Holy crap! I just got Modo and it kicks ass modeling wise. It does the simple things 3dMax can't or should do. Why aren't the big game studios using this?
What exactly can it do that 3dsmax 2010 can't do modeling wise?
I'm using silo for modeling right now and I feel like i'm missing out.
Nothing, really. Infact there is a lot that Max can do that modo cant. But that really isnt the issue, its more the way it *does* the things that it do. IF you get my drift.
From what I hear of Modo, it's like Silo in that it's quick and comfortable, but has more powerful tools like 3dsMax. That's the impression that I'm getting. I want it.
ID is using this? That's a smart move on there part. Anymore companies on board? You're right to say that max and modo have much of the same tools but using Modo's tools are more simpler and faster than Max's tools. Soft selection in Modo has more options and flexibility than Max's soft selection tools. Max's has never upgraded that tool.
and thats only 302. 401 is currently on track for release this month and its looking mighty fine. http://www.luxology.com/modo/401.introduction/
edit - i heard both valve and id use this but its more a case of artists can use what works for them at those companies (as long as they can get it in engine of course)
With Modo you can work with subdiv models very very fast, it's the fastest program to model with. That's the strongest point of the program, the perfomance in viewports is very good and you don't need a professional vga to work with a great detail amount of polygons (302 is slower than 301 in my machines, heavy slower). It's great, i work like working with plasticine, or mud, i can move and edit the mesh subdivided x4 like nothing, so fast and smooth. That point makes you to have more flexibility while working.
In 3ds Max is very sad all the work with subdivs, but it's better for other things.
Some things can't be done with the program as easy as in other 3d packages, but if you only model, modo+zbrush is the perfect combo.
Too many companies are using modo now, check out the luxology website . I have been using it since version 1 and it has helped me a lot on all these years, my workflow improved a lot, it was a wish come true. I have played with silo and hexagon too, and like modo, there is nothing.
Nah.. you should try it, and that's all. BTW, Is a program you can learn in an anfernoon hahaha.
I'm so customed to work with modo now... that i feel unconfortable with maya/max.
Yup Modo rules! I've been using Modo for the last two months or so and it's really opened my eyes to what makes a good 3d content creation app. I think I'd cry if I needed to solely use Max or Maya for my work ever again.
I can hardly wait for the upcoming 401 upgrade. Especially the drag and drop preset asset browser.
That's a level artist's dream come true I have high hopes for that + the Collada exporter.
Character artists must be pretty excited too. The enhancements to the pen tool will make retopology a breeze. Also baking textures with the new fur system = wow! no need to sculpt odd looking hair in Zbush ever again.
It's too bad they weren't able to fully flesh out the new animation system to encompass skinned character animation but for mechanical type stuff it's looking great. Maybe in the next version...
My only gripe with Modo is it's oddball snapping setup and usage, but I've already found scripts that work around the few problems I've had with it.
Hopefully even more companies will start to use Modo as one of their accepted content creation apps.
I tried out modo a long time ago, when I believe just a little bit after Zbrush 2's release, or somewhere around there.
I havn't touched it since because I didn't enjoy the quirky 2 grid viewport navigation. But after seeing the newer updates for 401 to be released. I think i'll give it a shot again and see what the great fuss is about
A guy from Luxology was calling me a bunch a few months ago trying to get me to buy Modo, but I never got around to getting my Demo. I am also a Silo/Max guy though almost 99% of my modeling/UVs take place in Silo.
A guy from Luxology was calling me a bunch a few months ago trying to get me to buy Modo, but I never got around to getting my Demo. I am also a Silo/Max guy though almost 99% of my modeling/UVs take place in Silo.
Haha, silo still rocks when it comes to organic modeling, but if the luxology guys priced modo a bit cheaper, I might be more inclined to move to modo.
The action center/axis thing was one of the things I found most difficult to grasp when I first started using Modo. Here's a great tutorial about action centers by Seneca Menard (from id software) for anyone just starting out.
Haha, silo still rocks when it comes to organic modeling, but if the luxology guys priced modo a bit cheaper, I might be more inclined to move to modo.
considering the upgrade to 302 was free, and the upgrade to 401 is also going to be free, i'd say it's a pretty good deal.
ID is using this? That's a smart move on there part. Anymore companies on board?
There's a few guys at Gearbox that are using it as well, but the majority still use 3ds Max. I've actually been meaning to give it a try at some point, but just have not gotten around to it yet.
