New to Houdini and this community.

Autodesk just axed Softimage so there's a big chance that many XSI users will flock your way in the next months or years.

I hope you'll be a better home for us.
-
McNistor

They've take the site down … but here is a quote.

SideFX, please, please, make some adjustments in the animation sector so all of us ex-Softimage users can run here. I don't want to ever give a dime to Autodesk in my life.

Autodesk Softimage’s retirement: what you need to know

Autodesk have just announced that they will be retiring Softimage over the next couple of years. The good news is that it’ll be going out with a bang, with a final version slated for release in 2015.

So why kill off Softimage? Well, Autodesk already have two insanely popular, industry standard 3D software products on their books – 3ds Max and Maya – and want to concentrate all their efforts on those, and start adding Softimage’s functionality into the Entertainment Creation Suites. So it’s not a proper goodbye, more like ‘see you around’.
What do I do now?
Anyone with Softimage and a current subscription will be able to migrate to a bundle of Softimage 2015 and 3ds Max or Maya free of charge to ease their transition over the next two year period. After that time, you’ll simply be migrated to the most up to date version of 3ds Max or Maya. The transition isn’t compulsory though, and there are a few things that current Softimage users can do.

Softimage customers looking to expand their user base in the short term can buy a bundle of Softimage with Max or Maya for £3900. There’s also a rental licence available too, which you can pay for either on a perpetual or quarterly basis.

How about Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suites?
Now for Autodesk’s Entertainment Creation Suites. For the 2015 releases, there will only be two versions of the suite – Standard and Ultimate. Customers on the Premium suite will be able to transition to the Ultimate, but downgrading to Standard won’t be possible. As only advanced subscriptions are available for the Ultimate suite, it looks like the prices of these will be lowered too.
What about support?

Don’t worry, Autodesk will still have your back covered with support. Subscription customers will continue to receive support for Softimage for two years until April 2016 or until their current subscription contract had run out. Service packs for Softimage are expected to be provided until April 30th 2016, and if you want to remain on subscription for Softimage but not migrate, you can retain your subscription until 30 April 2016.

http://www.jigsaw24.com/news/news/11949-autodesk-softimages-retirement-what-you-need-to-know/ [jigsaw24.com]

yes, please, many softimage users now search a new home (and ADSK was never a home for us)
update modelling tool (copy softimage one, or doing something new, but please improve the base tool because are very bad…) and put some love into animation and my money will be your.

Hi all,
I think Softimage users should highlight several of Softimage's strong points in CA tools like motion retargeting, character referencing and a few others so that the concepts can be streamlined further in Houdini either using existing tools or to be developed next.

Hoping that SideFX would grab this chance to increase Houdini's market share.

Cheers,

Wow - bummer for softimage users, but I think its great news for Houdini peeps - as this may actually lead to further character and modelling tools devlopments, especially with all the fresh intake of users.

I am in transition to houdini from xsi for some time now.
Constantly switching from bliss to total frustration. But I am getting somewhere.

One thing that annoys me is the response in connecting nodes inside a vop sop.
i am so used to the flawless handling in ice . . .
But i think I found a new home.

Remember to send RFE's (Request For Enhancement) to SideFX or write in the wishlist [sidefx.com]. Writing on the forums or silently wishing something would be better probably won't make things better at all

I've transitioned from Soft about a year ago. Fully commercial version too. I'm teaching, so in the educational realm. I've stopped teaching anything in Soft completely, and gone deep down the rabbit hole in Houdini. The animation system is awesome, particle and DOP system is very much like ICE, (especially the VOP system), and the only thing that really needs some help is the modeling system. I don't think it's anything the Houdini folks aren't aware of, but specific details about what we feel is missing would be fantastic. If I get together some specific details about the things I miss, I'll post them up. In the meantime, I'm adding some character modeling videos to CMIVFX library, to augment my earlier Softimage titles. We are working hard to add some “Softimage to Houdini” titles to our site very soon.

