Hard Light Productions Forums

Off-Topic Discussion => Arts & Talents => Topic started by: vyper on December 06, 2003, 09:36:16 am

Title: Softimage XSI
Post by: vyper on December 06, 2003, 09:36:16 am

During a recent lecture in Uni (the last one of this week actually) our lecturer introduced us to the software he teaches on the honours module next year: Softimage XSI.

I do intend to download it soon, but I thought I'd ask around for opinions. So who's used it? Liked it?

Linkage (http://www.softimage.com/home/)

Title: Softimage XSI
Post by: mikhael on December 06, 2003, 10:06:18 pm

3d packages are like alcohol: they'll all get you drunk, but I like rum. The rest isn'tr really to my taste.

XSI is like that. There are some people here who swear that XSI is the renderer Baby Jesus would use. Its certainly top notch professional kit. Me, I'd prefer to stick to Lightwave or 3dsMax. They're  both more apropos to the work I do (modding, mainly).

Title: Softimage XSI
Post by: Liberator on December 07, 2003, 06:32:18 pm

This has made every FF since 7!:thepimp:

Title: Softimage XSI
Post by: Stryke 9 on December 07, 2003, 06:43:17 pm

I vaguely, vaguely remember being mildly annoyed by it at some point in history. It was either that or Maya, can't recall. They've both got that silly little vertical line between the company and product names for no readily apparent reason, and basically just seem mostly identical in general.

Title: Softimage XSI
Post by: SKYNET-011 on December 07, 2003, 08:05:24 pm

A good deal of the Battlezone 2 models are XSI.

Title: Softimage XSI
Post by: Kamikaze on December 08, 2003, 12:02:36 am

Probably Maya, it's a total *****.

Title: Softimage XSI
Post by: wEvil on December 15, 2003, 01:39:22 pm

XSI Is probably the fastest, most streamlined production tool for post production out there.

Bear in mind i said "PRODUCTION TOOL" - like maya and other "high end" applications its built for flexibility and robustness rather than fancy effects.  It's used in film and broadcast (more broadcast at the moment) because you can really get in there and tweak the program around.

XSI has the advantage of all being in VBscript so you don't have to go and learn MEL for one.

Can't do a particle effect?  just rap out 20 lines smack it into the scripted operator and off you go.

Want to draw out the same scene for later?  Just open the command listener and its as simple as cut & Paste.

I haven't met one person yet who's used XSI (and by used i mean actually DONE something of consequence) and said it impeded their workflow.

the best place to learn about XSI is www.xsibase.com - good luck with the course.

Bear in mind its geared towards being flexible though - its not as easy to do spaceships or whatnot as it is in MAX because as a whole the program is far more balanced.

Title: Softimage XSI
Post by: vyper on December 15, 2003, 02:29:19 pm

Thanks wEvil, I'll look up that site. :)