Again a newbies question: XSI2 or Maya

[abojung]

I just want to ask the question, that is
bothering me for almost 2 weeks now,
I hope that noone's going to hurt me for it:

What program should I use? XSI2 or Maya?
What is better - for example in "Animation"
"Creating special effects" , "Dynamic Simulations"
and "Fur", not to forget the differences beetwen
MEL scripting and the scripts used in XSI2.

Ok... so why again this question?
Yes - i know - it was discussed plenty of times,
but that was nearly always BEFORE XSI2 was released.
Everyone talked about the features it could
have, how nice it cool be...

Now it's been released and I would really appreciate
if someone, who already used it, could get me
some insight of how the situation is.
And of course I would like to hear the opinion of
those artists who had "the pleasure" to use both,
XSI2 and Maya.

Should I go with Maya?
Anyones talking about it - that it's the
industrial standart for animation etc.

I like the hotbox, like the maya cloth system -
but there are the renderer, the probs with
sub-d's (I've heard so - I'm a newbie, please have
mercy with me if I'm wrong! ).
XSI got Mental Ray build in, got a composer,
got the "better" fur (again, of what I've read
for example in this board - maybe I'm wrong) -
the interface is not comparable with Mayas - more
with the interface of Lightwave.

Yes - I know - not the software makes the
good artist, its the stuff the artists manages
to get out of the software...
But why learn something which is (maybe) not
used by the industry...

In the next time there'll be no great production
house around me - no renderfarms - no special folks
who take all the work from me --- it's just me.
But after all I would like to get some decent results,
maybe good enough for a demo reel or just a little
animation for friends and colleges.

That's why I dont know if I should use Maya, 'cause
it seems like a teamwork-prog to me - there's too
much of anything to do anything by myself... or am
I again wrong?

It would be a great pleasure to read some opinions
here - maybe it helps me to choose the "right" thing...
(If there IS something like "right" or "wrong" - "good" or "bad" sigh)

Faeroon

PS: XSI and Maya are BOTH very good professional programs
- no need to point that out. *has read some threads where
the people started to discuss like "Maya is
the best - I am not going to explain why - its... BECAUSE!
Maya is the best - Maya is the best.. NAH-NAH-NAH-NA! "*

[atyss]

Please, do yourself a favor: when the XSI 2 demo is available, order it and try it yourself.

You are right: this topic has been discussed sooo many times, and will probably end only when one of these software will die. Since you will always get different answers from each party, the best thing you can do is try it yourself.

I also recommend that you search the various XSI sections on this forum, since you are the 1000th to ask this question. Just taking a look at the past 20 threads in this very section will provide you with answers. Also, go check in the XSI List archive.
http://www.softimage.com/community/xsi/dis...T=XSI&A=xsi

Also, there are 2 factors that you must consider:
1-User tastes. The answer to your questions will probably differ from one user to another, because each user has its preferences. A user can find that Maya Fur rocks, and another might think that XSI Hair is simply divine.
2-Marketing. Maya is very resourceful when it comes to marketing, no doubt about that. What I can say is don't trust any promo [censored] from Alias or Softimage, like "(...) is a very powerful tool that allowed us to achieve a tremendous level of development that wouldn't have been possible otherwise blah blah blah...." It's not because everyone SEEM to be using Maya that this is true or that they are happy with it.

As a side note, you'll not be able to get a complete user feedback about XSI 2 until a certain time, because many users still don't have their license.

Bernard Lebel

[curry]

Hi Faeroon
I am use both Xsi and Maya

Hereinafter is only reflect my opinion

Interface:
Xsi better than Maya

Node Capability:
Maya better than Maya

Operation Stack:
Xsi better than Maya

Polygon&SubD Model:
Xsi better than Maya

Polygon Disposal:
Maya is exceed

NURBS Model:
Maya better than Xsi

Multiple Surfaces:
Xsi some sort better

Deformations:
Xsi some sort better

Animating with Keys:
Xsi is equal to Maya

Constraints:
Xsi better than Maya

Linking or driven Parameters:
Xsi better than Maya

Expressions:
Maya is exceed

Character Animation:
Xsi some sort better

Shape Animation:
Xsi some sort better

Nonlinear Animation:
Xsi is exceed

Shader:
Xsi is equal to Maya

Texture Edit:
Xsi is equal to Maya

Render:
Xsi is exceed

Render Pass:
Xsi is exceed

Particle:
Maya is exceed

Cloth:
Maya some sort better

Soft Body:
Maya some sort better

Rigid Body:
Maya is exceed,Xsi is not support

Forces:
Maya is exceed

Fur and Hair:
Xsi better than Maya

Paint Effect:
Maya is exceed,Xsi is not support

Composite:
Xsi is exceed,Maya is not support

Hereinbefore is just a reference

I think use Xsi or Maya is not difference,the key is yourself

Several suggest:
If you want to create Character Animation,I think you should be use Xsi
If you want to create Particle Simulation and Specialties Effect,I think you should be use Maya

good luck

[stormtroopar]

Deformations:
Xsi some sort better

---

Curry,

Just curious, what is your feeling with XSI's deformations and how do you find it better than Maya? Pls be as detail as you can. This is something I have always wondered about XSI and how it compares to Maya.

