Softimage 2010 came out just seven months ago - yet we have another huge release to tell everyone about - check out the feature list at the bottom.
Here are just a few videos showing some of the new features in 2011. For more information check out Autodesk.com/Softimage or The Softimage Wiki http://softimage.wiki.softimage.com/index.php/Autodesk_Softimage_2011
I might add some more videos later, or maybe I will do another blog entry for those. Either way check back here soon. Push the full screen button too when watching the videos, its much better that way.
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Automatic Lip Syncing for Face Robot
I had so much fun playing with this! ...try saying "super simple to setup" 5 times!
ICE Kinematics
We only scratch the surface of what ICE kinematics can do and what it will mean for rigging in the future.
No more needing bones, debugging is easier, massive reduction in the number of objects needed, the rigs are much more difficult to break as the dependencies are far fewer, secondary dynmics can be easily added - and the factt that the relationships of the entire rig' and its behavior are separate from the rig itself means referencing can be completely re-thought, Just crazy
Rendering
Soooo much new stuff for everyone - yay!
Texturing
A few enhancements to texturing and uv unfolding
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Camera and Render Slates
Simple but so useful.
Scripting enhancements
A quick breakdown of the new features in 2011
General
Icon to Maximize Floating Windows
Extra-wide icon to close PPGs and Views
New Views
Shader Code Editor
Shader Version Manager
Cache Manager
Lip Sync
New Preference to get Softimage text announcements
Camera and Viewports
Viewport object transparency
Object>Display>XRay Surface Display Opacity slider
Change the viewport opacity of geometry using a slider
Display Options>XRay Display Type>Transparent
Viewport visibility menu>XRay Surfaces
New buttons in Camera PPG to keyframe camera
Camera frustrum display
Camera clipping planes values now sliders
Viewport Slate
Text or tokens can be used to display scene information
New menu toggle for X-Ray (display option)
Modeling
Updated Booleans
Booleans are now faster and more stable
New implicit bone primitive
Useful for ICE kinematics
Texturing
Update to UV unfolding
New option to unfold islands generated by the unfold operator
Symmetry - if the geometry and cutlines are symmetrical so will be the unfold
New PPG option to update the Unfold without packing as well
Multiple UVs in the Texture Editor
control+click to set the UV editable/non-editable
Copy/Paste UV Improvements
Edit > Paste UVs
Edit > Paste Special > Using Source UVs Indices
Edit > Paste Special > Using Target UVs Indices
RenderMap/Ultimapper now use Pass Renderer (including 3rd party)
Automatic Tangents and Binormals
Animation
Function Curve Editor & Dopesheet & Mixer
Highlight playback range in background
Preference for Collapsing Animation Layers
Preserve Animation or Preserve Tangent Handles
Preference for scanning for old plug-ins in fcurve editor
Get>Property>Static Kinestate
Used for reference (neutral) poses
Face Robot
Automatic Lip syncing
A new workflow for creating phonemes (and visemes)
A new lip sync tab for Stage 5>Act
Support for English and Japanese phonemes
Lip Sync Creation options
Use AIFF, AVI, Quicktime or WAV
Add text
Automatically creates animation
The new view can display the Phonemes and weight curves
Simulation
Update PhysX library to version 2.83
NOTE: Due to a change in the PhysX library, actual shape collision results will be different in 2011
Support for CUDA acceleration for PhysX Rigid Body Dynamics (including ICE)
ICE
Springs and damper attributes for ICE rigid bodies
ICE Kinematics
ICE can now drive the Global kinematic property
The rigs' relationships can be expressed in a graph contained on a separate object (like a null)
You can use the simulate ICE tree to easily do secondary dynamics
ICE Kinematics and traditional Kinematics can live side by side
ICE Tree
User Tools>Replace model name with this_model
Preference for disabling cycle checking when connecting nodes in ICE tree
ICE Compounds and Nodes
