date:20140326

Re: humanize Maya, SOFT top 5

2014-03-26 Thread Tim Leydecker

Can I trade the MMB functionality against the "M" key workflow?

Personally, I don´t use MMB much because when modeling, I will usually
resort to using either the "M" key or rick-clicking to access polygon 
operations.

Sliding a component (selection) around on a polygon surface is a wonderful 
feature
in Softimage.

I would say that using a combination of variations of the M key settings, add 
edge,
and extrude is covering 65% of my work for modeling, with a Split Edge (with 
split control)
here and there. I tend to model my bevels due to legacy shortcomings in tools.

A good 15% is the ease of using "U"/"T"/"E" with raycast perference options 
that prevent
selecting unwanted (backfaced) areas.

10% is viewport interaction. Tumbling around and view modes.

10% is unfold3d. (It´s a lot more this brings but it´s become so easy :-)

Using wheighting edges in subD models I refuse to use until it is consistenly 
supported
in something as reliable as a blank *.obj format in any other app available.

There´s no point in wheighting a (subD style) edge hardness when you realize 
you can´t import/export it anywhere
like that.

Cheers,

tim

P.S: Merging vertices in Maya is nicer, with it´s treshhold options.

On 27.03.2014 00:45, Luc-Eric Rousseau wrote:

We are keeping MMB Repeat under consideration for Maya, thanks all for the 
feedback.

On Wednesday, March 26, 2014, Matt Lind mailto:ml...@carbinestudios.com>> wrote:

I fully understood what your post was about, Luc-Eric.

What I stated is what many users here liked MMB upon learning about it as, 
other than myself and one other person, nobody had used Softimage before.  They 
had all come from
3DSMax and/or Maya.  Many of them have commented they wish the MMB feature 
was in Maya as it's simple, intuitive, and saves repetitive work freeing up a 
spot or two on the
keyboard for something else.  While you can use 'g' in Maya, it's not the 
same as MMB in the menus as each menu can have its own history remembering a 
different command whereas
'g' can only remember one command - the most recent.  That's important.  
Users here have a mentality burned into their skulls from those other software 
that they have to make
lots of keyboard shortcuts and toolbars to get anything done.  Introducing 
something like a MMB is a revelation as it's both simple and powerful.

What should also be conveyed is that when artists feel like they have to 
make lots of keyboard shortcuts and toolbars, they often tend to start dabbling 
in scripting to make
those customizations.  Artist code tends to be a frequent cause of fires I 
have to exterminate and generally a waste of my time as a TD.  If artists have 
these nice UI workflow
touches such as MMB to repeat, they're less inclined to write crappy code 
which means fewer fires to fight and more focus on productivity not only for 
the artists, but also for
me as it allows me to spend more time focusing on writing tools which can 
provide bigger impact than quickie buttons.

Matt

-Original Message-
From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Luc-Eric Rousseau
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2014 12:25 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: humanize Maya, SOFT top 5

On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 3:00 PM, Matt Lind  wrote:
 > Here at Carbine, users like the MMB to repeat a menu command.  It's 
popular.  They're not as fond of tear off menus.  They don't hate tear off menus, 
but given the choice
they'll use a custom key as 1st option, custom toolbar as 2nd option, and 
tear off menu as last option.  The issue being that tear off menus don't allow 
for customized menus.
You only get the existing menu structure in a different place.
 >
 > What users want is clutter free and minimal effort to execute commands 
or a series of commands.  Tear off menus are good for situations where the entire 
menu is a custom
menu of commands like a custom toolbar would be, and the commands in that 
menu are very closely related to the task at hand.  If the menu is full of 
built-in commands, they're
less liked because usually the user only cares about one or two tools in 
the menu but is stuck having to take all of them as part of the package deal 
resulting in clutter.  For
example, go to the property menu and you have entries for visibility, 
display, etc..., but also a lot of unrelated tools such as rendermap or gator.  
It's a very tall menu but
the user only wants 3 or 4 items out of 30.  If tear off menus allowed 
individual items to be torn off and merged into a toolbar, then that would be 
ideal.
 >
 > Implementing MMB to repeat a command in a menu would be a popular move.

that's OK, but that's in Softimage.  The bit that's not obvious is whether 
someone using Maya needs a MMB, that's what my post is meant to be about.
In Maya, you can even hold sh

Re: humanize Maya, SOFT top 5

2014-03-26 Thread Luc-Eric Rousseau

We are keeping MMB Repeat under consideration for Maya, thanks all for the
feedback.

On Wednesday, March 26, 2014, Matt Lind  wrote:

> I fully understood what your post was about, Luc-Eric.
>
> What I stated is what many users here liked MMB upon learning about it as,
> other than myself and one other person, nobody had used Softimage before.
>  They had all come from 3DSMax and/or Maya.  Many of them have commented
> they wish the MMB feature was in Maya as it's simple, intuitive, and saves
> repetitive work freeing up a spot or two on the keyboard for something
> else.  While you can use 'g' in Maya, it's not the same as MMB in the menus
> as each menu can have its own history remembering a different command
> whereas 'g' can only remember one command - the most recent.  That's
> important.  Users here have a mentality burned into their skulls from those
> other software that they have to make lots of keyboard shortcuts and
> toolbars to get anything done.  Introducing something like a MMB is a
> revelation as it's both simple and powerful.
>
> What should also be conveyed is that when artists feel like they have to
> make lots of keyboard shortcuts and toolbars, they often tend to start
> dabbling in scripting to make those customizations.  Artist code tends to
> be a frequent cause of fires I have to exterminate and generally a waste of
> my time as a TD.  If artists have these nice UI workflow touches such as
> MMB to repeat, they're less inclined to write crappy code which means fewer
> fires to fight and more focus on productivity not only for the artists, but
> also for me as it allows me to spend more time focusing on writing tools
> which can provide bigger impact than quickie buttons.
>
>
> Matt
>
>
>
>
> -Original Message-
> From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com  [mailto:
> softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com ] On Behalf Of
> Luc-Eric Rousseau
> Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2014 12:25 PM
> To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com 
> Subject: Re: humanize Maya, SOFT top 5
>
> On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 3:00 PM, Matt Lind 
> >
> wrote:
> > Here at Carbine, users like the MMB to repeat a menu command.  It's
> popular.  They're not as fond of tear off menus.  They don't hate tear off
> menus, but given the choice they'll use a custom key as 1st option, custom
> toolbar as 2nd option, and tear off menu as last option.  The issue being
> that tear off menus don't allow for customized menus. You only get the
> existing menu structure in a different place.
> >
> > What users want is clutter free and minimal effort to execute commands
> or a series of commands.  Tear off menus are good for situations where the
> entire menu is a custom menu of commands like a custom toolbar would be,
> and the commands in that menu are very closely related to the task at hand.
>  If the menu is full of built-in commands, they're less liked because
> usually the user only cares about one or two tools in the menu but is stuck
> having to take all of them as part of the package deal resulting in
> clutter.  For example, go to the property menu and you have entries for
> visibility, display, etc..., but also a lot of unrelated tools such as
> rendermap or gator.  It's a very tall menu but the user only wants 3 or 4
> items out of 30.  If tear off menus allowed individual items to be torn off
> and merged into a toolbar, then that would be ideal.
> >
> > Implementing MMB to repeat a command in a menu would be a popular move.
>
> that's OK, but that's in Softimage.  The bit that's not obvious is whether
> someone using Maya needs a MMB, that's what my post is meant to be about.
> In Maya, you can even hold shift+ctrl while selecting a menu to make it a
> button the shelf.  (Doing the same thing in Softimage would be a
> pain) You'll be working differently, have different reflexes.
>
>
>

Re: Oculus Rift

2014-03-26 Thread Rares Halmagean

Some very good points here. It might very well be that there will be 
options for independent developers that include advertising in return 
for low cost use of services, including the ability to self-publish and 
sell ones work online. Imagine you can build your game or whatever and 
then have access to millions of eyes for your product, with all the 
market privileges that entales with the one caveat that advertisements 
would be played on your product. A no advert option may also be 
available at a cost.  And why not?! Let's have a competitive OR CV1 
sooner than later and if an FB purchase ensures that happens, all the 
better.


