Hi Sylvain, I was just agreeing about Raff's eloquent emphasis on how experience is not directly linked to what software you use. Lack of foresight on a project can erode all the advantages gained by slick tools.
The truth is that our industry is constantly changing with new innovations and it has always been my philosophy that we either adapt to the tools given to us and make the best of them, or gain the skills to develop new tools. This will continue as long as we have an industry, and we should by all means embrace it. I started using Maya since 3.0 and XSI in 4.0.1. And though I'm a huge fan of Softimage, it's contextual intelligence, and it's passionate community, I never really felt comfortable putting all my eggs in one basket. Today, I leverage Maya for nCloth and animation, XSI for the generalist tasks of modeling and ass-saving ability, and Houdini for FX. XSI was always my secret weapon though. We switch context all the time in 3D. Your viewport tools compared to your graph editor and then to ICE are all completely different. And then we probably go home and put in a couple hours of gaming, another interface to deal with. 3D to me it just like that. I'm constantly changing interfaces and workflows anyway. And I think of Maya, Softimage, and Houdini in that way. When it comes to managing projects, it's incredibly beneficial for a lead to grasp a broad understanding of not only the process, but the workflows and advantages that each package brings to the table. Here at the Mill LA, it's not unusual for us to mix Maya and Houdini. Most of the time, the pitches are done by one guy in Softimage, but I have to go in and figure out a way to replicate that process in Maya our Houdini because of talent availability and the need to scale. And you know what, our end product benefits from leveraging the best out of our tools and our people. The reality is that Softimage will be around for 2 more years. A lot can change. I remember when Shake was bought out and my favorite compositor of all time went away. Ask me to give up Nuke now for Shake. No way!! It took some time and the pains were real. But today, I'm a lot more efficient with Nuke than I ever was with Shake. And I hope one day, I'll be more proficient in another 3D app than I am with what I have now. Change is what makes our industry the exciting fun one that inspired us to join in this crazy party. I don't worry about the tools of the future because as long as you guys are still in the game, I believe we will find a way like we have been doing all those years the past. It's gonna take more than one silly company and one horrible decisions to put me out the pasture. And you guys with your wealth of talent and experience should feel the same. Sorry for being an absolute child on the internet. -Lu On Thu, Mar 13, 2014 at 6:48 PM, Sylvain Lebeau <s...@shedmtl.com> wrote: > euh... > > Lu, it's different for everyone. Studios and/or individuals. > It's all about how you feel and how much time you will be able to put into > learning new stuffs to become productive as you are used to be. > > I dont see any "Boom!!" here. Raff is not bashing Olivier at all. > > He is right (as always). But i also understands Olivier's feeling and > uncertainity. It's just normal to have fear of the unknown in our day to > day life that puts the peanut butter on our tables. > > Is there a Uber/Ultimate solution to all of this for everyone's needs? > Awnser is NO. > > > What's your personnal plan Lu? > > > sly > > > > *Sylvain Lebeau // SHED* > V-P/Visual effects supervisor > 1410, RUE STANLEY, 11E ÉTAGE MONTRÉAL (QUÉBEC) H3A 1P8 > T 514 849-1555 F 514 849-5025 WWW.SHEDMTL.COM <http://www.shedmtl.com/> < > http://WWW.SHEDMTL.COM <http://www.shedmtl.com/>> > > VFX Curriculum 03: Compositing Basics > mail to: s...@shedmtl.com > > > > > On Mar 13, 2014, at 8:57 PM, Meng-Yang Lu <ntmon...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Words were said. Boom! > > -Lu > > > On Thu, Mar 13, 2014 at 5:30 PM, Eric Thivierge <ethivie...@gmail.com>wrote: > >> Yeah, what he said. >> >> -------------------------------------------- >> Eric Thivierge >> http://www.ethivierge.com >> >> >> On Thu, Mar 13, 2014 at 8:23 PM, Raffaele Fragapane < >> raffsxsil...@googlemail.com> wrote: >> >>> Let me clarify that I'm not saying you have it easy by any means, but as >>> an individual you are in control of you own time, unconditionally. >>> You don't NEED TO drop Soft right now (unless the job market withers >>> instantly), you can keep doing business as usual as an individual for at >>> least a few months, and go in crunch time to re-educate yourself freely in >>> your spare time. That's by no means ideal, or even nice, but you can do it; >>> you can turn on a dime. >>> >>> You decide to learn rigging in Maya? You can still model in Soft, you >>> are a one man band pipe, that's a no brainer, and then you can double up >>> your rigging effort to rig the thing in Soft for your client output, and >>> try to replicate it in Maya at night. >>> >>> Unless you have, and need to, work for 16 hours a day you should have a >>> pile of free time you wouldn't have been able to monetize otherwise that >>> you now have to "invest", even if against your will. >>> >>> As a company it's not that simple. You don't have such a commodity as >>> non monetized time. Every single minute of your employees is paid for in >>> one way or another. Money, TIL, or if you don't offer recompense for >>> overtime much worse consequences. You do not have the same agility, simple >>> as that, and while as an individual you are fully in control of your assets >>> and Q/C is in built in the work itself, as a company those interim stage >>> have considerable added cost and require refactoring. >>> >>> Now, again, please don't think I'm downplaying this. We all have >>> hobbies, or families, or excees of work, or a mix of those, and it's a >>> very, very real cost to sacrifice any of those for the sake of re >>> qualifying yourself. If it's not an economic cost (no work excess you can >>> sell), at the very least it's a considerable emotional and intellectual >>> effort which is very likely to drain you, and sustained for too long will >>> eventually affect the money earning hours of your day, and is therefore to >>> be managed carefully. >>> >>> The only reason I'm continuing this debate isn't for the sake of >>> argument, it's because I'm witnessing a lot of defeatism, and purely out of >>> care for my peers and a community I've been part of for my entire adult >>> life I'd like to see people shake free of it. >>> Saying that changing application will demote you to junior for a while >>> is non-sense. The distinction between a junior and a senior is NOT their >>> software dexterity, if it was we'd look for app monkeys and would never >>> re-train people across software. >>> The distinction between a junior and a senior is experience, ingenuity >>> matured into applicable skills, the ability to think logically and >>> critically under pressure, the sum of all their projects giving them vision >>> over the next. Nobody will take any of that away from you, don't let >>> anything or anybody EVER convince you that you are the software you use. It >>> has impact, considerable impact, but it only defines a very small part of >>> your overall value. >>> >> > >
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