Then I have a simple solution for you.
Stick with Softimage for the time being.
We stuck with Shake for 6 years after it was killed on Windows before
something better came up. There was Digital Fusion, but we didn't feel
it was better so we didn't switch.
6 long years without a single new feature or bug fix. But Shake rocked,
and we loved it. Now we have Nuke, and we love it even better.
You have been sticking with Softimage for the last 2 years and you can't
say development was rocket fast.
The only thing that will force me out of Softimage is the day Solid
Angle will stop releasing Arnold for it. Then I will use another
solution for shading-rendering only.
In the mean time, I will slowly look for alternatives, including Maya.
When I say slowly, I mean in the down times, which are not so frequent
these days.
On 20-Mar-14 12:55, Paul Griswold wrote:
I had some time away from the office today and while I was driving
down the highway I started thinking about the situation and I'm no
less pissed off today than I was when they made the announcement.
I've been watching as many Modo and Houdini intro videos, tutorials,
etc., that I can find and what I've discovered is, neither of them can
replace Softimage today.
If you're a TD, then Houdini is probably a great way to go, but I'm
another one of those people who don't like to script and want to keep
things simple. Everything in Houdini seems to involve writing at
least a little script here and there.
Modo on the other hand looks very simple and straightforward, but it's
lacking a LOT of power. I noticed in some demos on things like
instancing, the viewport REALLY slowed down. It doesn't look like
it's ready for prime-time when it comes to dense scenes. The way
everything you do is "frozen" is crazy these days. I can't believe if
you extrude along a curve the geometry doesn't stay stuck to the
curve. Until Modo makes some major moves, I just think it's a step up
from Lightwave.
I'm leaving Maya out of the picture because in all honesty, Autodesk
is totally delusional if they think Maya will be a good fit for small
shops working on tight deadlines. Maybe in 5-8 years Maya will
finally hit its stride, but I'm assuming by then the entire M&E
division will have been shut down in favor of just licensing patents &
technology. (seriously - mark my words - I am confident the entire
M&E division will be shut down)
I started thinking about most of the jobs I've done over the past few
years, and I can honestly say I don't think I could do 90-95% of them
in either Houdini or Modo as easily as in Softimage - if at all.
So where I stand now is - totally screwed. I either have to put faith
in The Foundry that they'll bring Modo up to Softimage's level in the
next 2 years or I have to spend the next 2 years really digging in to
Houdini to get myself up to speed again.
In either case, I don't see a positive outcome. I'm not young and I
have a family. I can't work all day, then spend the evenings learning
new software. This BS about artists not putting all their eggs in one
basket just is a slap in my face. I put my faith in Autodesk when
they said "the future of Sofitmage is bright!" When I was told over
and over again I was being a conspiracy nut when I said Autodesk was
intentionally trying to destroy Softimage. Well, look where we are now.
Murdering Softimage without having ANYTHING remotely close to replace
it is like peeing on my face and telling me it's liquid sunshine!
Maybe Autodesk is right. Maybe the all-in-one approach of Softimage
is dead. Maybe I'm out of touch with how the world of animation & VFX
works these days.
In any event. I'm a very unhappy paying Autodesk customer. I do not
feel like my money has gone to anything I paid for.
-Paul