Softimage, Thiago Costa, and Autodesk.

When I purchased Softimage 6 from Avid even then I was concerned about the future of Softimage. I purchased it because I had read so many good things about it, mainly about rigging and character animation which I desperately wanted to do, and because of its price. I reasoned that an application with so much going for it just couldn't drop off the face of the Earth.

Next came ICE. At that point I was really confident that I had made a good decision.

Then, in what seemed like merely a few days after the big ICE celebration party, I found out that Autodesk had acquired Softimage.

I felt like the bottom had dropped from beneath my feet. My first thought was that Softimage would die. How could Autodesk possibly expect to successfully market and sell 3D Max, Maya and Softimage? I know Autodesk has done everything in its power to discredit that train of thought, but nevertheless it was my initial gut reaction.

Fast-forward to today. Thanks to a link posted in the Softimage mailing list by Jennifer Goldfinch at Autodesk, I happened to read CG Society's CG Retrospective 2010. This retrospective compiles the top 20 most popular threads of the year on CGTalk as voted by their community. At number five is Autodesk Softimage. At number 1 is Thiago Costa's Lagoa for Softimage.

Stunned. I know that word is so cliche and so overused, but it is exactly how I felt when I read through the entries that first time.

Am I crazy? Probably. But I love Softimage.

I want to use this post to express my sincere gratitude for all of you who have anything at all to do with this.

Softimage rocks. Thiago Costa rocks. And yes, Autodesk rocks.

Midi Love and the You Rock Guitar

I certainly have been gushing about new things of late and this post is no exception. I just cannot resist posting about the You Rock Guitar I received for Christmas.

For years my primary way of composing music consisted of creating and editing midi notes with a mouse inside Sonar Producer. This method was laborious and negated nearly any spontaneity. While it did afford me the greatest precision during my initial "blocking in" phase, composing a whole song was a tremendous undertaking and I rarely made any edits to existing parts.

How the YouRock Guitar slipped under my radar for so long I do not know. While it may look like a toy it doesn't take long to realize that it is a very professional and very accessible musical tool.

Why?

It is a complete midi guitar for $200.

Yes, that's right. You may need to read that sentence again.

Additionally, the You Rock Guitar is dead simple to use: just plug it into your computer's USB port and turn it on. That's it. My Sonar X1 Producer recognized it instantly and added it as a midi controller. In seconds I was controlling violins, choirs, erhus, basses, and a multitude of other sampled instruments in Sonar X1 with the You Rock Guitar.

But $200 for a midi guitar? There has to be a catch right? Wrong.

While the You Rock Guitar does not truly have strings it is so easy to play and feels so good it is uncanny. It tracks extremely well and the midi data it produces is quite accurate. Without a doubt I had some hopelessly goofy grins stretching across my face while I played this thing. You will have fun playing the You Rock Guitar.

Midi_Coolness.mp3 Listen on Posterous

Sonar X1 Producer - A Thing of Beauty

I have just finished playing around for a few minutes in Sonar X1 and I am genuinely impressed with Cakewalk's newest iteration of their flagship software.

I installed the download version and everything went fairly smooth except that I had to make a very quick edit to the registry in order to install the final content. 

After first running Sonar X1 but before I opened any projects I found the initial, "empty" interface to be very pleasing. The dark palette is easy on the eyes and the Control Bar at the top is sleek and modern with a very logical layout.

The first thing I opened was the demo project provided courtesy of Cori Yarckin entitled "Floating".  Once the project opened the appearance of the two Pro Channel strips on the left along with the tracks at the bottom were much brighter than the Control Bar and really captured my attention. Again everything appeared very modern and well organized.

I noticed that the project contained three instances of Dimension Pro and one instance of TruePianos. The bass was a .wav file and really filled the low end of the mix. While I am frequently not impressed with the sounds from Dimension Pro and never impressed with TruePIanos, I have to admit that the recording sounded very professional. I liked the mix so well and I was so enamored by watching the new interface that I played the song twice!

The final test was loading up one of my own compositions. The project contained a Steven Slate drum kit, bass and piano from East West Goliath, and several tracks of my guitar playing. Everything loaded up relatively quickly (as compared to Sonar 8.5 Producer) and without a single problem. The song played back smoothly and sounded great. This made me breathe a tremendous sigh of relief after the nightmares that I experienced regarding my Sonar 8.5 installation onto a Windows 7 64-bit machine.

Thank you for putting a big smile on my face tonight, Cakewalk! I am definitely looking forward to spending time with X1. 

Shiny New Toys Courtesy of my Autodesk Subscription

I just finished watching the Softimage screencast at the Autodesk Digital Entertainment Conference and I am absolutely thrilled by the additions that they have made to the software.

The new menus and presets for ICE had me smiling throughout. What a time saver they will be! Even as someone who has dabbled in programming I had a difficult time setting up basic simulations such as fire or smoke using ICE. I knew that the capability was there and I have seen some awesome results from users on Vimeo and YouTube, but it always took me so long to connect everything properly and I still never totally achieved the kind of effect that I wanted. Now in just a couple of clicks I can have fantastic looking fire, bubbles, leaves, etc., and all of this with the proper mental ray shaders already implemented and the effect ready to render! Please excuse me if I let out a slight YYYYEEEEEHHHAAAAAWWWWWW!!!!!

When Lagoa was demonstrated along with the emPolygonizer I thought my smile would shear my face in half! I felt like a kid just sitting down to watch Saturday morning cartoons again! Fluid simulations that played in real-time right in the viewport and looked amazing were achieved in just a few clicks! Softimage is finally getting a proper fluid simulation and I am greatly impressed by the output.

For some reason I didn't realize that Autodesk Composite (formerly Toxik) and Autodesk Matchmover were going to be included with my Softimage download. Even though I subscribe to the Softimage Mailing List where a long thread regarding exporting from Softimage to Composite appeared I never got the hint. Once I did finally realize that I would be getting these two applications I remembered that Digital Tutors has extensive training for both of them. I cannot wait to get started!

I don't know how I could possibly make my daughter's upcoming birthday and Christmas as good as what Autodesk has made an otherwise ordinary week for me, but I have definitely got my work cut out for me. Thank you, Autodesk!

Welcome to Magian Designs!

Things are moving along briskly and I would like to take a short break to welcome you to my blog and website. At the time of this writing the site is not yet live, but I expect this to change within a few short days.

The website will have three primary functions:

1. Customer portal - Customers will be able to login to each ongoing job to check the status and view/hear updates.
2. Contact data and pricing - The website will allow the customer to quickly obtain general pricing and guidelines for all of our services. All contact information will also be easily found.
3. Showcase - My work will be displayed prominently throughout the site via several types of media.

Nothing surprising about the website, but the purpose of the blog will be a bit different from what you might expect. While it will provide the typical news and updates for Magian Designs, the blog will also be my muse for talking about things that intrigue me. Colored thoughts about software, workflow, industry, people, and life involved with design will be fashioned onto the canvas of the blog.

In this spirit then let my first post be inspired by the same purpose. A couple of weeks ago, my young daughter, Ruiwen, started school for the first time. Yesterday my wife, Mulan, started her first job as an Accountant. Today, my first post here marks the life-changing endeavour I now undertake. And I am as excited about sharing these things with you as I am about serving you with you the finest design work I can provide.

Welcome to Magian Designs.