Avid Technology Inc. announced the 25,000th download of the trial version of SOFTIMAGE|XSI Foundation, the $495 version of the companys high-end XSI modeling and animation package. At SIGGRAPH 2004, XSI Foundation was a key element of the company's 3-Democracy strategy, making the industrys advanced 3D content creation software accessible to all levels of CG professionals.
Its functionality goes well beyond what you find in other packages that cost four to ten times as much, said Franck Malmin, managing director at Def2Shoot, a CG studio based in Paris, France. Weve used about a dozen seats of XSI Foundation for a wide range of 3D graphics work at our facility, including numerous visual effects shots for television commercials.
Added Sean Cushing, exec producer at Pixel Liberation Front, "We're using XSI throughout our production pipeline, using it for both previs and final effects work. We are extremely pleased with XSI as a tool, but have found it difficult in the past finding artists who've had experience using XSI. The growth in Softimages user base triggered by Foundation and the price drop last summer has really changed this. We are now receiving multiple resumes from XSI artists and feel quite comfortable that we can ramp up when a job demands it."
XSI Foundation was designed for individual 3D professionals, both freelance 3D artists and contributors to a larger production pipeline. With a simplified licensing set-up, the entry level version of XSI can be downloaded from softimage.com and activated immediately. It includes extensive polygon modeling tools, industry-leading subdivision surfaces, normal-and effect-map generation and full character rigs, cloth and particles.
It seems as if 1,500 of the new Foundation users are experienced professionals who purchased XSI for their own personal use, using their own money, despite using a different package at work, said Gregor vom Scheidt, vp of computer graphics at Avid. We have roughly quadrupled our quarterly unit volume while growing overall product revenue. The introduction of XSI Foundation has also had a very positive effect on our higher-end XSI Essentials and Advanced editions, where weve seen quarterly unit sales more than double since mid-2004.
Avid Technology (www.avid.com), headquartered in Tewksbury, Massachusetts, is a world leader in digital nonlinear media creation, management, and distribution solutions, enabling film, video, audio, animation, games and broadcast professionals to work more efficiently, productively and creatively.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
