I just wrote at Solidangle asking their plans ( if there are ) for the SitoA development. I'll post the answer asa they send it.
.........:......... Christian Lattuada tel +39 3331277475 ................... On Thu, Mar 20, 2014 at 6:09 PM, Francois Lord <[email protected]> wrote: > 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 > > > > > > >
