Customer Reviews

Experience Xsi 4: the Official Softimage]Xsi 4 Guide To Character Creation

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I recently decided to get back into 3D after a number of years out of the loop. After experimentation with the top applications (Maya, XSI, 3DMax and Lightwave, plus a number of less well known applications such as Cinema4D), I decided to go with XSI. Maya came a close second: XSI just seemed easier and more intuitive.

The next problem was finding some teaching material to learn XSI with. There are literally hundreds of courses, books and DVDs for Maya, but only a handful for XSI. This was a fact that almost made me go for Maya (there is no point getting a high powered application if you dont know how to use that power!), but I took the precaution of actually reading some of the XSI books, and boy was I impressed - although there are far fewer XSI books out there, the quality of them exceeds many other digital authoring and computer books I have read. As a computer book author and freelance web designer myself, thats no mean feat... I get through a lot of books!

There are only two books you need to get up to speed with XSI: The XSI:Illuminated:Foundation (published by Mesmer) and this book.

The expertise of the authors of the Experience XSI 4 books is obvious just by flicking through the pages. One of the authors was actually involved in the development of XSI itself, and the other is a noted CGI professional. You just can't go wrong with tutors like these!

The other surprise was the high production values and low price of the book: full color gloassy paper throughout. This is not a showy color book with little technical depth though, far from it. It is packed with concise and totally practical tutorials.

Perhaps one downside of the book is that the authors push you straight in at the deep end: the character you create is commercial quality (ie it would not look out of place in a Hollywood motion picture). For me, thats an advantage not a pitfall: I'd rather be working slowly through a book that showed me how to create a believable, realistic character than fly through 300 pages creating cubes, matchstick men and simple rotating logos!

Highly recommended.

S

This is a great book for anyone interested in working with characters in SoftImage XSI. Not only does it provide a thorough overview of all the new features in the latest version of XSI, with regards to character rigging and animation, it also includes great insights into the basic mechanics of the building blocks that make up a character rig.

The fact that the authors, Michael Isner and Aaron Sims, are production artists is apparent, and that really guides the whole process. It's invaluable to have the insights of people working day-in and day-out with the tools they are writing about. Their goal is to show you how to get a character up and running so you can start creating as soon as possible, and if you're a production artist, or want to be, that is the goal.

I have been a 3D instructor for several years. 99% of my students demand that we structure the course so that the content reflect a real world production environment. In addition, we design the courseware so that the student/professional would walk out the door with a demo reel he/she would be proud of. This exceptional book will do just that. I am currently on page 102 of this book, and I can't seem to put it down.

I think this book is going to provide the "student" in all of us, more insight into the steps/workflow that an experienced 3D Artist must follow at a groundbreaking studio like, Stan Winston's. It's not about the location of the buttons per se, but more about the process by which one begins with Aaron's renderings, and ends with a hi resolution creature intended for a live action production. The quality of the material in the tutorials cannot be found in any other 3D book on the market. Furthermore, for those of you who prefer to reverse engineer a character rig or shader network, you can download the finished product from the book's website.

In addition, at the same time I had begun to work through the tutorials, I came across this more elaborate review of the book.

Link to the article: http://www.xsibase.com/articles.php?detail=51

Michael Isner and Aaron Sims team up to bring XSI users up to speed with the latest version of Softimage's flagship Product XSI 4.0. This book takes users from modeling to animating the featured character with XSI and crowd simulation in Behavior.

Experience XSI 4 is easy to follow and comprehend it covers the basics of XSI but also the technical aspects as well such as understanding the pivot and transform architecture, scripted operators, and programming quaternions to name a few.

Isner and Sims provide strategies that are production proven and worthy while making the learning process a fun experience. I recommend this book to all XSI users new and old and to those curious to see XSI's workflow in a production environment.

This book is nice to have handy considering the limited number of XSI books out there. While the treatment as a whole can be kind of overview-ish at times, Mr. Isner manages to get into some nice technical tid-bits that can be hard to find other places. A good place to start for someone who knows some 3D, but wants to learn the XSI methodology.

At the end of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban they give the credits. Minute after minute, after minute the credits flow. After the first few, the names are not of actors but of programmers and other computer types. This is typical of a lot of movies today. The computer people can produce special effects with greater attention to detail, more 'lifelike' appearance than previous techniques and can do it faster and at lower cost.

And one of the main packages used for this work is Softimage. Strangely enough there are relatively few books on working with Softimage. This book covers the latest XSI 4 version of the software.

The two authors are Aaron Sims who has done creatures for such films as Men in Black, and Michael Isner the head of Special Projects at Softimage. Mr. Sims handles the creative aspects of the book, going through the process of designing a character in a step-by-stem mode. Mr. Isner provides a solid base of information about the technical processes within XSI, information vital to a complete understanding of this powerful software package.

The two authors have split the work well giving two views of approaching a problem.

This is truely an inspiring book. It contains a great mixture of learning materials, from character creation, to scripting, and final renderings. A must have.

Experience XSI 4 is a great book for beginners or transitioning artists from another package. The book itself is gorgeously put together, sporting a glossy cover and semi-glossy colored pages.

The book seems to be a concise overview of the features of XSI, but does not hold your hand through every aspect of a 3D character workflow. For a transitioning artist from Maya to XSI, this book allows me to look up what I need, and then apply it in XSI to get my work done. This is a great book to jump in, and start doing stuff in XSI. From start to finish, the book does a good job covering the different aspects of XSI.

I have read complaints that people are not satisfied with the fact that they cannot go through the book and make a realistic character like you see on the front page. Please keep in mind that Aaron Sims and Michael Isner are industry pros that have years of artistic and technical experience under their belts. It takes people years to get to this level, and some never reach it at all. Regardless of how well any book is written, the final product largely depends on the artistic skill of the artist, not the author of the book you're reading.

The book is by no means the end all be all of XSI literature. After all, XSI is an expansive 3D package with an extensive amount of features that would be impossible to cover in only 260 or so pages. However, finding a good CG book around $30 is rare, much less an XSI CG book. And for what you pay, it's a deal for what you're getting.

My only gripe is that there were not extensive chapters on scripting and compositing. However, those two topics can fill volumes just by themselves! A small gripe in consideration of the quality of the book overall. Great job Aaron and Michael!

Lu
Rigging/Scripting
Omation

I recommend this book highly to all beginners or intermidiate users of XSI 4 0r 5.
Aaron Simms walks you through many things that the manual and teaching materials that come with XSI do not.
5 stars from me!
PATTON

Aaron Sims and Michael Isner have written a great new book on XSI 4.0. The book covers the whole process from modeling, texturing, rigging, animating,and rendering the creature on the book cover in XSI. I really love the design, texturing and rendering of that creature!

My personal experience is with a different 3d program and I have been looking into XSI and this book will really help me with the learning curve!

Thank you Aaron and Michael!