Softimage Xsi: a new CopyOP
Posted: February 26, 2007
Post subject: Softimage Xsi: a new CopyOP
Post subject: Softimage Xsi: a new CopyOP
XSIs ease of use and workflow is simply excellent but I feel a little trapped sometimes.
I and a few other XSI users have been running into a few issues with proceduralism and interface in XSI. One area of frustration is the copyOP in XSI as its only procedural in so far as its copying the referenced object, but its input can't be changed, nor the number of copies changed, nor the transform parameters that created them so the proceduralism stops. (instancing models is cool but doesn't answer this.
I have noticed that a few others lately have run into similar issues with the copy OP in XSI. An array was mentioned and I'm not familiar with that function or what app its belongs to. Can anyone explain it?
I made a tutorial for some copyOp usage in Houdini because I kept having to explian it to people, and I recognize that I am not doing it justice. Its a truely powerful Op, procedural in many ways, and offers lots of methods to maintian proceduralism with interoperability between other OPs even upstream so that a model can be adjusted and not blow apart ie more screws, railings, arms, eyes, whatever can be added and they'll auto adjust based on some simple expressions in params. The model can be designed to adjust to changes as the artist would have intended. I look forward to this area in XSI hopefully being addressed.
If you are interested, here is a beginner copy Op tut in Houdini:
http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=andpostid=383663#post383663
I'm not sure how something like this could be implimented in XSI, groups could be used for inputs I guess but the issues of copies and models would be more difficult...
added:
The difficulty with scripts for an average user is when you want to access params that are part of the duplicate operations and have relational params that can be adjusted or animated later.
I and a few other XSI users have been running into a few issues with proceduralism and interface in XSI. One area of frustration is the copyOP in XSI as its only procedural in so far as its copying the referenced object, but its input can't be changed, nor the number of copies changed, nor the transform parameters that created them so the proceduralism stops. (instancing models is cool but doesn't answer this.
I have noticed that a few others lately have run into similar issues with the copy OP in XSI. An array was mentioned and I'm not familiar with that function or what app its belongs to. Can anyone explain it?
I made a tutorial for some copyOp usage in Houdini because I kept having to explian it to people, and I recognize that I am not doing it justice. Its a truely powerful Op, procedural in many ways, and offers lots of methods to maintian proceduralism with interoperability between other OPs even upstream so that a model can be adjusted and not blow apart ie more screws, railings, arms, eyes, whatever can be added and they'll auto adjust based on some simple expressions in params. The model can be designed to adjust to changes as the artist would have intended. I look forward to this area in XSI hopefully being addressed.
If you are interested, here is a beginner copy Op tut in Houdini:
http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=andpostid=383663#post383663
I'm not sure how something like this could be implimented in XSI, groups could be used for inputs I guess but the issues of copies and models would be more difficult...
added:
The difficulty with scripts for an average user is when you want to access params that are part of the duplicate operations and have relational params that can be adjusted or animated later.