Includes much of Phil’s ICE Pack
Around 130 new compounds and nodes
Scripting and SDK
Python now installed with Softimage
Script Editor now support tabs
MMB or control+W to close tab
RMB on tab to open containing folder
New file options including "save all tabs"
Scripting Preferences
Show spaces instead of Tabs
Use Python installed with Softimage (Windows only)
Custom Dynamic Shader creation
RenderMap exposed to Custom Renderers
Shaders
Shader Plugin API
Shader Parser Plugin API
RT Shader Wizard (HLSL and CGFX)
ImportFromSI3D Command No Longer Supported
Many Object Model additions
many C++ API additions
Data Management
New Tokens
[Camera] [CameraAspect] [CameraFormat] [CameraProjection] [CameraType] [Model] [Object] [Version] [CameraDisplayInfo]
New Tokens and Templates page in documentation
Cache Manager
View>Animation>Cache Manager, Animate>Plot>Cache Manager, Simulate>ICE>Edit>Cache Manager
UI Simplification
Cache Manager hosts Read, Write and Simulation caches
New Cache lists
To read and write multiple objects at the same time (cache list or add one by one)
Automatically scans the selection for available attributes to cache (listbox)
Tokens are saved with the scene not copied from the template preference
Simulation tab list all cache file node in read mode
Animation read tab lists all source caches with their corresponding object
Caching Improvements
Multiple objects can be cached at at time (in the same path)
Default template Preferences are used at scene creation, but can be overridden per caching session
Consistent paths and file name tokens for all types of caching
Current output path for caching is now visible
Universal tokens supported (see Tokens and Templates [Data Management])
Version token supported
No frame padding in the cache File Name mean the frame padding setting from Scene Render options is no longer used.
ICE particle ID attribute can be cached
Setting the new XSI_CACHE_ASCII environment variable lets you save the .icecache file sequence in ASCII.
Rendering
Shader Authoring
All shaders available in Softimage 2011 now use the new Dynamic Shader architecture
No longer have to load *.cgfx or *.fx files into hard-coded CgFX or DXFX shader nodes.
Files are read directly by the Softimage CgFX or HLSL parsers
Shader Versioning
Shader Version Manager
Versioning of shader compounds supported
Option to make shader compounds uneditable
Shader Editor
Shader Wizard
New Shader Events
OnCreateShaderDef
OnCreateShader
OnConnectShader
OnDisonnectShader
New Shader Port Types to match ICE types.
New Array Port Type.
Improved Gradient Port Type.
Shader Tree XML Export .xsishadertree
New CGFX Parser
New HLSL Parser
New SPDL Parser
New .mi Parser
New generic .xsishaderdef Parser
Shaders
Around 35 new utility shaders
Around 170 mental ray shaders
General
Common mental ray
Softimage, Maya and Max now share the same version of mental ray
Stand-ins for rendering animated ICE particle instances
Improved setup for Physical Sky and Sun shaders
RMB Material commands available in render tree material node
Render Pass Partitions now support Stand-ins.
Lighting
Support IES light Profiles
Use mia_photmetric_light in the light's render tree
New flatlight
Additional Area Lights Parameters
Use Geometry a light source (Area Light>Geometry>Object)
Area light>Geometry>User
Low Samples options
Raytraced Soft Shadows
New Light shape attenuation options
Light lists
Local Ambient Lighting Property
Get > Property > Ambient Lighting
Render Tree
Connect shaders to the camera node and pass node directly in the render tree (dynamic input ports)
New shader families and new node color coding
Shader nodes support new data types
Render Slate
Show scene information (using tokens) in renders and render region
Layout and color options
Pass options control render, region and preview
Multi-Camera Rendering
Specify a "group" of cameras to be rendered per pass
LUTs
Softimage now supports Autodesk LUSTRE .3dl 3D LUT files
New LUT Preconditioning options control linear to logarithmic conversions
Crosswalk
Version 5.0
Crosswalk 5 supports 3ds Max 2011, Maya 2011, and Softimage 2011
FBX 2011
New FBX scene scaling import and export options
New FBX batch processing commands to support the scaling options