What Maya needs is an adrenaline shot, so please go the fridge and get the thing with the OD adrenaline shot, and the little black medical book.

I can take that in a number of different ways. Feel free to provide more info or post feedback here: http://mayafeedback.autodesk.com/forums/160518-small-annoying-things-to-fix-in-maya-forum/filters/top

Hello Cory, good to meet ya!

Well here's a big Softimage-user worry comin' at ya:

Will it get it's own suite or will it remain a "side-dish" to Max and Maya?

And one very esoteric one that probably only interests me: will there ever be more development on Softimage's NPR capabilities? I.E. the toon ink lens and toon shaders, these are already very good but have been the same for many years now and i was wondering since there is a large Softimage userbase in Japanese animation if these might get some love in the future.

Again i doubt if anyone cares about that last one but me

Cheers, Nick

So where does Composite fall now with all the changes? Is it still your responsibility or how someone else taking over that?

-Eric

Congratulations Cory, always enjoyed your blog. I think people would like a view of the roadmap

hey cory, your experience in managing products is well received. so i am sure what i am about to say is the same old stuff but here i go anyways...

i hope you can give softimage the attention it deserves and needs to stay relevant. and not purposely leave features/enhancements out of it because of the suites. i am a suite owner and like the idea of it, just not if that means program x falls to the wayside of program y.

i hope you can extend to softimage the same attention regarding engaging your user base with the 'small annoying things' and 'api survey's'. you mention 'our future plans' but don't forget the user's want the software to go a certain direction too.

good luck
steven

So many apps, so many responsibilities.
Hope you'll be able to keep your sanity.

Good to know Softimage has gotten a new PM! A fresh start and fresh set of ideas are never a bad thing, once in a while...
May I cordially invite you to occasionally visit our little unofficial si-community (http://www.si-community.com/community/index.php) - even if only to "lurk".

PS I would invite you to the XSIBase as well, but it currently is experiencing some malware related problems (and I don't work there )

I'm in total agreement with what others have said. Please make an effort to give Softimage equal billing, equal marketing, equal treatment to Max & Maya.

Realistically of the 3 apps, Softimage gives the most "bang for the buck". With the FXTree, Face Robot, ICE, the animation mixer, etc., it is the Swiss Army knife of 3D apps. It'd be nice to see Autodesk recognize this and put some development time and money into it.

If you just put some dev time into giving the FXTree a complete ICE make-over, you'd be able to convince a lot of shops that Softimage is a good value since they'd quite possibly not need to spend money on Nuke or Fusion for compositing.

@Kerro Perro, Steven Carron, Paulrus re: Softimage Suite:

Putting a new suite together does take work from a variety of people (me telling people to do it is only the beginning). While it might be nice to see one more product offering I think there are higher priority things for the team to be working on. We'll be watching for feedback (both what customers/prospects are saying and what is happening with sales) to see where this goes in the future.

The Entertainment Creation Premium Suites are quite popular so Softimage is getting a lot more exposure than it has in the past. It may not be the kind of marketing everyone expects but people are seeing it.

@PiXeL_MoNKeY I still have responsibility for Composite and MatchMover

@TonyTrout re Roadmap:

Thanks! Unfortunately, we can't talk publicly about roadmaps. Get in touch with your sales rep and we can see what we can set-up. We do have room for people in our beta programs which may be of interest.

@Steven Caron, Hirazi Blue re: User Voice, API Surveys and Community Feedback

The API Surveys are run by the team at the Autodesk Developers Network (Autodesk.com/Developer). Next go around I will check in with them.

The 3ds Max, Maya and Mudbox teams have made a commitment to upper management wrt User Voice. There have been some tweaks to the process from the first year when 3ds Max first tested the waters. We discussed signing Softimage up and decided to wait and see how things are going this year for the other products.

Softimage just adopted CIP (Customer Involvement Program) in Softimage 2013 and CER (Customer Error Reporting) a bit earlier (both for Windows platform only). Upper management looks at this data monthly to get a feel primarily for product stability. Both CIP and CER are opt-in programs for users. We do encourage people to participate.

CIP sends anonymous usage statistics and can tell us things like how popular a tool is (or isn't).

CER sends a stack trace for a crash so that the team can get better insight into fixing it.

So, with CIP and CER being relatively new, we think there's a bunch of feedback available that we can look at as a good guide for things to work on right now.

