Looks Amazing! Can't believe you've been working on just this since Barnyard!!! It shows.
Congratulations! On Tue, Jun 3, 2014 at 10:00 PM, Matt Lind <ml...@carbinestudios.com> wrote: > I don’t get to say this often, but I’ve finished a project using Softimage > which all can see. Well, it’s not actually ‘finished’ as it’s an online > game which is continuously maintained, updated, and ongoing, but it’s now > live and I can talk about it beyond generalizations. Yay! My last > completed project was my previous production –Barnyard the animated feature > back in 2006. It’s been a long time coming, a relief, and refreshing to be > able to refer to something I did in the current decade. > > > > Wildstar officially launched last Friday night at midnight for early > access, but opened up the flood gates today for everybody else. The game > is now running smoothly in North America and Europe for all to see and > experience. If you were part of the beta, let it be known significant > improvements have been made since on all fronts. If you haven’t tried the > game yet, point your browser to www.wildstar-online.com and click on the > shiny buttons. The first 30 days are free with initial purchase. > > > > Production started in 2005 using Softimage XSI v3.5 and launched with > Softimage 2013 SP1 – all of it in 32 bit land. Majority of the content > created in Softimage 7.5 which we used for roughly 5 years. Softimage was > used for a heavy majority of the 3D artwork including characters, props, > environments (other than the ground), buildings, dungeons, and everything > inside of them. We didn’t use ICE at all (but not for lack of trying, and > we tested heavily), so this is a good example of what the fundamental > toolset can do. Heavy use of custom properties, vertex colors, user > normals, clusters, envelopes, UV spaces, and hardware (real time) shaders > to customize and iterate on our content. What made these simple components > really nice is they were general and could be re-targeted for many uses > outside of their original intended purpose. Our particles were created and > applied in Softimage, but simulated only in engine. The SDK was used to > write 500+ tools to assist artists to create their content include tools > like ‘mimick’ which is a command similar to GATOR which can transfer > attributes, but do so on select subcomponents instead of the entire object, > along with other bells and whistles. Often overlooked and understated, > but Softimage scaling was incredibly powerful for controlling the squash > and stretch scaling of deformers used in our envelopes to animate > characters with cartoon whimsy and without ugly shearing often associated > with other software. It is used on every asset that moves. Relational > views were used to create tools such as a face editor to view and animate > faces for our player characters, and adjust face customizations to see how > they’d appear in the game as each of our characters have multiple faces and > other components which can plug in like a Mr. Potato head doll. It was > important to see the various components in context side-by-side for > comparison while creating the content so consistency could be maintained. > This was achieved using many ‘object view’ embedded into the relational > view. Under the hood the face editor drove the animation mixer to perform > face pose blending so artists could see the animation in real time on their > characters. Also, NURBS, that’s right, NURBS surfaces were used to > transfer face poses and clothing between characters. The details must > remain a trade secret, but I just had to mention we used NURBS in all their > unfinished glory to get meaningful work done with significant contributions > to the end product. Render passes were used to re-dress environments to > allow artists to create geometry once, then swap textures, shader settings, > and other details many times for each variant of the environment. Not only > does it simplify the artist workflow by centralizing all their interaction > to a few clicks, but it also allows assets to be packed into compact files > for use in our engine. Render passes are used in housing and dungeons. If > we had to do this in Maya, we’d probably have to break up each variant into > its own scene and have to figure out a way to merge all the scenes together > that shared the same geometry. These polished touches matter. Softimage > for the win. > > > > So that said, while many 3D software could create the assets in their own > time and space vacuum, Softimage (in my opinion) was the only software that > could’ve tackled this project given our specific time, resources, and > budget as there were many close calls along the way. I say Softimage > because many of the aforementioned features came out of the box with us > ready to roll and not have to spend oodles of time reinventing the wheel. > Not having to write an animation mixer to do face pose blending, or render > pass systems to do texture/shader swaps were incredible time savers and > something we could lean on. Spreadsheet queries and custom selection > filters allowed us to quickly and easily find our custom data in any scene > with just a click, view the data in a clean environment, and change it in > bulk, if necessary without worry of missing a spot – highly important for > finding and fixing bugs. The elegant user experience was paramount to > getting work done on tight schedules at high quality with minimal > development resources available. Everybody says that, but in our case it > couldn’t be more true. That user experience extends to the SDK as well. > Not having to relearn or rewrite code over many versions and upgrades over > the span of nearly a decade was quite important in maintaining continuity > and stability. The scripting object model was more than a blessing to get > under the hood and target only what we needed rather than having to rely on > combinations of commands which do more work than necessary or don’t do > exactly what we need as is available in most other 3D software. Backward > compatibility with the API for C++ development was very important too. > While today’s OpenGL/DirectX viewport may seem antiquated, at the time this > project started it was ahead of and more capable than any other in the > industry, and fully compatible with all the other tools such as render > passes. That cannot be overlooked. > > > > Finally, I should thank all the hard work and contributions from the > Softimage developers and support, past and present, who put such an > application together to make it possible. Not just the foresight to see > and understand the artist’s point of view, but also in the continued > listening and support when we needed help along the way whether it be to > fix bugs, augment existing features, or implement new features to > accommodate our needs. Building such an application is more than just > writing and compiling code – it’s about understanding people. You cannot > understand people without forming relationships and maintaining those > relationships over the long haul. Softimage made the effort to establish > and maintain those relationships contributing help and advice along the > way, and that is why so many successful projects have resulted. As much as > I’ve ragged on many points, the bigger picture is not lost on the fact > Softimage is a very capable and strong swiss army knife of 3D software to > tackle many projects fearlessly. It’s just a shame that in all my years of > working with Softimage|XSI, this is only the 2nd long form project I’ve > been able to call complete (due to project durations) and will be a shame > that there will likely not be a 3rd. One point of satisfaction is of > having worked on one of the first XSI projects in ‘Panic Room’, and now > finishing one of the last in ‘Wildstar’. Both poetically apropos as Panic > Room was a project fighting with a then beta-quality release rushed to > market full of many bugs while Wildstar is a game about exploring and > settling the planet Nexus much like the old west of America’s pioneer days > of the 1800’s with wagons, staking claims to territory, gold rushes, and > shootouts. Only fitting as I must now look forward to a new destiny in > uncharted territory as Softimage has literally been part of half my life in > the 21 years I’ve used both Softimage|3D and Softimage|XSI….(and Eddie > too!). > > > > Thank you, Softimage. > > > > > > Matt >
