SOFTIMAGE XSI Tutorials - SOFTIMAGE 3D Tutorials

Tutorial #12: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Modeling a Dog using Subdivision Surfaces (English)
Written by - Roger Rosa - Website
Learn how to take advantage of the subdivision surface tools in SOFTIMAGE|XSI by modeling a Labrador.

Tutorial #13: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Character Setup in XSI 1.5 (English)
(This tutorial is also avaliable in Spanish)
Learn how to easily set up your character for animation. The Stefan Andersson way!

Tutorial #14: SOFTIMAGE|XSI and mental ray

Elliptical Filtering (English)
By Dave Lajoie - Website
Speed up your renders with the power of Elliptical Filtering.

Tutorial #15:SOFTIMAGE|XSI and mental ray

Cubic Environment Mapping (English)
By Dave Lajoie - Website
Cubic 1 mapping, what it's advantages are and how to layout environment maps for use with it.

Tutorial #16: SOFTIMAGE|XSI and mental ray

Text Extrusion through displacement mapping (English)
(This tutorial is also avaliable in Korean)
By Dave Lajoie - Website
Extrude text using SOFTIMAGE|XSI's excellent displacement mapping and control the detail using its adaptive tesselation controls.

Tutorial #17: SOFTIMAGE|XSI and mental ray

The Cross Hatch Shader Tutorial(English)
By Dave Lajoie - Website
Use the rgb intensity of a lambert illumination node to drive texture line thickness, in order to create a "cross hatching" effect.

Tutorial #18: SOFTIMAGE|XSI and mental ray

Incidence Toon Rendertree (English)
By Dave Lajoie - Website
An alternative to the Toon shader. Learn how to use the Incidence node to drive a color_interpolate node to ink the coutour of an objects surface.

Tutorial #19: SOFTIMAGE|XSI and mental ray

Interactive displacement map painting(English)
By Dave Lajoie - Website
Paint color on vertices, use a shader to extract that information and displace the surface wth it.

Tutorial #20: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Creating Scripts and Toolbars for Modeling(English)
(This tutorial is also avaliable in French)
Paint color on vertices, use a shader to extract that information and displace the surface wth it.

Tutorial #21: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

SOFTIMAGE|XSI 1.5 Polygon Modeling Tutorial: Jellyfish(English)
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
(This tutorial is also avaliable in Korean)
Model a jellyfish using subdivision surfaces. The "Anthony Rossano" way!

Tutorial #22: SOFTIMAGE|XSI and mental ray

MASSIVE SOFTIMAGE|XSI TUTORIAL ARCHIVE(English)
Softimage.com has a large collection of Self paced learning: tutorials. From modeling and anmation to rendering and lighting.

Tutorial #23: SOFTIMAGE|XSI and mental ray

SOFTIMAGE|XSI Mesmer Tutorials (English)
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
Mesmer.com has a large collection of SOFTIMAGE|XSI tutorials in the Mesmer distance learning section.

Tutorial #24: SOFTIMAGE|XSI and mental ray

Rapid Caustic Tutorial (English)
(This tutorial is also avaliable in French)
(This tutorial is also avaliable in Chinese)
(This tutorial is also avaliable in Spanish - Escena.zip )
Create realistic caustic effects using a photon emiting light!

Tutorial #25: SOFTIMAGE|XSI and SOFTIMAGE|3D

Importing a character from SI3D into XSI(English)
Here we will look at a problem with the face shapes, how to fix it and how to set up an easy-to-use facial animation slider setup.

Tutorial #26: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Curse of the NURBS!(English)
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
Chris Maraffi's has a very cool tutorial on Modeling with NURBS Surfaces. Check it out!

Tutorial #27: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Rendering Optimization in SOFTIMAGE|XSI(English)
Speed up your renderings with these optimization tips and tricks.

Tutorial #28: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Realistic Lighting: Global Illumination and Final Gathering(English)
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
(This tutorial is also avaliable in Korean)
Create realistic lighting effects using mental ray with Global Illumination and Final Gathering effects.

Tutorial #29: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Adam Sale - Joncrow Entertainment Animation Tutorials(English)
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
A collection of Tutorials on animation in XSI and beyond. From Adam Sales web site: Joncrow Entertainment.

Tutorial #30: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

3D Math 101(English)
Sin and Cos are the first trigonometry functions that you learn in your early school days, this tutorial briefly summarizes their common usage.

