Softimage XSI
Encyclopedia
Autodesk Softimage, or simply Softimage (icon) is a 3D computer graphics application
, owned by Autodesk
, for producing 3D computer graphics
, 3D modeling
, and computer animation
. Formerly Softimage|XSI, the software is predominantly used in the film
, video game, and advertising
industries for creating computer generated characters, objects, and environments.
Released in 2000 as the successor to Softimage3D
, Softimage|XSI was developed by Softimage, Co., then a subsidiary of Avid Technology
. On Oct. 23, 2008, Autodesk acquired from Avid the Softimage brand and 3D animation assets for approximately $35 million, thereby ending Softimage Co. as a distinct entity. In February 2009, Softimage|XSI was rebranded Autodesk Softimage.
A free version of the software, called Softimage Mod Tool, was developed for the game modding
community to create games using the Microsoft XNA
toolset for PC and Xbox 360
, or to create mods for games using Valve Software's Source engine, Epic Games'
Unreal Engine
and others.
Modeling
tools allow the generation of polygonal
or NURBS models. Subdivision modeling is very intuitive, as it requires no additional operators and works directly on the polygonal geometry. Each modeling operation is tracked by a construction history stack, which enables artists to work non-destructively. Operators in history stacks can be re-ordered, removed or changed at any time, and all adjustments propagate to the final model.
Control rigs
are created using bones with automatic IK
, constraints and specialized solvers like spine or tail. Optionally, the ICE system can be used to create light-weight rigs in a node-based environment. The rigging process can be sped up through the use of adaptable biped and quadruped rigs, FaceRobot for facial rigs and automatic lip syncing.
Animation
features include layers and a mixer, which allows combining animation clips non-linearly. Animation operators are tracked in a construction history stack that is separate from the modeling stack, enabling users to change the underlying geometry of already animated characters and objects. MOTOR is a feature that transfers animation between characters, regardless of their size or proportions. GATOR can transfer attributes such as textures, UVs, weight maps or envelopes between different models. Softimage also contains tools to simulate particles, particle strands, rigid body dynamics, soft body dynamics, cloth, hair and fluids.
The default and tightly integrated rendering engine
in Softimage is mental ray
. Materials and shaders are built in a node-based fashion. When users activate a so-called render region in a camera view, it will render this section of the scene using the specified rendering engine and update completely interactively. A secondary rendering mode is also available for rendering real-time GPU shaders written in either the Cg or HLSL languages.
Also included is the FX Tree, which is a built-in node-based compositor
that has direct access to image clips used in the scene. It can thus not only be used to finalize and composite rendered frames, but also as an integral part of scene creation. The FX Tree can be used to apply compositing effects to image clips being used in the fully rendered scene, allowing Softimage to render scenes using textures authored or modified in various ways within the same scene.
In addition to the node-based ICE platform described below, Softimage has an extensive API and scripting environment
that can be used to extend the software. The available scripting languages include C#, Python
, VBScript
and JScript
. A C++
SDK is also available for plug-in developers, with online documentation available to the public.
that allows users to extend the capabilities of Softimage quickly and intuitively using a node-based dataflow diagram. This enables artists to create complex 3D effects and tools without scripting. Among the main uses for ICE are procedural modeling
, deformation, rigging and particle simulation. It can also be used to control scene attributes without the need to write expressions, for example to add camera wiggle or make a light pulsate. ICE is a parallel processing engine that takes advantage of multi-core CPUs, giving users highly scalable performance.
ICE represents Softimage functionality using a collection of nodes, each with its own specific capabilities. Users can connect nodes together, visually representing the data flow, to create powerful tools and effects. Softimage ships with several hundred nodes; among them are both low level nodes, such as Multiply or Boolean, as well as a number of high level nodes called compounds. Compounds serve as "wrapper nodes" to collapse ICE graphs into a single node. Softimage allows users to add custom compounds to its main menu system for easy reusability.
