Well with only one core product, it’s easier for SideFX to do that, but it is a good advantage that they provide.
I’m not going to get into debates around Softimage vs Maya development or the perception there of. Certainly not a public list like this. Discussion over a soho beer, well maybe. I still know where the bodies are buried, so to speak….. :-) I get the venting against Maya, especially if you’ve come from years of Soft with little or no knowledge of Maya schema and workflow. It’s going to be strange and baffling. I’ve used Maya nearly as long as Soft so I was kinda used to it. I recall the transition training we offered to people, which although had good intentions I could see and feel the pain in peoples faces. From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Mirko Jankovic Sent: 19 February 2017 16:32 To: Official Softimage Users Mailing List. https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/xsi_list <[email protected]> Subject: Re: Opinion gathering Well to start with retarded subscription only policy for AD, there is one reason to start looking for another solution. Really really buggy released versions and then months till fixes compared to daily builds on SideFX. Finaly can't resist but: "Soft’s weren’t bad by any means, but Maya’s improvements in this area have started to put it ahead in this area." After couple years of complete ignore on any development on Softimage tools and then killing it completely.. and two years after kill is made maya is starting to put it ahead.. Well good for maya, this tempo they will maybe become a bit better then Softimage.. in 2025 or something. Couldn't resist on that but being serious, there is so much frustration with maya every day usage that is impossible to ignore it. On the other hand it has huge advantage being shoveled all over the industry that is impossible to skip it. Houdini on the other hand have really really hard task of completely revamping big areas of use and then again doing PR work to explain people that you don't have to be programmer to model something or animate in Houdini. But shift is definitely happening more and more and seems like SideFX is making good steps for the moment. Finally, watching latest Houdini 16 presentation, you can feel enthusiasm and real progress again. Look for new maya coming, oh they bought and inserted another bunch of plugins or parts from another software.. and they are not working yet so wait for SP 234... and yes it is true.. couple updates so far and they still haven't fixed maya freezing with vp2 active in huge number of people. But yea who needs viewport working not like you are using it non stop ᐧ On Sun, Feb 19, 2017 at 5:21 PM, Graham Bell <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: Zbrush for characters I can see, but for Hard Surface above something like Maya’s sudivs? I’m not quite sure. And, whether anyone is prepared to admit it Maya’s tools have seen a big improvement, to a point where they reduced the need to even retopo in something like 3Dcoat or even UVlayout. Personally I’d put them above Max and even Softs. Soft’s weren’t bad by any means, but Maya’s improvements in this area have started to put it ahead in this area. I’d put Modo as the closest competitor in this area now. I’m with you on a lot of everything else, but the problem that Houdini faces is the same as what we had with pushing Softimage/ICE. When faced with a studio that uses Maya/Max (for better or for worse), with a bunch of plugins/tools, unless faced with some a certain situation, they don’t really see a reason to switch. They may like Houdini a lot, but they can do everything they need and more with what they have, so they see no reason to be burdened with the cost and upheaval of moving. But who knows, I think the landscape has changed dramatically and is in many ways, still changing. I think the next 12-18months could be very interesting in terms of software out there. From: <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] [mailto: <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]] On Behalf Of Jordi Bares Sent: 19 February 2017 15:08 To: Official Softimage Users Mailing List. <https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/xsi_list> https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/xsi_list < <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]> Subject: Re: Opinion gathering On 19 Feb 2017, at 13:40, Graham Bell <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: I think the problem Houdini has is penetrating the more ‘traditional’ modelling, UV, and animation workflows. Maya/Max still dominate here. C4D and Modo are trying hard but the former still seem to rule the roost. This is already happening, Modelling tends to happen in Zbrush, UV tends to happen in UVlayout and you may only use Maya to do basic modelling and basic UV stuff.. although imperfect, that is easy to do in Houdini with today’s toolset, let alone H16 toolset. Rigging and Animation are the two parts of this pipeline Maya has a stronghold, but IMHO it is only a matter of time to see a shift in that area too. Is there a swing towards Houdini in this area? Or is it still an augmented option in a Maya/Max/Modo pipeline. That would be the interesting thing for me. I have been long advocating to use Houdini as the backbone of the pipeline to avoid software fragmentation and the enourmous amount of glue, support, plugins, hidden costs that such approach brings… Just list the number of applications you would use if you didn’t have Softimage by your side. Zbrush, Topogun, UVlayout, Marvelous Designer, Mari, Photoshop, Maya for Rig and Animation, Maya for Cloth sims, Arnold, Massive, Real flow… the list is insane!!! I use this other approach; Zbrush, Mari, Photoshop, Marvelous Designer and finally, Houdini for everything else. Less glue, less going back and forth... Plus let’s face it… an animator needs only very few tools and normally have the easiest transition in any pipeline to new packages. I can train an animator to do his job in Houdini in barely a day and in a week is pretty much as productive with Houdini as he is with Maya (and I have tested this in the past) I had hoped to make the recent Houdini event but client deadlines intervened. I echo Andy’s comments though about the number of Soft users. For me Houdini is a no-brainer when looking for an ICE replacement, perhaps with some Fabric thrown in there for good measure. Have a look at the screencast they did.. you will see why the excitement. Interesting times ahead. jb
------ Softimage Mailing List. To unsubscribe, send a mail to [email protected] with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
