorised > signatories are competent to enter into agreements on behalf of the University > and recipients are thus advised that the content of this message may not be > legally binding on the University and may contain the personal views and > opinions of the author, which are not necessarily the views and opinions of > The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All agreements between the > University and outsiders are subject to South African Law unless the > University agrees in writing to the contrary. >