Tutorial #31: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

3D Math 102(English)
Using the information that you learned in 3DMath101... Model DNA!

Tutorial #32: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Animate Tank Treads with Expressions(English)
Learn to create an expression driven tank transport.

Tutorial #33: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Basic XSI cloth tutorial(English)
(This tutorial is also avaliable in Chinese)
This tutorial explains what kind of basic setup can be done with XSI cloth.

Tutorial #34: SOFTIMAGE|XSI and Maya

Maya2SOFTIMAGE|XSI (English)
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
A very cool tutorial on converting your Maya info to SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Tutorial #35: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Secondary animation using expressions (English)
Avid South Africa's web site (www.avid.co.za) has a very cool animation tutorial: There is an animation on a character's head but no secondary animation on the ears. In this tutorial you are going to add it in. Thanks to Matt Lowery for this tutorial

Tutorial #36: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Multiple particle emitters with only one cloud(English)
This tutorial explains how to setup multiple emitters using only one cloud. The reason why we have to do that instead of creating two cloud system is because XSI Particles uses a volume shader that when overlapping, creates artifacts at rendering time..

Tutorial #37: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

How to cap holes in Softimage XSI v 1.5(English)
This tutorial explains how to cap holes in extruded polygons. A script is included to automate the task as well.

Tutorial #38: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

SOFTIMAGE|XSI v 1.5 Breakthrough Features Video Tuorials (English)
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
12 XSI Tutorials in Quicktime format. They cover: Modeling, Polygonal Modeling, Subdivision Surfaces, Curves and Surfaces, Surface Meshes, Manipulation, Animation Mixer, Dopesheet, Proxy Parameters, Simulation, Interactive Rendering, Texture Editor, Spreadsheet, and Net View.

Tutorial #39: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

SOFTIMAGE|XSI 1.5 NAB Video Tutorials (English)
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
For a more in-depth look at SOFTIMAGE|XS... Shown here are but a few of the powerful new features in v.1.5 in QuickTime format. Animation Mixer, interactive Render Region, Net View, Polygonal Modeling, intelligent Transitions, Equalizing animation, Particles, Render Tree, Applying Shaders, Final Gathering, Referenced Models and Face Maker.

Tutorial #40: SOFTIMAGE|XSI or 3D and Photoshop

Animated GIF tutorial(English)
Create a simple animated gif using Either SOFTIMAGE|XSI or SOFTIMAGE|3D and Adobe ImageReady.

Tutorial #41: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Shape Animation Tutorial(English)
Set up controls for "Bernie the Turtle" to get some nice shape animation effects..... The "Stefan Andersson" way! =)

Tutorial #42: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Muscle Animation Tutorial(English)
Learn how to animate a shape using the "link with" command. Again, thanks to Stephan Andersson.

Tutorial #43: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Displacement Mapping(English) By Peter Shin - Homepage
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
Learn how to create detailed displacement mapping effects on fairly low resolution objects.

Tutorial #44: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Bump Mapping for Beginners(English) By Peter Shin - Homepage
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
Bump mapping in XSI.

Tutorial #45: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Create a "Knight" chess piece using Subdiv Modeling(English)
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
By Peter Shin - Homepage
Subdiv Modeling for beginners in XSI.

Tutorial #46: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Final Gathering in XSI(Korean/English Hybrid Tutorial)
More Information on the metallic effect can be found here: METAL(Korean)
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
By Peter Shin - Homepage
Subdiv Modeling for beginners in XSI.

Tutorial #47: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Mixing Bumpmaps with Vector Math(English)
By Andy Hayes
As you are aware, bump maps don't blend with mixing nodes in XSI. This tutorial shows how to blend bump maps using maths nodes in the render tree.

Tutorial #48: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Poly Texturing Primer(English)
By Michael Isner - Webpage
Comprehensive explanations on polygon texturemapping. If you like texturing (especially UV texturing) then you don't want to miss this one!

Tutorial #49: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Custom Muscle Bulge IK Setup Video(No Sound) By Miquel - Webpage
Wach this small video (700k) to see how Miquel sets up his IK to for Auto Muscle Deformations.