So you are a PM for EC Suites, Maya, Softimage, Matchmover, & Composite. Maya, Im informed, has more than one PM, since it is actively developed in many areas. I wonder how many more Matchmover & Composite have? I imagine, since these two apps are esentially in maintenance only (I have not noticed any difference in the last 4 years) and are just bundled for free that they do not have any additional PM's as they are so easy to maintain with no new features or Dev added.

Please could you tell me, as Softimage user, how many more PM's do we have? We also, before the acquisition from Avid, used to have a PM that dealt specifically with new features - whats happened to this? As a customer I have been very underwhelmed with the treatment and progress of Softimage under Autodesk. I really do not see, with youself spread so thin, and Maya biased how any of this situation can be improved for Softimage?

@Tekano re: Number of PM's, a Maya Bias and the history of Softimage at Autodesk

I understand your concern for Softimage and appreciate that you're looking out for me being overworked. Counting the PM's is not the best way to determine a product's attention. We do assign a single PM with ownership as the go-to person for any product. Some of the PM's have responsibility for initiatives and/or industries. Let's look at MotionBuilder here as a more neutral example.

As I mentioned above, Bruno is in charge of Virtual Production and MotionBuilder. He may come to me and say "we really need to do X in Maya for Virtual Production." Likewise, I may say to him "we really need to do Y in MotionBuilder for the Entertainment Creation Suites." After some discussion we may say something like "ok, makes sense, go work with these people." In such a case, a product now has two PM's providing direction.

Going back to Softimage, I won't deny that I can be more productive as an artist using Maya. That's a result of my time and focus to date. I do consider myself fairly well rounded in the ways of production and believe we could have a meaningful conversation on most things relevant to Softimage. If you catch me being biased, call me out. Am I going to start creating a bunch of Softimage tutorials? Probably not (but I may rise to the challenge). Guys like Graham and Mark do a better job of that than me anyway.

I know some things that have happened with Softimage have not been popular with everyone in the community. This is not unique to Softimage. I can't revisit everything that has happened to date and I do hope we can improve some of those things. I'm always looking for feedback and appreciative when I get it.

Mr Mayalicious said "If you catch me being biased, call me out"

...

I'm sorry Cory but with a moniker like that and your history stated above, how else am I to appreciate that you can show the same dedication and attention to my favourite application of choice over yours? One fact Autodesk has conveniently forgot is that, in essence, they are both general 3D apps that do the same things and were competitors before the acquisition. you have admitted this was the only reason you opened Softimage in the first place! Whomever decision it was to make Mr Mayalicious the Product Manager of Softimage was a fundamentally flawed idea to start with, grossly demonstrating this existing bias before you even begin your role.

@Tekano re: My Blog Name and first opening Softimage

I've renamed the blog to Mr. Entertainment - thanks for the inspiration

When I first opened Softimage 3D it was pre-employment at Alias|Wavefront. It just so happens that my previous employer went with PowerAnimator. When I opened Softimage 3D at Alias|Wavefront the first job was understanding how it worked with PowerAnimator. Being in the Assist group (we handled Technical Support, Training and Consulting) I had to have some understanding of what was going on there when talking with customers from different backgrounds or with mixed pipelines.

Haha that is class Mr Entertainment. thank you very much indeed for listening and showing some consideration to your newly appointed user base

Just to follow up on my issue with how Softimage is treated by AD. Here's a perfect example: http://yfrog.com/h0t6exxtj

Notice that Softimage is absolutely NOT an equal to Maya or Max and apparently is not an "Area of Excellence". It certainly seems to be nothing more than an accessory to Max or Maya.

It really doesn't matter what's happening with Softimage's development if the company continues to put out marketing materials that showcase it as nothing more than a particle system. Perception is reality.

For me, the first goal for the Softimage PM should be to put an end to this kind of marketing.

Only advice: Bring back Stephen Blair. That was a huge mistake.

Indeed, bring back Stephen Blair "and the rest is forgiven"!!!

Ha well the Softimage users have been unleashed! Can the might Mr.Entertainment be enough to quiet their agonizing howls?! :p

Anyhoo what they said and props on the name change!

Mogkc said: "The Entertainment Creation Premium Suites are quite popular so Softimage is getting a lot more exposure than it has in the past. It may not be the kind of marketing everyone expects but people are seeing it."

Are you sure about? Softimage practical disappear from magazines, in all not strictly related softimage forum the general idea is softimage is dead or close to death and AD marketing and advertise talking only about two software: Maya and 3dsm (like in this page where a clear banner said "tools for oscar winner"

Cory Mogk, we welcome you.

