Probably. To give you an example, the last crowd piece I worked on was 2
weeks start to finish with the rough shots to be ready by the end of the
first week. In a situation like this you hit the ground running, make the
best of what you have and work within the limitations of time and budget. Of
course, if you already have Massive or Behaviour - both experience and
licenses - then you'd be foolish not to use those but if you don't then you
absolutely have to think of the practicality of using new and unfamiliar
software, especially when you know that the one won't dovetail easily into
an XSI pipeline and the other is poorly documented with few examples and
still has a very much do-it-yourself workflow. So when you look at it you
start thinking that maybe all that's really needed is something to make a
bunch of these guys run from A to B and there's so many of them and they're
so far away it doesn't really matter too much if they start running through
each other, even if Massive or Behaviour might give the better results you'd
be a fool to go down that route. And then when you've done quite a few of
them you start to build a bunch of tools that work for you and you find
yourself kind of locked into it.
Believe me, though, Behaviour hurts like buggery on a tight deadline when
you're unfamiliar with it. Not because it's crappy or anything, it's just
*so* poorly documented. Did you know that the code examples don't have *one
single line of commentary* in them? Someone worked for me and did that I'd
fire them on the spot.
Anyway, hire me on a crowd job Jordi, give me a chance to find out what
Massive's all about ;-). Don't suppose they do eval licenses do they?
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-xsi(at)Softimage.COM [mailto:owner-xsi(at)Softimage.COM] On
> Behalf Of Jordi Bares
> Sent: 28 July 2006 12:22
> To: XSI(at)Softimage.COM
> Subject: RE: Massive Jet and XSI
>
> May be I was looking a bit too much to advertising??? In any case crowd
> tools are not mass market tools as the task in itself is not a mass
> market task either.
>
> jb
>
> On Thu, 2006-07-27 at 23:09 +0100, kim aldis wrote:
> > You lead a sheltered life, Jordi. It's not hard to find places in
> > London that won't use Flame because it's too expensive. Just stand
> > outside the door and spit.
> >
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: owner-xsi(at)Softimage.COM [mailto:owner-xsi(at)Softimage.COM] On
> > > Behalf Of Jordi Bares
> > > Sent: 27 July 2006 20:26
> > > To: XSI(at)Softimage.COM
> > > Subject: RE: Massive Jet and XSI
> > >
> > > c'mon, the cost of a flame is far more, even you could rent massive
> > > license per month!!!
> > >
> > > jb
> > >
> > > On Thu, 2006-07-27 at 18:32 +0100, kim aldis wrote:
> > > > Any option is valid, but it isn't really up to you, is it. Up
> > > > until now, the only option if you didn't want to script was
> > > > Massive and the cost of that is prohibitive. Not many places have
> > > > the financial resources to invest that kind of money in software,
> Jordi.
> > > >
> > > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > > From: owner-xsi(at)Softimage.COM [mailto:owner-xsi(at)Softimage.COM]
> > > > > On Behalf Of Jordi Bares
> > > > > Sent: 27 July 2006 15:21
> > > > > To: XSI(at)Softimage.COM
> > > > > Subject: RE: Massive Jet and XSI
> > > > >
> > > > > I guess there are few options
> > > > >
> > > > > - Do it like you do, scripting and particles and all that and
> > > > > not everybody knows enough scripting to build that in a decent
> > > timeframe.
> > > > >
> > > > > - Get into Behavior which involves even more advanced
> > > > > understanding of it.
> > > > >
> > > > > - Get into Massive Prime which may involve (other than using
> the
> > > > > library of actors provided) quite a bit of work although no
> > > > > scripting is required.
> > > > >
> > > > > - Get into Massive Jet which involves something close to plug
> > > > > and play where you are limited to the actors and their
> > > > > performances
> > > that
> > > > > they provided.
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > Any option is valid and is up to you and how comfortable you
> get
> > > > > with those solutions but if you see the work I did for BBC
> > > > > Pyramid and then for Mountain you can get a good look of the
> > > > > implications and that was only 1 years difference.