Have to say, it's looking very tempting. I may consider buying it if they add smooth mesh deformation (joints / skinning etc).
The feature list for Modo 401 looks really good, I especially like the look of the "paint replicate" stuff, and the renderer seems really nice as well. Fast, too, apparently.
I know they're introducing animation to Modo 401 but from the looks of the preview it only works on "elements" of sub-meshes, or individual objects - all rigid deformation. I didn't see any smooth deforming objects in the demo videos on their site... does anyone know if this is the case?
There's a lot of good stuff there, but I really don't want to lay the cash down unless I could do a full lowpoly model, rigged and skinned from start to finish in the app. If I can't do that, then I still have to use separate software anyway, which defeats a bit of the objective for me
Yup sadly no joints or smooth mesh deformation with the 401 release. It technically can be done but it's more of a hack than a feature not something you'd want to do in a production setting. The Luxology guys stated that they are just laying the foundation of their rigging tools with 401, they didn't want to rush out a half assed character animation tool set.
love me some modo
once i started using modo, i couldn't go back to use max.
although i must say aswell, that max has some shit i would like to see in modo. like the stack and modifiers.
oh well.. better than nothing.
401 is looking very nice. I skipped the 30x cycle because of stability and lack of features that interested me but this one looks much better, so I'm back in. =] Didn't think I would be interested in the new animation/rigging stuff but it looks much better than I expected it might for a first release so I'll be tinkering around in there while waiting for deformation stuff to be implemented. It still lacks some of the organic flow that silo has but I'm hoping they can address some of that along the way.
Haha, silo still rocks when it comes to organic modeling, but if the luxology guys priced modo a bit cheaper, I might be more inclined to move to modo.
Actually expect the price to rise. They've made it pretty clear that they intend for modo to be a full pipeline app eventually. Brad even mentioned raising the buy-in price in the last modcast. Once the app fills out more I would expect to see a more significant price jump for new users.
Actually expect the price to rise. They've made it pretty clear that they intend for modo to be a full pipeline app eventually. Brad even mentioned raising the buy-in price in the last modcast. Once the app fills out more I would expect to see a more significant price jump for new users.
That's good though, i'd gladly pay whatever they ask for once Modo becomes a full featured app. Right now, I can't really justify the price considering it still has a lot of features missing.
Essentially, it's vastly streamlined and more intuitive than most apps. A heavier focus on shortcut keys, intuitive tools, customiseable and flexible interfaces and generally be more accessible.
These new tools are written from the ground up much more recently and are able to skip a lot of the outdated layouts, tools and features that things like Max have to lug around as legacy.
That's good though, i'd gladly pay whatever they ask for once Modo becomes a full featured app. Right now, I can't really justify the price considering it still has a lot of features missing.
In other words, give me bones
Meh, modo's best asset is that its a streamlined, fucosed modeler. Piling on all sorts of other shit is just going to make it turn into the same lame bloated crap that maya/max are.
I dunno - they've got a more recent foundation so it's more likely to be more stable and streamlined for including new features. They will never be able to get into the same market share as Max / Maya / XSI if they don't include the features needed to make it a full-featured development application. Right now it's pretty much a modeller and a renderer, and that just won't hack it in the long run.
Just as a quick calculation according to their website, it's currently $895 (£560), they say if you buy 302 now you save $395 on the upgrade to 401, so I guess that's gonna come out priced around $1290 (£810).
Modo is indeed awesome, and that link to Seneca's action centers tutorial is one of the clearest explanations of why. I don't think it'll ever come close to Maya even if they do add skeletal animation- the infrastructure just doesn't appear to be there. Bizarrely, they demo'd skeletal animation in their 'Nexus' siggraph presentation in like 2004(?), but the promise of node exposure never materialized from that either. Another problem with it is it's very destructive- for better or worse, there's no history like maya, and there probably never will be. I guess my point is, don't wait around for 'feature x' to show up before giving it a shot- the best parts of Modo are already here.
I didn't realize it got so much love around here- does anyone think the snapping is OK? I love the modeling workflow in every other way, but the snapping and alignment tools never really clicked with me. Seneca's got some great alignment tools, but the built in stuff never felt right.
Oof, no history of any sort? Not that I rely on the Maya history much, Max's Stack is way better for the non-destructive workflow. Does it allow stuff like parametric deformers which sit on top of objects and allow the underlying mesh to be changed before the deformer is applied?
