XSI 2.0 Review

[richard-sher]

I wrote a review of XSI 2.0 for CGChannel.
http://www.cgchannel.com/feature.php?article\_id=27

Hope you like it. =)

[pnoizat2]

i didnt realise how lucky we are, with respect to mental rays integration. Very good indeed.
I'll have a proper read later.

Te Anau

[richard-sher]

....and there is so much more to it than what I wrote. But had it been much longer people would have not read it all. (you can only read so much online before you get bored)

[yellowsayshello]

Hey all...I'm a Maya/Lightwave user that is very excited about the possibilities of XSI, and am looking forward to trying it...4 to 6 weeks is too long

Ed, you mentioned in the review that XSI cloth is not as good as Maya's...I have not used Maya Cloth in a large or real project but in many of my personal projects cloth will be necessary. My intention is to do at least one of my personal projects in XSI, and I also intend to use 'cloth-like' rigging solutions (similar to Al in Toy Story 2).

In what way's is XSI cloth inferior? Is it usable for real garments, like a shirt for example, that folds (and unfolds) properly at the armpit, and wrinkles nicely at the elbow (without popping as seen in Geri's Game), or is it more suited for simple things that hang, like curtains or a dress? What makes it inferior, and is it a functionality thing or an "ease of use" thing? Obviously the difference is with the former some things (like the aforementioned shirt) may be impossible, whereas with the latter it might just be harder or take longer.

My high water mark for great looking cloth so far are the rendered cinema scenes in Final Fantasy X.

[curry]

Softimage is back. With XSI 2.0, it's no joke

[qingning]

Hell yeah =)

Here's to XSI's continuing success and resurgence.

wlau

[richard-sher]

kemijo,

I got the Maya cloth info from a group of people that use both Maya and XSI that I polled before I wrote the review. So, I can't tell you much about Maya cloth. Also, I have not used the XSI cloth very much at all. Why? 2 reasons. I have not had a job that required cloth yet and cloth costs extra $$. (I.E. it is not included with XSI) As far as I know, this is the only thing that does not come with XSI Advanced. The only time I have a cloth license is when Softimage gives me a temp one. Having said that, I would probably not be the best person to give you advice on the inner workings of XSI cloth. However, I do know a couple of people that have used it extensively. If you want, I can put you in touch with them. (off line) I would post their info here, but I don't want them to get flooded with cloth questions.

[unchikun]

Hey, great objective review Ed. Having used Maya for character work and just begining to use XSI 2.0, I would have to disagree with you on Maya's character animation being on par with XSI.

Setting up a rig in Maya is fairly tedious. Basic features such as, copying envelope weights, UV texture mapping and animations don't work well or don't work at all. Maya's non-linear animation requires a great deal of effort for very little utility. Maya's ik implementation via ik handles is very confusing as are constraint operations.

My initial reaction to my limited experience with XSI rig setup and animation was amazement. Just about everything worked as advertised! Where Maya's workflow is an arduous chore, I am eager to delve deeper into XSI to get fun, creative ideas flowing again!

[richard-sher]

I would tend to agree with you. I don't do a lot of animation, so the comments about Maya and Soft being about the same in this area are not really mine. (as I stated in the review) The people that I talked to and got this information from used both Maya and XSI a lot. From what I have been hearing, something tells me that they just don't want to let go of Maya just yet and that they have a hard time admitting that XSI is better. It' also possible that they just have so much more Maya experience that they think it's better because they don't know XSI as well and can't get around it so easily.