Eye-Candy Reel 2005
SOFTIMAGE|XSI 5.0

http://vimeo.com/24621051

While I was cleaning out my basement, I found Computer Graphics World, Feb 1998, sitting on top of my pile of decades-old Sports Illustrateds.

On the cover, Geri from Pixar was created using a new surface modeling technology called “subdivision surfaces”.

In the Spotlight, “Maya…appears to have positioned itself as a true competitor with the likes of major players such as Softimage…”

Click to view full page from CGW

Formerly code-named Digital Studio, Softimage/DS is “a complete turnkey system [that] costs approximately $100,000”

Click to view full page from CGW

Feature article: Unraveling Riven
To achieve the “next level of graphic reality…Cyan switched from Mac-based Vision3D from Strata, which was used to develop Myst, to the SGI version of Softimage 3D.”

This huge set, which consists of more than 2 million faces and 20,000-plus models, required two hours just to load in Softimage.

SOFTIMAGE Resource Guide Summary 1997

From the Summer 1997 Resource Guide, an ad for the complete line of digital media creation: 3D, Digital Studio, Toonz, and Eddie.

Thanks to Alan Fregtman for sending me the links.

Softimage 3D promotional video tape 1995 : Digital Domain, Psygnosis, Industrial Light and Magic and more…
Part 1:

Part 2:

Thanks to Miquel Campos, who brought me some vintage SOFTIMAGE|3D stuff all the way from Spain ;-), including a SOFTIMAGE|3D demo disk from 1999.

From the demo CD, here’s the advanced character animation demo, given by some guy who looks vaguely familiar.

http://vimeo.com/23367433

Thanks to Octavian from the XSI mailing list, here’s a reel from an old XSI CD he had.
Not sure if it is from XSI 1.5 or XSI 2.0.

http://vimeo.com/23058260

Here’s a collage of frames from the reel:

Some poladroid pictures of shirts I found while cleaning out my attic yesterday.

T-shirt from a SOFTIMAGE|3D training kit:

SOFTIMAGE|SDK t-shirt (front, back)

Softimage 10 years:

Softimage Technology Group–For awhile, I was part of the Technology Group, which was a group of Sumatra and DS developers charged with building common technology between DS and Sumatra.

IBC ’95. A month after I joined Softimage, they sent me to Amsterdam for IBC. I had been training for the Montreal marathon; instead I did the half in Amsterdam in the rain.

SIGGRAPH ’96 in New Orleans. I did the Canal Street Classic 5k while I was down at siggraph. It started and ended right outside my hotel, which was convenient. One of the hottest runs I’ve ever done; not enjoyable at all.

In late 1999 and early 2000, Canada Post issued a series of Millennium souvenir stamps, including a Softimage stamp. The Softimage stamp was part of a Media Technologies souvenir sheet, which included Imax, Softimage, Ted Roger Sr, Sir William Stephenson.

Softimage: From the Computer Age to the Dinosaur Age

As a Softimage employee, I received a copy of the stamp as a memento:

Click for full-size image Many thanks to Rui Santos, who took the time to send me some scans of a “Words from the Wizard” newsletter from back in October 1995. Here’s the cover from that issue. The big headline: SOFTIMAGE Web ’95! This fall, all you ever wanted to know about SOFTIMAGE will be available on the World Wide Web. Visit the SOFTIMAGE Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/Softimage… I remember being in a meeting where they presented the first designs for that new web page. It’s easy to forget that there was a time when companies didn’t have web pages 😉 I used the waybackmachine to dig up some old softimage.com web pages (see below):

1995

Web page from 1995

1997

1997

2002

25 Sept 2002

2006

15 March 2006

A little over 10 years ago, this review of XSI 2.0 appeared in 3D World, with the tag line “…is this the Softimage we’ve been waiting for?”.

Back then, XSI Essentials cost $8,200 US. Today, a Standalone license of 2012 costs $2995 US.
XSI Advanced costs $12,300. Now, a Network license costs $3745.

Here’s the intro:

Softimage has gone through a turbulent period over the last few years. It’s been tossed between parent companies (Microsoft and Avid) and seen its lead in high-end 3D animation wane, not least thanks to the popularity of Alias|Wavefront’s Maya.

The long-awaited and long-overdue upgrade to Softimage’s 3D animation system, the legendary Softimage|3D, was XSI 1.0, a somewhat lacklustre release in so much as it still relied heavily on Softimage|3D. There was no polygon modelling, import or exporting had to be done via Softimage|3D (and still does actually) and NURBS features were limited. However, it did feature two very important new technologies.

The first was Twister which was the seamless integration of Mental Image’s mental ray rendering system within XSI, complete with visual shading network and finalquality interactive preview rendering. The second was the non-linear animation system, the Mixer, that enabled artists to mix and blend animation clips as if they were mixing tracks of video.

The updated 1.5 version introduced polygon tools and Subdivision Surfaces, which helped workflow considerably. With version 2.0 it seems that Softimage has finally produce the version of XSI that everyone has been waiting for. It’s a beast, and frankly Alias should be worried.

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