Indeed making a very-much utilized/useful software become unused
(quite forcibly so, arbitrarily deciding for 1000's of people on a
whim, because someone said so)
can be reasonable grounds to start looking around.
But is similarly very-much reasonable grounds to start asking some
serious questions (!)
such as;
Are people's choices -so- insignificant in the eyes of those that
decide for such measures?
If otherwise existing solutions could actually fill the gap,
there would not be such upheaval from the community,
because realistically, in all apearances,
there are quite "prove-ably" -no- such existing solutions.
Virtually -all- users that use/used XSI,
with many of which use other (more standard) packages
(only because they are more standard) on a daily basis,
.. see this as a definite and considerable regression.
(notwithstanding many advantages of other solutions in more technical
environments)
And for the life of me, the complete disregard of what people have to
say about it...
despite 3000+ petitions, coutless personal stories, small & big studio
open letters
super-reasonable and widely agreed-upon compromise propositions .......
...
need I say more.. (I would rest my case on that very point)
On 03/14/14 14:08, Meng-Yang Lu wrote:
Hi Jason,
Right now, many people need to make measured decisions on how to
conduct their business effectively in the short term, with plans to
transition in the long term.
I'm extremely upset that the weapon of choice that my friends used to
make 98% Human is going to go away.
And I know people have carved out whole careers using Softimage.
If I had to solo a job with a quick turnaround like many freelancers,
I would run with Softimage knowing the preproduction work could
eventually be converted to final renders.
Undoubtedly, it's a harsh blow to hear it's EOL.
But you still have access to it now and it's still an amazing piece of
kit. So that's not going anywhere. So take this as a little prod to
go exploring other offerings and expanding your capabilities.
If visual programming is your thing, take a look a Houdini.
I think it's second to none regarding a visual programming environment.
Plus, SideFX is a completely different experience than Autodesk and
would love to hear your feedback.
We went from an all-Maya studio here in LA to Maya/Houdini.
And truth be told, it was the Houdini work that helped spurred on our
growth here in LA.
Had we adamantly stuck with Maya for everything, I'm not sure where
we'd be today.
We have to stop placing these mental blocks that prevents us from
learning new things and enabling us to take on new challenges.
What we quickly forget is what did you guys do prior to ICE?
And what happened when it showed up in 2008?
Everyone took a bit of time and learned it and some got very good at it.
Why is looking at other offers any different?
I'm not saying "Oh well, might as well make the best of it."
What I am saying is stay active in seeking out new solutions.
And we need to take this a step further.
What does the DCC of the future look like?
Beautifully fast real-time viewports where I can hit play and frames
get saved to disk?
Real-time smoke and fluid sims where I don't have to guess and hope my
values are good enough?
Animation tools that are intuitive and don't require an army of TDs
to wrangle?
The CG community could really use the experience from Softimage and
lead the way towards a better DCC.
Just have to find a platform that won't get yanked out from under
people this time.
-Lu