I think you hit the nail on the head with patents being exploited in 
tech these days. The wise guys in politics and industry have more to 
gain from these machinations than those breaking into their own with new 
innovations. It seemed like a great idea when patent laws were written 
and passed but turned out to be a classic case of the 'pretense of 
knowledge' as Frederich Hayek put it.


All the boohoo talk on sites like reddit of boycotting Oculus over this 
purchase by FB is childish in my opinion. The OR guys made it clear 
their intent is to bring VR to the most people at an affordable price 
and their latest move is faithful to that end. And if Oculus and FB make 
enough mistakes, they'll pay for it in the market place and competitors 
will benefit.



On 3/26/2014 6:29 AM, Paul Doyle wrote:

There are three main issues with it.

Firstly, raising money for OR via kickstarter and selling people on a 
dream of an open VR platform. I don't think anyone is surprised that 
they took $2b, but it still pisses people off as they that feel their 
money was used to drive valuation for a facebook purchase. It's all 
well and good saying 'well they received DK1', but the point of 
getting DK1 was to build things for the open consumer version of the OR.


That brings up the second point. The openness of OR will go away - you 
can see from Zuckerberg's comments that their intent is around 
advertising (rivetting stuff). This suggests fb will become pervasive 
in what you can build for the OR and what requirements get introduced. 
Instead of an open hardware initiative that allowed you to do whatever 
you wanted, we're going to see that getting compromised.


Finally - Facebook are patent happy and are likely to go after 
competitors in the VR space. This is going to limit the ability of 
competitors to come into the market, and will stifle innovation. This 
is the way things go in technology now.


However - John Carmack seems to be suggesting that OR would have hit 
scaling problems without this deal. Manufacturing costs a lot of money 
and $75m plus DK orders wouldn't have allowed them to do anything 
beyond off the shelf components - so maybe this will end up with a 
better consumer unit at the end of it.


If it's not open and the drive is no longer towards games then a lot 
of the original backers and developers are going to jump ship (and 
already are). The upside to this is that there is now room for a 
competitor to come in - we might see Valve change their mind and 
introduce a consumer version of their VR stuff. However, they'll have 
to build a new team and it's going to take a long time - and they 
might get sued.



On 26 March 2014 07:12, Francisco Criado > wrote:


If fb today represents a part of your mixed virtual/real life in a
2d plane, it means with OR adquisition, maybe, some second life
style network? but second life never had the success as expected...
F.

On Wednesday, March 26, 2014, Paul Doyle mailto:technove...@gmail.com>> wrote:

"Mark Zuckerberg is already pointing out Facebook's
acquisition of Instagram as an example of how the company is
getting experience buying properties and allowing them to
continue to operate independently. Zuckerberg called out
virtual reality as one of the computing platforms of the
future -- following desktops and mobile -- and yes, talked
about building Facebook's advertising into it. *Specifically,
he talked about the potential of a virtual communication
network, buying virtual goods, and down the line, advertising."*


On 26 March 2014 06:48, Francisco Criado
 wrote:

If through fb, this arrives to the masses is better for
our work, don't you think? what better than OR helmet
being bought by lot of people.
Maybe i'm missing some point here.
F.


On Wednesday, March 26, 2014, Angus Davidson
 wrote:

Farmville 3d ;)  Oh the Horror !

It really depends if this deal makes the Oculus Rift
easily affordable then its a good deal. Jon says it
addresses some scaling issues which I am assuming to
be getting it ready for mass distribution.

RE: humanize Maya, SOFT top 5

2014-03-26 Thread Matt Lind

I fully understood what your post was about, Luc-Eric.  

What I stated is what many users here liked MMB upon learning about it as, 
other than myself and one other person, nobody had used Softimage before.  They 
had all come from 3DSMax and/or Maya.  Many of them have commented they wish 
the MMB feature was in Maya as it's simple, intuitive, and saves repetitive 
work freeing up a spot or two on the keyboard for something else.  While you 
can use 'g' in Maya, it's not the same as MMB in the menus as each menu can 
have its own history remembering a different command whereas 'g' can only 
remember one command - the most recent.  That's important.  Users here have a 
mentality burned into their skulls from those other software that they have to 
make lots of keyboard shortcuts and toolbars to get anything done.  Introducing 
something like a MMB is a revelation as it's both simple and powerful.

What should also be conveyed is that when artists feel like they have to make 
lots of keyboard shortcuts and toolbars, they often tend to start dabbling in 
scripting to make those customizations.  Artist code tends to be a frequent 
cause of fires I have to exterminate and generally a waste of my time as a TD.  
If artists have these nice UI workflow touches such as MMB to repeat, they're 
less inclined to write crappy code which means fewer fires to fight and more 
focus on productivity not only for the artists, but also for me as it allows me 
to spend more time focusing on writing tools which can provide bigger impact 
than quickie buttons.

Matt

-Original Message-
From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Luc-Eric Rousseau
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2014 12:25 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: humanize Maya, SOFT top 5

On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 3:00 PM, Matt Lind  wrote:
> Here at Carbine, users like the MMB to repeat a menu command.  It's popular.  
> They're not as fond of tear off menus.  They don't hate tear off menus, but 
> given the choice they'll use a custom key as 1st option, custom toolbar as 
> 2nd option, and tear off menu as last option.  The issue being that tear off 
> menus don't allow for customized menus. You only get the existing menu 
> structure in a different place.
>
> What users want is clutter free and minimal effort to execute commands or a 
> series of commands.  Tear off menus are good for situations where the entire 
> menu is a custom menu of commands like a custom toolbar would be, and the 
> commands in that menu are very closely related to the task at hand.  If the 
> menu is full of built-in commands, they're less liked because usually the 
> user only cares about one or two tools in the menu but is stuck having to 
> take all of them as part of the package deal resulting in clutter.  For 
> example, go to the property menu and you have entries for visibility, 
> display, etc..., but also a lot of unrelated tools such as rendermap or 
> gator.  It's a very tall menu but the user only wants 3 or 4 items out of 30. 
>  If tear off menus allowed individual items to be torn off and merged into a 
> toolbar, then that would be ideal.
>
> Implementing MMB to repeat a command in a menu would be a popular move.

that's OK, but that's in Softimage.  The bit that's not obvious is whether 
someone using Maya needs a MMB, that's what my post is meant to be about.
In Maya, you can even hold shift+ctrl while selecting a menu to make it a 
button the shelf.  (Doing the same thing in Softimage would be a
pain) You'll be working differently, have different reflexes.

Re: humanize Maya, SOFT top 5

2014-03-26 Thread John Richard Sanchez

AMEN!


On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 6:20 PM, Halim Negadi  wrote:

> +10 Greg
> should be in every single drop down menu of every app.
> Are we safe AD is not going to claim patents ? Probably not, AD had no
> clue until very recently it had this in its catalogue :|
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 10:39 PM, Greg Punchatz wrote:
>
>>  I will repeat, the middle mouse button option should be in every
>> app not just maya.  It makes sense in ANY app with drop down menu
>> systems in place.
>>
>> Please don't disregard this request.
>>  --
>> *Greg Punchatz*
>>  *Sr. Creative Director*
>> Janimation
>> 214.823.7760
>> www.janimation.com
>>
>>
>


-- 
www.johnrichardsanchez.com

Re: humanize maya, SOFT top 5

2014-03-26 Thread Greg Maguire

my 2c

1. Toggle Show/Hide and keep selected.
I like pressing 'h' a lot to toggle visibility of an object. Having to
press Shift-H and Ctl-H after finding the object has always been
counter-intuitive to me.

