Is Anybody Here Into Creating Graphics Or Animations?

[calm]

Hi! IRiSHMaFIA

If you find anything there you like, I believe I might have it.

Calm

[IRiSHMaFIA]

[Brown Sauce]

[IRiSHMaFIA]

[Brown Sauce]

Honestly using XSI after max is like driving a rolls. Once you get used to it, you will uninstall max.

[6ULDV8]

@ Brown Sauce:

Nice work...
Questions tho'....

How is render time with XSI?
(OK, I know it's all about the horsepower in the PC... but say render time in XSI Vs Maya).

What is the learning curve on XSI?
(In your honest opinion for somebody who has used various other programs).

Is XSI well supported with 'packs' on a regular bases?
(updates, add-ons such as textures, models etc)

==================================================

It's been a short whils since I did anything in the 3D realm...
Mostly worked on backgrounds, buildings & such for other people's virtual worlds.
(Started out in the days of VHML)

I'm certain the PC I am typing from has the horsepower, OK, it's not a bank of Opties but it's got some ooomph in it.
I'm open minded about giving XSI an outing...

Are there forums for the program? & is there a 'demo' that will give a feel for it?

[Brown Sauce]

xsi uses mental ray. It is well integrated with xsi, better than maya and max. As to speed, it depends on how you approach it. If you want a quick render you have to configure it properly, then it will render quickly and with very good results.

If you have a working knowledge of any of the high end stuff you will learn xsi, they are all basically the same. I like XSI 'cause it isn't a bunch of patches, it is well thought out. The UIs in max and particularly maya are a complete mess. To do anything with max you need a plugin, to do anything with maya you need to be a programmer. XSI does away with this stuff. There are a lot of people that produce shaders, small plugins and what have you, but it doesn't need any big stuff, with the exception of the particle system, that is not so good with XSI.

Updates come quite frequently, version 6 was released recently it has bugs, but they'll get ironed out, and a fix will come.

you can download a demo from softimage.com. But if I were you I'd wait a couple of weeks for the update, the bugs that are there are a nuisance.


there is an xsi forum at cgtalk

http://forums.cgsociety.org/forumdisplay.php?f=24

and there is XSI Base,

http://www.xsibase.com/index.php

more tutorials than you can shake a stick at, though the most of them are old, they are not out of date. I have a set of pdf's I can upload, about 330 mb's worth if you are interested. They are from XSI 4 but are really good, and came with the software when I originally bought it.

http://www.edharriss.com/

[calm]

Hi! Brown Sauce

Holy Jeeze! Your light years ahead of me with animations and characters. My kind of
stuff is candy-ass compared to what you do.

When you create characters like the pic you posted above, what would you use it for?

I'm content if I simply manage to get a character to wink or to animate a tiny bit.

You must do this kind of stuff for a living or whatever, eh?

Calm

[Brown Sauce]

these two are for a short film, no payment, but the script is great.

i do 'em mostly for fun, if I like the end product, sometimes for money, but not so often.

[luke]

for you 3d buffs you might like this site, i've been following it for ages now it seems

http://www.rustboy.com/

i like messing around with graphics, but still stuff, just images. love taking photos even if they arn't always that good ... i'd quite like to get into messing around editing movies, anyone know of a good bit of software for chopping up and editing together videos? something free ;)

i did manage to edit together a video of a squirrel thats always in my garden, but it was like a 'fisher price - my first editing software' and was pretty basic

[Brown Sauce]

the rustboy site is a good 'un talking of flash sites that work. nice idea and how it evolved too ..

edit:

just looked at rustboy more closely, very good. And a good editing app is Sony Vegas. You can download a 30 fully functional demo from

http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/download/step2.asp?DID=698

if you would like to extend your demo period there are utilities available ...

here's the Muso with his Bass ..

[calm]

Hi! Luke

I edit videos using Video Magic. It's very simple to use.
I guess what I'm tryin' to say is that I'm familiar with the product and could help
you out with either this product or Vegas Video as Brown Sauce mentioned. (I've never
used Vegas Video though.)
http://www.deskshare.com/vem.aspx

I sometimes use Ulead Video Studio as well.
http://www.ulead.com/vs/runme.htm

Calm

[Bob]

If your into 3D stuff and can't stand Z-Brush...check out Mudbox, it's pretty awesome clay painting software for your normal maps, really quick and easy to use to, especially if you have a tablet.

I never really got my head around Maya so went all in on Max, still can't animate/rig or that good with lighting and rendering, and never bothered with XSI as off the top of my head there was only one studio that used it for games.

Sites worth checking out - CG Society, CG Talk, Polygon and Turbosquid.

Check out the Dominance Wars between the first 3 CG communities and cry at some of that goodness, bump maps are just amazing, never mind the sweet ambient and emissive maps.

[faceless]

[Bob]

Mental Ray is a bit of a mare, but they really sorted out a lot of the defaults in Max 9, really nice architectural materials and paint materials to help with getting good renders with little or no tweaks...also the lighting is a lot nicer, especially having the sun, that's pretty sweet.

But others worth looking at are brazil, v-ray...maxwell if your into buildings and products, slow, but it's awesome...