Re: Industry needs more xsi artists!

["Andy Jones" <andy(at)thefront.com>]

I think everyone's comments here have been good.  One thought I just had regarding making in-roads into the educational side of things is that today's market is WAY more heterogeneous, software-wise than it used to be.  I think you can point to a number of examples of studios that use multiple packages in their pipeline.  The best artists today are generally pretty flexible, and can adapt to whatever software is right for the job.  If I were enrolling in a program for 3D graphics next year, what I would honestly want is a) exposure to ALL of the software that's out there, so that I can choose the right tool for each task, and know what is out there without having blind faith in a single package and b) more extensive exposure to a single primary 3D package, such as Maya, XSI or Max (obviously I'd choose XSI), so that I could have a central default software for organizing a project.  In my opinion, part a is just as important as part b now.  But I don't think that was true three years ago.  It's a much harder sell to get XSI going in schools for part b) than it is for part a), especially since Soft now has one of the best translators out there (I've used crosswalk to go between Max and Maya, for example), and will be supporting a host of new renderers in the near future.  To be clear, I'm not saying to give up on getting XSI going in schools for b), but just that pushing for a) could be a good angle to take when pushing for b) seems to be failing.  When you've got software that speaks for itself, just getting a foot in the door can be all it takes.

Regarding the demand for artists on short term projects like in NY, one idea is to make use of more sub-contractors.  As any full-time staffer knows, there are often lulls between major projects.  Sometimes that time is well spent on R&D or whatever, but if there were an offer on the table for an employee to be sub-contracted out to another studio for a couple of weeks in between jobs, I think some studios would be pretty open to that.  I know we've done this in the past.  This is bordering on shameless self-promotion, but while I'm not too keen to move to NY, I certainly wouldn't mind working there for a couple of weeks at a time on interesting short-term projects.  (That said, I think I'm going to be pretty busy as soon as I get back from Berlin next week.)  This is just an idea, but maybe we could use an "artist exchange program" where a company can post, "we need a render TD for three weeks in January" and a bunch of other companies can look at that message and decide if they have anyone to spare.  I mean, we already draw from the same bin of freelancers anyway, so it's not like we're going to suddenly catch a disease by sharing a full-time staffer occasionally.  At least among XSI studios, I think we're much better off as casual allies than as foes.

- Andy

On 8/30/07, takita <takita(at)earthlink.net> wrote:

Jennifer Goldfinch wrote:
> Hi Kris et all -
>
> Recently, I was given the responsibility for working on expanding
> training material and edu programs at Softimage.
One of the most important jobs in my opinion - and it's great to see
that education is FINALLY getting the attention that it's needed so
badly, for so long.

The training initiative that Softimage took with the v6 release was WAY
overdue I think.  It was a little surprising to me actually.  It seemed
like all of a sudden there was this relatively highly developed software
with framebuffers, passes, partitions, good modeling tools that
basically nobody outside "the community" was really aware of but it's
very different to see a feature demonstrated in a video or in a demo
than it is to see it in the context of making something.

That to me is one of the biggest differences between taking a lesson and
enrolling in a degree program, the fact that what you are learning is
contextualized with a goal in mind.  Generalities and theory are good
but it is always good to have the objective stated.  That's one of the
biggest differences between "learning software" and being in a degree
program where a student has a specific goal they are trying to achieve.

And events like that Production Challenge was *also* a great idea and
something which had previously been conspicuously absent, where
professionals get to see how other professionals collaborate and use the
software to achieve said objective.

> The next bigger issue that needed to be addressed was schools and
> training facilities -and as you know, many out there only teach Maya and
> or max. This proved to be frustrating at first, but upon digging deeper
> and having actual discussions with the schools and program leaders, many
> are keen on teaching XSI, they just want to make sure there are studios
> who use it.
There are.  :)

One thing that still strikes me as odd however is that even though
schools *know* that there is more demand for XSI users they may still
opt to lean towards Maya/Max because it's what the majority uses, bla
bla.  Anyway, instead of filling that demand they simply lean towards
where the majority lies.

I'm simply not sure what to do about that.  It reminds me just a little
of the studies they did on gambling and psychology (read down towards
the bottom).

http://faculty.clintoncc.suny.edu/faculty/June.Foley/lottery.htm

> Many educators felt for years that there weren't enough XSI
> shops out there. Ok - yet we hear from clients all the time that they
> need people. (like this thread). PLUS new accounts want to use XSI, but
> are concerned about having a pool of trained users out there.
Yes, and having readily available education resources out there is one
of the most important first steps.  First rate training materials for
XSI won't be available soon enough.

I just hope Jen doesn't burn out.  It's a tough fight and we need her
(yeah you, Jen!) around for the long haul.  :)

-T

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