We'll start the tutorial by giving you the foundational skills and vocabulary you'll need in order to move around within Softimage, and then we'll jump right into the Modeling section of the tutorial. After completing the Modeling section, you'll get the chance try your hand at Texturing, Rigging, Animation, ICE Dynamics, and finally, Lighting and Rendering your own animation. Our goal is not to weigh you down with technical information, but rather to help you develop good workflow habits and allow you to reach a point where you can be very comfortable using Softimage.

We'll begin the tutorial by first covering some things to consider when constructing the control rig. From there, we will set up the wing, step by step, making sure the system we build will be sufficient to the needs of an animator. We’ll also work with custom parameters and expressions to automate certain behaviors so the animator can work faster.

Introducing the Beginner Guide to Rigging in Softimage. In this tutorial, we will start off by covering the most basic form of rigging, parenting. We will then take a look at how to modify the pivot of an object and how to work with transform groups. After that, you will learn about bones, inverse kinematics, and control objects. And to wrap up this project, we will go over the Softimage enveloping process for skin deformations. By the end of the course, you will understand essential terms and definitions and build a solid foundation for rigging in Softimage.

We'll take a step-by-step approach, constructing a control rig that is solid and animator-friendly. We'll learn everything from proper bone placement and working with constraints, to learning how to utilize some of Softimage's robust skinning tools to remove the fear of painting weights. By the end of this tutorial, you'll have the foundation you need to create your own rigs that produce character performances that are natural and entertaining.

Popular highlights include: Skeleton Basics; Skeletal Hierarchies; Constraints; Custom Controls; Reverse Foot Controls; Linked Keys; Spine Controls; Local Rotations; Hand Controls; Effectors; Flexible Spines; Parenting.

Popular highlights include: Envelope Creation; Character Stance Setup; Painting Deformation Weights; Smoothing Weights; Weight Editor; Symmetry Mapping; Mirroring Weights; Link with Deform; Parenting; Linked Key.

Popular highlights include: Rigging Techniques for Games; Scripting Custom Tools; Groups and Transform Groups; Mirroring Rigs; Mirroring Weights; Models; Exporting Weights; Automating Follow-through; Creating Custom Spine Rigs; Character Key Sets; Intuitive Forearm Rigs; Custom Toolbars; Building Animator-friendly Controls; Animating Pivots; Enveloping Techniques; Polygon Cluster Visibility; Scene Organization; Working Creatively with Expressions.

Popular highlights include: Rigging Workflow in XSI; Scripted Operators; Expressions; Constraints; Animator-friendly Control Objects; Enveloping; Deformation Preservation Techniques; Mirroring Weights; Creating Custom Spines; Flexible Spine Controls; Custom Toolbars; Corrective Shapes; Create Chain from Curve; Organized Scene Hierarchies; Custom Parameters; Transform Groups; Reverse Foot Controls; Effectors; Parameter Connection Editor; Models; Weight Editor; Symmetry Mapping; Parenting; Broken Hierarchies; Mirroring Rigs.

Popular highlights include: In-depth Overview of XSI Interface; Navigation and Tools; Customizing User Experience; Polygon Modeling Workflows; Extruding Faces and Edges; Extracting Geometry; Assigning Materials and Textures; Material Manager; Creating Shader Networks with Render Tree; Texture Layer Editor; UV Projections and Sub-projections; Creating Custom Shelves and Toolbars; Rotoscope Preparation; Lights and Shadow Types; Creating ICE Tree Networks; Applying Dynamic Forces to ICE Particles; Building Particle Volume Shaders for Rendering; Deformers; Path Animation; Parenting Objects; Utilizing the Render Region; Automating Animation with Linked Parameters; Keying Panel to Create and Manipulate Keyframes; Understanding the Operator Stack.

Popular highlights include: Building Rigs from Reference; Broken Hierarchy Systems; Custom Toolbar; Character Key Sets; Sub-Character Sets; Constraints; Constructing Proxy Cages; Painting Weights; Reverse Lock System; Naming Conventions; Limb Controls; Expressions; Custom and Proxy Parameters; Mirroring Techniques; Custom Control Spline Rigs; XSI Spines for Vertebrae; Cleaning up Control Objects; Working with Groups; Tail Rig; Enveloping Techniques; Deform Keys; Rotation Order.

