SOFTIMAGE 3D 4.0 2002 UPDATE
The software received a major update in 1991 with the release of v2.5 which included an Actor Module with Inverse Kinematics, a concept coming from robotics. The next year v1.65 was released including texture mapping followed in 1990 by v2.0 with a set of new animation tools, the concept of object constraints, a new Dopesheet editor, and spline modeling. In a first for the industry, the software offered modeling, animation and rendering in a single integrated environment.Ĭreative Environment 1.0 was introduced at SIGGRAPH in 1988 and the first public release, v0.8, was followed shortly by v1.0 all in 1988. The user interface would remain largely unchanged for the next 16 years of the product's life. Softimage President Daniel Langlois and engineers Richard Mercille and Laurent Lauzon begin development of the company's 3-D application software in 1987. Originally named Softimage Creative Environment, this was the first product developed by Softimage. Softimage is mentioned in the song "Fabriqué au Québec" written by the Québécois humorists Pat Groulx and Louis-José Houde. The video-related assets of Softimage, including Softimage|DS (now Avid|DS) continue to be owned by Avid. On October 23, 2008, Autodesk signed an agreement with Avid Technology to acquire the brand and the 3D animation assets of Softimage for approximately $35 million, thereby ending Softimage Co.
During this time, in 2000, Softimage acquired The Motion Factory, Inc.
Until 2008, Avid's AlienBrain product was also branded with the name Softimage, even though it was developed by a separate company. Īvid initially grouped many of its visual effects products, such as Elastic Reality and Avid Media Illusion, under the Softimage brand, but in 2001 discontinued most of these products.
which was looking to expand its visual effect capabilities.
SOFTIMAGE 3D 4.0 2002 WINDOWS
In 1998, after helping to port the products to Windows and financing the development of Softimage|XSI and Softimage|DS, Microsoft sold the Softimage unit to Avid Technology, Inc. ĭominique Boisvert, Réjean Gagné, Daniel Langlois, and Richard Laperrière won a Scientific and Engineering Award for the development of the 'Actor' component of the Softimage computer animation system The company went public in 1992 and was acquired by Microsoft in 1994 for US$130 million. Eddie would be acquired by Softimage from Discreet in 1992 and renamed Softimage|Eddie. In 1991, Director of sales Richard Szalwinski left to found Discreet and re-distribute Animal Logic's image compositor Eddie. The software was eventually replaced by SoftimageXSI, originally codenamed "Sumatra". It was the first commercial package to feature Inverse kinematics for character animation.
Its first product was called the Softimage Creative Environment, later renamed to Softimage 3D. At the time, there were only three employees. He was joined in 1988 by founding director, Char Davies, a Virtual Reality artist who became vice-president of Virtual Research. Softimage was founded in 1986 by National Film Board of Canada filmmaker Daniel Langlois. ĭuring the Microsoft years, Softimage also developed a non-linear video-editing and compositing suite named Softimage|DS, which was available from Avid Technology under the name Avid DS, until its EOL on September 30, 2013. In 1997, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Softimage a Scientific and Engineering Award for the development of the "Actor" component of Softimage|3D. Its successor, Softimage XSI, was used in the production of the Academy Award-winning feature film Happy Feet, 300 and Charlotte's Web (2006) and the production of games such as Konami's Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Its first product, Softimage 3D, was used in the creation of special effects for movies such as Jurassic Park, Terminator 2, Titanic and The Fifth Element. A subsidiary of Microsoft in the 1990s, it was sold to Avid Technology, who would eventually sell the name and assets of Softimage's 3D-animation business to Autodesk. ˌ s ɒ f t ɪ ˈ m ɑː ʒ/ was a company located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada that produced 3D animation software.