The screenshot on the right shows an example of a simple geometry deformation ICE graph. In a practical scenario, one would collapse the graph into a compound and expose important parameters, for instance the deformation intensity. After adding the tool to the user interface it can easily be applied to other objects. Compounds can also be shared between installations because their entire functionality is stored in XML
files.
The graph-based approach of ICE allows for the creation of effects previously attainable only through the use of scripting and/or compiled code. Due to its visual nature and interactivity, it is very accessible for users with no programming experience. Many free and commercial ICE tools have been made available by users and 3rd party developers. Softimage contains an ICE-based fluid and physics simulator called Lagoa as well as an ICE-based version of the Syflex
cloth simulator.
, Predators or District 9
.
3D computer graphics software
3D computer graphics software refers to programs used to create 3D computer-generated imagery. This article covers only some of the software used.-Uses:...
, owned by Autodesk
Autodesk
Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational corporation that focuses on 3D design software for use in the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media and entertainment industries. The company was founded in 1982 by John Walker, a coauthor of the first versions of the company's...
, for producing 3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
, 3D modeling
3D modeling
In 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling is the process of developing a mathematical representation of any three-dimensional surface of object via specialized software. The product is called a 3D model...
, and computer animation
Computer animation
Computer animation is the process used for generating animated images by using computer graphics. The more general term computer generated imagery encompasses both static scenes and dynamic images, while computer animation only refers to moving images....
. Formerly Softimage|XSI, the software is predominantly used in the film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, video game, and advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
industries for creating computer generated characters, objects, and environments.
Released in 2000 as the successor to Softimage3D
Softimage 3D
Softimage|3D was a high-end 3D graphics application developed by Softimage, Co., which was used predominantly in the film, gaming and advertising industries for the production of 3D animation. It has been superseded by Softimage XSI.-History:...
, Softimage|XSI was developed by Softimage, Co., then a subsidiary of Avid Technology
Avid Technology
Avid Technology, Inc. is an American company specializing in video and audio production technology; specifically, digital non-linear editing systems, management and distribution services. It was created in 1987 and became a publicly traded company in 1993...
. On Oct. 23, 2008, Autodesk acquired from Avid the Softimage brand and 3D animation assets for approximately $35 million, thereby ending Softimage Co. as a distinct entity. In February 2009, Softimage|XSI was rebranded Autodesk Softimage.
A free version of the software, called Softimage Mod Tool, was developed for the game modding
Mod (computer gaming)
Mod or modification is a term generally applied to personal computer games , especially first-person shooters, role-playing games and real-time strategy games. Mods are made by the general public or a developer, and can be entirely new games in themselves, but mods are not standalone software and...
community to create games using the Microsoft XNA
Microsoft XNA
Microsoft XNA is a set of tools with a managed runtime environment provided by Microsoft that facilitates video game development and management. XNA attempts to free game developers from writing "repetitive boilerplate code" and to bring different aspects of game production into a single system...
toolset for PC and Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
, or to create mods for games using Valve Software's Source engine, Epic Games'
Epic Games
Epic Games, Inc., also known as Epic and formerly Epic MegaGames, is an American video game development company based in Cary, North Carolina. Its most recent success has been the Gears of War series of games, although it is also known for its Unreal Engine technology. It is the parent company of...
Unreal Engine
Unreal Engine
The Unreal Engine is a game engine developed by Epic Games, first illustrated in the 1998 first-person shooter game Unreal. Although primarily developed for first-person shooters, it has been successfully used in a variety of other genres, including stealth, MMORPGs and RPGs...
and others.
Overview of the software
Autodesk Softimage is a 3D animation application that contains tools for a wide range of production steps.Modeling
3D modeling
In 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling is the process of developing a mathematical representation of any three-dimensional surface of object via specialized software. The product is called a 3D model...
tools allow the generation of polygonal
Polygonal modeling
In 3D computer graphics, polygonal modeling is an approach for modeling objects by representing or approximating their surfaces using polygons. Polygonal modeling is well suited to scanline rendering and is therefore the method of choice for real-time computer graphics...
or NURBS models. Subdivision modeling is very intuitive, as it requires no additional operators and works directly on the polygonal geometry. Each modeling operation is tracked by a construction history stack, which enables artists to work non-destructively. Operators in history stacks can be re-ordered, removed or changed at any time, and all adjustments propagate to the final model.