Popular highlights include: CDK Overview; Biped Guide Rigging; Quadruped Guide Rigging; Hierarchy from Guide; Roll Divisions and Skins; Shadow Rigs; Creating Synoptics; Quaternion and Skeleton Spines; Tail Controls; Arms, Hands, and Fingers; Legs and Feet; Torso and Head; Springs; Adding Stretch to Biped Arms; Adding Additional Controls; Biped Motion Tracks, Tags and Steps; Creating Custom CDK Commands; Pose Constraints; Symmetry Constraints; Creating a Multi-legged Guide Rig; Building Animation Expressions.

Popular highlights include: XSI Rigging Tools Overview; Organizing Scenes; Working with the Schematic; Parenting Objects; Using Groups; 2D and 3D Bone Chain System; IK Capabilities; FK Capabilities; Chain Properties; Repositioning Bones; Choosing Workable Rotation Orders; Position Constraints; Orientation Constraints; Direction Constraints; Pose Constraints; Controlling SRT Parameters; Chain Up Vector Operators; Mesh Deformation Overview; Envelopes; Enveloping Techniques; Resetting Envelopes; Understanding Operator Stack; Editing Envelopes; Weight Paint Panel; Redistributing Weights; Weight Editor; Blending Envelope Weights; Mirroring Envelopes; Working with Shapes; Modeling Shapes with Tweak Component Tool; Secondary Shape Modeling for Corrective Shapes; Setting up Driven Key Relationships; Working with Character Key Sets; Organizing Animation Data.

Popular highlights include: Normal Maps; Occlusion Maps; Depth Maps; UV Layout; Implementing Ultimapper; Painting Textures in Photoshop; Baking Indirect Lighting and Shadows into Texture Maps; Game-Friendly Animation Rigs; Adjusting Envelope Weights; Walk Cycle Animation; Exporting Game Assets to OGRE; C++ Programming; Real-time Normal Mapping; Real-time Parallax Mapping; Polygon Reduction Tool; * XSI Essentials and higher is recommended for several lessons.

Transferring weights is a great way to speed up the envelope workflow because it is easier to paint weights on a low resolution object. Topics covered in this tutorial: Setting GATOR up between two objects; Transferring envelope data. To learn more about XSI check out Introduction to Character Development Kit in XSI, a complete guide to building customized character rigs with CDK.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Creating the illusion of overlapping actions; Modifying the coupling behavior of a constrained object; Creating follow-through and overlapping action; Using the Position, Orientation, and Pose constraint. More information on XSI check out Introduction to XSI 7, a complete introductory guide to learning the fundamentals of modeling, texturing, lighting, animating, rigging, rendering, and a production-proven workflow to ICE.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Mirroring objects that are connected to constraints; Turning off and on constraint compensation; Applying Symmetry Constraints. For a detailed guide to rigging in XSI check out Introduction to Rigging in XSI, a complete resource to learning flexible rigging methods, various rigging and character setup tools, and the essentials of building animator-friendly controls.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Building a piston rig; Using a joint chains; Setting up constraints; Parenting pieces. For a detailed guide to rigging in XSI check out Introduction to Rigging in XSI, a complete resource to learning flexible rigging methods, various rigging and character setup tools, and the essentials of building animator-friendly controls.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Controlling an object's translation; Using the position constraint; Making a primitive implicit cube; Turning off and on the effect of the position constraint; Using the Global Transform tools. Gain a complete understanding of XSI with HDRI Workflow with XSI and Photoshop, an in-depth guide to creating and using HDR Images for a multitude of scenarios and projects.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Reflecting real parameters; Creating a Proxy Parameter; Setting and removing keys on the Proxy Parameter. For a detailed guide to rigging in XSI check out Introduction to Rigging in XSI, a complete resource to learning flexible rigging methods, various rigging and character setup tools, and the essentials of building animator-friendly controls.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Establishing value to value relationships; Working with the Parameter Connection Editor; Changing the value of linked parameters in the Fcurve Editor. For a complete guide to rigging and animation in XSI check out Quadruped Rigging and Animation in XSI Bundle, an essential resource for building solution-based rigs and creating more efficient animations.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Creating a skeletal chain; Deforming a mesh with the skeletal chain; Controlling the mesh's deformation via the Automatic Envelope Assignment.. To learn more about animation in XSI check out Introduction to Animation in XSI, a detailed guide to learning the essentials of animation and creative approaches.