Good grief, has it been a year already? Softimage 2012.5 is here!!
Posted: Aug 08, 2011
Category: Autodesk Softimage
Social Media:
Here we are again - man how time flies. Anyway, the team have been busy and have updated the modeling tools in this release (a bit overdue I know). What is cool is that they built a bunch of them using ICE modeling, which was introduced in 2012. The Add Smooth Edge Loop Tool was built using the Tool SDK introduced in 2012 as well - talk about eating one's own dogfood. With ICE exposed in so many areas of the software it is great to see it now being seamlessly integrated.
New selection tools, modeling, Bullet rigid bodies and a whole lot more. The feature list is at the bottom after all the vids.
This release should be available towards the end of September.
Thanks to Chinny for the videos
Sweet!
Selection Tools
Add Smooth Edge Loop Tool
Cap Hole
Extrude Along Normal
Thickness
Slice Between Two Vertices
Spin Edges
Model Meshes
ICE - Bullet Rigid Body Dynamics
ICE - Sample Scenes
Annotation Object
Zoom on Cursor
Bullet list of features as of Siggraph
I think this is the full list for the release. There might be some minor tweaks or additions, but if it is not listed here it is not in the release.
Selection
Quick Loop – double-click or shift+double-click on an edge, point, or polygon to define a loop or range.
Double-click on a polygon to select the polygon island
Polygon Selection to Outline - converts the selection to edges surrounding the polygons
Loops from Selection – creates loops (not rings) from existing selection
Loop from Selection (around corners) - this can be used to easily select Border Edges for example
Grow Loops
Shrink Loops
Island from Selection – selects all the components in the island
Selection Preferences now exposed in the MCP>Selection menu
Modeling
Apply Thickness
With bevel options
Cap Hole
Extrude Along Normal
Add Smooth Edge Loop Tool (uses the tool SDK)
This interactive tool adds edges while continuing the contoured shape of the object
Move edges while adding
Use MMB for 50% insertion
Spin Edges
Apply Slice Between Two Vertices
Navigation
Zoom on cursor (Prefs>Tools>Camera)
For all 3D and 2D views
Includes Scroll Wheel preference
ICE
Bullet Physics
New “Simulate Bullet Rigid Bodies” node (now the default in the ICE module)
Same options as Simulate Rigid Bodies Node with added option to collide using exact shape of obstacle.
Support for “cone” native shape
Instance Shape node now support Convex Hull (Bullet only)
Rigid Bodies
Supports sub-frame sampling (PhysX and Bullet)
Faster simulation when using constant reference shapes
PPG logic
RMB>Compound Properties>PPG Logic
OnInit and value changes can be trapped inside compounds with PPG logic script
Only available for non-private compounds
Add Group section
Inside compound - RMB on exposed input port name>properties. You can specify a group name instead of adding in XML file
Compounds
Create Extrusion Along Strands.2.0
Deform Strand Extrsuion (together these can make for fast simulated hairs)
Cap Hole
Apply Thickness
Apply Slice Between Two Vertices
Model Meshes
Human male, car, T. rex, bull, fish, lizard, horse
These come we predefined UVs
ICE Modeling Sample Scenes
Modeling Building Grids
Modeling Cylinder
Modeling Materials
Modeling Simple Copy Merge
Modeling Texture Projection
Animation
Viewport Autokey Border
When turning on Autokey there is now more visible feedback. The active viewport shows a color – which can be changed in
Prefs>Animation to turn on/off or change color
Ability to include animation layers when creating mixer clips
New option for non-normalized weight painting
Scene Management
Annotation objects
Get>Annotation creates a null like object which shows a speech bubble in the viewport
Get/Set memo cams access in the SDK
Rendering
RTS - Added support for automatic RTS shader updates
Snapping
Prefs>Tools>Snapping - New preference to control display of snap targets
FBX:
Integrated new drop of FBX SDK
Changes:
Selection:
Rectangle raycast respects XRay settings etc.
Raycast backfacing enabled by default (fixed issues with accidentally selecting backfaces on silhouette edges)
ICE:
Default value for GetTopology changed to "No Transform"
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Boy, it's been quiet on this site. Come back Mark! :-) Anyway, just updated my subscription (best money I spend every year) and got the new SAP. I'm officially addicted to the new modeling tools. I'm definitely going to be using 3ds Max less and less. (Don't tell the guys on that site.) I already have Momentum 3.0, so I don't need bullet physics, but it's nice and quick to set up, so I'd probably use it before Momentum for rigid body stuff anyway. Nice speed increase. Integrates beautifully into ICE. Very direct and quick to set up. Can't wait for the new version.