2. Copy Skin Weights.
Transferring weights from one object to another requires too many steps. In
maya, both objects must have the same input joints before the transfer
command can be used. This can be challenging on a complex creature with a
large number of joints. Could be made easier if there was a pulldown menu
for the command to select all inputs of a skinCluster (i.e. skinCluster -q
-weightedInfluence $theSkinCluster;) Would be even easier if "Copy Skin
Weights", found all the inputs to the skinCluster, bindSkinned the target
object to them, then transferred the weights.

3. Joint weight colors.
Use color to differentiate joint weighting assignment and not for intensity.

4. Smooth brush.
Painting weights in Maya is overly complex and unpredictable. Copying Softs
smooth brush would go a long way to fixing this. I still paint weights in
Soft and transfer the weighting to Maya. Andy wrote a python script to
export the weights inside of soft to a mel script.

5. Saving weights.
In Soft, I can save weighting on an object almost instantaneously as a
simple spreadsheet with transforms, vertices and weights. I can also load
it instantly from a file.

6. Damn, I only get 5.

I know the requests are coming through fast and furious and people may not
get to read them all but if anyone has better solutions to the problems
posed above, I'm open to a different workflow.

7. Trax - make it name-based and not index-based. (Sorry slipped)

Regards,


On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 9:40 PM, Jason S  wrote:

>
> Hello Alastair
>
> Just to say, I checked-out your page, and every single peice is just truly
> inspiring.
> http://www.glassworks.co.uk/node/549
>
> I burst into laughter at the very first singing cat/bird clip,
> and then yet again just as hard at the very next (mutant) cat/bird clip
> lol! :)
>
>
> To share a little story, while at softimage, then doing demo material on
> the almost toy-like SI3D,
> (using Metamesh Extreme under polymesh cages with the "UV editor" doing
> "interactive smoothing" :)
>
> My (or "our") first experience with Maya, was just then (*years* ago on
> SGI's),
> when we were comparing ways of doing things,
> sort-of assessing what we were up against with our own coming thing.
> (while while striving to surpass -through innovation-)
>
> So the first impression that came to mind was, man... talk about "long
> lists of parameters"..
> it was pretty daunting to wrap our head around it, it was hard to select,
> move things (like components) around,
> shading stuff with the hypershade, with relationships of nodes to other
> nodes felt like being guesswork,
> having then only just recently experienced the render tree which was then
> only a prototype and also being new to us,
> (perhaps the programmable openness of maya escaped me, mostly having an
> "artist" background)
>
> But already we saw that we were like in a different universe on how to
> approach things
> and also that we were definitely on to something.
>
>
> After an "iffy" launch of XSI 1.0, while introducing things like passes,
> and non-linear or otherwise streamlined workflows,
> there was only nurbs-stitching to get smooth uniform surfaces.. & the
> constant crashing was enough to give headaches.
>
> Yet already with the 1.5 did people see what it was all about..
>
> With the advent of Sub-d's (very fast performance subd's, with direct on
> surface points & allowing for speed organic modeling),
> is when XSI actually really picked-up as not only usable,
> but really like an overall "easy" solution to everyday otherwise tricky
> ways to getting things done quick.
>
> And since that time has there been some sort of a struggle between
> impression of potential,
> and perhaps a more down to earth everyday people approach to achieving
> higher level stuff,
> all the way leading to "Moondust".
>
>
> So earlyer this week, I opened-up Maya Demo (after years) to practice for
> an upcoming particle FX job,
> and it was like more or less XSI 4.0-6.0 particle functionality,
> but with (pages of) parameters all "listed", yet again after ~15 years.
>
> The hypershade is still there and basically the same
> (with a node editor on top while having to manage both)
>
> Clicking viewports to activate them, deselects whatever you had selected..
> I could go on with TONS of little things off the bat,
> and I constantly find other comparative "things" by the hour.
> (after some research on each point to see if I'm just missing something,
> and perhaps I still am but..)
>
> The thing is, anyone submerged in & knowing only Maya (being most people
> working on it i suspect)
> could just never grasp how many subtleties were thought about when
> designing SI's workflow.
> (and therefore what it represents to it'

Re: Oculus Rift

2014-03-26 Thread Alan Fregtman

The Skype guys were very clever that time. They sold for a pretty penny but
kept the patented core tech to themselves for eBay to pay licensing fees
on. :)

On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 5:32 PM, Luc-Eric Rousseau wrote:

> this reminds me of when eBay bought Skype for a fortune, thinking that
> buyers/sellers would want to use that to chat.
>

Re: humanize Maya, SOFT top 5

2014-03-26 Thread Halim Negadi

+10 Greg
should be in every single drop down menu of every app.
Are we safe AD is not going to claim patents ? Probably not, AD had no clue
until very recently it had this in its catalogue :|


On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 10:39 PM, Greg Punchatz  wrote:

>  I will repeat, the middle mouse button option should be in every app
> not just maya.  It makes sense in ANY app with drop down menu systems in
> place.
>
> Please don't disregard this request.
>  --
> *Greg Punchatz*
>  *Sr. Creative Director*
> Janimation
> 214.823.7760
> www.janimation.com
>
>

Re: humanize Maya, SOFT top 5

2014-03-26 Thread Adam Seeley

++1


Another part of it's elegance is that it doesn't just work on top dropdowns, 
but also on sub menu dropdowns.

I still try it,  jussst in case, in most applications, it could easily be a 
software standard.

Adam.

_

http://www.linkedin.com/in/adamseeleyuk
https://vimeo.com/adamseeley




>
> From: Greg Punchatz 
>To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com 
>Sent: Wednesday, 26 March 2014, 21:39
>Subject: Re: humanize Maya, SOFT top 5
> 
>
>
>I will repeat, the middle mouse button option should be in every app not 
>just maya.  It makes sense in ANY app with drop down menu systems in place.
>
>Please don't disregard this request.
>
> 
>
>
> Greg Punchatz
>
>Sr. Creative Director
>Janimation
>214.823.7760214.823.7760
>www.janimation.com 
>
>
>
>

Re: Oculus Rift

2014-03-26 Thread Doeke Wartena

Yes Leendert, i think your right on that.
But i can't really decide what i prefer more, i prefer to boycot AD unless
i can't resist. But i don't really like facebook as a company either.


2014-03-26 22:32 GMT+01:00 Luc-Eric Rousseau :

> this reminds me of when eBay bought Skype for a fortune, thinking that
> buyers/sellers would want to use that to chat.
>

Re: humanize maya, SOFT top 5

2014-03-26 Thread Jason S

Hello Alastair

Just to say, I checked-out your page, and every single peice is just
truly inspiring.
http://www.glassworks.co.uk/node/549

I burst into laughter at the very first singing cat/bird clip,
and then yet again just as hard at the very next (mutant)
cat/bird clip lol! :)

To share a little story, while at softimage, then doing demo material
on the almost toy-like SI3D,
(using Metamesh Extreme under polymesh cages with the "UV
editor" doing "interactive
smoothing" :)

My (or "our") first experience with Maya, was just then (*years* ago on
SGI's),
when we were comparing ways of doing things,
sort-of assessing what we were up against with our own coming thing.
(while while striving to surpass -through innovation-)

So the first impression that came to mind was, man... talk
about "long lists of parameters"..
it was pretty daunting to wrap our head around it, it was hard to
select, move things (like components) around,
shading stuff with the hypershade, with relationships of nodes to other
nodes felt like being guesswork,
having then only just recently experienced the render tree which was
then only a prototype and also being new to us,
(perhaps the programmable openness of maya escaped me, mostly
having an
"artist" background)

But already we saw that we were like in a different universe on how to
approach things
and also that we were definitely on to something.