> > > > >
> > > > > jb
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > On Thu, 2006-07-27 at 09:34 +0100, kim aldis wrote:
> > > > > > I think also it depends on what the shot is for, how much
> time
> > > you
> > > > > > have and the resources you have at your disposal. Having
> > > something
> > > > > > like Massive available to you is great but the cost is
> > > prohibitive
> > > > > for
> > > > > > many people. Jet, I don't know and Behavior there's a real
> > > shallow
> > > > > > ramp on the learning curve that it's difficult to find the
> > > > > > time for
> > > > > on
> > > > > > many jobs. With Massive, as far as XSI is concerned anyway,
> > > > > > the renderman link, as you know, requires effort that many
> > > > > > smaller or lower budget driven studios have neither the time
> > > > > > or resources
> > > for.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Which is why very often I find myself resorting to home-grown
> > > > > > techniques for shots which often don't need more than that
> > > > > > characters stick to the ground and have a degree of flowed
> > > > > > directional control, with which I've had a fair degree of
> > > success.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > How much is Jet?
> > > > > >
> > > > > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > > > > From: owner-xsi(at)Softimage.COM
> > > > > > > [mailto:owner-xsi(at)Softimage.COM] On Behalf Of Jordi Bares
> > > > > > > Sent: 27 July 2006 09:27
> > > > > > > To: XSI(at)Softimage.COM
> > > > > > > Subject: RE: Massive Jet and XSI
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > Sure
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > On Wed, 2006-07-26 at 15:05 +0100, kim aldis wrote:
> > > > > > > > Depends on the shot.
> > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > > > > > > From: owner-xsi(at)Softimage.COM
> > > > > > > > > [mailto:owner-xsi(at)Softimage.COM] On Behalf Of Jordi
> > > > > > > > > Bares
> > > > > > > > > Sent: 26 July 2006 13:51
> > > > > > > > > To: XSI(at)Softimage.COM
> > > > > > > > > Subject: RE: Massive Jet and XSI
> > > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > > i felt like that until i did a test, the moment you
> > > > > > > > > start
> > > to
> > > > > > > > > look
> > > > > > > at
> > > > > > > > > it a few times it is very easy to spot what is basic
> > > > > > > > > flocking and what is a AI engine.
> > > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > ---
> > > > > > > > Unsubscribe? Mail Majordomo(at)Softimage.COM with the
> > > > > > > > following text in
> > > > > > > body:
> > > > > > > > unsubscribe xsi
> > > > > > > --
> > > > > > > Jordi Bares <jordibares(at)the-mill.com> The Mill
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > ---
> > > > > > > Unsubscribe? Mail Majordomo(at)Softimage.COM with the
> following
> > > > > > > text
> > > > > in
> > > > > > > body:
> > > > > > > unsubscribe xsi
> > > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > ---
> > > > > > Unsubscribe? Mail Majordomo(at)Softimage.COM with the following
> > > > > > text in
> > > > > body:
> > > > > > unsubscribe xsi
> > > > > --
> > > > > Jordi Bares <jordibares(at)the-mill.com> The Mill
> > > > >
> > > > > ---
> > > > > Unsubscribe? Mail Majordomo(at)Softimage.COM with the following
> > > > > text
> > > in
> > > > > body:
> > > > > unsubscribe xsi
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > ---
> > > > Unsubscribe? Mail Majordomo(at)Softimage.COM with the following text
> > > > in
> > > body:
> > > > unsubscribe xsi
> > > --
> > > Jordi Bares <jordibares(at)the-mill.com> The Mill
> > >
> > > ---
> > > Unsubscribe? Mail Majordomo(at)Softimage.COM with the following text
> in
> > > body:
> > > unsubscribe xsi
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > ---
> > Unsubscribe? Mail Majordomo(at)Softimage.COM with the following text in
> body:
> > unsubscribe xsi
> --
> Jordi Bares <jordibares(at)the-mill.com>
> The Mill
>
> ---
> Unsubscribe? Mail Majordomo(at)Softimage.COM with the following text in
> body:
> unsubscribe xsi
>
---
Unsubscribe? Mail Majordomo(at)Softimage.COM with the following text in body:
unsubscribe xsi
