XSI PIPELINE TOOLS - COLLABORATIVE WORKFLOW

As your studio needs expand, you need tools that can work well with multiple people working together. XSI offers robust tools that allow you to work effectively in teams and pipelines. Today's studio environments are also rarely "one application", but use a number of different applications together. XSI has an open, flexible architecture that allows you to work effectively in a mixed-software pipeline environment.

Project Management

It's not just about the 3D features. It's about how efficient your production is. XSI lets you manage your project, scenes, models and files logically, giving you peace of mind as a project increases in complexity.

• Project Manager - XSI automatically sets up a project as a folder with all your files in logical subfolders (names logically). This means that you can find all your project files in one location all the time.
• Scenes - A scene file is the stage where you put all the elements together. Models, lights, cameras, animation, etc. are all staged for rendering or output. Working on a scene allows you to manage many external files and models, so other artists can work on elements that you are using in your scene at the same time.
• Models - (not to be confused with a 3D "mesh" which is geometry) - Models are a powerful way of organizing objects in your scenes and projects. They act as a container for objects, usually hierarchies of objects, and many of their properties. Models contain not just the objects’ geometry but also the function curves, shaders, mixer information, and other properties. They can also contain internal expressions and constraints; that is, those expressions and constraints that refer only to elements within the model’s hierarchy. In addition, models can contain groups. Models are like “mini scenes” that can be easily reused in scenes and projects. In fact, exporting and importing models is how you can copy between scenes.
• External Files - In a production, you're going to have many, many external files (textures, for example). XSI comes with an External File Manager to help you manage these.

Robust Referencing

In large-scale 3D productions, modelers, animators, riggers, and texture artists need to work on the same assets, at the same time, without getting in each other’s way.

In addition to XSI's robust referencing system, Delta allows you to store the changes to a model in a lightweight manner. You can then export, import and apply deltas manually. You can also edit and delete deltas and items within deltas, and even change a delta’s target model. The result is an extremely efficient, robust and flexible way for artists to work collaboratively in production.

Delta Referencing lets multiple artists work on the same assets at the same time, storing their changes in external files that each artist can import to update the assets. This video exlapins how it works. Download video - right-click and save as...

Here's another look at the powerful Delta Referencing system in action. Download video - right-click and save as...

The lightweight Delta system allows production teams to store 3D assets externally, at multiple resolutions, so several artists can work on the same asset at the same time. Changes made to assets are stored in external files, called deltas, that artists can import to update their versions of assets with the latest changes. Using the Delta system, artists can dynamically assemble 3D assets to produce characters, props and environments.

Crosswalk Data Interchange System

Crosswalk is an ongoing initiative to help transfer data between 3D applications. With Crosswalk you can transfer Autodesk 3ds Max, Maya data (rigs, models, etc.) into and out of XSI. You can also transfer assets using COLLADA standards, and take advantage of enhanced import/export tools to get assets in and out of many 3D applications.

Crosswalk lets you transfer assets between XSI and other 3D packages—in this case, 3ds Max—so you can take advantage of XSI's non-destructive workflow in a mixed-software environment. Download video - right-click and save as...

Here, an artist uses Crosswalk to bring a character from 3ds Max into XSI, uses MOTOR to retarget an animation onto the rig, then exports the character back to 3ds Max. Download video - right-click and save as...

All pipelines have their own unique requirements and the Softimage engineering team can work with you to extend Crosswalk to work with specialized content.

Support for Industry Standard File Formats

XSI can import and export a wide variety of standard file formats, including:

• .3ds - Autodesk 3DS
• .ai - Adobe Illustrator
• .amc - Acclaim Motion Capture
• .asf - Acclaim Skeleton files
• .dae - COLLADA
• .dsc - SOFTIMAGE|3D scene
• .eani - XSI native animation clip
• .eps - encapsulated PostScript
• .fbx - Autodesk
• .hrc - SOFTIMAGE|3D model
• .iges - ANSI graphics file format forwireframe model interchange
• .lwo - Lightwave Object
• .obj - Wavefront Object file format - with dedicated options for importing complex ZBrush(r) geometry and displacement maps for rendering in XSI
• .psc, .mdd - PointOven scene and point cache
• .scn - XSI
• .x - DirectX
• .xsi - dotXSI 3.x, 5.x and 6.x (ascii or binary).

For a complete list of supported file formats, visit the XSI Wiki.