After an "iffy" launch of XSI 1.0, while introducing things like
passes, and non-linear or otherwise streamlined workflows,
there was only nurbs-stitching to get smooth uniform surfaces.. &
the constant
crashing was enough to give headaches.

Yet already with the 1.5 did people see
what it was all about..

With the advent of Sub-d's (very fast performance subd's, with
direct on surface points & allowing for speed organic modeling),

is when XSI actually really picked-up as
not only usable,
but really like an overall "easy" solution to everyday
otherwise tricky ways to getting things done quick.

And since that time has there been some sort of a struggle between
impression of potential,
and perhaps a more down to earth everyday people approach to achieving
higher level stuff,
all the way leading to "Moondust".

So earlyer this week, I opened-up Maya Demo (after years) to practice
for an upcoming particle FX job,
and it was like more or less XSI 4.0-6.0 particle functionality,
but with (pages of) parameters all "listed", yet again
after ~15 years.

The hypershade is still there and basically the same
(with a node
editor on top while having to manage both)

Clicking viewports to activate them, deselects whatever you had
selected..
I could go on with TONS of little things off the bat,
and I constantly find other comparative "things" by the hour.
(after some research on each point to see if I'm just missing
something, and perhaps I still am but..)

The thing is, anyone submerged in & knowing only Maya (being most
people working on it i suspect)
could just never grasp how many subtleties were thought about when
designing SI's workflow.
(and therefore what it represents to it's users)

Alastair, one of your clips is the Bjork android video,
and I clearly remember when that came-out,
being around when XSI also came-out, and I was really "aww-ed" :)

And then on the words "you'll be given love..", said when giving
life to a robot,
I recall thinking how that really applied to what we were doing.. cause
not unlike a good song,
anything well thought-out in every subtlety, or "made with 'love' "
can indeed qualify as having "soul" that you can "feel".

And "soul" is something you couldn't buy with billions of dollars.
As it has to be real for it to be, otherwise it's just not.

And I think that's what made DS so "intimidating" to Avid,
and XSI so "intimidating" to Autodesk, especially with the advent of
ICE.

So how about "Soul" as bullet-point feature request ;)

And I think I will end on that,
Cheers,
J

On 03/25/14 13:52, Alastair Hearsum wrote:

Jean louis

You beat me to it. I was just about to say that.

Alastair

Alastair Hearsum
Head of 3d

On 25/03/2014 17:49, Jean-Louis Billard wrote:

Hi Shuting,

That’s not the same thing at all I’m afraid. In Softimage *every* menu has it’s own memory of the last command accessed. So you can middle click any menu and repeat its last command (as long as there has been one used within the session)

Regards,
Jean-Louis

Jean-Louis Billard

Digital Golem
BE: +32 (0) 484 263 563
UK: +44 (0) 7973 660 119
jean-lo...@digitalgolem.com
http://www.digitalgolem.com/
53 Rue Gustave Huberti
1030 Brussels

Re: humanize Maya, SOFT top 5

2014-03-26 Thread Greg Punchatz

I will repeat, the middle mouse button option should be in every app 
not just maya.  It makes sense in ANY app with drop down menu systems in 
place.


Please don't disregard this request.

*Greg Punchatz*
*Sr. Creative Director*
Janimation
214.823.7760
www.janimation.com

Re: Oculus Rift

2014-03-26 Thread Luc-Eric Rousseau

this reminds me of when eBay bought Skype for a fortune, thinking that
buyers/sellers would want to use that to chat.

Re: Oculus Rift

2014-03-26 Thread Leendert A. Hartog

All current sentiments aside, don't you think a company like Autodesk 
would have been able to put it to better use than Facebook, their core 
business considered?


Greetz
Leendert

--

Leendert A. Hartog – Softimage hobbyist
AKA Hirazi Blue – Administrator  @, NOT the owner of  si-community.com

Re: Oculus Rift

2014-03-26 Thread Doeke Wartena

nice one Tom :)
But thank god AD didn't buy it.


2014-03-26 16:19 GMT+01:00 Tim Crowson :

>  The future of Oculus Rift is bright.
> -Tim
>
>
>
> On 3/26/2014 8:47 AM, Alok Gandhi wrote:
>
> I have pre-ordered OR Dev 2 Kit. They said they will let me know when they
> ship. Can't wait to develop for it. It opens up a lot of exciting avenues
> for sure.
>
>
>  On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 5:57 PM, Leendert A. Hartog 
> wrote:
>
>> Paul Doyle schreef op 26-3-2014 13:08:
>>
>>  Can we not make this thread about the Soft EOL? Just one thread would be
>>> nice.
>>>
>>
>>  Again: only meant as an example (we can all relate to) :D
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> Leendert A. Hartog - Softimage hobbyist
>> AKA Hirazi Blue - Administrator  @, NOT the owner of  si-community.com
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>  --
>
>
> --
>
>
>
>

Re: planned transitional training?

2014-03-26 Thread Leendert A. Hartog

I was thinking along the lines of training that addresses the specific 
problems for users coming from Softimage.

I am aware of the wealth of training for Maya in general.

Greetz
Leendert

--

Leendert A. Hartog – Softimage hobbyist
AKA Hirazi Blue – Administrator  @, NOT the owner of  si-community.com

Re: planned transitional training?

2014-03-26 Thread John Richard Sanchez

Here is some training to get you started right away. From Jeremy Birn
author of Digital Lighting and Rendering. It is now free. How cool is that?
http://www.3drender.com/DVD1/index.htm





www.johnrichardsanchez.com

Re: An Open Letter to Carl Bass

2014-03-26 Thread Perry Harovas

Thank you.

I understood your offer to be an honest one, Maurice.
Thank you, much appreciated.

I may take you up on that one day.
I was only in Montreal once, for the launch of XSI so it as a while ago,
but I loved the city.

Perry




On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 3:30 PM, Maurice Patel
wrote:

> Hi Perry,
> BTW. That was not an empty invite, If you ever do make your way to
> Montreal I will give you an in depth look at how we work.
> maurice
>
> Maurice Patel
> Autodesk : Tél:  514 954-7134
>
> From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
> softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Perry Harovas
> Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2014 3:27 PM
> To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
> Subject: Re: An Open Letter to Carl Bass
>
> Alright. Thank you Maurice.
>
> Very well said, and I appreciate the difficulty in discussing this via
> email.
>
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 2:47 PM, Maurice Patel  > wrote:
> Any such move has short term upfront costs. The hope in making such moves
> is that they translate into longer-term benefits which is what the thinking
> was at the time. I can't go into all the details of what costs what, so my
> statement was a simplification. We make these kinds of moves from time to
> time. This was not the first and won't be the last. Before even the Alias
> acquisition we moved the entire 3ds Max R&D team from San Francisco to
> Montreal. People wondered why - it was very costly in  the short term but
> proved beneficial in the long run for many factors not just related to
> costs. Personally,  I don't actually know how many engineers we had before
> or after and we don't publicly discuss size of engineering teams, and even
> internally we leave that up to R&D to figure out, because it is often a
> meaningless discussion without fully understanding what the exact
> experience and capability of each engineer and each team. Both increasing
> and decreasing team size can improve productivity depending on the
> situation. People are people so there is no real formula. If you want to
> really understand the exact details of how an organization like Autodesk
> functions I invite you to come visit us in Montreal. It would be the only
> real way to begin to try to do so. My point was that from an investment
> perspective the decisions being made were not about investing or divesting
> but about how we could be more productive overall with the similar budgets.
> maurice
>
> Maurice Patel
> Autodesk : Tél:  514 954-7134
> From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com> [mailto:
> softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com>] On Behalf Of Perry Harovas
> Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2014 2:25 PM
> To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com >
> Subject: Re: An Open Letter to Carl Bass
> OK, thank you for clearing that up, Maurice.
>
> So you are saying that moving Softimage to the Singapore team was a direct
> lateral move, not an increase but also not a decrease, in the team that was
> previously on Softimage (apart from being different people, of course)?
>
> So (for argument sake) if you had 10 people when Softimage was in-house,
> you had 10 people when it was moved to Singapore?
>
> I just want to make sure I totally understand you, not trying to trap you
> or anything.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Perry
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
>
>
>
>
> Perry Harovas
> Animation and Visual Effects
>
> http://www.TheAfterImage.com
>
> -25 Years Experience
> -Member of the Visual Effects Society (VES)
>



-- 





Perry Harovas
Animation and Visual Effects

http://www.TheAfterImage.com 

-25 Years Experience
-Member of the Visual Effects Society (VES)

RE: humanize Maya, SOFT top 5

2014-03-26 Thread Ponthieux, Joseph G. (LARC-E1A)[LITES]

I'd argue that having 100 "g" keys in Maya would be far better than 1. 

