* Polygon Reduction: Rule-based polygon reduction with decimation optimization by percent of reduction or specific polygon count.
#Softimage 3d history zip#
* Relational Modeling: Relate an object with its operator: extrusion, revolution, skin, four-sided, zip patches. * Instantiation: Reference one set of geometry or hierarchy many times. * Modeling Effects: Mosaic, Nebula, Wakeup, Zzot, ResetTransf, Boolean2D, ChangeInfo, Eater. * Animated Modeling Operations: Animated bevel, bridge, bumpmap, duplicator, guided extrude push, shrinkwrap, duplicator, branch, Cometa, Shock, Shock3D. * Polygonal Operations: Polygon as object, three-point planar constraint, assignable centroid reference, multiple polygon select, rounding, extrusion, revolution.
* Boolean: Intersection, difference, union. * Operations: Animation-based dupication, alignment, bevel, convert, clean-up, fractalize, guided extrude, breakup, local lattice, shrinkwrap, polyskin, edit point/coordinate, freeze, inverse, merge mesh, merge surface, order, plane clipping, rotate, round, scale, subdivision, symmetry, tag, translate zip patches, extrude, skin, revolution, four-sided patches, proportional modeling. * 2D/3D Primitives: Arc, circle, cone, cylinder, cube, dodecahedron, grid, icosahedron, null, octahedron, square, sphere, spiral, torus, tetrahedron. * Meta-Clay Modeling: Density-based modeling for organic, sculpted objects. * Geometrical Objects: Face, polygonal mesh, polygon, patch, Bezier/Linear/Cardinal/Free Form/B-spline/ NURBS spline. The following is not an exhaustive list of features:, Microsoft, 1996] Menus in Softimage|3D are divided between five modules: Model, Motion, Actor, Matter and Tools. XSI is still in active development as of 2007 but has yet to regain the popularity of its predecessor. By the end of the decade, Softimage|3D had reached the end of the line with the release of version 4, concurrent with the debut of its replacement Softimage|XSI. The Softimage Corporation, which Microsoft sold to Avid in 1998, was unable to introduce its next generation package before Maya established a firm hold on the market. Highly customizeable environments like Maya and Houdini became the vanguard of studio-level 3D software. , Microsoft, April 7, 1997]īy the late 1990's, faster processors and cheap memory heralded the next generation of extensible, object-oriented 3D animation packages. , Microsoft, May 16, 1996] 3D paint functionality was added a year later in version 3.7. In 1996, Microsoft began offering Softimage|3D Extreme 3.5, which included particle effects and the mental ray renderer. As the first high-end 3D package on the NT platform, it marked the beginning of the end of SGI's dominance in the computer animation industry.
#Softimage 3d history windows#
In 1994, Microsoft acquired the Softimage Corporation and renamed the package Softimage|3D, releasing a Windows NT port a year later.
#Softimage 3d history software#
This process was often facilitated through the use of custom-made software like file converters and pipeline management tools.Ī widely popular commercial 3D package by the mid 1990's, Softimage was used by Industrial Light and Magic to animate the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, by Cyan to create the adventure game Riven, and by many other companies for scores of film, television and video game projects. In a large visual effects studio environment, 3D models were typically created with NURBS in Alias|Wavefront's PowerAnimator, animated in Softimage, and rendered with Pixar's PhotoRealistic RenderMan. The Softimage Creative Environment evolved a comprehensive and innovative toolset with particular strength in animation, and it was the first commercial 3D package to feature inverse kinematics. It was also quite expensive: an SGI workstation running Softimage cost upwards of $50,000. Developed solely for Silicon Graphics workstations, it was a fast, integrated animation package that became highly regarded for its powerful animation capabilities. Softimage|3D was originally released at Siggraph in 1988 as the Softimage Creative Environment. Website = [ Softimage|3D was a high-end 3D graphics application developed by " Softimage, Co.", a subsidiary of " Avid Technology, Inc.", which was used predominantly in the film, gaming and advertising industries for the production of 3D animation. Caption = Screenshot of Softimage3D 3.9.2