With the new version, ILM was able to write a single expression for twisting the dinosaur body which provided realistic rotation that tapers along the length of the body.”Īlso if you are old enough you probably remember “Men in Black 1997, This movie was packed full with entertaining 3-D elements ranging from space bugs, aliens, and flying saucers to a 3-D supercar that flies around and drives on a tunnel’s ceiling. For instance, in the earlier version of “Jurassic Park,” to rotate a dinosaur’s head, animators had to manually enter rotations for the individual chains in the neck to make the motion taper realistically down the neck. Using constraint controls, expressions, and other tools in Softimage 3D, ILM redefined its methods for chaining characters. The 28 minutes of visual effects in Jurassic Park of 1997 we talked about actually included more than 11 types of dinosaurs, with some scenes showing as many as 40 dinosaurs at a time, all animated using Softimage 3D. Microsoft acquired Softimage when it was at its peak because around that time things were so hot in the industry with many amazing movies coming out each year. Softimage|DS was launched in 1997, an editing and effects system that was tied to high-performance hardware (for the time) to allow finishing of commercials and music videos (this was back in the day when hardware restrictions meant that most editing was done using relatively low-quality previews). 3D paint functionality was added a year later in version 3.7. Softimage|3D Extreme 3.5, released later that year, included particle effects and the mental ray renderer, which offered area lights, ray tracing, and other advanced features. The first Windows port of Softimage|3D, version 3.0, was released in early 1996. In January 1995, Softimage|3D was announced as the official 3D development tool for the Sega Saturn. with the intention of introducing high-end 3D animation software to its Windows NT platform, and subsequently renamed it “Softimage|3D. For example, I have a seat of Maya 2009 that is working perfectly well in 2014 on a new box running Win 7.In 1994, Microsoft acquired Softimage. While there is no way to know beforehand, SI might just work really well with whatever you throw at it down the road. On the upside, you may not have to worry about compatibility issues at all. This is a good excuse to get yourself a new main workstation anyway! One solution to this: consider dedicating a computer to your legacy software, and just use it for those projects. Your OS or other applications will likely get upgraded and at some point become less compatible with your frozen-in-time software. All software frozen in time.Īlas, the real world dashes such idealistic plans. Then just pick up and move to a desert island! There I would never hear of an upgrade again, and happily remain in a state of top-functioning isolation. I've often wished - fantasized really, that I could wait until one of those magic times when the OS and applications are all working very well (Mac OS 6.05 circa 1992, Mac OS 9.2 circa 2000, WinXP circa 2004. Having said all that, if you're happy with the features of the latest version of Softimage, what's forcing you to do anything? You can find more about what Blender is capable of right now in this article. With some artists saying they now view Autodesk as a company that's more interested in profit than supporting artists, at some point a move to a community-backed alternative may be the logical conclusion. And given that it's constantly being developed by its open-source enthusiasts, it would be foolish to discount it as a future contender. Being free, Blender is often dismissed as a pro tool for 3D artists, but it's increasingly capable. It's free - and with an open source community behind it, it's getting better all the timeĭon't laugh.
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