Archive notice: This article was originally published on November 16, 2006. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Avid subsidiary Softimage has announced version 6 of its XSI animation and character-creation solution. Among other things, it is intended to provide artists with new functions that make working with 3D characters and motion-capture data easier and thus accelerate the animation process. The latest XSI version is designed especially to be easier to integrate into existing pipelines and to simplify collaboration among artists.
The Crosswalk toolset, for example, is new: with its help, XSI users are intended to be able to pass assets easily to other 3D applications or obtain them from them. The Motor tool is used to exchange animation and mocap data between XSI rigs and the rigs of other solutions. The Elastic Reality Warper and Morpher helps artists deform or morph images and sequences, respectively.
Softimage XSI 6 supports the .NET Framework and integrates the object-oriented programming language C#, which is gaining importance particularly in game development. The program also supports the popular Python scripting language, and according to its own information, Softimage is working on support for DirectX 10 hardware for Microsoft’s forthcoming Vista operating system.
Softimage provides an overview of the new functions on its website (see link below).
According to the manufacturer, XSI 6 is expected to be available from the end of December 2006 and, as before, offered in three functionally different configurations: “Foundation” for 495 US dollars, “Essentials” for 1,995 US dollars and “Advanced” for 6,995 US dollars. Registered users of XSI Foundation can upgrade to the new version for 395 US dollars until December 20 or switch directly to XSI 6 Essentials for 1,495 US dollars.
Further Links:
- XSI 6 –
