Softimage are now shipping XSI foundation for under 500,-, including MentalRay 3.3 renderer. http://www.softimage.com/xsi/
Hmm, that sounds really to good to be true. Softimage used to be totally out of reach, a professional tool for professionals with professional budgets, when all we could *afford* was a cracked version of 3D Studio. That's a long time ago.
Anyway, has anyone here already use Softimage for architectural CG or CAAD and is Softimage a well rounded package fro the architectural workflow?
There's a free 30 day demo as well (170+ MB download).
I've used softimage before. very powerful with incredible character animation tools and rendering. The prob is that they didn't price cut and market as agressively as maya did, they also haven't pushed as many versions/upgrades in recent years. So, they've continued to lose market share and are now desparate to regain customers.
In short, even fewer offices use soft than maya. Fewer offices use maya than max/viz or form z. So, instead of having beginner level experience in 5 or more 3d programs, pick one or two and work on your skills.
Dan,
market share and character animation are probably not the no.1 issues I worry about when looking for an architectural CG package.
I heard XSI does not read DWG/DXF - now that would be a killer.
My question is, are 500,- well spent on XSI, when you are mostly doing architectural stills, ...
or do you spend twice that amount for say Rhino3D+Flamingo, ...
or three times the price of XSI for Cinema 4D, ...
or four times the price of XSI for Maya, ...
or TEN times the price of XSI for 3D Studio Max, ...
... unbelievable, MAX costs ten times more now than XSI ...
Actually, i think that market share is somewhat relevant. If you spend years learning a program that no office uses, then you probably could have spent your time better.
The learning curve is also very steep for softimage, it may take you quite a bit longer to learn how to get the kind of rendering you want out of the machine as opposed to using a different package.
If you really want to learn it, that's great, go for it. But, I personally think that you'll be less frustrated using a program that is more condusive to rendering/modeling architecture.
ok Ive used softimage in all its varriaions for architectural modeling. First off as to the non DWG DXF thing, you can allways go and get right hemisphere's "deep exploration" which is a translation program that runs for about 300 (or used to) and itll cross just about any format. As to if it is any good as an architectural renderer that a bit of a rougher question. Soft (in terms of architectural use) is basically an almost raw program. There are not a lot of supplied shaders out there (just found that they introduced wood for the first time since 3d). So you basically have to write ll shaders yourself. The program is massivly subjective (not alot of ability to measure or judge distances although there are plugins written to allow this but they are third party shareware). This means that you will prob. model your orthagonal base outside of the program. As to market share, Ive found almost no firms using it (unless the local architecture school teaches it in which case there may be a few local firms). All that said it does push out one hell of a rendering, and gives you massive capacities for deriving forms.
one sidenote: Almost any one of the big 3 3d's can put out almost the same quality render because they are all based on the same core tech mentalray. The differences are the gui and the additional tools.
Softimage|XSI now it's cheap, but is it worth it?
Softimage are now shipping XSI foundation for under 500,-, including MentalRay 3.3 renderer.
http://www.softimage.com/xsi/
Hmm, that sounds really to good to be true. Softimage used to be totally out of reach, a professional tool for professionals with professional budgets, when all we could *afford* was a cracked version of 3D Studio. That's a long time ago.
Anyway, has anyone here already use Softimage for architectural CG or CAAD and is Softimage a well rounded package fro the architectural workflow?
There's a free 30 day demo as well (170+ MB download).
I'll give it a try.
I've used softimage before. very powerful with incredible character animation tools and rendering. The prob is that they didn't price cut and market as agressively as maya did, they also haven't pushed as many versions/upgrades in recent years. So, they've continued to lose market share and are now desparate to regain customers.
In short, even fewer offices use soft than maya. Fewer offices use maya than max/viz or form z. So, instead of having beginner level experience in 5 or more 3d programs, pick one or two and work on your skills.
Dan,
market share and character animation are probably not the no.1 issues I worry about when looking for an architectural CG package.
I heard XSI does not read DWG/DXF - now that would be a killer.
My question is, are 500,- well spent on XSI, when you are mostly doing architectural stills, ...
or do you spend twice that amount for say Rhino3D+Flamingo, ...
or three times the price of XSI for Cinema 4D, ...
or four times the price of XSI for Maya, ...
or TEN times the price of XSI for 3D Studio Max, ...
... unbelievable, MAX costs ten times more now than XSI ...
Actually, i think that market share is somewhat relevant. If you spend years learning a program that no office uses, then you probably could have spent your time better.
The learning curve is also very steep for softimage, it may take you quite a bit longer to learn how to get the kind of rendering you want out of the machine as opposed to using a different package.
If you really want to learn it, that's great, go for it. But, I personally think that you'll be less frustrated using a program that is more condusive to rendering/modeling architecture.
ok Ive used softimage in all its varriaions for architectural modeling. First off as to the non DWG DXF thing, you can allways go and get right hemisphere's "deep exploration" which is a translation program that runs for about 300 (or used to) and itll cross just about any format. As to if it is any good as an architectural renderer that a bit of a rougher question. Soft (in terms of architectural use) is basically an almost raw program. There are not a lot of supplied shaders out there (just found that they introduced wood for the first time since 3d). So you basically have to write ll shaders yourself. The program is massivly subjective (not alot of ability to measure or judge distances although there are plugins written to allow this but they are third party shareware). This means that you will prob. model your orthagonal base outside of the program. As to market share, Ive found almost no firms using it (unless the local architecture school teaches it in which case there may be a few local firms). All that said it does push out one hell of a rendering, and gives you massive capacities for deriving forms.
one sidenote: Almost any one of the big 3 3d's can put out almost the same quality render because they are all based on the same core tech mentalray. The differences are the gui and the additional tools.
caste,
thanks for your reply. I must say my enthusiasm for Softimage has nearly all evaporated from what I've heard.
This puts Rhino with the upcoming integration of Brazil or Cinema 4D back on top of my list.
As for MAX, I think it is just too expensive, but maybe with the recent price-drop for Maya and now Softimage, that could change in the near future.
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