But now you have a lot of work to do; for Softimage customers. There's a lot of things you will need to addressed and fix.
I'm eager to see what this new direction will bring to the community.
Better marketing for Softimage, please.
Can at least begin putting Softimage in the front page/products of Autodesk.com?

To add to Cory's introduction I am Maurice Patel and head the Industry Marketing team. I have 15+years in the industry - ex-Parallax, ex-Avid, ex-Softimage, and some may know me for my posts on the Softimage forum. Im my past lives I was a demo artist and product trainer.
Relative to the comment below I do want to point out that the image is out of context. It is from a campaign to get Maya and 3ds Max users to buy Suites and encourage them to add Softimage, MotionBuilder and Mudbox to their workflow - so of course the focus is on what those products add. It is not meant to be an overview of Softimages capabilities. It assumes that the core animation application of the user is Maya or 3ds max and that is not going to change (a pretty safe assumption given the traget market demographics of the campaign). What it is trying to articulate is why they should give the other products a try - for the strengths they add. We still market Softimage as an all round application.
> Here's a perfect example: http://yfrog.com/h0t6exxtj
> Notice that Softimage is absolutely NOT an equal to Maya or Max and
> apparently is not an "Area of Excellence". It certainly seems to be
> nothing more than an accessory to Max or Maya.

Also relative to some of the other feedback:
- The "tools for oscar winners" is also part of the Suites Campaign. And is about the added value of the other tools for Maya and 3ds Max users
- only the most popular products get featured on the home page of .com. we would love to change that but Autodesk has hundreds of products all vying for air-time so the guidelines are strict irrspective of industry or product.

empi999@ pleased to meat you.
I perfect remember an advertise on cgtalk: "Maya and 3dsm the per dynamic duo". The issue is not only regardless the site, also when AD promote software for students, softimage is not present.
But what I want stress is the point softimage disappears from specialized magazines (3dworld, 3d artist, 3d creative, control the last issues, softimage is not present, not in discussion not in tutorials, nothing), softimage is the only software without GoZ and if you doing a rapid search into some popular 3d graphic forum (polycount, cgarena, cgtalk and others) the idea people have about softimage is a dead or close to death software. IMHO, this is due to bad marketing on softimage side.

We like that Softimage innovation (ICE -> Node Editor) is being ported to help Maya, but the growing concern is that Softimage is being disrespected and slowly picked apart. The other concern rests in the very serious issue of yearly customer expense vs. perceived value. Autodesk is happy to sell Softimage at nearly the same price point as Max and Maya, but since the acquisition Softimage has not received the same respect, attention to development, support, and marketing it rightfully deserves in order to justify the continuance of said customer investment. The suggestion would be for Autodesk to come out and make a solid decision about Softimage to demonstrate and uplift confidence for the consumer. The questions are simple... Is Autodesk committed to the future of Softimage, or is AD just trying to recover from the initial investment of SI and then kill it? Because Autodesk isn't taking any stands of confidence for the direction and future of Softimage how can it expect its customer base to do the same? The bottom line is that Softimage customers are paying for a very expensive piece of software and they deserve to get something more in return for their investment than Autodesk's indolent and second-rate treatment of the tool and the SI user community.

Cory Mogk, welcome.

From the comments so far, I hope you can see the passion we all have for Softimage and that this will convince Autodesk to continue its full development well into the future.

I understand the reasoning behind the suite marketing, but its a targeted strategy that is negatively impacting stakeholders outside its targeted audience.

Why can't Autodesk develop a parallel marketing strategy to promote Softimage as a comprehenive app for users and potential users who either do not need suites or do not own Maya/Max? The two strategies could sit comfortably alongside each other as they are focused on differnt customers, in terms of their needs and possibly budgets.

For me this would be a more holistic approach where Autodesk could benefit in many ways but at the same time not alienate its current Softimage user base.

Best Regards,

Alan

The future i think is that Max and Maya are implementing ICE in his workflows, first the shader tree, then ICE, and then.............. I love SOFTIMAGE and for me the best intuitive artist frienly but it need more development and Marketing to stand out.
mogkc i wish with your work make revibe softimage in 2014.
We are waiting..... Tanks for your support.

Hi,

First of all, thank you for your presentation and info. We wish you all the best at your new role at Autodesk, as Product Manager of Softimage.

We have been using Softimage around 22 years, and we wish that the quality and speed of innovations of this amazing piece of software, as it is Softimage, will keep on in the future as it was in the past.

As you say roadmap of a software is not easy, since is a combination of innovation, customer needs, fitting the Software among the product offer of Autodesk, marketing, and also why not, satisfy the strong feeling that each one of us professionals have with each 3D software of our choice.

A tight integration with the other Autodesk Products was needed and we are happy about your connection philosophy between Autodesk products, resolving bugs and being up to date to external innovations is not easy either, and beyond that, please keep surprising us with new innovations like Softimage did in the past with Skeletons, Render Region, Render Map, Animation Mixer.......... Face Robot & ICE.

Besides what I mentioned before, hope to see in a couple of years Softimage has a new "technology surprise" that you are cooking today.
¡ So good luck, best wishes, and keep it hard !
Sintesys Staff

No answers... bad thing...

@cuccume: I'm not sure what other answers you are looking for but will re-read the comments and see what else I can add. Maurice (empi999) has addressed the marketing points. Please let me know what else I can tell you.

@bodoquedoc, VFX Media re: ICE in 3ds Max and Maya

I think we should separate ICE the node technology and ICE the node graphing UI. Maya has had the HyperGraph and HyperShade for a long time and that is UI that could use some refreshing as you may have seen with the Node Editor. From a technology standpoint, ICE and Maya nodes are very different; ICE nodes are very specific and small, Maya nodes can be very large and general purpose. Both are inherently part of the product; we cannot just drop ICE into Maya. That said, you can do some similar things with nodes in Softimage and Maya.

@VFX Media re:Softimage Community

I understand what people are saying and am considering it with other things like product planning. I've been in touch with some people through email and some in person. Anyone can send me a direct message through the Area or email (my name is Cory Mogk and our email structure is: firstname.lastname@autodesk.com).

We'll be opening the Softimage beta soon and I invite people who haven't participated before to sign up at beta.autodesk.com. You can see what we're doing, try it out and we can discuss things that you would like to see in the future with the team.

Hi, glad to see you as a new PM. I wish you the best of luck and hope that no one gives you any problems.

I'm sorry if I appear harsh, like little premise I want say I respect your work.

You answer only about the suite issue, I understood this choice and can agree, was a good move, many now have softimage into their desktop and open it for the first time exploring resource and power behind it.

What was without answer is this point:

But what I want stress is the point softimage disappears from specialized magazines (3dworld, 3d artist, 3d creative, control the last issues, softimage is not present, not in discussion not in tutorials, nothing), softimage is the only software without GoZ and if you doing a rapid search into some popular 3d graphic forum (polycount, cgarena, cgtalk and others) the idea people have about softimage is a dead or close to death software. IMHO, this is due to bad marketing on softimage side.

IMHO is a clear statement, if you don't understood my point I can only think about my poor english.

@cuccume re:Magazines and GoZ

I'm not sure why coverage is dropping in magazines and there is no GoZ support for Softimage. I'll check with the marketing team on the magazines. I have seen that more of the magazines are reviewing Suites instead of the individual products the last couple of years. For both GoZ and magazines, have you let them know you are interested in more Softimage coverage?

Thanks for your reply Mogkc.

I mailed to 3d Artist, the answer was "softimage is not a popular product". About the some from 3d creative. 3d world did Maya 2013 review and (if I'm not wrong) a 3dsm 2013 review (like single stand alone product, and not like suite)

But it is not only this, as I wrote, please, take a tour into some popular forum (polycount, cgtalk, cgarena but also some specialized forum like Blender artists or Luxology forum). softimage is not present (cgtalk has a poor populated subforum) or, more bad, is considered death or close to death in many discussions (like different topic done in CGtalk, I can post the single thread link).

When AD publicize their 3d software for student (the nice free license for learning the software), there is not mention about softimage.

I think, a single page one time (for a single month), into 3dworld or 3d artist, a banner for a single month in a year into 3d world will cage a lot the perception about softimage and AD intention about the software (and the softimage users mood about AD). Also mentioning softimage into the software for student I think don't hurt at all maya and 3dsm...

My assumption, perhaps incorrect, is that Softimage is not popular on forums like CG Talk because the Softimage community hangs out in dedicated forums like SI Community.

Thanks again for your reply and your time Mogkc.

Ok, it is plausible what do you said about CGtalk, but about the lack of exposure (articles, tutorial etc.) into magazines?

And, most important, about the perception people has about softimage future (softimage will be axed by AD as soon as possible)?

Also, cannot explain the choice of not show softimage into any marketing advice, especially into free license for students.