Posted by ctedin1 on Nov 04, 2011 at 07:58 AM
To everyone who really wants the modeling tools that are in Max... I'm with you there. I am sure they are coming in Soft, but as a 15 year max user (I still have version 2009 that I use on and off) I find myself opening Max up less and less. I have naturally grown into a Softimage user, even though I know the tools in Max much much more. I do miss some of the modeling tools (graphite specifically), but frankly, those things are a dime a dozen. Available in many cheap or free software packages. The really awesome features that Soft provides with ICE especially, and with all the other developments by Thiago, Eric, Helge and Holger, Solidangle, et al show what an amazing creative platform Softimage is, and how flexible it can be to develop your own tools. If you don't value it, please use another program to model with. I don't mean that to be flippant or anything either. I use Max quite often for basic modeling. They are out there, and are getting very good. In the meantime, just wait patiently until they are developed properly and integrated fully. This careful methodical development is why I pay for tools like Soft. I need them to work almost 100 percent of the time, and work nicely with the other packages in Autodesk's arsenal. Just my two cents. Nice to hear from you again, Mark. I missed your voice. We're really showing off some of the latest tools at Tribeca|Flashpoint Academy in Chicago. Converting a lot of Softimage users over (in part) from Maya, the few that weren't fully convinced yet. (Lots of them use both very easily).I hope to have some nice things to show from my students soon.
Posted by Mark Schoennagel on Oct 02, 2011 at 07:39 PM
Hi everyone,
Just getting home from almost a month of being on the road. Half of it was for work and the other half for fun. Actually since Siggraph I think I've been home only about two whole weeks. There's been actually quite a lot going on with Softimage customers so i've been busy!
Before I went on vacation I was going to address the people who thought they would get more attention with their comments by dropping F bombs but I figure we were all mature enough to stop, guess I was wrong. Sorry some of you aren't happy with the last release, or the direction of the this feature or that, or what you think of Autodesk, or whatever your complaint is but please, keep it clean and stop trying to start flame wars. I dont believe in censorship but I also dont believe people need to post profanity laced tirades to get a point across. With that in mind any comments with offensive language will be deleted. Sorry but there is no need for it.
As far as all the complaining, really guys? It's a service release. Its mostly designed for bug fixes and few gift features for customers under subscription. It's a .5!! I mean really?? All this over a .5 release? 2013 is already far along in development and trust me there are some really sweet innovation coming so relax its just a few months away.
There's some good stuff going on right now so I'll be writing a post soon. I've got some Smoke on a Mac training to do in the Venice office this week but I'll find some time.
Please keep it clean going forward ok?
mark
Posted by Richard Culver on Sep 25, 2011 at 07:32 PM
To further add.
I think there has been a lot of talk on the forums here and there - a general dissatisfaction with the development of Softimage. Modeling tools being one of the big beefs. And you can count me in on wanting this because of my heavy experience in modeling. Pretty much, what I do for a living.
But I have not understood is the complaint about the development of ICE as opposed to other much needed updates such as - modeling tools. When in fact, ICE lays the groundwork for the development of new node-based modeling tools. A node-based procedural work flow is pretty much considered the future of CG software as I understand it. Well at least, I think so. If Dreamworks recent partnership with Side Effects (Houdini) is any indication I would say that is a fair statement of fact. You may have a different opinion. This is mine. And so, I think Softimage development going in that direction is important. Thinking of this in context, ICE modeling has to happen first. Here is a quote during the release of Softimage 2012 which further supports this view:
"Updating the modeling tools has been a pretty common request in the last couple of years. So rather than Softimage building a few new ones, we built the architecture for others to do it in ICE instead. This means while we can build new modeling tools using ICE, so can the community without waiting for us. ICE modeling can be fully procedural, including the ability to create topology from basically nothing... which was not possible before. "
I think this is very important to understand in context. And I therefor think - IMHO - this is an important step forward for the future of Softimage development.
Posted by Richard Culver on Sep 25, 2011 at 01:01 AM
Nice Features.
I think it was worth the wait for these tools to actually be ICE operators. Pretty cool.
Looking forward to checking them out when it is release - which should be soon I hope.
