Pipeline Integration Softimage and Maya

Here is the direct link to the video

For those of you interested in learning how to move animated data back and forth between Softimage and Maya, this may help out a little bit.

The objective is to use textured meshes from Maya, and  import them into Softimage for character setup. In Softimage, the rigs are animated, and the mesh data point cached to the Ncache file format. Scenes are iterated in this fashion, writing point cache files using standard rendering tokens.

Back in Maya, each piece of the character mesh imports an NCache file which essentially creates the link between the Softimage and Maya scene. If any change is made to the Softimage Rig and written out, the Maya mesh picks up the overwritten data. 

Crosswalk is used to sync camera animation between both programs, though Nache could also be used here.

Shattering Geometry using ICE in Softimage

With the release of Softimage 2012, ICE now supports topology creation and editing. This short video demonstrates how to setup a shot for shattering geometry as well as integrating Exocortex Momentum 2.0 into the shot to simulate the shattered geometry.

The video can be found here:

Shattering Geometry using Softimage ICE

The Exocortex web site can be found here:

Exocortex

Working with Softimage using Maya hotkeys

I have many students who switch between Maya and Soft all day long. To make the transition easier for artists used to the Alt + Nav  and QWERTY workflow, I've been teaching Soft using Maya keys for the last couple of years now. I thought I would share my hotkey mappings in a quick video

Softimage using Maya Hotkeys

Corrective Shape Animation Rigs using ICE

I've just finished putting together a series of videos that show how to work with corrective shape animation in Softimage. The first video is a review of how to build corrective shapes, while the second through fifth take you through a simple means of driving those shapes on a character using ICE.

You can follow the link below. It takes you to the albums I've started to put together on Vimeo. Since many of these tutorials / walk throughs are multiples of videos, the albums are a nice way to organize them.
 Corrective Shape Animation Rigging with ICE

Siggraph Student Presentation@Vancouver 2011

I had a great time presenting at the Autodesk Student event this morning. My main goal was to show Softimage ICE as a tool that was useful for tasks other than simulation / particles / effects. The focus was on creating custom weight maps for shape rigging, as well as a control rig for managing dozens of face shapes. One of the goals of my presentation was to illustrate the strength of ICE in building tools for re-use in future productions.

Over the last couple of weeks, I have recorded about three and a half hours of video content on Camtasia for this event, knowing there was no way to squeeze it into a 60 minute time slot. I apologize, my vimeo site isn't really cleaned up yet, but the presentation is split into two parts There are 35 total videos in all.

The vimeo link is here:

The weather in Vancouver right now is beautiful. We couldn't have picked a better time to host an event like Siggraph and showcase our amazing province.

My Vimeo Site is up

A heads up. All of my videos are hosted off Vimeo. I haven't had time to embed in the blog yet, but for now, you can get the Video series from the Autodesk Student Event at Siggraph, here:

http://www.vimeo.com/user7919485