Every Friday I’ll post some image or screenshot from Softimage history…

What we know now as Softimage XSI grew out of the Softimage|DS (Digital Studio) product. Here’s a couple of screenshots from March 1997 that shows a prototype of Sumatra (the codename for XSI). Back then, the first version of DS was almost finished, and XSI was taking shape. Although at that point, XSI did have a distinct “DS” feel to it. Note the “SOFTIMAGE|Digital Studio” in the title bar.

Click to view full size

UPDATE: Comment from Luc-Eric:

I think that was not an actual screenshot, but a photoshop mockup, there countless of them.
This is closer to what the software looked like – but still not quite (it’s missing the jewel-like timeline button)
http://www.softimageblog.com/archives/175
we still have some of those bitmaps somewhere in the source tree..
note the Twister room buttom.