It's a real pain to have to re-initialize a tool just to get it to repeat 
because you did something else that erased the "g" memory. There is wasted time 
and effort there.

There is the temporal factor as well. In Maya "g" is only useful if you use it 
immediately after the command you want to repeat. I make a sphere, then 
duplicate with transform at 10 units. I hit "g" eight times I'll get ten sphere 
total ten units apart. In Soft, if I don't use the primitive button all day 
long I can middle click repeat the sphere creation command eight hours later, 
regardless what else I do. That's just not possible in Maya. 

The significance of this one seemingly mundane command really can't be ignored. 
It's far more than "just" a repeat tool. 

--
Joey Ponthieux
__
Opinions stated here-in are strictly those of the author and do not 
represent the opinions of NASA or any other party.

> -Original Message-
> From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-
> boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Luc-Eric Rousseau
> Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2014 2:51 PM
> To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
> Subject: Re: humanize Maya, SOFT top 5
> 
> On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 7:40 AM, Martin Yara  wrote:
> > While I like this MMB repeat function, but I don't see how it could be
> > implemented in Maya without having to heavily change its interface.
> 
> I think technically MMB could possibly be implemented in Maya's menu
> (although perhaps not on OSX), but I'm not 50% sure that this is a true
> problem.  In Sofitmage, we structured some menus knowing that you would
> be doing MMB on those big buttons to repeat commands burried in there
> two levels deep. (More so in Softimage 3D, for example to set keys, but
> anyway)  But in Maya, you'll be interacting  with the software differently,
> including using marking menus, hotkeys, and hotbox.
> 
> In the XSI viewport, you can MMB to toggle between the two last modes, for
> example wireframe and textured, but that's not a 'repeat last command', it's
> a special case for that button.
> 
> I'm not opposing MMB, but I'm not totally sold on whether this is essential
> and not simply a legacy user / muscle memory thing.  Don't forget also tear
> off menus as a way to repeat commands quickly.
> 
> we did add to Maya the ability to keep a menu open to do check several
> checkmarks like in XSI; in Maya in on the CTRL key

RE: An Open Letter to Carl Bass

2014-03-26 Thread Maurice Patel

Hi Perry,
BTW. That was not an empty invite, If you ever do make your way to Montreal I 
will give you an in depth look at how we work.
maurice

Maurice Patel
Autodesk : Tél:  514 954-7134

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Perry Harovas
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2014 3:27 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: An Open Letter to Carl Bass

Alright. Thank you Maurice.

Very well said, and I appreciate the difficulty in discussing this via email.



On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 2:47 PM, Maurice Patel 
mailto:maurice.pa...@autodesk.com>> wrote:
Any such move has short term upfront costs. The hope in making such moves is 
that they translate into longer-term benefits which is what the thinking was at 
the time. I can't go into all the details of what costs what, so my statement 
was a simplification. We make these kinds of moves from time to time. This was 
not the first and won't be the last. Before even the Alias acquisition we moved 
the entire 3ds Max R&D team from San Francisco to Montreal. People wondered why 
- it was very costly in  the short term but proved beneficial in the long run 
for many factors not just related to costs. Personally,  I don't actually know 
how many engineers we had before or after and we don't publicly discuss size of 
engineering teams, and even internally we leave that up to R&D to figure out, 
because it is often a meaningless discussion without fully understanding what 
the exact experience and capability of each engineer and each team. Both 
increasing and decreasing team size can improve productivity depending on the 
situation. People are people so there is no real formula. If you want to really 
understand the exact details of how an organization like Autodesk functions I 
invite you to come visit us in Montreal. It would be the only real way to begin 
to try to do so. My point was that from an investment perspective the decisions 
being made were not about investing or divesting but about how we could be more 
productive overall with the similar budgets.
maurice

Maurice Patel
Autodesk : Tél:  514 954-7134
From: 
softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
 
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com]
 On Behalf Of Perry Harovas
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2014 2:25 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: An Open Letter to Carl Bass
OK, thank you for clearing that up, Maurice.

So you are saying that moving Softimage to the Singapore team was a direct 
lateral move, not an increase but also not a decrease, in the team that was 
previously on Softimage (apart from being different people, of course)?

So (for argument sake) if you had 10 people when Softimage was in-house, you 
had 10 people when it was moved to Singapore?

I just want to make sure I totally understand you, not trying to trap you or 
anything.

Thank you,

Perry







--




Perry Harovas
Animation and Visual Effects

http://www.TheAfterImage.com

-25 Years Experience
-Member of the Visual Effects Society (VES)
<>

RE: humanize Maya, SOFT top 5

2014-03-26 Thread Ponthieux, Joseph G. (LARC-E1A)[LITES]

I started using XSI at home about the time of Foundation which was 4.2 I think. 
It wasn't until about 2007  that I transitioned from Maya to XSI on a permanent 
basis at work. Everything XSI prior to that point was unusable there. All I had 
was Onyx and an Octane 2s. From my perspective, it's always been there :)
 
Tear off menus are only practical if you have lots of expendable screen real 
estate, but yes they are another option. I don't think I've used a Maya tear 
off in maybe 10 years though.


--
Joey Ponthieux
__
Opinions stated here-in are strictly those of the author and do not 
represent the opinions of NASA or any other party.

> -Original Message-
> From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-
> boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Luc-Eric Rousseau
> Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2014 2:56 PM
> To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
> Subject: Re: humanize Maya, SOFT top 5
> 
> On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 9:44 AM, Ponthieux, Joseph G.
> (LARC-E1A)[LITES]  wrote:
> > If you don't use the hotbox much or at all, it's going to be difficult to 
> > avoid
> shelves if you want to improve your workflow in Maya. Maya, like most 3D
> apps is multi-modular, meaning that in Maya the filebar and the menu
> commands it presents changes context with each Module you are working in
> such as Polygons, Surfaces, Animation, etc. Soft does the same thing except
> in Soft the filebar does not change. Rather in Soft,  the Main Toolbar changes
> with modular context instead. Since Softimage's filebar never changes and
> provides access to all commands all the time, it provides the same level of
> access as the hotbox, plus additional functionality such as construction
> modes, passes, and search abilities.
> >
> > Why might you find shelves important to your workflow in Maya? In
> general, while in Maya, and in a particular module, say Polygons, the Maya
> filebar will not present all menu commands available to you. This becomes
> critical to understand when you are modeling polygons with deformers since
> deformers are located in the Animation Module. Therefor you can't access
> deformers while modeling in the Polygons module unless you
> > A. Use the Deformation Shelf in the Polygon Module, or
> > B. Use the Polygons Shelf in the Animation Module, or
> > C. Use the hotbox.
> > Your workflow then consists of mixing shelves and general filebar menu
> commands and potentially hotbox commands if you are willing to put up with
> the hotbox. Other examples of combination practices will include polygons
> and materials, surfaces and materials, polygons and subdivisions, and
> animation and dynamics.
> 
> 
> It's rather new that you have access to all the module menus in XSI at the
> same time; I added this I think XSI 5.1 or 6.0.
> 
> In Maya, don't forget tear off menu. You can easily tear off the deformer
> menu from Animation, and change to the modeling menu set, and therefore
> get both,
> 
> The default shelf is indeed there to play around and explore the program, for
> new/casual users. It doesn't have everything in there.

