migrating to XSI

#1

hi friends :wavey:…i’m currently using blender and luxology modo…i’m hoping to learn XSI too…below are the reasons

reason 1 :-blender has good modeling and animation but i don’t like the rendering part :frowning:
reason 2 :-modo has a good render but not good for organic animations :frowning:

so befor jump in to XSI i wanna sort out some questions …plezz give some ideas about them

1) is XSI good for character animation ?
2) does it has a good dynamic system ?
3) what about rendering ( quality and speed ) ?

thanx in advance :slight_smile:

#2

This is obviously just a personal opinion:

  1. Yes, this was before Softimage introduced ICE in version 7 one of the main selling-points of XSI…
  2. Yes, you’ve got Rigid Bodies, Soft Bodies & Syflex Cloth “out of the box”, Liquids using a free plugin (ICE-SPH) and Fluids (as in gases) using a commercial plugin (emFluid2).
  3. I would say Mental Ray (XSI’s renderer) is very good, probably not the fastest renderer around, but very good nonetheless. On this point, however, other people have very different opinions.

Again, just a personal opinion… :wink:

#3

thank you soo much mate …really worth when coming to a decision …thanx again

#4

Also worth considering is the fact that Softimage can read in LWO files generated from Modo (just check for 1 & 2 point polys as they are a non no in Softimage).

I find the two programs work very well together

Mental Ray in Softimage is extremely powerful, and allows you to create some fantastically complex (or simple if you prefer) materials, and there is still nothing about that rivals Softimage’s render pass creation and export. I would say that after Modo (and Vray in MAX), that Mental Ray can be a little slow in comparison.
If I want speed I export the animation (via MDD’s) back to Modo, or is I would complex materials / render passes, I stick with Mental Ray.

#5

ahh now i see …thank you so much mate :slight_smile:

#6

About Rendering part, there is another Renderer in the market called 3DeLight. I’ve heard it’s fast, but haven’t worked with it, just wanted to let you know.

In making District 9, I read somewhere that makers had used Modo because it has potent ability in Modeling and particularly UV Texturing Map then imported into XSI to animate. So you’re lucky to know Modo mate.

#7

Once you’ve used passes in your workflow, you can never go back to “non-pass” oriented software. I’m not talking about buffer channels, like refelction, diffuse, specular, etc. I mean real custom passes that you can design scenes within scenes. XSI’s is the best.

I would say any software that isn’t integrating some type of serious pass system into their 3d app is going the wrong direction.

#8

i like animating in XSI a lot, so yeah i would say it’s a good app for animation.

XSI’s dynamic system is very good. why? i think it has something to do with ICE? personally i think that’s advanced stuff but it sure is very powerful.

i use finalRender so i don’t know enough about mentalRay to give you suggestions. i don’t like the process of rendering because it’s all tweaking numbers and dials, it’s kinda boring for me. finalRender is really easy to use.

#9

finalRender for XSI? is that thing out yet? :eek:

#10

i’m sorry for my misguiding post. what i meant was that i don’t use XSI to render, therefore don’t have enough experience to comment. i use finalRender in Max.

but yeah finalRender for XSI would be mega sweet.

#11

I came from 3DS Max and lightwave, which i used for years. Softimage is the best 3D software i have used and that is why it is my main 3D app now, the interface works with the artist. I’m just about to complete my first short film, 90% was modeled in lightwave. The characters were all modeled in Softimage. Everything else was done in Softimage. Softimage is great for animation, rigging, lighting and rendering in my opinion.

The node based texturing took me a while to get used to, but having mental ray fully integrated into Softimage was a smart move by the developers. As for render speed i have no complaints, you just need to tweak the rendering setting sometimes to get a speed boost.
That is a part of mental ray and you would have to do the same thing in MAX or Maya Mental Ray.

I don’t think you will be disappointed once you have used it for a bit.

#12

Agree with all you about Softimage, but it’s hard to deal with the rendering in all 3D packages, recently bought a book called Mental Ray for Max, Maya and XSI by Sybex and found it really beneficial for who wants to get inside the rendering with Mental Ray. :slight_smile:

#13

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.