The channels performance capture technology offered a new dimension to CG character animation. 1992 also saw an important corporate philosophy realized as Softimage opened their software to third-party developers. This provided a complete effects generation toolkit with advanced image processing tools for color correction, filtering, rotoscoping, morphing and painting. That same year they started an aggressive acquisition effort, with the inclusion of the EDDIE® software and Painterly Effects. In 1990, the software was sold with an SGI workstation for $65,000. The system later won an award from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. For example, Creative Environment 1.65 added texture mapping (1989), Creative Environment 2.5 (1991) featured the Actor Module with IK (inverse kinematic), enveloping, and constraints, which enabled animators to combine conventional techniques (such as editing and keyframing) with these new capabilities. Over the next several years the development team at Softimage released new versions of the 3-D software that included new innovations in image creation. Creative Environment (eventually to be known as Softimage®|3D), became the standard animation solution in the industry. The system featured advanced tools and the first production-speed ray tracer. For the first time, all 3-D processes (modeling, animation, and rendering) were integrated. Creative Environment 1.0 was launched at SIGGRAPH 88. In 1987 Langlois and engineers Richard Mercille and Laurent Lauzon began development of the company’s 3-D application software. The first development effort for the startup company was the Softimage Creative Environment system, with “creative workflow and process integration”. the expansion of animation and effects tool accessibility to the mass-markets in games and web content industries.
a broadening of integration to include post-production – with the release of Softimage|DS (now Avid|DS) and Softimage|XSI.the first company to port animation tools to PC (NT).the first integrated animation and effects system.) Several important milestones that have influenced the industry have come from the “artist/technology” vision: Other important members of the company included artist Char Davies (Davies left the company at the end of 1997 to pursue her artistic research separately. He felt that the concept marked a fundamental shift in how the industry viewed visual effects creation and generated a new breed of visual effects artists and animators. His vision was a software company that addressed the creation of 3-D animation software not only for, but by artists. Langlois wanted to create animated films but was dissatisfied with the existing technology, which he felt was insufficient for his needs and designed to be used by computer scientists and technologists. Softimage was founded in 1986 by National Film Board of Canada filmmaker Daniel Langlois. The following history of Softimage was extracted from corporate historical accounts.