Control rigs
Skeletal animation
Skeletal animation is a technique in computer animation in which a character is represented in two parts: a surface representation used to draw the character and a hierarchical set of interconnected bones used to animate the mesh...
are created using bones with automatic IK
Inverse kinematics
Inverse kinematics is a subdomain of kinematics, which is of particular interest in robotics and computer animation. In contrast to forward kinematics, which calculates the position of a body after a series of motions, inverse kinematics calculates the motions necessary to achieve a desired...
, constraints and specialized solvers like spine or tail. Optionally, the ICE system can be used to create light-weight rigs in a node-based environment. The rigging process can be sped up through the use of adaptable biped and quadruped rigs, FaceRobot for facial rigs and automatic lip syncing.
Animation
Computer animation
Computer animation is the process used for generating animated images by using computer graphics. The more general term computer generated imagery encompasses both static scenes and dynamic images, while computer animation only refers to moving images....
features include layers and a mixer, which allows combining animation clips non-linearly. Animation operators are tracked in a construction history stack that is separate from the modeling stack, enabling users to change the underlying geometry of already animated characters and objects. MOTOR is a feature that transfers animation between characters, regardless of their size or proportions. GATOR can transfer attributes such as textures, UVs, weight maps or envelopes between different models. Softimage also contains tools to simulate particles, particle strands, rigid body dynamics, soft body dynamics, cloth, hair and fluids.
The default and tightly integrated rendering engine
Rendering (computer graphics)
Rendering is the process of generating an image from a model , by means of computer programs. A scene file contains objects in a strictly defined language or data structure; it would contain geometry, viewpoint, texture, lighting, and shading information as a description of the virtual scene...
in Softimage is mental ray
Mental Ray
mental ray is a production-quality rendering application developed by mental images . mental images was bought in December 2007 by NVIDIA.As the name implies, it supports ray tracing to generate images....
. Materials and shaders are built in a node-based fashion. When users activate a so-called render region in a camera view, it will render this section of the scene using the specified rendering engine and update completely interactively. A secondary rendering mode is also available for rendering real-time GPU shaders written in either the Cg or HLSL languages.
Also included is the FX Tree, which is a built-in node-based compositor
Compositing
Compositing is the combining of visual elements from separate sources into single images, often to create the illusion that all those elements are parts of the same scene. Live-action shooting for compositing is variously called "chroma key", "blue screen", "green screen" and other names. Today,...
that has direct access to image clips used in the scene. It can thus not only be used to finalize and composite rendered frames, but also as an integral part of scene creation. The FX Tree can be used to apply compositing effects to image clips being used in the fully rendered scene, allowing Softimage to render scenes using textures authored or modified in various ways within the same scene.
In addition to the node-based ICE platform described below, Softimage has an extensive API and scripting environment
Scripting language
A scripting language, script language, or extension language is a programming language that allows control of one or more applications. "Scripts" are distinct from the core code of the application, as they are usually written in a different language and are often created or at least modified by the...
that can be used to extend the software. The available scripting languages include C#, Python
Python (programming language)
Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...
, VBScript
VBScript
VBScript is an Active Scripting language developed by Microsoft that is modeled on Visual Basic. It is designed as a “lightweight” language with a fast interpreter for use in a wide variety of Microsoft environments...
and JScript
JScript
JScript is a scripting language based on the ECMAScript standard that is used in Microsoft's Internet Explorer.JScript is implemented as a Windows Script engine. This means that it can be "plugged in" to any application that supports Windows Script, such as Internet Explorer, Active Server Pages,...
. A C++
C++
C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...
SDK is also available for plug-in developers, with online documentation available to the public.
