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24-472: Released in 2000 as the successor to Softimage|3D , Softimage|XSI was developed by its eponymous company , then a subsidiary of Avid Technology . On October 23, 2008, Autodesk acquired the Softimage brand and 3D animation assets from Avid 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

48-678: 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

72-424: 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

96-480: A variety of custom tools. Its character animation toolset expanded substantially with the addition of inverse kinematics in version 2, which was used to animate the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park . In 1994, Microsoft acquired Softimage, Co. with the intention of introducing high-end 3D animation software to its Windows NT platform, and subsequently renamed it "Softimage|3D." In January 1995, Softimage|3D

120-513: 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 available for rendering real-time GPU shaders written in either the Cg or HLSL languages. Also included is the FX Tree, which

144-417: 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

168-411: Is an umbrella term for a number of techniques in computer graphics to create 3D models and textures from sets of rules that may be easily changed over time. L-Systems , fractals , and generative modeling are procedural modeling techniques since they apply algorithms for producing scenes. The set of rules may either be embedded into the algorithm, configurable by parameters, or the set of rules

192-456: Is separate from the evaluation engine. The output is called procedural content, which can be used in computer games , films, be uploaded to the internet, or the user may edit the content manually. Procedural models often exhibit database amplification, meaning that large scenes can be generated from a much smaller number of rules. If the employed algorithm produces the same output every time, the output need not be stored. Often, it suffices to start

216-546: 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. Softimage was primarily used in the film, video game and advertising industries as a tool to generate digital characters, environments and visual effects. Examples of films and other media made with

240-441: The film , broadcasting , gaming , and advertising industries for the production of 3D animation. It was superseded by Softimage XSI in 2000. In 1986, National Film Board of Canada filmmaker Daniel Langlois , in partnership with software engineers Richard Mercille and Laurent Lauzon, began developing an integrated 3D modeling, animation, and rendering package with a graphical interface targeted at visual artists. The software

264-499: The ICE (Interactive Creative Environment) architecture. ICE is a visual programming platform 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

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288-503: The algorithm with the same random seed to achieve this. Although all modeling techniques on a computer require algorithms to manage and store data at some point, procedural modeling focuses on creating a model from a rule set, rather than editing the model manuall by using user input, in order to make modifying model in the future easier. The parameters that define a model may be dependent on parameters or geometry from another model making modelling process very flexible. Procedural modeling

312-467: 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

336-415: 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

360-626: The final version of Softimage|3D, version 4.0, was released in 2002. Softimage|3D was also used for VeggieTales until 2000 where the newer episodes were then moved to Maya. The Softimage|3D feature set was divided between five menu sets: Model, Motion, Actor, Matter and Tools, each corresponding to a different part of the 3D production process: Model: Tools for creating spline, polygon, patch, and NURBS primitives (later releases also included Metaballs ). Boolean operations , extrusions, revolves, and bevels, as well as lattice deformations and relational modeling tools. Subdivision surface modeling

384-402: The help of Softimage are Jurassic Park , Thor , Predators , District 9 , White House Down , Yakuza , and Elysium . 45°30′47″N 73°34′17″W  /  45.5131°N 73.5715°W  / 45.5131; -73.5715 Softimage 3D Softimage|3D is a discontinued high-end 3D graphics application developed by Softimage, Co. , which was used predominantly in

408-474: The late 1990s, Softimage Co. began developing a successor to Softimage|3D codenamed "Sumatra," which was designed with a more modern and extensible architecture to compete with other major packages like Alias|Wavefront's Maya. Development was delayed during a 1998 acquisition by Avid Technology , and in the summer of 2000 Softimage|3D's successor was finally released as Softimage XSI . Because of Softimage|3D's entrenched user base, minor revisions continued until

432-552: 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

456-581: The release of the 2015 version, providing product support until April 30, 2016. Autodesk Softimage is a 3D animation application comprising a suite of computer graphics tools. Modeling tools allow the generation of polygonal or NURBS models. Subdivision modeling 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

480-507: 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. On July 7, 2008, the Softimage, Co. announced Softimage|XSI 7, which introduced

504-473: 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 's Source engine , Epic Games 's Unreal Engine and others. It was discontinued with the release of Softimage 2014. On March 4, 2014, it was announced that Autodesk Softimage would be discontinued after

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528-467: Was announced as the official 3D development tool for the Sega Saturn . The first Windows port of Softimage|3D, version 3.0, was released in early 1996. 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. 3D paint functionality was added a year later in version 3.7. In

552-886: Was available via a third-party plugin from Phoenix Tools called MetaMesh. Motion: Animation of objects and parameters via keyframes , constraints, mathematical expressions , paths, and function curves. Animatable cluster and lattice deformations. Motion capture through a variety of input devices. Actor: Rigging and animation of digital characters using skeletons , as well as dynamics tools for physics simulations of object interactions. Included inverse kinematics and weighted / rigid skinning. Matter: Creation of materials and rendering images for output. Standard features included 2D and 3D textures, field rendering, fog, motion blur , and raytracing. Tools: Utilities for viewing, editing, and compositing rendered image sequences, color reduction, and importing/exporting images and 3D geometry. Procedural modeling Procedural modeling

576-622: Was initially demonstrated at SIGGRAPH in 1988 and was released for Silicon Graphics workstations the following year as the Softimage Creative Environment™. Softimage Creative Environment was adopted by major visual effects studios like Industrial Light & Magic and Digital Domain for use in their production pipelines, which also typically included software from Alias Research , Big Idea Productions , Kroyer Films , Angel Studios , Walt Disney Feature Animation Inc. , and Pixar Animation Studios Inc. as well as

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