Thanks.

[oozoux]

In my opinion, a lot of the flexibility of the XSI deformations comes from the fact that any deformation tool can be applied to the entire surface OR a cluster, and also that you can always modulate the effect of the deformation using a WeightMap, to paint which areas are deformed and with what intensities.

Of course, my line of work doesn't allow me to work with MAYA much, so I might be biased.

[ame]

Hello,

you can paint weight maps in Maya as well, using the PaintWeightTool, but in XSI as far as I know you can use weight maps for a lot of other functionality like shape interpolations and symetry tools. also in XSI as far as I know you can change they way that interpolation of the deformer is done simple changeing the fcurve related to it, am I right?

You can apply deformer is maya to componets (you don't need to create a set [cluster] to actually deform something in maya) or the the whole object the deformers gets apply to the current selected object and can be a mix of surface or meshes or components you can also doform a deformer as you can do in XSI as far as I know.

I have to disagree about the Stack and the node base: the node base is very very powerfull and when you get used to it you cannot go back any more. Both software have good and bad, XSI is getting better everyday.

Later,

-a

[stormtroopar]

From all the demos I have seen. IMO, I don't see XSI2's deformation / character skinning tools really any better than maya. I think they are very close to each other and it comes down to how each is implemented and executed in the program. But thats based on my observations from the demos so thats why I wanted to see comments from experienced people of both packages. Maybe XSI has something that makes skinning quality better or a faster setup than Maya?

IMO, most current off the shelf character skinning tools isn't really that great, at least not for complex, realistic characters. Just wanted to see if XSI has any advantage over Maya in this area.

[jazzthief]

Besides the obvious comment "Get a evaluation copy of Maya and XSI to see which package works for you.". I would recommend looking into the various boutique effects houses in your city. What 3D software they're using since they vary. Presuming you're investing to learn a highend 3D program as a career option and not as a hobby. Certain cities like L.A. uses Maya, Lightwave and Houdini in their market. In New York there's alot of Softimage 3D/ XSI and 3ds max shops. Australia uses quite abit of 3dsmax and sum Maya since budget plays a big role among the CG houses.

[ebotter]

"IMO, most current off the shelf character skinning tools isn't really that great, at least not for complex, realistic characters. "

Man, I used to agree. This is off the thread but go to www.projectmessiah.com Messiah Studio has the Best character tools out there. And when I say it fast I mean its FAST. So fast that you can have a fully skinned and rigged sub d character play back in real time by just hitting the playback in the view port. No waiting for a preview to render. On top of that you can change keys while it is playing and see how it affects the animation. AMAZINGLY EASY expressions with flexablity to really complex stuff. Node based surfacing. A very realistic reander based on the Arnold Renderer.
Studio isnt quite done yet. It will eventually pipe into Maya, XSI, Max etc. I have an advance version of the software which you can order and be part of the beta process. Anyway Ive rattled on long enough. Oh yeah its cheap!!

[ame]

One advantage of XSI skinning system over Maya is the fact that the skinning is done not on the mesh it self so you can change the topology and have the skinning still working. Alos XSI deformers in v2 are multithreaded (hope that means using multi processing and not just put them on the same processor as different thread).

I havent had a chance to check XSI v2 my self but looks promising.

LAter,

-a

[stormtroopar]

tsmit47,

haha, thats why I said "most current off the shelf software". I am aware of Messiah and I do agree. It is one of the few app that supports really good character skinning, along with Max's new plugin, Absolute Character tools. The thing with Messiah is I can't stand the interface at all. The performance and the techology is what I really love about it, but the workflow design and the UI is something I never liked and hence not want to use. Maya and Soft certainly can learn a lot from that software.

Their supposedly tight integration with different apps is not a easy thing to come by. And there has been I have heard or seen yet. Even when I talked to them a siggraph, they don't seem to even have started on that part yet. So at this point, I will believe it when I see it.

Also, I would consider Animation Master to be pretty good as well. Doesn't have very fancy features technologically, but the tools ARE very useful and handy in real world.

[ebotter]

Yeah, I understand your point about the interface. it is differnt thatn most out ther but it really doesnt take long at all to get used to and is really fast to get around. What I like is it's out of your way. Its a matter of personal taste. Yeah Hash would be very cool if the thing would run longer than 5 minutes without crashing. I also left Max for the same reason. Not as stable as I'd like.