Softimage - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Softimage, Co. was a company located in Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

that produced 3D animation

3D computer graphics

3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...

software. Their flagship products, Softimage 3D

Softimage 3D

Softimage|3D was a high-end 3D graphics application developed by Softimage, Co., which was used predominantly in the film, gaming and advertising industries for the production of 3D animation. It has been superseded by Softimage XSI.-History:...

and Softimage XSI

Softimage XSI

Autodesk Softimage, or simply Softimage is a 3D computer graphics application, owned by Autodesk, for producing 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling, and computer animation...

, are used in the creation of computer animation

Computer animation

Computer animation is the process used for generating animated images by using computer graphics. The more general term computer generated imagery encompasses both static scenes and dynamic images, while computer animation only refers to moving images....

for film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

s, television advertisement

Television advertisement

A television advertisement or television commercial, often just commercial, advert, ad, or ad-film – is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization that conveys a message, typically one intended to market a product...

, and video games. In 2008, Avid Technology

Avid Technology

Avid Technology, Inc. is an American company specializing in video and audio production technology; specifically, digital non-linear editing systems, management and distribution services. It was created in 1987 and became a publicly traded company in 1993...

sold the name and assets of Softimage's 3D animation business to Autodesk

Autodesk

Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational corporation that focuses on 3D design software for use in the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media and entertainment industries. The company was founded in 1982 by John Walker, a coauthor of the first versions of the company's...

.

Softimage has been attributed as a pioneer of computer graphics for motion pictures, used in the creation of special effects for movies such as Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park (film)

Jurassic Park is a 1993 American science fiction adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Michael Crichton. It stars Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Martin Ferrero, and Bob Peck...

, Titanic

Titanic (1997 film)

Titanic is a 1997 American epic romance and disaster film directed, written, co-produced, and co-edited by James Cameron. A fictionalized account of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, it stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson, Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater and Billy Zane as Rose's fiancé, Cal...

and The Fifth Element

The Fifth Element

The Fifth Element is a 1997 French science fiction film directed, co-written, and based on a story by Luc Besson, starring Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, and Milla Jovovich...

. More recently, Softimage software was used in the production of the Academy Award winning feature film Happy Feet

Happy Feet

Happy Feet is a 2006 American-Australian computer-animated family film with music, directed and co-written by George Miller. It was produced at Sydney-based visual effects and animation studio Animal Logic for Warner Bros., Village Roadshow Pictures and Kingdom Feature Productions and was released...

, as well as well known movies such as 300

300 (film)

300 is a 2007 American fantasy action film based on the 1998 comic series of the same name by Frank Miller. It is a fictionalized retelling of the Battle of Thermopylae. The film was directed by Zack Snyder, while Miller served as executive producer and consultant...

and Charlotte's Web

Charlotte's Web (2006 film)

Charlotte's Web is a 2006 American live-action/computer-animated feature film, based on the popular book of the same name by E. B. White. It is directed by Gary Winick and produced by Paramount Pictures, Walden Media, The K Entertainment Company, and Nickelodeon Movies...

. Softimage software was also used for the production of games such as Konami

Konami

is a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games...

's Metal Gear Solid 4.

In 1997, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures...

awarded a Scientific and Engineering Award for the development of the 'Actor' component of Softimage|3D.

Softimage also developed a non-linear video editing and compositing suite named Softimage|DS, which continues at Avid Technology under the name Avid DS

Avid DS Nitris

Avid DS is a high-end offline and finishing system comprising a non-linear editing system and visual effects software. It was developed by Softimage in Montreal...

History

Softimage was founded in 1986 by National Film Board of Canada

National Film Board of Canada

The National Film Board of Canada is Canada's twelve-time Academy Award-winning public film producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary, animation, alternative drama and digital media productions...

filmmaker Daniel Langlois

Daniel Langlois

Daniel Langlois, OC is the president and founder of the Daniel Langlois Foundation, Ex-Centris, and Media Principia Inc.Daniel Langlois also founded Softimage Inc., serving as its president and chief technology officer from November 1986 to July 1998...

. Their original 3D modeling and animation package was called the Softimage Creative Environment, later renamed to Softimage

Softimage 3D

. Softimage

Softimage 3D

was a fast, simple-to-use animation package, the first commercial package to feature Inverse kinematics

Inverse kinematics

Inverse kinematics is a subdomain of kinematics, which is of particular interest in robotics and computer animation. In contrast to forward kinematics, which calculates the position of a body after a series of motions, inverse kinematics calculates the motions necessary to achieve a desired...

for character animation. Through a deal with Mental Images, Softimage began shipping with mental ray as an optional renderer in 1994. To create a more advanced, open architecture for the next generation of 3D content creation, Softimage developed Softimage, codenamed "Sumatra" to replace Softimage 3D.

The company became public in 1992 and was acquired by Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

in 1994. In 1998, after helping to port the products to Windows and financing the development of Softimage|XSI and Softimage|DS, Microsoft sold the Softimage unit to Avid Technology, Inc.

Avid Technology

who was looking to expand its visual effect capabilities.

Avid initially grouped many of its visual effects products, such as Elastic Reality and Avid Media Illusion

Avid Media Illusion

Avid Media Illusion was a digital nonlinear compositing software by Avid Technology targeted at the film and television markets. It ran on Silicon Graphics workstations. The main features were paint, compositing, image manipulation and special effects....

, under the Softimage brand, but in 2001 discontinued most of these products. Until 2008, Avid's AlienBrain product was also branded with the name Softimage, even though it was developed by a separate company.

On Oct. 23, 2008, Autodesk

Autodesk

signed an agreement with Avid Technology to acquire the brand and the 3D animation assets of Softimage for approximately $35 million, thereby ending Softimage Co. as a distinct entity. http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?id=12022457&siteID=123112 The video-related assets of Softimage, including Softimage|DS (now Avid|DS) continue to be owned by Avid.

Overview

1988–1991 – Early 3D modeling and animation functionality, early workflow definition, some 3D packages derived from CAD/engineering-focussed packages
1991–1995 – New generation animation tools based on research on robotics and physics, intense innovation period, games focus, openness to SDKs, ended with live theater experiments
1994–1999 – Acquisition by Microsoft. Mutation period, industry shakeup & buyouts, appearance of new platforms (PCs), drastic price drops, new generation architectures in development
1998–2000 – Acquisition by Avid. New generation products based on new architectures
2000–2003 – Production market mutation, more price drops, focus on productivity, non-linear animation systems
2007–2008 - ICE (Interactive Creative Environment) in XSI 7, acquisition by Autodesk

1987

Softimage President Daniel Langlois and engineers Richard Mercille and Laurent Lauzon begin development of the company’s 3-D application software. The user interface begins to take shape and would remain largely unchanged for the next 16 years of the product's life.

1988

Introduction of Creative Environment 1.0 at SIGGRAPH. A first for the industry, the software would offer modeling, animation and rendering in a single integrated environment.
Release of Creative Environment v0.8, closely followed by the 1.0 release.

1990

Creative Environment V2.0
- new animation tools
- introduction of the new concept of object constraints
- new Dopesheet editor
- adds spline modeling

1991 - Actor Module

Creative Environment 2.5 with Actor Module
- The Actor Module introduces Inverse Kinematics, a concept coming from robotics, to the animation market
- Bones
- Inverse Kinematics
- Flexible Skin (Envelopes)
- Rigid-Articulated Body Dynamics
The Actor Module was awarded a Technological and Scientific Academy Award for its innovation
Films: Terminator 2- Judgment Day (Academy Award for Best Visual FX)
Director of sales Richard Szalwinski leaves to found Discreet and re-distribute Animal Logic
Animal Logic
Animal Logic is an Australian digital visual effects company based at Fox Studios in Sydney, Australia and Santa Monica, California. Established in 1991, Animal Logic's core business has traditionally been the design and production of high-end visual effects for commercials and television programs,...

's image compositor Eddie

1992 - Eddie

Creative Environment 2.52
- Motion Capture (Channels)
- SDK (DKit)
Paint and Compositing package introduced with Softimage|Eddie
Films
- Death Becomes Her (Academy Award for Best Visual FX)
Softimage goes public on NASDAQ
Acquisition of the compositing product Softimage|Eddie product from Discreet, co-owned and developed with Animal Logic
Animal Logic
Animal Logic is an Australian digital visual effects company based at Fox Studios in Sydney, Australia and Santa Monica, California. Established in 1991, Animal Logic's core business has traditionally been the design and production of high-end visual effects for commercials and television programs,...
Acquisition of Painterly Effects image processing library from ImageWare Research

1993

Creative Environment 2.6
- Metaclay ("Metaballs")
- Motion Control
- Clusters
- Shape Animation
- mental ray rendering
- Wave Deforms
- Flock Animation (macro particles)
- Standalone Particle System
- Rotoscopy
- 3D Booleans
- Ghost display/Onion skinning
mental ray and introduced.
Softimage and mental images announce rendering technology agreement
Creative Toonz debuts. The 2-D animation package automates the more tedious tasks involved in 2-D cel animation, such as inking-&-painting, while still maintaining the look of hand-drawn images and characters
Beginning of Softimage Digital Studio on the Silicon Graphics IRIX operating system
Films
- Jurassic Park (Academy Award for Best Visual FX)

1994 - Microsoft Softimage

Microsoft acquires Softimage
Creative Environment 2.65
- Complete new File and Database Management
- New Topological scene graph update
- Structure Keys
- Extended Constraints
- Expressions
- Ghost display/Onion skinning
- Animation par Shapes
- Toon rendering
IDEAS: Interactive Developer's Entertainment Authoring Software with ProPlay and ProPlay Plus solutions, includes: Softimage Creative Environment, Eddie compositing, video-effects software, distributed ray tracer and 3-D particles kit.
Films
- Star trek: Generations / Industrial Light & Magic (1994)
- The Flintstones/ Industrial Light & Magic (1994)
- The Mask / Industrial Light & Magic (1994)

1995

Softimage|3D 3.0
NURBS Surfaces and Modeling
- Trims
- Instances
- Relational modeling
Qstretch deform (squash and stretch)
Custom hotkey remapping (swift keys)
Spreadsheet
Polygon Reduction (1st generation)
Games Features
- Advanced polygonal modeling tools
- 2D/3D Paint + UV Texturing + Painterly Effects, Color Reduction
- Game Export / filtering / on target viewing (SEGA Saturn)
SI Live Virtual Theater (NAB 95)
Introduction of Softimage|3D Extreme
- includes Osmose, Virtual Theater (real time capture and virtual set compositing) and mental ray.
Softimage Toonz 3.5 and SOFTIMAGE|Eddie 3.2
Films
- Casper
- Babe (Academy Award for Best Visual FX)
- Balto / Amblimation (1995)
- Casper / Industrial Light & Magic (1995)
- Juge Dredd / (1995)
- Jumanji / Industrial Light & Magic (1995)
- La cité des enfants perdus / BUF Compagnie (1995)

1996

Softimage|3D 3.5
- Windows NT platform support
- User Data
- Image Library
- Saaphire SDK
- Ambulate, Stepmaler
First prototype of Softimage|DS on Windows NT
"Sumatra"(code name), the product that would become Softimage|XSI , and RenderFarm unveiled (a Sumatra module never released).
Films and Games
- Virtua Fighter(game), Dragonheart, Independence Day (Academy Award for Best Visual FX),101 Dalmatiens / Industrial light & Magic (1996),12 Monkeys / Peerless Camera (1996), Basket spatial / Industrial Light & Magic (1996), Star Trek - First Contact / Industrial Light & Magic (1996), Pinocchio / MediaLab (1996), Malgré Picasso / Peerless Camera (1996), Draco : la légende du dernier dragon/ Industrial Light & Magic (1996), Eraser / Mass Illusion (1996), Joe’s Apartment / Blue Sky (1996), Island of Docteur Moreau / Digital Domain (1996), Chasseurs de fantômes / Weta Ltd. (1996), Mission : Impossible / Industrial Light & Magic (1996), Mars Attack! / Industrial light & Magic (1996), T2-3D / Digital Domain (1996)

1997

Dominique Boisvert, Réjean Gagné, Daniel Langlois, and Richard Laperrière won a Scientific and Engineering Award for the development of the 'Actor' component of the Softimage computer animation system
SOFTIMAGE|DS 1.0
SOFTIMAGE|3D 3.7
- Sony PlayStation Export / Import / Viewer + Attribute Editors
- Colors at Vertices (painting, OpenGL, Softimage + mr rendering, Saaphire)
- Direct3D Export / Import
- RenderMap (baking light maps)
Films and Games
- Riven, Titanic (Academy Award for Best Visual FX), Alien : Resurrection / Blue Sky, Spawn / Industrial Light & Magic (1997), Anastasia / Fox Animation Studio (1997), Batman et Robin / BUF Compagnie (1997), Contact / Sony Pictures Imageworks / Weta Ltd. (1997), Men In Black/ Industrial Light & Magic (1997), Jurassic Park / Industrial Light & Magic (1997), Fifth Element/ Digital Domain (1997)
First mention of Twister, a rendering module of Sumatra that would never be released

1998 - Avid Softimage

Avid Technology acquires Softimage, begins to re-brand many of its visual effects products under the name "Softimage"
SOFTIMAGE|DS 2.1
SOFTIMAGE|3D 3.8
- GDK (Game Development Kit / high-level AP)
- dotXSI file format, import/export pipeline (Direct 3D, VRML, 3D Studio)
- GameFilter
- Merge
- Polygon Reduction
- Neural Quantizer (color reduction)
- Animation Sequencer (precursor to animation mixing)
- Audio Track for lip synch
Announcement of an interactive rendering application called "Twister", the first module of the future Sumatra product. The company later canceled this separate product to focus on Sumatra.

1999

"Animation R3defined" (TM) campaign : First presentation of "Sumatra" (code name) as the first "Non-Linear 3D animation" system The Animation Mixer, which allows manipulation of animation as clips on tracks, similar to video non-linear editing system like Avid Media Composer.
Softimage|3D v3.8 Service Pack 2
- Advanced Rendering - Caustics support, Global Illumination
- Nintendo NIFF toolkit
- Sony PlayStation HMD toolkit
- Bézier curves support
- Surface Continuity Manager (SCM)
- Drop & Slide Points
- GoWithThe Flow qui contraint les objets aux particules
Films : Movie - The Mummy, The Matrix (Academy Award for Best Visual FX), Stuart Little / Centropolis FX, Fight Club / Pixel Liberation Front / BUF

2000 - Softimage|XSI 1.0

Softimage|XSI 1.0 is released
- New generation architecture, user interface, workflow, etc.…
- ActiveScripting
- Interactive Rendering (Render Region)
- Rendering Passes
- Render Tree
- GAP (Generic Attribute Painting)
- Surface meshes (Nurbs networks)
- Non-linear animation - Animation Mixer
- Integrated Particles
Acquisition of The Motion Factory, Inc
Softimage|3D v3.9
Softimage|XSI 1.5
- Adds Polygonal modeling, Subdivision Surfaces, and texturing tools
- Animation Clip Effects/Offsets, Equalizer, Bridge Transitions
- Scripted Operators (scripted plugins)
- Soft-Bodies
- Cloth, Fluids (from Phoenix Tools)
- SDK Object Model (COM)

2001

Softimage|XSI v1.5 begins shipping.
SOFTIMAGE|XSI v2.0 unveiled at Siggraph 2001 and later ships
XSI v2.0
- Introduces fully integrated compositor, based on Avid Media Illusion
  Avid Media Illusion
  Avid Media Illusion was a digital nonlinear compositing software by Avid Technology targeted at the film and television markets. It ran on Silicon Graphics workstations. The main features were paint, compositing, image manipulation and special effects....
- Introduces a Hair and Fur module, based on Joe Alter's Shave
- Support for Linux (previously, supported unix was SGI IRIX)
- Electric Rain collaborate to bring Flash, EPS, AI and SVG exports to SOFTIMAGE|XSI customers.
SOFTIMAGE|3D v4.0 unveiled at Siggraph 2001

2002

Softimage releases the "SOFTIMAGE|XSI Experience" for version 2.0, a free educational software and training kit. Alias had previously released a Personal Learning Edition of Maya
Softimage|3D v4.0 released
Softimage|XSI v3.0 User Feature Review
- An evolutionary update
- Introduces Softimage|Behavior, a procedural animation system, marketed as a new Crowd Simulation engine. It is a re-branded version of The Motion Factory's product called Motivate

2003

Softimage|XSI v3.5 with Softimage|Behavior 1.1
- Brings back the Schematic View from Softimage|3D

2004

Softimage|XSI v4.0 User Feature Review
- New Rigid Body Dynamics based on ODE
  ODE
  ODE may refer to:* Ohio Department of Education, the state education agency of Ohio* Omicron Delta Epsilon, an international honor society in the field of economics* Open Dynamics Engine, a real-time physics engine...
- Character SDK, Custom Display Host, XML-based UI definition, new XGS real time shader pipeline
- New Vector and Raster Paint tool in the compositing module
- Now ships with Syflex
Softimage|XSI v4.2

2005

Softimage|XSI v5.0 User Feature Overview Official Change List
- first Windows 64-bit version
- New user interface elements to appeal to Autodesk Maya users
- Integrated Cloth with Syflex 3
- Updated Rigid Body Dynamics with physX
  PhysX
  PhysX is a proprietary realtime physics engine middleware SDK developed by Ageia with the purchase of ETH Zurich spin-off NovodeX in 2004...
- New view: Shape Manager, for morph shape animation
- dotXSI 5.0

2006

Softimage|XSI v5.1 Official Change List
- Autodesk 3DS Max compatible keymap and GATOR plug-in for 3DS Max
- Collada import/export
Introduction of Softimage|FaceRobot
Softimage|XSI v6.0 User Feature Overview Official Change List
- Focus on animation tools, animation layers, motion transfer tool ("MOTOR")
- New views: Material Manager, Material Panelw, Animation Layer Manager
- Elastic Reality morpher in the compositor
- Delta Referencing

2007

Softimage|XSI 6.5 Official Change List
- Mostly a release to adjust price and re-shuffle features between XSI Essential and XSI Advanced.

2008 - ICE, and Sale of Company Assets to Autodesk

Softimage|XSI 7.0 Official Change List
- introduces ICE ("Interactive Creative Environment")
October 23, 2008, Autodesk announces intent to acquire all of Softimage 3D business assets from Avid Technology
November 18, 2008, Autodesk Completes Acquisition of Softimage
Company ceases to exist as an entity
Autodesk Media and Entertainment
Autodesk Media and Entertainment
Autodesk Media and Entertainment, formerly Discreet, is based in Montreal, Quebec as the entertainment division of Autodesk. This division produces software used in feature films, television commercials and computer games. It also provides products for management and distribution to complement its...

continues to develop Softimage|XSI product, re-branded as "Softimage". FaceRobot rebranded Autodesk FaceRobot

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

History

Overview

1987

1988

1990

1991 - Actor Module

1992 - Eddie

1993

1994 - Microsoft Softimage

1995

1996

1997

1998 - Avid Softimage

1999

2000 - Softimage|XSI 1.0

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008 - ICE, and Sale of Company Assets to Autodesk

See also

External links