New Press Release

#101

Mike…

As I mentioned earlier…my words are not EITG’s final policies and I realize that nobody likes speculation or hearsay. However, its not my intentions to fool anyone or lead them on a wild goose chase. In the past, many EIAS users complained that there was no flow of information coming from the company and that users didn’t have a “voice” with the company. As a member of the EI advisory board, I try to talk to Brad as often as possible and provide him with feedback from the actions EITG is taking in its product line. Let me assure you that the company is listening. Quite intently actually. Does EITG still have a little air of secrecy? Sure. Some things I know, somethings I don’t, and some I’m asked not to discuss. For example, I do not know the details about “Kryponite” at all.

Now… when I talked to Brad at EITG about EIM’s potential return we tried to discuss what alterations were necessary to help bring about a more effective product. As you can imagine, there’s alot to be done first. The first goals will be updating the ASICs kernel and updating the framework for universal binary. I suggested that some sort of UV texturing tool also be included in the first “reiteration” and he stated he’d give it consideration.

Since we currently have no vertex editing capabilities within Animator, a UV texture editor within EIM makes considerably more sense. Especially if EITG intends to sell Modeler as a standalone product with Camera one day. As long as Animator’s UV reading functions are optimized, there may be no need to install UV editing within Animator. However, the intended release date for EIM2 is March 2008. That doesn’t leave a lot of time for Kishore to do alot in the first release. So I expect EIM2 will continue to follow its own separate upgrade path. There is talk about multiprocessor support too.

We also talked about the “bridge”. Initially this bridge idea was to provide a method to better link Animator to EIM similar to the manner Lightwave uses HUB to talk to its modeler. This kind of “link” would update the structural and positional information of the object in Animator. Kind of like a “live” referencing.

Now… just thinking logically…and this is my opinion… if EIM2 possess a new framework, one day I could see it coming into its own animation capabilities. Given Animator’s age, it maybe the logical thing to do. Its the model Luxology is using with Modo. It makes sense here too. But I can’t see that happening in the near future. Its gonna take time. The question on everyone’s mind is what will we do in the meantime. This is what v8 is all about.

EITG has to plan this correctly in order to pull this off. What they need is continual feedback from their users. This is why I facilitate these kinds of discussions. My goal isn’t to mislead or misinform, but try to realize I am not the final source. If you’re still uncomfortable with not knowing 100% then I’m afraid you’re out of luck. We all know EITG hasn’t had the greatest track record informing their user base on development. Hopefully that’s changing. I think they’re getting better at it.

#102

Totally…wasn’t referencing to Hans shrouding himself behind some mystic wisdom when I said “let’s not play riddle me this.” I was agreeing with 3DARTz. One line undescript answers aren’t very useful. Either you know what your talking about or you don’t. it’s either true or false. EIM doesn’t import obj, nor does it convert them to ubers if it could.

Sorry, It’s not a competition. It’s about growth. I personally have project from Hans which he donated for me to study. Still haven’t figured them out yet :slight_smile:

I wouldn’t mind having this wire to dissect but as lovely and proficent Paul and Hans work is…I pefer not work in terms of booleans.

This is what Paul is directly addressing in his last comment, the mindset of two different workflows Boolean vs. Surfacing.

but, yes it is EXCITING to see others wires. …for a change :slight_smile:

#103

It’s not necesarily good technique to use booleans where a surface approach is the best choice nor using surfaces where a boolean technique is correct…but having both toolsets sets up EIM to be very powerful. Add in SDS and EIM becomes unique.

The right tool for the right job as the saying goes.

But the thing is is to have these 3 distinct methods of geometry creation actually work well…I certainly am not going to say EIM works without a dance manual. It can be a PITA and I can see why some had given up on it - it can dictate workflow to a point of killing creativity but can also be very inspirational in it’s workflow.

There are some definite kinks to iron out and some tools need to be brought up to expected standards.

A functioning - and then evolved EIM with good documentation can be a great general modeling tool for 3D.

If the expectations are set for CAD capability and to go head to head with the big boys then disappointment will occur.

Great job Hans!

#104

I concur 100% Paul. It’s not that booleans are bad or ineffective in the least. It’s personal. Though I had lots yet to learn, I developed as a surface modeler. EIM had a Knife/Boolean paradigm that was…believe it or not… too simple for me to understand. I had got use to all the tricks to get good rounding from FormZ…which was surfacing, not boolean.
Many took to EIM because of the “easier” rounding. I resented that cool and sophisticate surface techniques were often reduced to cutting basic building blocks. Regardless of my experience, background and techniques, EIM’er doing such creative uses of basic booleans arne rounding it was very persausive and enticing. Matter of fact, recently, I rigged a robot done by one EIM’er which looked better than any robot I had modeled to date. It was all very stylized booleans and rounds.

Anyway. I use booleans when I need to.

#105

It was because of EIM that I started to do my work in 3D. Up until it came out I did little illustration (I had lost interest in illustration work and the airbrush just didn’t cut it anymore) work and mostly painted canvases.

I found the workflow to be very much to my liking and the toolset inspiring - tried lots of new ideas and EIM just performed the way I thought a 3D modeler should. Till then, I just struggled with different 3D tools which didn’t feel right. I gained interest back in being an illustrator along with painting.

