Buying XSI or not to buy ...

#1

I do have a LW background for many years, do a bit of zBrush from time to time and recently bought Modo. As LW is very limited in some ways, especially hair, I need to get another software package. I do quite a lot of cg animals lately and therefore need a user friendly, but also complex hair and feather solution. I do like nodes in LW very much, for texturing and also modeling/arranging. As Maya is out of the question I need to make up my mind between Max and Softimage. Are there any users here who could point out the biggest advantages of Max or XSI if the are familiar with both packages as I’m a bit lost here in making a decision? As I don’t have the time to take month of to learn a software it’s very important that I get into it very quickly. A steep and long learning curve is rather difficult for me to handle job wise.

Any recommendations are welcome.

Cheers
Thomas

P.S.: I usually render high res print data around 8000x10000px.

#2

Before this thread follows the inevitable evolutionary path of the Dodo,
as it calls for/invites to software comparison,
which CGTalk expressly forbids :deal: ,
this thread on XSIBase might interest you!!! :wink:

#3

Thanks. I read this thread before. But I can’t just base my decision on the hair. I just wonder whether the workflow is much better in one or the other application and whether the new Max 2010 features will outrun XSI in the next year. I have no idea what I can expect when going with one or the other program. They are similar, but not the same. That’s my problem.

#4

Why don’t you download the free trials of both applications and give them a good workout? Softimage 7.5 is available for download now and Max 2010 is around the corner.

Their individual workflows are sufficiently different that you should be able to determine which suits your preferences very quickly.

#5

all i can say about XSI is that i like it a lot. I’ve been using XSI now for about 2 years for modeling organic shapes as well as hard surfaces, rendering and animation but have not looked into hair or ICE much. i find the workflow(especially while modeling organic shapes) to be very intuitive but thats just a personal point of view. its based on a fairly new core and runs quite stable. its not 100% stable but which app is? XSI has a modelling history. understanding all kinds of possibilities for freezing the modeling history in XSI helps to keep the stress down as it can be a little tricky for newcomers. it has an explorer which is a very powerfull tool as it helps to manage your objects and set up you scene quickly. the pass manager helps you out when producing big/complex shots. the animation editor and texture editor work fine as well and UV layout with XSI actually made fun. the new XSI 7.5 is said to have a new feature for UV layout built in but i can’t tell you anything about that. if you like working with nodes you will favour the rendertree which works with render nodes.

off course XSI has its ups and downs just like every other application. i have tried a few 3d applications while learning 3d at college but i won’t complare any since i don’t have enough knowledge to do so and it is not wanted anyway. i hope this helps though.

#6

I did. But to know the pro and cons from playing around with software isn’t really working. That’s something you’ll discover when working with it and run into a dead end.

I hope to get some input from users here like "XSI is great for …,but when you need to do … than Max is ahead of XSi.

#7

The way I see it, Max is a big, huge application. There are tons and tons of things in it, and tons of plug-ins for it. XSI is more focus and only has, for example, one modeling toolset, and a menu that contains all the commands of the application, nothing is hidden. it’s much easier, imho, to grasp and make full use of XSI. it’s just smaller and more focused, and a good app to transition from Lightwave or to use as animation/simulation/rendering companion to Modo. However if you’re into visualization, architecture, interop with CAD files, or need that plug-in, Max is the right application.

#8

Softimage is amazing. It has an incredibly solid and well laid out interface. It’s poly-modeling tools are outstanding while it’s NURB’s and Curve editing tools are fairly basic. It’s rigging tools are powerful yet still intuitive and fun to work with. It’s animation tool-set is world renowned for being among the very best in the industry. It features perfect integration with Mental Ray. It’s new compound shader and ICE systems as well as the FX Tree are all very user friendly and very powerful tools for rendering and visual effects.

Softimage is a complete package that is completely ready to used out of the box.

#9

I started with lightwave, then bought modo and now I use XSI exclusively for my work. Mot people here know how I feel about lightwave, and modo just isn’t that special unless you are looking for an upgade path from lightwave. I’ve only messed with Max and Maya a bit, but I think XSI has the best interface out of the lot of them. I just made the jump from 6.5 to 7.5 and ICE is pretty amazing.

Coming from Lightwave/modo the XSi workflow may seem a weird, but after you get the hang of it you will probably never want to go back to working in the other programs again. Go here http://community.softimage.com/ and look under the training section for tons of video tutorials.

Also, see if you can find the 3dtutorial videos that have been release for free. I can’t seem to find the link for the site they are on, but they are an excellent resource, even if they are a bit dated.

If you are doing character stuff, the one set of tutorials to absolutely avoid are the rigging tutorials from Digital tutors. I got the feeling that the person who did them is not a rigger and really didn’t know what he was doing and the resulting rig is broken (even the one they include with the tutorials). The other tutorials I bought from they were OK (not great, just ok) but this really put me off of buying anything from them ever again.

anyway, I hope this helps some.

#10

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.