Re: An Open Letter to Carl Bass

2014-03-26 Thread Perry Harovas

Alright. Thank you Maurice.

Very well said, and I appreciate the difficulty in discussing this via
email.




On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 2:47 PM, Maurice Patel
wrote:

> Any such move has short term upfront costs. The hope in making such moves
> is that they translate into longer-term benefits which is what the thinking
> was at the time. I can't go into all the details of what costs what, so my
> statement was a simplification. We make these kinds of moves from time to
> time. This was not the first and won't be the last. Before even the Alias
> acquisition we moved the entire 3ds Max R&D team from San Francisco to
> Montreal. People wondered why - it was very costly in  the short term but
> proved beneficial in the long run for many factors not just related to
> costs. Personally,  I don't actually know how many engineers we had before
> or after and we don't publicly discuss size of engineering teams, and even
> internally we leave that up to R&D to figure out, because it is often a
> meaningless discussion without fully understanding what the exact
> experience and capability of each engineer and each team. Both increasing
> and decreasing team size can improve productivity depending on the
> situation. People are people so there is no real formula. If you want to
> really understand the exact details of how an organization like Autodesk
> functions I invite you to come visit us in Montreal. It would be the only
> real way to begin to try to do so. My point was that from an investment
> perspective the decisions being made were not about investing or divesting
> but about how we could be more productive overall with the similar budgets.
> maurice
>
> Maurice Patel
> Autodesk : Tél:  514 954-7134
>
> From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
> softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Perry Harovas
> Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2014 2:25 PM
> To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
> Subject: Re: An Open Letter to Carl Bass
>
> OK, thank you for clearing that up, Maurice.
>
> So you are saying that moving Softimage to the Singapore team was a direct
> lateral move, not an increase but also not a decrease, in the team that was
> previously on Softimage (apart from being different people, of course)?
>
> So (for argument sake) if you had 10 people when Softimage was in-house,
> you had 10 people when it was moved to Singapore?
>
> I just want to make sure I totally understand you, not trying to trap you
> or anything.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Perry
>
>
>
>
>
>


-- 





Perry Harovas
Animation and Visual Effects

http://www.TheAfterImage.com 

-25 Years Experience
-Member of the Visual Effects Society (VES)

Re: humanize Maya, SOFT top 5

2014-03-26 Thread Luc-Eric Rousseau

On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 3:00 PM, Matt Lind  wrote:
> Here at Carbine, users like the MMB to repeat a menu command.  It's popular.  
> They're not as fond of tear off menus.  They don't hate tear off menus, but 
> given the choice they'll use a custom key as 1st option, custom toolbar as 
> 2nd option, and tear off menu as last option.  The issue being that tear off 
> menus don't allow for customized menus. You only get the existing menu 
> structure in a different place.
>
> What users want is clutter free and minimal effort to execute commands or a 
> series of commands.  Tear off menus are good for situations where the entire 
> menu is a custom menu of commands like a custom toolbar would be, and the 
> commands in that menu are very closely related to the task at hand.  If the 
> menu is full of built-in commands, they're less liked because usually the 
> user only cares about one or two tools in the menu but is stuck having to 
> take all of them as part of the package deal resulting in clutter.  For 
> example, go to the property menu and you have entries for visibility, 
> display, etc..., but also a lot of unrelated tools such as rendermap or 
> gator.  It's a very tall menu but the user only wants 3 or 4 items out of 30. 
>  If tear off menus allowed individual items to be torn off and merged into a 
> toolbar, then that would be ideal.
>
> Implementing MMB to repeat a command in a menu would be a popular move.

that's OK, but that's in Softimage.  The bit that's not obvious is
whether someone using Maya needs a MMB, that's what my post is meant
to be about.
In Maya, you can even hold shift+ctrl while selecting a menu to make
it a button the shelf.  (Doing the same thing in Softimage would be a
pain) You'll be working differently, have different reflexes.

RE: An Open Letter to Carl Bass

2014-03-26 Thread Maurice Patel

HI Francisco,
Did you get me email? I need your contact info so someone can call you 
regarding this. Please can you send it to my Autodesk account today?
Thanks
maurice

Maurice Patel
Autodesk : Tél:  514 954-7134

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Francisco Criado
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2014 6:57 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: An Open Letter to Carl Bass

Hi Maurice, for the third time now ...(seems you are too much worried with the 
discusion and not with the replies :) ) i would like to purchase a couple of 
licenses of Softimage, and your offices from Argentina don´t know what 
Softimage is, and they say that Autodesk doesn´t sell this product. Can you 
give me a hand with this?

Thanks in advance,
F.

(a simple latino from third world, nothing fancy here)

<>

RE: humanize Maya, SOFT top 5

2014-03-26 Thread Matt Lind

Here at Carbine, users like the MMB to repeat a menu command.  It's popular.  
They're not as fond of tear off menus.  They don't hate tear off menus, but 
given the choice they'll use a custom key as 1st option, custom toolbar as 2nd 
option, and tear off menu as last option.  The issue being that tear off menus 
don't allow for customized menus. You only get the existing menu structure in a 
different place.  

What users want is clutter free and minimal effort to execute commands or a 
series of commands.  Tear off menus are good for situations where the entire 
menu is a custom menu of commands like a custom toolbar would be, and the 
commands in that menu are very closely related to the task at hand.  If the 
menu is full of built-in commands, they're less liked because usually the user 
only cares about one or two tools in the menu but is stuck having to take all 
of them as part of the package deal resulting in clutter.  For example, go to 
the property menu and you have entries for visibility, display, etc..., but 
also a lot of unrelated tools such as rendermap or gator.  It's a very tall 
menu but the user only wants 3 or 4 items out of 30.  If tear off menus allowed 
individual items to be torn off and merged into a toolbar, then that would be 
ideal.

Implementing MMB to repeat a command in a menu would be a popular move.

Matt

-Original Message-
From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Luc-Eric Rousseau
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2014 11:51 AM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: humanize Maya, SOFT top 5

On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 7:40 AM, Martin Yara  wrote:
> While I like this MMB repeat function, but I don't see how it could be 
> implemented in Maya without having to heavily change its interface.

I think technically MMB could possibly be implemented in Maya's menu (although 
perhaps not on OSX), but I'm not 50% sure that this is a true problem.  In 
Sofitmage, we structured some menus knowing that you would be doing MMB on 
those big buttons to repeat commands burried in there two levels deep. (More so 
in Softimage 3D, for example to set keys, but anyway)  But in Maya, you'll be 
interacting  with the software differently, including using marking menus, 
hotkeys, and hotbox.

In the XSI viewport, you can MMB to toggle between the two last modes, for 
example wireframe and textured, but that's not a 'repeat last command', it's a 
special case for that button.

