Hi,
I have been reading the thread for the last couple of days, and I wanted to pipe in for a sec..
I just sent this note out to the training list:
"Wow - it's been a whirlwind 3 months. We've been all over the places, promoting XSI 6. Starting in LA at the first launch event at House of Moves, ending with NAB last week in Vegas - it's been quite a journey. Now that I am back in the office and staying put for a while, I am trying to pull together some information for the Education & Training portion of our website... I wanted to also let you know that recently my role at Softimage has changed slightly in order to allow me additional time and resources to take on full responsibility for both Education and Training within the marketing structure, as well as client relations... And finally, many of you have asked about our certification plans. We are working on a strategy and I hope to have a plan in place and a concrete response to share with you in the near future."
So my mandate now is to focus on training, training and training, both from the professional side and the college side. I am working on several different initiatives to support the market needs for XSI artists & TDs, and looking very forward to sharing it with all of you.
Will things change overnight? No. Is this a huge priority for Softimage? Yes. There is an opportunity for XSI adoption in the market, and we are going after it!
One thing I'll need the community's help with is this:
http://www.softimage.com/community/get_a_job/talent_bank/ & http://www.xsibase.com/jobseekersn.php
We want to make sure that it's as up-to-date as possible, so we can point our new and potential clients to it, either at the base or on soft.com
Occasionally I might be reaching out to you guys & gals to validate some ideas, as well. .
BTW - our SIG plans are full steam ahead, so please keep us posted on whether or not you are planning to attend.
PS Kim - expect an email from me tomorrow. Promise. :)
See you later!
Jen
Jennifer Goldfinch
Manager, Strategic Relations
Softimage Co. / Avid Technology, Inc.
T: (514) 840-0387
C: (514) 912-0387
F: (514) 845-5676
jgoldfin(at)softimage.com
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-xsi(at)Softimage.COM [mailto:owner-xsi(at)Softimage.COM] On Behalf Of Stefan Andersson
Sent: Saturday, April 28, 2007 2:19 AM
To: XSI(at)Softimage.COM
Subject: Re: Framestore jobs?
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.
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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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