EIM was the only modeler which felt right, worked the way I did and imported into EI perfectly. I was sold on 3D at that point.

For me, it’s great to see it resurrected and hopefully will inspire other’s to try new things in 3D.

#106

You know all, I’m used to just launching modeler and I know what works and what may make it crash. After all this talk I had to view the “about EIM” on my mac.

V3.0
Design: Kishore Mulchandani (KM), Jay Roth (now with Lightwave)
Software Engineer: KM, Bob Bell, Himanshu Gohel, Norm Evangelista
Director of Development: Matt Hoffman
QA Testing: Barry Berman, Peter Lish
Documentation: Jay Roth, Barry Berman, Rod Ammons

V4.0
Software Engineer: Himanshu Gohel, Bob Bell, Norm Evangelista
VP of Engineering: Matt Hoffman
Artwork: Paul Shestobitoff, Daniel Miller, Teodoro Tonelli, Bear Weiter

I don’t have any versions beyond that stage. From v3 to v4 it seems titles and staff changed slightly on the software engineering side. Roth is gone and well Kishore is not mentioned on v4. I’m not much of an application developer but I do know that lightwave is hurting now since the modeler/animation developers main developers branched out and formed luxology AKA Modo.

I did some searching and saw KM as Software engineer for Surf’s up, Open Season, Superman Returns(as in the press release) The polar express. Sorry folks but I read between the lines and then judge if new Modeler is a good venture. I think it will be.

Quick conclusion 3 of the above mentioned movies were in some shape or form created using Cinema4D (Don’t know about superman) Friends with CA interests this may shed some light on what improvements EIAS EIM Kryptonite has in store. C4D has been known to play well with Maya, Max, XSI and FBX. Again reading between the lines my assumption is that you need a team to develop. If KM single handedly built the original EIM, is it a possibility he helped the import/export for C4D, assisted or worked on development for Bodypaint, not to mention why some of C4D tools are slightly user friendly? Then again he worked for Sony Pictures Imageworks whom may have proprietary software.

(fiction events here)
Conspiracy analysis. KM left EI while Play took over. KM continued his quest to 3d package perfection development through maxon’s C4D & Others at SPI and built a strong understanding of latest tools. KM had titles of Software Engineer, Team Lead. KM saw the light that EITG now had with new management and decided to rejoin forces with its original partner. (Heck for all I know C4D/Maya/XSI success could be do to KM various contributions with SPI sort of what we are all doing here suggesting improvement points)

(back to post)
KM seems to have knowledge of what? I don’t know other than EIM. My guess again is that he is familiar with cross platform, cross application, Linux, Microsoft OSX OSes. My concern is that EITG states “a strategic relationship” my hope that this strategic relationship will generate the same results as when apple turned Steve Jobs from Acting CEO to full fledge CEO (the analogy is not intended towards job position rather the company’s growth after the move)

Again I’m excited. Since I’m waiting until tax season maybe more details will emerge by then. Until then make sure all your eggs are not just in one basket.

Please post credits for EIM for v5 if any.

#107

[QUOTE=Vizfizz]Mike…

As I mentioned earlier…QUOTE]

thanks for taking the time to try and explain what you see/think
is happening.

Mike Fitz
www.3dartz.com

#108

Hey Paul

Thanks for the insight on your ART background. I saw your traditional work sometime ago. I admired it a great deal and wasn’t quite sure how you got that look. I used airbrush as well at one time. I think it’s a great medium. Photoshop seem to be the airbrush killer tho. I’m glad you made the transition to digital. Lots didn’t and lost their job behind it.

I use to paint. When I moved to NYC, I stopped. Oddly, that’s what I went there for.
I can’t say I lost interest, I just started learning computers. Also, it was very little space to paint in NY and the hustle and the bussle of city life slowly pried the oils brushes out of my hands. I still want to paint but Zbrush is the next best thing.

I would love a Mac version. It would be a good investment. Hate to say it, I know longer consider Maya an organics modeler.

#109

So Modo is partly the LW team…Wow. Didn’t know that! Says a lot.

#110

Yah, but they got Mark Grainger and J. Roth. Small world- ex-EI guys to Lightwave. Lightwave guys spin off to do their own thing, and now Kishore returns to EITG.

Small 3D world.

#111

Yes, reminds me of a old school song by Billy Preston_“Will it go round in circles”

So LightWave is actually EI and Modo is actually EI :slight_smile:

It’s all good in the neighborhood :slight_smile:

#112

…and EI is actually Lightwave as Dwight Parscale and Brad Parscale used to work there.

Modo has the past LW employees.

3D = small world.

Brad Parscale, CEO EI tech group came from Light Wave.
Jay Roth and Mark Granger, both founding partners came from EI.
Paul Babb, CEO Maxon came from EI.
Modo’s CEO and main partners came from Light Wave.

#113

Haha!!! Ah Yes, forgot one. And EI is LW. haha.

Too much looking over the fence and grass is greener on the other side. Everbody is in rotation in every one else’s backyard. How Ironic.

#114

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