I'm not opposing MMB, but I'm not totally sold on whether this is essential and 
not simply a legacy user / muscle memory thing.  Don't forget also tear off 
menus as a way to repeat commands quickly.

we did add to Maya the ability to keep a menu open to do check several 
checkmarks like in XSI; in Maya in on the CTRL key

Re: humanize Maya, SOFT top 5

2014-03-26 Thread Luc-Eric Rousseau

On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 9:44 AM, Ponthieux, Joseph G.
(LARC-E1A)[LITES]  wrote:
> If you don't use the hotbox much or at all, it's going to be difficult to 
> avoid shelves if you want to improve your workflow in Maya. Maya, like most 
> 3D apps is multi-modular, meaning that in Maya the filebar and the menu 
> commands it presents changes context with each Module you are working in such 
> as Polygons, Surfaces, Animation, etc. Soft does the same thing except in 
> Soft the filebar does not change. Rather in Soft,  the Main Toolbar changes 
> with modular context instead. Since Softimage's filebar never changes and 
> provides access to all commands all the time, it provides the same level of 
> access as the hotbox, plus additional functionality such as construction 
> modes, passes, and search abilities.
>
> Why might you find shelves important to your workflow in Maya? In general, 
> while in Maya, and in a particular module, say Polygons, the Maya filebar 
> will not present all menu commands available to you. This becomes critical to 
> understand when you are modeling polygons with deformers since deformers are 
> located in the Animation Module. Therefor you can't access deformers while 
> modeling in the Polygons module unless you
> A. Use the Deformation Shelf in the Polygon Module, or
> B. Use the Polygons Shelf in the Animation Module, or
> C. Use the hotbox.
> Your workflow then consists of mixing shelves and general filebar menu 
> commands and potentially hotbox commands if you are willing to put up with 
> the hotbox. Other examples of combination practices will include polygons and 
> materials, surfaces and materials, polygons and subdivisions, and animation 
> and dynamics.


It's rather new that you have access to all the module menus in XSI at
the same time; I added this I think XSI 5.1 or 6.0.

In Maya, don't forget tear off menu. You can easily tear off the
deformer menu from Animation, and change to the modeling menu set, and
therefore get both,

The default shelf is indeed there to play around and explore the
program, for new/casual users. It doesn't have everything in there.

RE: An Open Letter to Carl Bass

2014-03-26 Thread Maurice Patel

I think I just answered this to Perry -  text communication just seems to be a 
natural  for reinforcing confirmation biases. I am simplifying and you are 
simplifying in order to communicate using this method, but we are not 
understanding each other - which is why, personally, I prefer to talk about 
things.

Maurice Patel
Autodesk : Tél:  514 954-7134

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Mirko Jankovic
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2014 2:34 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: An Open Letter to Carl Bass

Also in same numbers, if you had 10 people that are experienced in Softimage, 
and you got another 10 people in Singapore, why you haven't added those 10 for 
Maya and keep Softimage people focused on their work.
By you mean AD and ofc it is just rhetorical...but even in that case isn;t 
replacing 10 years long experineced people with less experineced only short 
time transition period training on on software such as complex as 3d app already
reduction in resources?
10 seniors != 10 juniors


On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 7:25 PM, Perry Harovas 
mailto:perryharo...@gmail.com>> wrote:
OK, thank you for clearing that up, Maurice.

So you are saying that moving Softimage to the Singapore team was a direct 
lateral move, not an increase but also not a decrease, in the team that was 
previously on Softimage (apart from being different people, of course)?

So (for argument sake) if you had 10 people when Softimage was in-house, you 
had 10 people when it was moved to Singapore?

I just want to make sure I totally understand you, not trying to trap you or 
anything.

Thank you,

Perry





On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 2:15 PM, Maurice Patel 
mailto:maurice.pa...@autodesk.com>> wrote:
Hi Perry,
If you are quoting me, my meaning is that we were maintaining resources not 
investing more and not divesting. I was talking about increasing/decreasing 
resources on the project not about the software itself. Just want to make sure 
that was clear. If you have a team of 10, maintaining resources would keep it 
at current levels. Investing 10% would be increasing it to 11.
Thanks
Maurice

Maurice Patel
Autodesk : Tél:  514 954-7134
http://www.creativebloq.com/3d/autodesk-answers-your-questions-demise-softimage-31411069
"We go through strategic planning each year, and it was part of that process 
that the decision was made. Softimage wasn't an area we were actively investing 
more resources in, it was something that we had outsourced to Singapore and was 
in a continue-to-maintain mode. But it wasn't something we were thinking of 
end-of-lifing until that strategic planning process."



--




Perry Harovas
Animation and Visual Effects

http://www.TheAfterImage.com

-25 Years Experience
-Member of the Visual Effects Society (VES)

<>

Re: humanize Maya, SOFT top 5

2014-03-26 Thread Luc-Eric Rousseau

On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 7:40 AM, Martin Yara  wrote:
> While I like this MMB repeat function, but I don't see how it could be
> implemented in Maya without having to heavily change its interface.

I think technically MMB could possibly be implemented in Maya's menu
(although perhaps not on OSX), but I'm not 50% sure that this is a
true problem.  In Sofitmage, we structured some menus knowing that you
would be doing MMB on those big buttons to repeat commands burried in
there two levels deep. (More so in Softimage 3D, for example to set
keys, but anyway)  But in Maya, you'll be interacting  with the
software differently, including using marking menus, hotkeys, and
hotbox.

In the XSI viewport, you can MMB to toggle between the two last modes,
for example wireframe and textured, but that's not a 'repeat last
command', it's a special case for that button.

I'm not opposing MMB, but I'm not totally sold on whether this is
essential and not simply a legacy user / muscle memory thing.  Don't
forget also tear off menus as a way to repeat commands quickly.

we did add to Maya the ability to keep a menu open to do check several
checkmarks like in XSI; in Maya in on the CTRL key

Re[2]: Everything's being said.

2014-03-26 Thread Eugen Sares


After all that has been said here, I believe that the urge of AD to
quickly make Bifröst to something ICE-like or better, is overestimated..
Why should they be in any hurry? Because of a few Softies migrating to
Houdini?

The vast majority of ME customers don't even use or need ICE, and also
never bothered looking into the other qualities of Softimage besides
ICE, and so will just happily remain sailing under AD's flag.
I don't think that all of a sudden most users will develop an appetite
for this. You don't miss what you don't know, and we all are also
creatures of habit.

So things will stay as they are in AD land a little longer - as long as
there are ANY improvements, no matter how small or slow, the show will
go on.
These users are the ones that AD feels responsible for, and it makes
business sense, too.

Not that max or Maya users don't create brilliant work! But obviously
they are to a degree happy with their workflows, otherwise Soft would
have had much more admission meanwhile.
The user base that tries to be 'cutting edge' with a small team and a
single application is just a minority.

Probably Bifröst will some day be 'cutting edge', too, but at it's own
slow pace. For AD, there's no pressure or imminent threat, so be
prepared for a probably longer wait than two years.
Convenient situation for AD, in fact. They can play around as long as
they like, with the tempo they choose, and the next generation of 3d
artist will surely reap the benefits one day.


For now, the good thing is that the competition is already taking
advantage of the beginning Softimage diaspora. For them, the number of
users are relevant, unlike for AD.

My 2c
Best regards,
Eugen




-- Originalnachricht --
Von: "Paul Griswold" 
An: "Eric Thivierge" 
Cc: "softimage@listproc.autodesk.com" 
Gesendet: 26.03.2014 18:37:21
Betreff: Re: Everything's being said.


Right.  That's how I understood it as well.  My point was, this could
have been slightly less of a PR disaster if they'd not completely
murdered Softimage, but instead set it up as a "graceful transition" to
Bifrost.  Allow Softimage to continue to be purchased as part of the
Suites program until the point at which Bifrost makes it obvious that
ICE is no longer necessary.

Instead they've set themselves up for a situation where Autodesk has
absolutely no answer to Houdini at all for sale, and a promise of
Bifrost being an amazing new technology.  SideFX and The Foundry aren't
going to sit on their hands while Autodesk builds Bifrost, so IMHO the
best business decision would have been to try to mitigate any losses by
keeping Softimage available to the public while Bifrost matures.

You'd think after what happened with Sumatra versus Maya they'd have
realized it's not a good idea to create a vacuum for too long.

-Paul




On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 1:27 PM, Eric Thivierge
 wrote:

This has all been made crystal clear over the last few weeks. No, "if
you keep your subscription current" you will be able to. It's a legacy
subscription benefit. I think it's crazy for people to not keep their
subscription up to date for at least this next year to be able to get
Softimage 2015. <-- Personal opinion.

Eric T.