It makes a lot more sense to transition from Soft to Houdini than to Maya, or Max. Max makes absolutely no sense, IMHO. It's very old code, and feels like it's on its last leg. Softimage was beautifully multithreaded and amazingly fast.

ctedin
I've transitioned from Soft about a year ago. Fully commercial version too. I'm teaching, so in the educational realm. I've stopped teaching anything in Soft completely, and gone deep down the rabbit hole in Houdini. The animation system is awesome, particle and DOP system is very much like ICE, (especially the VOP system), and the only thing that really needs some help is the modeling system. I don't think it's anything the Houdini folks aren't aware of, but specific details about what we feel is missing would be fantastic. If I get together some specific details about the things I miss, I'll post them up. In the meantime, I'm adding some character modeling videos to CMIVFX library, to augment my earlier Softimage titles. We are working hard to add some “Softimage to Houdini” titles to our site very soon.

It makes a lot more sense to transition from Soft to Houdini than to Maya, or Max. Max makes absolutely no sense, IMHO. It's very old code, and feels like it's on its last leg. Softimage was beautifully multithreaded and amazingly fast.

Amen to that.

McNistor
New to Houdini and this community.

Autodesk just axed Softimage so there's a big chance that many XSI users will flock your way in the next months or years.

I hope you'll be a better home for us.

Welcome! We'll do our best to make sure your new home is comfy, and that it stays that way

First off welcome.

For those that like ICE , you seem to forgetting ICE is a limited copy of the Houdini way of working, since ICE there have been vast improvements in Houdini. Unlike ICE in Houdini you can pull in and shift data around all Houdini's contexts ie DOPs , SOPs etc etc .

Feel free to visit my site and grab some scene files and read my notes. www.circusmonkey.com.au


Rob

I am so upset for SoftImage Users ,But that's no problem !

************ Welcome to the Houdini *************

Allow me the “usual” shameless plug of directing all disappointed Softimage users with Houdini-related plans towards our general-purpose asset library qLib. Our goal is to make our life easier – and hopefully yours, too.

download at: http://qlab.github.io/qLib/ [qlab.github.io]
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/qLib/145692112131248 [facebook.com]
album: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.396009720432818.98425.145692112131248&type=3 [facebook.com]

If there's anything you'd find inconvenient in your future day-to-day working with Houdini, chances are you'll find an asset in there to make life easier for you. (Make sure you scroll through the facebook timeline for some nice pictures and stuff.)

—-

My personal opinion about the SI shutdown: it's very “autodesk-logical” to kill your only software with the capabilities of building procedural content. Very forward-thinking and all that.

Thank you for your input riviera.

How are things at Digic?

I Salut you from across the border (Romania) 8)

I was wondering why BulletSOP(http://forums.odforce.net/forum/69-bullet/ [forums.odforce.net]) has so many downloads today and when I read this great/bad news, everything is clear

So I can only say Welcome ex-XSI users!

riviera
Allow me the “usual” shameless plug of directing all disappointed Softimage users with Houdini-related plans towards our general-purpose asset library qLib.

wohaa this is great!

i am implementing some of my ICE tools with vop sops, as learning exercise.
I can contribute to that.

Hello everybody!

I've been using XSI since v6 (not too long I know) and intent to never give Autodesk any money again. Will look into Houdini in the next few months so hi there.

ace63
Hello everybody!

I've been using XSI since v6 (not too long I know) and intent to never give Autodesk any money again. Will look into Houdini in the next few months so hi there.

You're welcome!!

sekow

riviera
Allow me the “usual” shameless plug of directing all disappointed Softimage users with Houdini-related plans towards our general-purpose asset library qLib.

i am implementing some of my ICE tools with vop sops, as learning exercise.
I can contribute to that.

contributions are always welcome (but i don't mean to push this thread in too off-topic directions – why i actually mentioned qLib is because when we started it we were in a similar situation, coming from other software and feeling the lack of some convenience tools.)

so, back on topic. i don't mean to pour some more gasoline on the flames, but i think this decision of autodesk is very foolish in the long term. applied computer graphics is ever-growing, with a crazy amount of data (geometry, textures, images, etc) being generated, and the bar being raised for every movie released.

with proper education, the procedural approach is the most powerful one to turn human work into visual effects (or, almost any CGI on a mass scale). a software company that discards such a tool just hurts its customer base for the long term (not mentioning its reputation).

of course one could always speculate of the (X)SI codebase reemerging as parts of Maya, but let's be honest, that's very unlikely. (and even if that happened – a proper software is not just features, but features and years of user experience/feedback combined.)

I made a lot of destruction/vehicle animations in XSI fro Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.
But has switch to Houdini about 5 years ago by many reasons - more predictable simulation, much better control etc…