Count on me. .........:......... Christian Lattuada
On Tue, Mar 11, 2014 at 7:58 PM, Emilio Hernandez <emi...@e-roja.com> wrote: > Hey fellows I will take Tim's letter as a template for the freelancers and > small studios 2-5 people. Sounds reasonable? > > Of course if Tim agrees. > > Cheers! > > ------------------------------------------------------- > Emilio Hernández VFX & 3D animation. > > > 2014-03-11 12:03 GMT-06:00 Rares Halmagean <ra...@rarebrush.com>: > > So true, so true. I'd like to eco how amazing softimage is for individual >> freelancers and small shops, especially since it's been backed by the >> talented td and programmers here and online. >> >> I'll add that softimage will continue to be my tool of choice for years >> to come. This makes it easier for me at least as I'm often creating assets >> that can be ported to maya or elsewhere or contracted on a start to render >> job. >> >> On 3/11/2014 11:21 AM, Tim Borgmann wrote: >> >> Hi, >> unfortunately my english is not good enough to express my feelings and >> thoughts about all this in a good and polite way and I think some mails >> like the open letter from Alastair or the mails from Greg, Peter, Jean, >> Sly, Daniel and so on express them much better than I could do. >> >> I'm just an artist, a simple freelancer, so my opinion will not be from >> interest for AD I'm sure. But nonetheless here are just some additional >> thoughts from my side: >> >> The main thing that surprises me about the decision from AD right now is >> that they make this step (stopping SI) even before they can offer any kind >> of alternative. >> >> A personal view from the artist point of view: >> A lot of my work is based on ICE and at the moment I'm simply not able to >> see a real alternative. Will I take a look at Houdini? Sure. Will I take a >> look at Modo? Sure. Blender? Sure. ... I will take a look at a lot of >> software within the next months, maybe years, to hopefully find something >> that will fit again like SI did until now. ICE gives me the ability to >> create things I would not be able to do before. I'm not a TD, I'm not able >> to write my own tools, I'm just a plain artist and so what ICE was a pure >> revolution for me and still is a joy to work with. As some of you maybe >> know I did some advertising material for the launch of XSI 7. Although I >> didn't use ICE for these images because of the fact that I didn't know ICE >> at all at this time I very quickly realised the enormous power of it. Today >> I would do it with ICE for sure and it would be much faster and more >> flexible and so I would have much more time to work on the design and >> content and would also get more sleep during production. >> >> As an artist you spend a lot of time in finding and learning the tools >> which maybe fit best to you or better said to your work. At a certain point >> you than hopefully reach a level with the tools where you can care more >> about design or creativity than about technical issues. But it's maybe a >> very long and hard way to get there and if you are there, if you can work >> with a tool without too much thinking about technical issues (some will be >> there always and you never stop learning for sure) you are very happy about >> this (at least I am). You are happy that you can focus on the creative side >> of the work and not only on solving technical problems. >> >> For sure you can learn a lot of things in another software rather fast >> since the concepts are similar, but to get at a point where you are really >> familar with a tool, where you really have a good feeling about what you >> can do and what you better avoid is a long way. Moving a spotlight around >> is one thing but finding the reason why your are getting unexpected results >> for example is often a complete different story. >> >> Who knows, maybe I will find a new tool which even fits better, maybe >> not, but just at the moment I feel like downgraded from a senior to a >> junior artist within some days. And what's even more important I'm afraid >> that I have to spend my time again on just solving technical issues instead >> on creating images. >> >> I simply feel like an artist who get told that there will be no canvas, >> brushes, oil colours any more soon and that I have to take a ball pen and >> some finger colours instead to do the work I did before. But that's just my >> personal point of view and it's for sure not from interest for AD. >> >> A more profesional view from the freelancer point of view and maybe a >> thought worth for AD: >> In my opinion the reason why SI does so well in particular in the >> advertising area is simply because it provides a solid toolset out of the >> box but even more important: it's flexible and fast. And that is was >> working in the advertising area is about. Flexibility and speed. You have a >> lot of different tasks, changes, corrections whatever to solve in sometimes >> extremly short timeframes. Often there is simply no time and also no budget >> for a big TD team which provides you the basic tools you need to do the >> work. It has to be right out of the box. And this is what AD does not offer >> with maya right at the moment. It's maybe a good tool for big >> pipelines/movie productions or whatever, it's maybe a good framework for >> custom tools, I don't know, but I doubt it is a good solution for doing >> quick and creative productions where you maybe have to rethink or rebuild a >> concept within an evening. Correct me if I'm wrong. >> Alone the passes and partions system from SI is pure gold in these kind >> of advertising productions. ICE is an option to create stuff where you >> normally would need a bigger TD team and the accordingly time for >> development. Or you can just use it to fix some smaller issues in the last >> moment on top of your operator stack. The overall workflow of SI simply >> fits in many areas of these kind of productions. So I'm really afraid for >> all these innovative and great shops which deliver outstanding work in >> short turnarounds and within a heavy competetion situation. During the last >> years and due to for example additional tools like Arnold or the ones from >> Eric, Helge and so on the quality of advertising productions done with SI >> reaches a very high level in my opinion. Small shops or small teams are >> able to create really outstanding work. >> >> As Daniel from Sehsucht stated out: "How can Autodesk get the timing so >> wrong?" >> You simply leave them with a big gap and no solution to fill it at the >> moment. >> >> So in the end, I will use SI for as long as possible (at least as an >> artist) and hope others will do so also. It's one of the best and most >> productive tools I've ever used for my work and maybe will still be within >> the next years. >> >> Best regards >> Tim Borgmann >> >> >> -- >> >> >> *Rares Halmagean ___________________________________ *visual development >> and 3d character & content creation. >> *rarebrush.com* <http://rarebrush.com/> >> > >
