I was invited to author a series of technical articles for Intel's Visual Computing Community detailing the mechanics of lighting within the Autodesk XSI Softimage software package, and how to incorporate the language of light used in fine art, theater, and film into CGI scenes.
This article covered the Exploiting the Power of Softimage's Render Tree, one of the most revolutionary developments in terms of UI to impact the world of 3D VFX. This was the first nodal-based editing system, and has since been adopted/adapted in basically every high-end VFX package (Nuke, Maya, Katana, etc.) because of its extreme efficiency in managing selection complexity in large data sets. It allowed artists to engage in visual programming. Softimage's mandate being to help artists to, "Code Less, Create More."
With this non-linear, non-destructive system, even non-programmers could create dynamic property assignments by connecting shader nodes, and perform additional functions such as mathematical calculations and pattern generation, mix properties, create custom blends, build atmospheric effects, drive lighting, plug in camera lens properties, map displacement effects, create non-photoreal effects like toon shading, and also hyper-realistic lighting, and then bundle them into presets and shader compounds via this visual interface. They then could trade them within a production facility as presets. As a result, their ability to develop complex worlds efficiently, increased exponentially.
