As Luc-Eric pointed out on the XSI list today, yesterday was XSI’s 10th anniversary.

Softimage Co. Announces First Customer Shipment of SOFTIMAGE/XSI Version 1.0

MONTREAL–(BUSINESS WIRE)–May 30, 2000

Softimage Co., a subsidiary of Avid Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVID), today announced the first shipment of its groundbreaking 3-D animation SOFTIMAGE(R)|XSI(TM) system. The next-generation of 3-D animation technology, the SOFTIMAGE|XSI system is a significant breakthrough in the international digital media industry because it allows animators in the broadcast, feature films and games industries to take advantage of a first-of-its-kind, truly non-linear animation system. Within the first few weeks of availability, Softimage anticipates delivering the new software to over 17,000 users worldwide.

“SOFTIMAGE|XSI represents a tremendous amount of hard work, talent and energy from Softimage and we are extremely proud of it,” said Marc Petit, vice president of 3-D products for Softimage. “This project has been an amazing challenge from day one. The mandate was simple: completely re-invent a piece of software that had set the standard in the industry and redefine the benchmark.

“The SOFTIMAGE|XSI system is a strong platform on which we’ll be able to quickly build the next generation of tools for media professionals. With SOFTIMAGE|XSI, the .xsi file format and the XSI viewer, Softimage is ideally positioned to extend its leadership into online 3-D interactive content.”

Here’s some vidcaps from the XSI launch tour: