Autodesk Softimage 2011

Softimage software is a high-performance 3D character animation and visual effects application. Softimage enables artists to use intuitive, nondestructive workflows to create stunning character animation and effects. (extend your Maya software).

The unique, multithreaded Softimage® GigaCore architecture and innovative tools like ICE (Interactive Creative Environment) and the Autodesk® Face Robot® facial animation toolset extend an Autodesk® Maya® software pipeline. Now you can more quickly and easily create detailed simulated effects, advanced character rigs, and lip-synced facial setups.

Features:

A Powerful Companion to Maya
An ideal companion to Autodesk® Maya® software, Autodesk® Softimage® software is a high-performance, comprehensive 3D application that enables artists to use intuitive, nondestructive workflows to help create sophisticated character animation and effects. Featuring a unique, multithreaded Softimage GigaCore architecture, and innovative tools: Interactive Creative Environment (ICE) and Softimage® Face Robot® toolset, Softimage helps extend a Maya pipeline with the ability to more quickly and easily create massively detailed simulated effects, advanced character rigs, and lip-synced facial setups.

Node-Based Interactive Creative Environment (ICE)
ICE is a powerful platform for creating custom tools, visual effects, and advanced character rigs without the need to script a line of code. Featuring a flexible, intuitive, visual programming interface, ICE is designed to help artists be more efficient and to enable them to more easily explore new creative ideas. ICE is based on a high-performance parallel processing engine that takes advantage of modern multi-core workstations to help increase interactivity and boost productivity. ICE effects can be exported to Maya software for greater flexibility in the creation of complex simulations.

GigaCore High-Performance 3D Engine
Softimage GigaCore is a next-generation 3D engine that powers the Softimage creative application. Capable of rendering objects with billions of sub-division surface polygons, GigaCore is highly multi-threaded and optimized to take advantage of the latest 64-bit, multi-core CPUs so that artists can more efficiently manipulate extremely complex characters and scenes involving millions of polygons and thousands of animated objects.

Complete Face Robot Toolset
Softimage includes the Face Robot toolset, a professional solution for rigging and animating large numbers of 3D facial expressions more quickly and easily. Face Robot enables games and visual effects studios to create life-like facial animation at incredible speeds, and features automatic lip-syncing for the generation of facial animation from an audio file. Fully-solved Face Robot heads can be exported to Maya for greater flexibility when creating believable characters. Using Face Robot, animators are free to concentrate on emotion, expression, and delivering unforgettable performances.

Nondestructive Workflow
Creativity is about experimentation: the ability to try things out, change them, and easily discard the things that do not work. Softimage offers artists just that, with an end-toend nondestructive workflow that enables you to make changes to parts of an asset at any point in the process without destroying your work or forcing you to start from scratch. You can make modeling, texturing, and even rigging changes to rigged and animated characters without having to re-construct bones, bone weights or shape animation. You can more easily retarget animations to other rigs and transfer complex surface attributes from one character to another. An integrated paint and compositing engine further extends the non-destructive workflow to texturing and final image composition.

Interoperability
From large production facilities with multiple departments on various continents, to the independent artist, Softimage is rarely used in isolation to create the finished job. Whether the artist is bringing in models from Autodesk® Mudbox™ software, cleaned motion capture data from Autodesk® MotionBuilder® software, or files from Autodesk® 3ds Max® or Maya software, Softimage helps make the task as seamless as possible, through the Autodesk® Crosswalk and Autodesk® FBX® technologies, which facilitate the exchange of 3D data. ICE effects and Face Robot meshes can be exported to Maya for ease of integration into Maya pipelines when creating complex simulations and believable characters.

Industry-Leading Nonlinear Animation and Mixing
Softimage offers extensive nonlinear animation capabilities: an interactive timeline for animation editing and playback, and a powerful animation mixer to help create complex animations more quickly and easily. You can mix and layer animation clips, composite clips, constraints, and expressions to shapes and textures, as well as create libraries of animations. The mixer helps give you high-level control with low-level precision for increased quality and productivity.

Production-Proven Solution
Increased competition and tighter deadlines, combined with higher audience expectations for quality, mean that many jobs require artists to produce more creative content in less time than ever before. Softimage helps maximize productivity through advanced creative tools, efficient scene management tools, nondestructive workflows, and support for collaborative workflows. Repetitive tasks can also be automated through Python® scripting language. As a result, Softimage is one of the entertainment industry’s leading 3D production tools.
It has been used extensively by award-winning film, game development, and broadcast production facilities.

Extensibility
Softimage is a comprehensive 3D solution. For companies wishing to integrate it with their existing pipelines, or to add differentiated new feature development on top, the software offers avenues for customization: Python scripting, support for .NET compliant languages, the Tools Development Environment – to help create and manage custom tools – and an extensive, well-documented C++ application processing interface (API).

System Requirements:

For 32-bit Autodesk Softimage

• Microsoft® Windows 7, Microsoft® Windows Vista® Business (SP2), or Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional (SP2) operating systems
• Intel® Pentium® D processor workstation (Intel® or AMD® dual quad core processor recomended)
• Qualified hardware-accelerated OpenGL® 1.5 (2.0 and higher recommended) professional graphics card with latest graphics driver available on vendor's site
• DirectX® 9.0c application programming interface and higher (recommended for advanced features of DirectX® 9 application programming interface)
• 2 GB of RAM
• 1 GB free hard drive space (Setup requires additional temporary disk space during installation.)
• 1280 x 1024 screen resolution
• TCP/IP service protocol installed on both client and server computers
• Three-button mouse
• A web browser to view HTML documentation
• Microsoft® Internet Explorer® 5.5 web browser or later (to use Net View tool)
• Network adaptor with Internet connection for licensing (non-Internet connected licensing is also supported)
• DVD drive to install software or browse media from Softimage

For 64-bit Autodesk Softimage

• Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows Vista Business (SP2), or Microsoft Windows XP Professional (SP3 or higher)

or

• Softimage for Linux® with Fedora® Core 11 operating system (Recommended Linux Distribution)
• Intel Pentium D (Intel or AMD dual quad core processor recommended)
• Qualified hardware-accelerated OpenGL 1.5 (2.0 and higher recommended) professional graphics card with latest graphics driver available on vendor's site
• DirectX 9.0c and higher (recommended for support of the advanced features of DirectX 9 application programming interface)
• 1 GB free hard drive space (Setup requires additional temporary disk space during installation.)
• TCP/IP service protocol installed on both client and server computers
• 4 GB of RAM (8 GB recommended)
• 1280 x 1024 screen resolution
• Three-button mouse
• A web browser to view HTML documentation
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 or later (to use Net View tool)
• Network adaptor with Internet connection for licensing (non-Internet connected licensing is also supported)
• DVD drive to install software or browse media from Softimage