Softimage 3D

Softimage|3D

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256px Screenshot of Softimage|3D 3.9.2
Developer(s)	Softimage, Co.
Initial release	1988
Stable release	4.0 / August 2001
Operating system	Windows, IRIX
Type	3D computer graphics
License	Proprietary
Website	www.softimage.com

Softimage|3D was a high-end 3D graphics application developed by Softimage, Co., which was used predominantly in the film, broadcasting, gaming, and advertising industries for the production of 3D animation. It was superseded by Softimage XSI in 2000.

History

In 1986 National Film Board of Canada filmmaker Daniel Langlois, in partnership with software engineers Richard Mercille and Laurent Lauzon, began developing an integrated 3D modeling, animation, and rendering package with a graphical interface suited for visual artists. The software was initially demonstrated at Siggraph in 1988 and was released for Silicon Graphics workstations as the Softimage Creative Environment. Its character animation tools expanded substantially with the addition of inverse kinematics in the second release, which was used to animate the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park.

Softimage Creative Environment was adopted by major visual effects studios like Industrial Light and Magic and Digital Domain for use in their production pipelines, which also typically included software from Alias and Pixar as well as a variety of custom tools. In 1994, Microsoft acquired Softimage, Co. with the intention of bringing high-end 3D animation software to its burgeoning Windows NT platform, and subsequently rechristened it "Softimage|3D." In January 1995, Softimage|3D was announced as the official 3D development tool for the Sega Saturn.

The first Windows port of Softimage|3D, version 3.0, was released in early 1996. Softimage|3D Extreme 3.5, released later that year, included particle effects and the mental ray renderer, which offered area lights, ray tracing, and other advanced features. 3D paint functionality was added a year later in version 3.7.

In the late 1990s, Softimage Co. began developing a successor to Softimage|3D codenamed "Sumatra," which was designed with a more modern and extensible architecture to compete with other major packages like Alias|Wavefront's Maya. Development was delayed during a 1998 acquisition by Avid Technology, and in the summer of 2000 Softimage|3D's successor was finally released as Softimage XSI. Because of Softimage|3D's entrenched user base, minor revisions continued until the final version of Softimage|3D, version 4.0, was released in 2002.

Release history

Version	Platform	Release date	Price	Notes
Softimage Creative Environment 1.0	SGI	Jan 1989	-	Beta debuted at Siggraph '88, v1.0 commercial release in 1989
Softimage Creative Environment 2.0		1991	$30,000	Introduced Actor module, IK
Softimage Creative Environment 2.6		1993	-	Used in Jurassic Park
Softimage 3D 3.0	SGI / WinNT	Jan 1996	$7,995	First Windows release
Softimage 3D 3.5		May 1996	$7,995, $13,995 (Extreme)	Introduced Extreme edition (particles, metaballs, mental ray)
Softimage 3D 3.7		Apr 1997	$7,995, $13,995 (Extreme)	Added 3D paint, NURBS surface blending
Softimage 3D 3.8		Apr 1998	$4,995	Added animation sequencer, polygon/color reduction tools
Softimage 3D 3.9		Mar 2000	$1,995, $3,995 (Extreme)	Improved envelope weighting, updated GUI
Softimage 3D 4.0		May 2002	$1,495, $2,495 (Extreme)	Added multi-UV texturing, vertex colors. Final release

Features

The Softimage|3D feature set was divided among five menu sets: Model, Motion, Actor, Matter and Tools, each corresponding to a different phase of the 3D production process:

File:Softimage Creative Environment 2.66 - Render Dialogue.png

Softimage Creative Environment 2.66 - Matter module with Render Setup dialogue box

Model: Tools for the creation of spline, polygon, patch, and NURBS primitives (later releases also included Metaballs). Boolean operations, extrusions, revolves, and bevels, as well as lattice deformations and relational modeling tools. Subdivision surface modeling was only available via a third-party plugin.

Motion: Animation of objects and parameters via keyframes, constraints, mathematical expressions, paths, and function curves. Animatable cluster and lattice deformations.

Actor: Rigging and animating digital characters using skeletons, as well as dynamics tools for creating physics-based simulations of object interaction. Included inverse kinematics and weighted / rigid skinning.

Matter: Creating and managing materials and rendering images for output. 2D and 3D textures, field rendering, fog, motion blur, and raytracing were included as standard features.

Tools: Utilities for viewing, editing, and compositing rendered image sequences and importing/exporting bitmapped images and 3D geometry.

Credits

Feature Films

• 1990: The Rescuers Down Under
• 1991: Beauty and the Beast
• 1992: Aladdin
• 1993: Jurassic Park
• 1994: The Mask, The Lion King
• 1995: Casper, Jumanji, Pocahontas, La Cite des Enfants Perdus
• 1996: The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Space Jam
• 1997: Hercules, Anastasia, Princess Mononoke, Titanic, Men in Black, Starship Troopers
• 1998: Mulan, Quest for Camelot, Godzilla, The Prince of Egypt, The Rugrats Movie
• 1999: The Matrix, Tarzan, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, The Iron Giant, South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut
• 2000: The Road to El Dorado, Chicken Run, Rugrats in Paris: The Movie
• 2001: Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Spirited Away, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
• 2002: Lilo & Stitch, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, The Powerpuff Girls Movie, Treasure Planet, The Wild Thornberrys Movie
• 2003: Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, Brother Bear, Rugrats Go Wild, Looney Tunes: Back in Action

Television

• ReBoot
• Liquid Television
• Walking with Dinosaurs
• South Park
• Nick Jr TV station ID's
• Transformers: Beast Wars
• Futurama
• Star Wars: Clone Wars

Games

• Virtua Fighter
• Wipeout
• Resident Evil
• Daytona USA
• Sonic 3D Blast
• Super Mario 64
• PaRappa the Rapper
• Sonic R
• Star Fox 64
• Final Fantasy VII
• Riven
• The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
• Banjo-Kazooie
• Sonic Adventure
• Um Jammer Lammy
• Conker's Bad Fur Day
• Sonic Adventure 2
• Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex
• Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy
• Ratchet & Clank
• Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus
• The Mark of Kri
• No One Lives Forever

External links

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