Another feature within the modeling arena that’s exciting is how SX6.02F treats polygons and subdivisions as the same thing. In most programs, you have to convert your mesh from polygons to subdivs and vice-versa in order to use their unique modeling capabilities; which just adds an extra step and slows down the creative flow. Whereas, in SX6.02F you are able to toggle between the modes simply by pressing the + and – keys, without any loss of data. On the contrary, when switching to subdivs, your model gains a nice smoothness without adding any extra geometry to your mesh. This is a great advantage to those artists whose workflow includes traversing back and forth to mold their creations.
SX6.02F really excels in what it provides for you to do to your animation. As far as the rigging process goes, you have the option of assembling the rig yourself using joints, bones, control objects and constraints for a custom set-up, or can generate a skeleton from a prefabricated rig that you can customize to get the right fit. Once your rig is properly situated within your mesh and enveloped together, you can start animating. Depending on whether you want to use forward or Inverse Kinematics, you can move your character and key in each position. Once you have your basic animation laid out, SX6.02F has excellent tools to get the most out of your performance.
When trying to tweak the little details of any given animation, it’s helpful to have a wide assortment of options that maximize your user/model interactions. To finesse your character’s movements you can use the fcurve editor to modify the function curves of the selected object’s animated movement. By adjusting the distances of the key framed points as well as the nature of the curve that connects them, you can smooth out, flatten, or jar your animation to whatever end that fulfills the objective. After you have articulated all the movements, you can move to the Dopesheet and edit the timing and placing of each segment in a non-linear environment. Here you can experiment with what action you want your character to do as well as stretch or shrink the amount of time it takes for your character to perform it. As an added bonus, you can layer your animations on top of each other, in case you want to add another movement to a performance that has already been worked on. The great thing about it is that you can connect all these segments together without affecting the original clip you were working on. In addition, because of how well organized SX6.02F is designed to take care of your models, you can import and reuse your animations without changing the original. Then later on, when you update the source clip, all the instances of the clip will be updated as well. Whether you’re in a team environment or just want to make the most of your personal projects, being able to recycle your work is a great timesaver that frees you up to focus on new ideas.
There are some powerful features that are available to you when it comes to rendering in SX6.02F. First off, mental ray 3.5, an industry standard when it comes to rendering, is fully integrated into Softimage. This means that the majority of mental ray’s features can be accessed within SX6.02F rather than jumping to an outside application. To speed the process of making those quick adjustments to your final look, you also get to see high-quality previews right in the 3D viewport of your scene as well. Couple that with the ability to define render regions, individual or mass render passes, render partitions, and exporting options for your render channels and you have a hefty arsenal at your fingertips to make the best image possible.