Tutorial #50: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Gimbal Lock Tutorial(English)
Solve the problems of Gimbal Lock..... The "Stefan Andersson" way! =)

Tutorial #51: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Converting Shaders to XSI (English) By Nanomation
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
This tutorial will show you how to integrate custom shaders into Softimage XSI running under Windows NT. Most shader code that runs under Soft 3D with mental ray2.1 will run under XSI simply by creating new configuration files.

Tutorial #52: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

XSI Toon Rendering (English) By Michael Arias
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
This tutorial will show you how toon rendering works in XSI.

Tutorial #53: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

What is Final Gathering? (English) By Manny Papamanos
(This Tutorial is also Avaliable in Japanese)
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
It's a rendering option that yields extremely realistic shading effects and is a lot less time consuming than radiosity. This is a simple tutorial made with XSI 1.5.

Tutorial #54: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Scary Skeletons (Chinese) By Chris Maraffi
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
"The main advantage of using IK is that it is faster to animate and edit the translation of one effector/IK handle, than to animate and edit the rotation of many joints using FK. On the other hand, FK is best used on skeletons that require high degrees of freedom when animating."

Tutorial #55: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Video Walkthrough (English)
By Paulo de Andrade and Mark Schoennagel
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
In this video walkthrough, Softimage's Senior 3D Animator Mark Schoennagel shows us some of the many cool features available in version 1.52 of Softimage XSI. (Requires QuickTime 5).

Tutorial #56: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Inverse Kinematics/Forward Kinematics Tutorial(English)
While we wait for XSI 2.0 to arrive with it's auto IF/FK switching system we'll make do with this supercool tutorial. Again, thanks to Stephan Andersson!!!

Tutorial #57: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

How to convert .3ds, .obj, .md3 etc to Softimage and XSI file format whilst keeping the UV info intact Tutorial(English)
This tutorial will show you a pretty fool-proof way to get most existing object UV info into and out of Softimage or XSI with .3ds, .obj or .md3 format. Thanks to Bob Tekano for this one!

Tutorial #58: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Video Tutorial: Martin Belleau Modeling Demo (No Sound)
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
This demo was to show how easy it is to model in XSI. In this case, it is a Starship starting from a cylinder

Tutorial #59: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

The Martin Belleau tutorial section (English)
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
Cool tutorials for SOFTIMAGE|XSI.

Tutorial #60: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Applying a bump on a group of objects that already have local textures (English)
By Vertexvandal.com
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
This tutorial will show you how to use a single texture to create a bump map accross several objects that already have a different texture on each of them.

Tutorial #61: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

XSI Mentality - Creating Clean Scenes (English)
By Vertexvandal.com
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
This is not really a tutorial but rather an explanation and guide of the XSI Mentality as we like to call it.

Tutorial #62: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Making Hands: Fillet Intersection (English)
by Shinsaku Arima - Mesmer
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
In this tutorial, we will learn how to create a realistic humanoid hand model using a couple of powerful NURBS tools built into Softimage|XSI.

Tutorial #63: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Ping-Pong: The Animation Editor (English)
by Anthony Rossano - Mesmer
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
You’ll learn how to: Set Keyframes a few different ways - Edit and fine-tune the animation - Change timing with the Animation Editor - Work with the slope of the Animation Curves - Create Animation Cycles - Add in anticipation and follow-through to your work

Tutorial #64: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Lip Service: Birail Extrusion (English)
by Anthony Rossano - Mesmer
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
Let’s make some lips, using a variation on the Extrusion tool. You’ll learn how to: Perform a birail extrusion and use the Guided extrude

Tutorial #65: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Toro the Happy Tuna: Deformations (Softimage|XSI)
by Shinsaku Arima - Mesmer
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
Model a fish and his environment using several deformers, and then make him swim around, using the curve deformation tool. Can you say "Jojo the Happy fish?" =O

Tutorial #66: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Face Modeling: Weight Maps and the Generic Attribute Painter (English)
by Shinsaku Arima - Mesmer
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
The Generic Attribute Painter is a fantastic tool to edit surface geometry quickly and easily. Let’s use the GAP and other tools to model a face. Along the way, we will pick up several modeling techniques.

Tutorial #67: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

XSI Illuminated: Expressions (English)
by Anthony Rossano - Mesmer
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
XSI was built from the ground up to be extensible. What’s even more unusual is that XSI can be extended with standard scripting languages like VBScript and Jscript, as well as with a C or C++ development kit. Making a program open and extensible means that you’ll always be able to do what you need to do – even if you have to write a bit of code to get it done. Fortunately, XSI has a continuum of extensibility, starting with the easy to use and simple expressions, followed by the still easy to use but slightly more complicated Scripting functionality, and ending at the full blown computer science of the SDK (Software Development Kit). This section addresses the first one – the easy one, expressions.

