Hi All, I was getting off a plane in Austin on my way to SXSW when I read the news about Soft being discontinued. Even though, as I said for a long time, I expected it to happen, it was still a shock. That was the day I unsubscribed to this list.
For a variety of reasons and for quite some time, I had been trying find something else to do. The state of the industry is pretty awful compared to even just a few years ago. Soft being killed was the last straw. I started using Soft 3D in 1995 and next year would have been 20 years since I began my 3D career in NYC. So instead of continuing on and having to learn a whole new set of tools, it was time to seriously evaluate my future in VFX. I was at the point where if one more person asked me to make a car out of smoke and turn it into 3 dragons made of water and one made out of fire, I was going to shoot myself. I decided to go in an entirely new direction and began coursework to become a User Experience (UX) designer, which I completed a short time ago. I spent a great deal of time on this list and I have to thank all of you who have pitched in over the years and helped me out. You're a great group of people. I felt a little bad having just signed off like I did, so on that note... So long and thanks for all the fish. Eric