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The company’s CTO Jeremy Smith says that part of its appeal was that it was relatively easy for skilled users of other 3D software to learn. Jellyfish Pictures is well known for its use of Softimage. Its strengths were in the animation module it had the best IK skeleton and skinning system at the time and fantastic deformation tools.” You got a lot done very quickly, which was great for clients. “Despite its limited toolset, it was super-fast to use, with a highly intuitive UI. All the best commercial facilities used it. During the mid-to-late nineties, it was the number one computer animation system. As Martin Chamney, head of CG and CG supervisor at Nvizible recalls: “The Bjork video by Glassworks, Walking with Dinosaurs and the creatures in City of the Lost Children (trailer above) were all high points. Known affectionately as 'Soft', the product has been at the heart of some great visual imagery over the years. So how has a product that’s been pushed from pillar to post inspired such emotional connection in a creative community that’s not short of great tools? Some hardcore users haven’t been happy to let Softimage go gently into that good night: there is a petition already up on to save the software – but many users we’ve spoken to are resigned to the demise of what was long regarded as a brilliant artistic tool. The decision has been met with dismay and some anger within the VFX community. “Given this, we needed to focus resources on where there was the greatest customer need, which is 3ds Max and Maya, in order to accelerate our development plans.” “The industry continues to evolve very rapidly and customers are demanding a faster rate of innovation across all our product lines including Softimage, 3ds Max and Maya,” he told us. Softimage|XSI, released in 2000 and the application's second act, introduced the idea of a video-editing-style timeline and revolutionised the creation of animation.Īccording to Autodesk’s entertainment industry manager Maurice Patel, the decision to kill Softimage was taken to focus the company's efforts on its core 3D tools.
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So when Autodesk announced last week that it’s to finally kill off Softimage, it was a move that surprised no-one – except perhaps that there will be a final 2015 release before it joins the creative choir invisible alongside Macromedia’s Freehand (offed by Adobe) and Nothing Real’s Shake (inhumed by Apple). “It's as if they never knew what to do with this eccentric genius child.” “ has been passed around from company to company over the years like a CGI hot potato,” says Nick Webber, senior FX TD (technical director) at Milk VFX. But in its time it has been owned by three large corporations – Microsoft, Avid and, most recently, Autodesk – where it had to compete with the company’s two entrenched 3D suites: Maya and 3ds Max.
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Over the last 28 years, the Softimage 3D modelling and animation application has helped produce groundbreaking visual effects from Jurassic Park’s dinosaurs to the sensual robots of Bjork’s All Is Full Of Love music video ( above). The story of Softimage is one of an inspired creative software application that never found a real home, and will soon die.