To give my pov on the matter (since I'm also in a maya company now).
XSI talent is hard to come by, let alone TD's that have XSI
experience. I think here is where the big thing is... the lack of
high-end XSI TD's. Sweden is a small country so therefor the
availability of freelancers/staff is limited. And I would say that 80%
uses maya, 15% 3dsmax and the rest (where XSI is along with Cinema4D,
Modo, etc.) is about 5%.
Lack of tools/render engines is also something that they look at
(since you can't find XSI TD's you need to buy solutions). I don't
think we can blame Softimage too much for this since you can't force
companies to code for your application (only MS is allowed to act like
that....). "The Setup Machine" for instance is such a tool that would
be very handy for many small-medium studios. The biped guide just
doesn't hack it.
So, without getting into detail to much. All of it will be solved if
tons of XSI TD's are let out in the world :)
So my wishlist for future "xsiwillkillmayaversion" there are a few
"things" that is used daily that would really help (but I'm sure
Softimage are thinking of these things)
* UV unwrapper
* 3D Paint
* 3D Sculpt (even blender has it)
* something like "the setup machine"
* better particles (like the ones shown that no one is allowed to talk about)
* point cache (which also supports object translation)
At least at our studio people are getting a bit tired of
Alias/Autodesk and that maya is not evolving as it should. Many things
that has been on the communitys wishlist hasn't been implemented (and
we are talking about things from maya 2). Also that Autodesk is now
charge of the ship makes many people worried. Will maya go the same
way as 3dsmax? a race with version numbers instead of actual progress
or plans of a new generation. Integration problems with mental ray is
also a issue. We battle daily with things that renders differently
from within maya and how it renders on mental ray standalone. Mainly
because they have implemented things in 8.5 which mental ray
standalone doesn't support.... but you only notice that once you start
rendering....
Oh well... I could go on forever. And I would be extremely happy if we
could jump ship. But being the only XSI person and 16 maya people,
there isn't much I can do. And here no schools at all are teching XSI
so we can't even get "fresh" xsi talent.
over and out from the dark pit.
/stefan andersson
On 4/28/07, Tim Leydecker <BauerOink(at)gmx.de> wrote:
I may add that the Maya guys do envy me for the
rendertree, render region and mR´s responsiveness
when doing previews of models. I like that, too:-)
It´s just that I´m the only one using XSI, otherwise
there may have been the option to render entire
shots/passes or even a selfcontaining sequence in XSI.
Cheers
tim
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tim Leydecker" <BauerOink(at)gmx.de>
To: <XSI(at)Softimage.COM>
Sent: Saturday, April 28, 2007 6:19 AM
Subject: Re: Framestore jobs?
> The place I´m working at currently is Maya centric, doing
> commercials mostly. When brought in for the project I asked
> if I could do my modelling in XSI, bringing my own license.
>
> Hesistatingly, the lead agreed. We talked about all the
> possible pitfalls and gave it a test. In our case, even
> with the added conversion process to Maya required,
> I´m still alot faster doing my modelling in XSI, partly
> due to it´s superior polygon core and redraw as well
> as to some extend to the easier and artist friendly implementation.
>
> Basically, I spent my entire day pushing [M] and [+] or [-].
> Actually, quite rewarding and fun to do so compared to Maya.
>
> Mind you, all setup, animation and rendering is still done in Maya,
> (which I personally couldn´t do in XSI anyway, btw.).
>
> To sum it up, for my tasks, XSI behaves very nicely and integrates
> well into the existing Maya pipeline, which is grown over the years
> with custom scripts and refined production proven workflows.
>
> I´m glad I made the offer to use XSI instead of falling back
> to Maya (which I´m actually using since ~2000) directly.
>
> Cheers
>
> tim
>
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Bradley Gabe" <withanar(at)stanwinston.com>
> To: <XSI(at)Softimage.COM>
> Sent: Saturday, April 28, 2007 2:11 AM
> Subject: Re: Framestore jobs?
>
>
>> High end studios do not hire students directly out of schools to head
>> their departments. They hire industry vets, and most likely people
>> they've worked with sometime in the past. The dept heads are the ones
>> who will set up the pipelines and pick the software. The students coming
>> out of school will learn what they need to get into the studios.
>>
>>
>>> Softimage need to be in the educational systems, I know this has been
>>> brought up before.
>>> Schools liked studios won't change until they see a necessity....when
>>> most of the jobs requests are Maya or Max
>>> it is hard for them to do so. I don't have an answer.
>>>
>>> Leoung
>>>
>>> Bradley Gabe wrote:
>>>
>>> > If a software falls in the forest, and nobody loads it, does it make
>>> > a sound?
>>> >
>>> > It's not enough for one app to be better than another, or a more
>>> > advanced technology than another. That is not going to get XSI into
>>> > the Framestores and Orphanages of the world. It requires the people
>>> > who know how to use it within the context of high end production.
>>> > Wherever those people go, they take their tools of choice and
>>> > comfort with them.
>>> >
>>> > You will see an XSI presence in more studios if and when more CG
>>> > professionals find reason to discover and learn XSI. For that to
>>> > happen, Softimage must offer something unique or exciting enough to
>>> > attract their attention away from what has been working well enough.
>>> >
>>> > -Brad
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > > I understand that, but remember that even Softimage 3D reached the
>>> > > end
>>> > > of the line at one point, and that's when Maya took the lead. I can
>>> > > always dream that some higher ups at Framestore or other big
>>> > > factories
>>> > > would have foresight, plan for change, manage software evolution
>>> > > beyond
>>> > > the next quarter, select the best, care about the nerves of their
>>> > > employees... oh well. I guess the marketplace takes care of all
>>> > > that.
>>> > > And I don't really want to work in a factory anyway.
>>> > >
>>> > > Christian Rittener
>>> > >
>>> > >
>>> > > kim aldis wrote:
>>> > > > I would imagine, like most places of that size, their pipeline is
>>> > > > pretty
>>> > > > solidly based around whatever. It's not a change you'd make
>>> > > > lightly, if at
>>> > > > all.
>>> > > >
>>> > > ---
>>> > > Unsubscribe? Mail Majordomo(at)Softimage.COM with the following text in
>>> > > body:
>>> > > unsubscribe xsi
>>> > >
>>>
>>>
>>
>
>
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__________________________________________
Pixel Abuser (at) http://www.swiss.se/
Blog (at) http://sanders3d.blogspot.com/
work e.mail: stefan [at] swiss.se
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