In last SOFTIMAGE|UeberTage chaos group crews, during Vray demo, joke said: "that looks really good for a particle program"

Re: cuccume - GoZ has been available for Softimage for a while now: GoZ for Softimage

Your core SI users can be found on the secretive XSI Mailing list: XSI Mailing List

To stay informed daily about the latest in the world of Softimage sign up under our Twitter account VFX Media on Twitter

Thanks VFX Media.

I know about GoZ, but implementation arrived by a voluntary and not by Pixologic (pixologic follow the AD route, no interest or ignoring softimage)

I'm sorry Mogkc has nothing to say about and is evident to anyone the actual state of softimage and is a bit ridiculous should be a costumers to inform AD about the state of softimage and people perception about (and I cannot believe autodesk or marketing crew don't know this state, repeat, make a fast tour into many popular sites or magazines (will take few minutes of your precious time), and also try to ask some students what is softimage...

Greetings Cory,

Although late, I congratulate you on your (relatively) new assignment!

To get right to it,
I can understand how Maya may be prioritary as a flagship
since upon acquisition, it was already a market leader in it's own right. (Maya may also be very good
and I can understand, even to the extent of reassigning the (entire) original SI dev team to Maya.

But if I'm not mistaking, as to why SI users are asking the new PM for *ads* (or recognition)
more than things like fixes ot new features,
(go figure .. (..please!) )

it's that, .. if Softimage is "unpopular" or can generally somewhat be perceived to be on a death row, ..

.. I think it's fair to assume that these states or perceptions have very little
(not to say *nothing*) to do with actual product quality, or even development activity since the aquisition,
but *everything* to do with *public relations*.


Despite the fact that since the acquisition,
there was already many doubts about how much attention SI would be getting,
as Autodesk already had 2 packages for achieving similar ends.
(one being it's own creation, and the other already being a market leader)

But, although reassigning the dev team may have been understandable
and in the best interest of Autodesk and it's main flagship in the field,
- AND that the new dev team really don't seem to be newbies,
- AND while having since dealt with a number of quite deep issues in all aspects of SI ...

.. I think the thing is.. (for instance) there was NO OFFICIAL WORD about the (really quite substantial) change ( ! )
and ended-up slipping through the mailing lists and/or a twitter tweet, and got picked-up by CG-Channel

Then announcing ::
"Autodesk reshuffles Softimage dev team"
with a subtitle reading :: ** "End of an era" **

Article starting by
<< long-serving Softimage product manager Jason ‘Chinny’ Brynford-Jones
– the creator of countless such Softimage demo videos – has moved on to new projects in the latest Autodesk reshuffle. >>

("creator of countless demos".. but was essentially the main "SI|Mascot" SI|Representative or embassador)

(with all due respect, and without questioning your own commitment
.. replaced with someone who historically was/is mostly for Maya)


But nevertheless, saying that it shook CONFIDENCE in the SI community -and generally at large-
would be a *blatant understatement*.

So without talking about reveling Roadmaps ... but saying an official SOMETHING (an ad? a press release?)
talking about SI .. but while somehow making it super-clear,
mentioning **the commitment** of Autodesk in respects to Softimage
(especially considering recent changes)

.. or SOMETHING of the sorts, would be the best thing you could do for it's current & future outlook/perception.


I don't know if Autodesk is afraid that SI would take-up too much share (from Maya or 3DS)

But I think I speak for many by saying that,
even if Maya inherited a very good node based scripting engine,
there would still be many reasons to choose SI in a number of contexts,
or that **there is place for every package**,
and it would be okay to not be afraid of it anymore..

In other words, .. -IF- your goal (yourself or other Autodesk representatives)
is to let it have a REASONABLY FAIR market share,
and NOT slowly downplay-it, (or let it die)
by simply not having an official position/opinion on the matter of Softimage,
then you (yourself or other Autodesk representatives) would put SOME attention on it's perceived perception.

Which I'm sure could only work miracles on the CONFIDENCE people have in SI & it's future.

In any event, thanks for your consideration,
and I hope SI|Users (including myself) don't / didn't give you too much of a hard time
cheers!

Hello again!

If I may,
May I suggest (to Maurice?) .. taking advantage of the 2014 launch
to perhaps publicly announce something (comforting/reassuring)
relative to Autodesk's commitment to Softimage.

Of course only -IF- that commitment would actually be existent,

AND that the goal would be to at least *sustain* it's current user base,
if not to somewhat expand/restore-it
(without necessarily letting-it get out of hand,
or letting it come anywhere close to main flagship solutions)

and WHILE not let it wither away
due to (honestly very-much unaddressed) *uncertainty*.


