www.si-community.com

It hasn't made an appearance in "my own" Subscription Center yet,
so "mileage may vary".

Lucky here, running on trial until the "contract manager" is back.
Quick Syflex on ICE check.. looks like it's working

Still waiting for the EDU versions ;(

What is that option rray?

Any info of what is the ICE attribute editor and how can be helpful?

The ICE version of Syflex cloth ignored any changing values of per point attributes when they were caused by keyframes.. it only worked when the changes were caused by user interaction. Looks like that is fixed now.

Attribute editor looks potentially very useful - it's a spreadsheet with all the attributes of the selected object, their context and some other settings that I've never heard of. It look like it's all editable too, the more obscure options (custom dynamic/static/always evaluated) probably allow some advanced tweaking that wasn't possible before. For example "always evalued" looks like it might be useful if ICE optimization hits too hard.

Found an issue though when sharing an ICE node's geometry output between two inputs -- that one worked before.

Downloading now, won't install it until I finish the current project.

I want to test the new script option aspect and mila material as soon as I can.

So has anyone of you going the "Way of Transition" (it's the new Zen, or so I hear... )
to Softimage/Max or Softimage/Maya already have any clue how this is going to work/"go down" in a practical sense, after having contacted your reseller to state your intentions (as to Max or Maya)?

PS My own download of Softimage 2015 did land a few hours ago BTW.

I did the transition to Maya in October 2013 when Autodesk had the upgrade to ultimate offer. The move to Maya has not been easy but if you are going to do it, learn the Maya way, trying to force the Softimage workflow on Maya will not work to your advantage in the long run.

[*] Start with the basic (navigation, hot box, menues, hypergraph, scene graph, outliner, channel box, attribute editor, hot keys, etc.)
[*] Choose an area you are confortable with and learn how Maya does it. Expand in your area of expertise first. You are not trying to learn box modeling here (you already know that) but the best way to do it in Maya.
[*] Build on commonalities using your knowledge of 3D environment (coordinate system, MR shadings, transformation and deformers, 3D Math, etc).
[*] As you get confortable with the Maya interface, expand in another area you know. Trust your knowledge and skills.
[*] Learn some basic MEL scripting, Maya is heavily build on this and sooner or later you will need some little scripts to automate your workflow. Python is good as well if you already know how to program in Python.
[*] Be curious, inquisitive and open minded. If you hit an issue, seach the help file and the internet, it's amazing the amount of information on Maya. If you get stuck ask a question on CG Society, The Area or even on this forum. It's often too easy to compare negatively Maya, this is an obstacle to learning that you need to get away from quickly.
[*] Be focussed, you can loose hours in exploring Maya. Put on paper a plan to get where you want to go, set yourself some goals and objectives and stick to it. You will have time to explore later.
[*] There are quite a few videos out there on Maya, but many are too basic for your needs, select and whatch only those that meet your goals/objectives. Many are long winded, skip to the good part if necessary. Keep good notes.
[*] Practice, practice, practice. The aim here is to rebuild you muscle memory to Maya as quickly as possible.

Good luck.

BTW, Softimage 2015 is not a bad version at all. Some good workflow enhancement at first glance.

I actually meant getting the software and the corresponding license, but thanks for your tips anyway...
;)

Daniel Brassard wrote:Downloading now, won't install it until I finish the current project.

I want to test the new script option aspect and mila material as soon as I can.

I dont think MiLa are implemented in it, but i might be wrong. Anyone can confirm if they are or not?

Daniel Brassard wrote: [*] Learn some basic MEL scripting, Maya is heavily build on this and sooner or later you will need some little scripts to automate your workflow. Python is good as well if you already know how to program in Python.

If you are going to learn scripting learn Python. Please don't waste any time with MEL:

- It is VERY restrictive (the default python libraries are a blast to work with)
- You can only use it in Maya (you can use Python in pretty much any DCC these days)
- There is nothing you can do in MEL you cannot do in Python

The only reason people still use it is habit.

Sorry for the offtopic ;)

You'll be looking at mel code sooner or later, even if it is just to set animation expressions or browsing through the mel code to see how Maya is implemented.

Isn't a code/script/plugin in MEL to run faster in Maya than Python?

As for learning Python, I find this simple intro very helpful.

http://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-4 ... fwVP0CougD


As for 3ds Max, It's seems to be a lost cause. In any case, lately I've been reading cool uses of 3ds Max in VFX for movies or environments (ILM used a lot on Cap America 2).

Hi Maximus,

Softimage comes with Mental Ray 3.12, same for Maya/Max. Soft comes now with a string option feature in the render manager. I have not check yet if the MILA shaders are in Softimage but according to ARC, Mental Ray 3.12 comes with a stabe version of the MILA shaders. If not, I can probably use the version I have from ARC.

Looking forward to test Soft 2015.

I've got an embarrassingly slow video card and progressive rendering in SI 2015's render preview is awesome.

Anyone installing 2015 in Linux that can tell me if the Linux installers are any better ?

Have to wait until frikken May 7th to install mine