ICE Interactive Creative Environment
On July 7, 2008 the Softimage, Co. announced Softimage|XSI 7, which introduced the ICE (Interactive Creative Environment) architecture. ICE is a visual programming platformVisual programming language
In computing, a visual programming language is any programming language that lets users create programs by manipulating program elements graphically rather than by specifying them textually. A VPL allows programming with visual expressions, spatial arrangements of text and graphic symbols, used...
that allows users to extend the capabilities of Softimage quickly and intuitively using a node-based dataflow diagram. This enables artists to create complex 3D effects and tools without scripting. Among the main uses for ICE are procedural modeling
Procedural modeling
Procedural modeling is an umbrella term for a number of techniques in computer graphics to create 3D models and textures from sets of rules. L-Systems, fractals, and generative modeling are procedural modeling techniques since they apply algorithms for producing scenes...
, deformation, rigging and particle simulation. It can also be used to control scene attributes without the need to write expressions, for example to add camera wiggle or make a light pulsate. ICE is a parallel processing engine that takes advantage of multi-core CPUs, giving users highly scalable performance.
ICE represents Softimage functionality using a collection of nodes, each with its own specific capabilities. Users can connect nodes together, visually representing the data flow, to create powerful tools and effects. Softimage ships with several hundred nodes; among them are both low level nodes, such as Multiply or Boolean, as well as a number of high level nodes called compounds. Compounds serve as "wrapper nodes" to collapse ICE graphs into a single node. Softimage allows users to add custom compounds to its main menu system for easy reusability.
The screenshot on the right shows an example of a simple geometry deformation ICE graph. In a practical scenario, one would collapse the graph into a compound and expose important parameters, for instance the deformation intensity. After adding the tool to the user interface it can easily be applied to other objects. Compounds can also be shared between installations because their entire functionality is stored in XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
files.
The graph-based approach of ICE allows for the creation of effects previously attainable only through the use of scripting and/or compiled code. Due to its visual nature and interactivity, it is very accessible for users with no programming experience. Many free and commercial ICE tools have been made available by users and 3rd party developers. Softimage contains an ICE-based fluid and physics simulator called Lagoa as well as an ICE-based version of the Syflex
Syflex
Syflex is one of the fastest and most powerful cloth simulators. It is being used by a wide range of creative companies and individuals, from big-name studios, to smaller special effects houses and independent animators. Syflex is available For Maya, Softimage, Houdini and LightWave....
cloth simulator.
Industry usage
Softimage is primarily used in the film, video game and advertising industries as a tool to generate digital characters, environments and visual effects. Examples of films made with the help of Softimage are ThorThor (film)
Thor is a 2011 American superhero film based on the comic book character of the same name published by Marvel Comics. It is the fourth film released as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe...
, Predators or District 9
District 9
District 9 is a 2009 South African science fiction thriller film directed by Neill Blomkamp. It was written by Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, and produced by Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham. The film stars Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, and David James...
.
Releases
- Autodesk Softimage 2012 SAP (Subscription Advantage Pack) released September 27, 2011
- Autodesk Softimage 2012 released April 7, 2011
- Autodesk Softimage 2011 SAP (Subscription Advantage Pack) released October 7, 2010
- Autodesk Softimage 2011 released April 6, 2010
- Autodesk Softimage 2010 released September 14, 2009
- Autodesk Softimage 7.5 released February 20, 2009
- Mod Tool 4.2, December 2004.
See also
- AutodeskAutodeskAutodesk, Inc. is an American multinational corporation that focuses on 3D design software for use in the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media and entertainment industries. The company was founded in 1982 by John Walker, a coauthor of the first versions of the company's...
- Autodesk 3ds Max
- Autodesk Maya
- dotXSIDotXSIdotXSI is an ASCII file format of Softimage Corporation for storing scene data.It includes support for meshes, NURBS, 2D and 3D chains, polygons, materials, hierarchies, skeletons, animation constraints, Hermite splines, custom effects, and user data....
- Softimage3DSoftimage 3DSoftimage|3D was a high-end 3D graphics application developed by Softimage, Co., which was used predominantly in the film, gaming and advertising industries for the production of 3D animation. It has been superseded by Softimage XSI.-History:...
- Softimage, Co.