Tutorial #68: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Motion Blur Output Shader (English)
by Ed Harriss
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
Motion blur makes fast-moving objects look more natural and realistic. The faster an object moves, the more blur it will receive. This tutorial is a short excerpt from Mesmer's XSI 102: Materials, Textures, Lighting, and Rendering web-based distance learning class.

Tutorial #69: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Introduction to Softimage|XSI 1.5 (English)
by Anthony Rossano - Mesmer
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
This article was written for ww.3Dgate.com December 2000

Tutorial #70: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Softimage|XSI article(English)
by Anthony Rossano - Mesmer
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
This article originally appeared in the May 2000 issue of 3D Magazine

Tutorial #71: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Building a Basic skeleton in XSI (English)
By Adam Sale - Joncrow Entertainment
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
If an animator doesn't have control over his or her creation, the performance will suffer. The art of skeletal building, or boning, is one that is constantly evolving. Ideas have been adopted and discarded as fast as investors of bre-x stock. The skeleton we will build here is the base skeleton, the core structure of the character.

Tutorial #72: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Keying your entire character with a single custom button in XSI(English)
By Adam Sale - Joncrow Entertainment
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
Softimage XSI has the ability to quickly create groupings of objects, mark the desired parameters of a group to be keyframed, and then keyframe the group, creating a function curve for the marked parameters. Coming from a Softimage 3D background, I was at first dismayed to see that XSI no longer supported the many Explicit keying options that were available in Soft3D. I finally realized that with a bit of simple copy and paste scripting, I could replicate my beloved Softimage 3D process and improve immensely upon my workflow.

Tutorial #73: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Interacting with a scene object in Softimage XSI (English)
By Adam Sale - Joncrow Entertainment
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
To allow for the interaction between the character and the bottle, we will use a position constraint and an orientation constraint. No constraints have been added to this scene yet, other than those that control the character rig.

Tutorial #74: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Modeling 2D characters using XSI (English)
By Adam Sale - Joncrow Entertainment
(This tutorial is also avaliable in French)
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
We will not be using any toon shading, as it doesn't allow for the precise control of the ink line that is needed for these types of characters. Our methods will be simple and effective, and offer far more in the way performance than other automated solutions.

Tutorial #75: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

F-Curve work: Focusing on overlap and follow through (English)
By Adam Sale - Joncrow Entertainment
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
The purpose of this exercise is to familiarize yourself with overlap and follow through using the function curve tools available to you in XSI.

Tutorial #76: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Volume FX - Advanced Lightning Shader(English)
By Adam Sale - Joncrow Entertainment
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
The lightning effect is a versatile volume tool, that can be used to simulate many natural and man made effects.

Tutorial #77: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Manipulating Environment Shaders in XSI (English)
By Adam Sale - Joncrow Entertainment
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
Environment Shaders are a great procedural way to create a variety of atmospheric sky and ground FX for your animations. This tutorial will focus on implementing the Legacy Day shader.

Tutorial #78: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Setting up nested Custom Parameters to create Hand pose sliders.(English)
By Adam Sale - Joncrow Entertainment
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
We're going to focus on creating an ergonomic interface for the hands. Simply going in and posing the hand using FK can get a bit tedious. In this tutorial, we'll use linking and custom parameters to create all the poses we'll need for our hand.

Tutorial #79: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Layered Shape Animation in XSI: The musculature method Part 1(English)
By Adam Sale - Joncrow Entertainment
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
There are many ways to perform any task in XSI. It all depends on your preferred workflow. When it comes to shape animation, there are a number of solutions available to you.

Tutorial #80: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Layered Shape Animation in XSI: The musculature method Part 2(English)
By Adam Sale - Joncrow Entertainment
Using the XSI NETVIEW? Click here: XSI NETVIEW VERSION
There are many ways to perform any task in XSI. It all depends on your preferred workflow. When it comes to shape animation, there are a number of solutions available to you.

Tutorial #81: SOFTIMAGE|XSI

Shoulder skeleton setup in XSI: The musculature method (English)