On Wednesday, March 26, 2014 1:18:49 PM, Paul Griswold wrote:

So in 2 years if I want to buy an Ultimate Suite as a new license I
will get Softimage included?

If so, I'm slightly less ticked off.

-Paul






---
Diese E-Mail ist frei von Viren und Malware, denn der avast! Antivirus Schutz 
ist aktiv.
http://www.avast.com

RE: An Open Letter to Carl Bass

2014-03-26 Thread Maurice Patel

Any such move has short term upfront costs. The hope in making such moves is 
that they translate into longer-term benefits which is what the thinking was at 
the time. I can't go into all the details of what costs what, so my statement 
was a simplification. We make these kinds of moves from time to time. This was 
not the first and won't be the last. Before even the Alias acquisition we moved 
the entire 3ds Max R&D team from San Francisco to Montreal. People wondered why 
- it was very costly in  the short term but proved beneficial in the long run 
for many factors not just related to costs. Personally,  I don't actually know 
how many engineers we had before or after and we don't publicly discuss size of 
engineering teams, and even internally we leave that up to R&D to figure out, 
because it is often a meaningless discussion without fully understanding what 
the exact experience and capability of each engineer and each team. Both 
increasing and decreasing team size can improve productivity depending on the 
situation. People are people so there is no real formula. If you want to really 
understand the exact details of how an organization like Autodesk functions I 
invite you to come visit us in Montreal. It would be the only real way to begin 
to try to do so. My point was that from an investment perspective the decisions 
being made were not about investing or divesting but about how we could be more 
productive overall with the similar budgets.
maurice

Maurice Patel
Autodesk : Tél:  514 954-7134

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Perry Harovas
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2014 2:25 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: An Open Letter to Carl Bass

OK, thank you for clearing that up, Maurice.

So you are saying that moving Softimage to the Singapore team was a direct 
lateral move, not an increase but also not a decrease, in the team that was 
previously on Softimage (apart from being different people, of course)?

So (for argument sake) if you had 10 people when Softimage was in-house, you 
had 10 people when it was moved to Singapore?

I just want to make sure I totally understand you, not trying to trap you or 
anything.

Thank you,

Perry





<>

Re: An Open Letter to Carl Bass

2014-03-26 Thread Mirko Jankovic

Also in same numbers, if you had 10 people that are experienced in
Softimage, and you got another 10 people in Singapore, why you haven't
added those 10 for Maya and keep Softimage people focused on their work.
By you mean AD and ofc it is just rhetorical...but even in that case isn;t
replacing 10 years long experineced people with less experineced only short
time transition period training on on software such as complex as 3d app
already
reduction in resources?
10 seniors != 10 juniors



On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 7:25 PM, Perry Harovas wrote:

> OK, thank you for clearing that up, Maurice.
>
> So you are saying that moving Softimage to the Singapore team was a direct
> lateral move, not an increase but also not a decrease, in the team that was
> previously on Softimage (apart from being different people, of course)?
>
> So (for argument sake) if you had 10 people when Softimage was in-house,
> you had 10 people when it was moved to Singapore?
>
> I just want to make sure I totally understand you, not trying to trap you
> or anything.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Perry
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 2:15 PM, Maurice Patel  > wrote:
>
>> Hi Perry,
>> If you are quoting me, my meaning is that we were maintaining resources
>> not investing more and not divesting. I was talking about
>> increasing/decreasing resources on the project not about the software
>> itself. Just want to make sure that was clear. If you have a team of 10,
>> maintaining resources would keep it at current levels. Investing 10% would
>> be increasing it to 11.
>> Thanks
>> Maurice
>>
>> Maurice Patel
>> Autodesk : Tél:  514 954-7134
>>
>>
>> http://www.creativebloq.com/3d/autodesk-answers-your-questions-demise-softimage-31411069
>> "We go through strategic planning each year, and it was part of that
>> process that the decision was made. Softimage wasn't an area we were
>> actively investing more resources in, it was something that we had
>> outsourced to Singapore and was in a continue-to-maintain mode. But it
>> wasn't something we were thinking of end-of-lifing until that strategic
>> planning process."
>>
>>
>
>
> --
>
>
>
>
>
> Perry Harovas
> Animation and Visual Effects
>
> http://www.TheAfterImage.com 
>
> -25 Years Experience
> -Member of the Visual Effects Society (VES)
>

Re: An Open Letter to Carl Bass

2014-03-26 Thread Perry Harovas

OK, thank you for clearing that up, Maurice.

So you are saying that moving Softimage to the Singapore team was a direct
lateral move, not an increase but also not a decrease, in the team that was
previously on Softimage (apart from being different people, of course)?

So (for argument sake) if you had 10 people when Softimage was in-house,
you had 10 people when it was moved to Singapore?

I just want to make sure I totally understand you, not trying to trap you
or anything.

Thank you,

Perry

On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 2:15 PM, Maurice Patel
wrote:

> Hi Perry,
> If you are quoting me, my meaning is that we were maintaining resources
> not investing more and not divesting. I was talking about
> increasing/decreasing resources on the project not about the software
> itself. Just want to make sure that was clear. If you have a team of 10,
> maintaining resources would keep it at current levels. Investing 10% would
> be increasing it to 11.
> Thanks
> Maurice
>
> Maurice Patel
> Autodesk : Tél:  514 954-7134
>
>
> http://www.creativebloq.com/3d/autodesk-answers-your-questions-demise-softimage-31411069
> "We go through strategic planning each year, and it was part of that
> process that the decision was made. Softimage wasn't an area we were
> actively investing more resources in, it was something that we had
> outsourced to Singapore and was in a continue-to-maintain mode. But it
> wasn't something we were thinking of end-of-lifing until that strategic
> planning process."
>
>

-- 

Perry Harovas
Animation and Visual Effects

http://www.TheAfterImage.com 

-25 Years Experience
-Member of the Visual Effects Society (VES)

RE: An Open Letter to Carl Bass

2014-03-26 Thread Maurice Patel

BTW I just chose those numbers because they were easy to calculate before I 
start another set of speculation
maurice

Maurice Patel
Autodesk : Tél:  514 954-7134

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Maurice Patel
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2014 2:15 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: RE: An Open Letter to Carl Bass

Hi Perry,
If you are quoting me, my meaning is that we were maintaining resources not 
investing more and not divesting. I was talking about increasing/decreasing 
resources on the project not about the software itself. Just want to make sure 
that was clear. If you have a team of 10, maintaining resources would keep it 
at current levels. Investing 10% would be increasing it to 11.
Thanks
Maurice

Maurice Patel
Autodesk : Tél:  514 954-7134

http://www.creativebloq.com/3d/autodesk-answers-your-questions-demise-softimage-31411069
"We go through strategic planning each year, and it was part of that process 
that the decision was made. Softimage wasn't an area we were actively investing 
more resources in, it was something that we had outsourced to Singapore and was 
in a continue-to-maintain mode. But it wasn't something we were thinking of 
end-of-lifing until that strategic planning process."

<>

RE: An Open Letter to Carl Bass

2014-03-26 Thread Maurice Patel

Hi Perry,
If you are quoting me, my meaning is that we were maintaining resources not 
investing more and not divesting. I was talking about increasing/decreasing 
resources on the project not about the software itself. Just want to make sure 
that was clear. If you have a team of 10, maintaining resources would keep it 
at current levels. Investing 10% would be increasing it to 11.
Thanks
Maurice

Maurice Patel
Autodesk : Tél:  514 954-7134

http://www.creativebloq.com/3d/autodesk-answers-your-questions-demise-softimage-31411069
"We go through strategic planning each year, and it was part of that process 
that the decision was made. Softimage wasn't an area we were actively investing 
more resources in, it was something that we had outsourced to Singapore and was 
in a continue-to-maintain mode. But it wasn't something we were thinking of 
end-of-lifing until that strategic planning process."

<>

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