SOFTIMAGE|XSI: Mastering Materials

THESE VIDEOS ARE (SORT OF) CURRENTLY UNAVALIABLE
I DO HAVE A FEW OLD SETS THAT I WILL SELL (CHEAP)
CLICK HERE If you want information on how to order these old videos.
This is because, a sequel to them is currently being created.
If there is something that you would like to see covered in the sequel,
please send your requests/suggestions to: EdHarriss@EdHarriss.com

THESE VIDEOS ARE (SORT OF) CURRENTLY UNAVALIABLE
I DO HAVE A FEW OLD SETS THAT I WILL SELL (CHEAP)
CLICK HERE If you want information on how to order these old videos.
This is because, a sequel to them is currently being created.
If there is something that you would like to see covered in the sequel,
please send your requests/suggestions to: EdHarriss@EdHarriss.com

So, your copy of SOFTIMAGE|XSI has just arrived in the mail and you want to learn how to use it..... FAST! Join the scores of others that have tried "SOFTIMAGE|XSI: Mastering Materials" and learned that, while the manuals are good, if you want to learn and learn fast... Nothing beats a live demonstration. SOFTIMAGE|XSI: Mastering Materials is for beginner to intermediate users... but it's also useful for users of every range that are transitioning from SOFTIMAGE|3D to SOFTIMAGE|XSI. Every step is explained in detail to ensure that the beginning and intermediate users can learn as quickly as possible and the advanced users can follow along with ease. When most dialog boxes and pulldown menus get used, we'll zoom in on the appropriate portions of the interface so that they can be clearly seen and the user can better understand the current lesson.

SOFTIMAGE|XSI: Mastering Materials is hosted by Ed Harriss, an 8 year veteran of SOFTIMAGE. He started teaching Softimage over 6 years ago. He'll show you alot of the tricks that he's learned over the years to help you create some of the materials and textures for images like the ones you see below.

SOFTIMAGE|XSI: Mastering Materials consists of 3 sections.

1. Overview of the SOFTIMAGE|XSI interface, from a materials and texturing standpoint.
The majority of the dialog boxes, menus, and functions needed to material and texture your objects are displayed and explained clearly to give the user a solid foundation so they can follow the rest of the tape with ease.

2. A SOFTIMAGE|3D to SOFTIMAGE|XSI transition guide.
The perfect guide for artists moving from SOFTIMAGE|3D to SOFTIMAGE|XSI. This section provides a roadmap that guides users of SOFTIMAGE|3D to SOFTIMAGE|XSI. Every SOFTIMAGE|3D material and texturing function that has a SOFTIMAGE|XSI equivalent is covered and explained. Some of the questions covered here are: "Where did the tiling options go? How do I change my textures mapping coordinates? How do I save/load texture and material settings? Where's the crop tool? How do I switch material types?"

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SOFTIMAGE|3D to SOFTIMAGE|XSI transition guide.

3. Nineteen material and texturing projects.

Click the "detailed explanation" links to see Images and examples of that particular project.

01. Bump Maps - Click here for a detailed explanation
02. Local Materials - Assign different materials to different polygons on the same object.
03. Displacement Mapping - Instant Tire treads with a simple revolution and a small bitmap!
04. Texture Support Sharing - Create separate puzzle pieces that use the same texture and mapping coordinates
05. Procedural Bump Mapping - Click here for a detailed explanation
06. Animated Materials - Changing colors over time
07. Animated Textures - Scripts, Sequences and Movies
08. Constant Materials - Materials that aren't affected by the lights in your scene and what you can use them for.
09. Specular Mapping - Control your Specular Highlights using the RGB component of an image.
10. Box Mapping - How to avoid "texture smearing"
11. Double Sided Shader - Apply one texture to one side of a polygon and a different one to the other side
12. Texture Blending - Click here for a detailed explanation
13. Decal Mapping - Click here for a detailed explanation
14. Glass Shader - Reflections, Refractions, Transparency, and the Incidence shader. How to create realistic glass.
15. Reflection Mapping - Saving render time with "fake" reflections.
16. Texture Cropping - Cropping out areas of a texture that you don't want to show up without affecting the original file.
17. Dirt Maps - Nothing in the real world is clean. Make your objects Dirty!
18. Transparency Mapping - Make a tree! With only two polygons, a texture map, and a little transparency.
19. Alpha Blending - Click here for a detailed explanation


If you've got any questions regarding the content of this tape,
please feel free to e-mail me at EdHarriss@EdHarriss.com
I'll be happy to answer any questions about it.

*For copyright reasons, some of the textures and models will be replaced with working substitutes.

SOFTIMAGE|XSI: Mastering Materials is produced independently from SOFTIMAGE®, and is not endorsed by SOFTIMAGE.
SOFTIMAGE is a registered trademark of SOFTIMAGE, Inc. a subsidiary of Avid Technology Inc.