Max vs. XSI

[toonman]

Hi Marley. Tough question. I started out as a Softimage animator (back in the 3.5 days) before switching to max. I'm not sure about XSI, but here's what I can tell you about it.
As you said, XSI is closer to film, whereas max dominates games. If you want to get into film anyway, I'd recommend learning either XSI or Maya (but as uncertain as A/W's future looks, I wouldn't know). Anyway, XSI certainly has a lot of upsides. It's animation tools are way better than Maya's if you ask me. mental ray is a GREAT rendering engine, and XSI is extremely tightly integrated to it.
From what I've seen, the transition from max to XSI shouldn't be painful. Bear in mind that they're both very different animals, that have their own ideas of what a production pipeline is and how it works.
In my very particular case, I stick with max for a great deal of reasons. But if you want to take on Softimage, read the manuals thoroughly and do all tutorilas you can find. I hope you find your match among the great deal of 3d apps out there. Cheers!

[ronald_hartman]

I've been trying XSI for a couple of weeks now, and having used MAX4 for a while...i must say...i LOVE it! I'm delving into Polygon modeling right now and i must say i like it more than the MAX4 and meshtools combination. It's so fluid..especially the use of the right mousebutton and the way of creating polygons....super! In my opinion better than Maya and perhaps the only real other great polygon tool is Mirai. I know...it's not all about polygons...but for that part XSI is a must have!

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