Maybe something in the same vein as this post from yourself (Cory)
just prior to SI's acquisition, talking about the future of Maya ..
ironically starting with a quote from a user worried about Maya's future ..

http://area.autodesk.com/blogs/cory/whats_the_future_of_maya

__________________________
(quote) <<
.. with programs like Houdini and XSI 7 (with ICE)
gaining a lot of ground in the development arena,
is Autodesk actually taking a hard look at Maya
and making it more stable while providing new features,

The underlying theme I get from people on forums is if Maya 2009 doesn't deliver
or Autodesk doesn't lay out some sort of roadmap worthy of sticking around,
people will in fact jump to XSI or Houdini. >>
_______________

While wondering if the facts from this first quote (not the quote itself)
was partly what motivated the aquisition (sigh..)

.. but further down, without giving any details, you talked about planning,
while giving reassuring comfort food for the mind.. :

(quote) <<
Again, I can't tell you much about what went on but there was lots of positive feedback
- nobody talking about divorce that week. >>

(quote) <<
What's important about this is that I wouldn't take on this responsibility
if I didn't believe in the future of Maya - that would just be an exercise in frustration. >>

__________

Apart the fact that the very same concerns
can currently absolutely apply 1000 fold more in respects to (x)SI today..

.. as many, I don't beleive that in the best of worlds,
that SI would essentially takeover every single pipeline,
(or in current state of things, to even come close to Maya's share) ..

.. but as said in my previous post, I think **there is place for every package**.
each having their very own strengths & weaknesses.

Sincerely hoping that (& eagerly waiting to see if) yourself (and others at Autodesk)
share the sentiment in respects to Maya relative to (x)SI (and vice versa),
I wish you the best of luck.

Thanks!

Hi Cory

I seem to have missed this post when it came out. I work at a University and that has its own set of challenges when teaching 3D.

Apart from agreeing with a lot that has been said. As a veteran of the IT industry it always makes me very nervous when companies are too close chested with their roadmaps, even more so when they pass it off with 'Great things are coming'. They rarely do, or are exactly things you dont need or want.

One thing that is very apparent is that Soft is the red headed stepchild of the Autodesk stable. If you look at current versions you will notice the following two simple examples.(there are more)

a) The tutorials and learning material on Autodesks sites are vastly inferior to those for Maya and Max (this is feedback from our students most of which had to get Digital Tutors explore topics outside the base course)

b) Simple things like trying to get a Partner certified driver for Softimage is difficult. Go to Nvidia , choose a quadro card and have a look at the Certified driver for Softimage (you only get a link to the autodesk site) and then do the same for Maya (you get a very thorough listing of versions)

While Soft is very good at what it does it just feels like that the last 5% of effort just didnt happen. More focus needs to be put on making sure Soft works very well in more environments. That simple things that you take for granted with Maya and Max (like when people try find a preset in their driver control panel that will Make the card function best) are in place.

New features are useful and everything, but far more needs to be done with what we currently have to bring parity to the suite.

Honestly, my confidence is at an all time low. I'm hoping for the best, but I expect the worst.

I sincerely hope that I'm wrong.

I learned all three packages years ago (at NCSCA before it became Living Arts College) when they were all separately owned (I used SGI workstations Whoa!). Even then I gravitated towards SI as I liked the tools it offered… but the school foresaw the future and since shut down the training in SI as so many other companies in the arts did… I am saying that to say…

Autodesk has been a long time competitor of SOFTIMAGE… and for some unknown reason (I mean a real reason) has purchased the company. I think that the acquisition was made to pilfer the technology and distribute it to 3DSMax and MAYA (due to their large market share)… and to ultimately kill the SOFTIMAGE software. While no AD rep will ever admit to that, actions speak louder than words. The balance the SI Community is looking for in tutorials, marketing and so on, is bleakly hopeful. The SI community will never get the answer it is looking for regardless of what is promised.

The reality is in the fickle world of business & industry, you can’t pledge allegiance to no one particular software package. I am a devout SOFTIMAGE user… but I can not say SI for Life… when the life of that package may not last as long. No trying to be a kill joy… Just looking at the canvas underneath the paint. So for however long or short the life of SI, hats off to the Original Industry Revolutionizer. For those who may have never checked it out, take a look at it and run a project through it (while it’s still here). You won’t be disappointed.