The action centres stuff looked a lot like Max's pivot and selection options, along with the new Working Pivot stuff ... just presented a lot more consistently (rather than Maya's options for that stuff which are horribly limited and clunky, and Max's which are pretty effective but a bit of a scattershot approach, far from streamlined).
No pretty much every operation in modo is destructive. What you describe above is to me, its biggest flaw. Being able to do something like, curve extrude, and then want to change the curve later is impossible as far as i've seen. Doing this sort of work, max really blows it out of the water.
Yeah, Maya even lets you do parametric things on the "output" of a mesh (by default it goes into the inputs, which shoves it in with the other history), but anything that's an Output is basically non-destructive since you're doing it on top of the history of everything else. It's more complicated than Max's stack, but in some situations works pretty much in the same way. There's a lot of stuff I do which relies on that sort of workflow, so maybe Modo isn't for me after all
Yeah MoP I was evaluating the app earlier last as an alternative for Maya and gave up for the same reason - no access to a stack of any kind. Maya does not have that either, but to justify an app switch I really expect something as flexible and powerful as Max at least, and I don't think that Modo delivers this... It's good, but still feels like a pimped up Silo to me!
Being able to do something like, curve extrude, and then want to change the curve later is impossible as far as i've seen.
Exactly. EQ and anyone - Is there a single app out other other than Max, able to do that? Coming from Max I always assumed that this kind of flexibility was the CORE of 3d modelling (ineractive symetry - shell modifier that can be edited later on - modifiers applied at object level instead of per component -...) but seems like it really isn't :P
I love Modo. Absolutely adore it. There are a lot of things about it that still bug me, however:
-Destructive modeling as EarthQuake mentioned above. Everything you do changes things and the only way to undo what you've done is Ctrl+Z.
-No smoothing groups, among other material complaints. The smoothing in Modo sucks. Hard. I'm not a fan of Max for various reasons, but their materials are way better than Modo's.
-Bad OBJ exporting. It seems that they use a weird non-standard version of OBJ that doesn't always play well with other programs.
-As always, instability. I've learned to press Ctrl+S after just about every action just so I won't have to deal with losing work to a crash. The autosave is untrustworthy as well.
Those things said, Modo remains my favorite modeling program, even if it does lack some features that would alleviate a lot of the problems people have with it.
Replies
I'm using silo for modeling right now and I feel like i'm missing out.
Nothing, really. Infact there is a lot that Max can do that modo cant. But that really isnt the issue, its more the way it *does* the things that it do. IF you get my drift.
ID is using this? That's a smart move on there part. Anymore companies on board? You're right to say that max and modo have much of the same tools but using Modo's tools are more simpler and faster than Max's tools. Soft selection in Modo has more options and flexibility than Max's soft selection tools. Max's has never upgraded that tool.
http://www.luxology.com/modo/401.introduction/
edit - i heard both valve and id use this but its more a case of artists can use what works for them at those companies (as long as they can get it in engine of course)
Im not blaming the tools and I'm still gonna use max. I just find that Modo's tools make my work much faster.
Foolish artist = Sticks with the same tool for his entire carear, without experimenting with other tools.
Yeah, did you have a point here? Me neither.
Pnwed! Seriously though this program is a pretty damn good. Now I know why you guys use it.
Aww, that's how I think of my time here with you guys too.
In 3ds Max is very sad all the work with subdivs, but it's better for other things.
Some things can't be done with the program as easy as in other 3d packages, but if you only model, modo+zbrush is the perfect combo.
Too many companies are using modo now, check out the luxology website
Nah.. you should try it, and that's all. BTW, Is a program you can learn in an anfernoon hahaha.
I'm so customed to work with modo now... that i feel unconfortable with maya/max.
I can hardly wait for the upcoming 401 upgrade. Especially the drag and drop preset asset browser.
http://www.luxology.com/modo/401.presets.part.2/
That's a level artist's dream come true
Character artists must be pretty excited too. The enhancements to the pen tool will make retopology a breeze. Also baking textures with the new fur system = wow! no need to sculpt odd looking hair in Zbush ever again.
It's too bad they weren't able to fully flesh out the new animation system to encompass skinned character animation but for mechanical type stuff it's looking great. Maybe in the next version...
My only gripe with Modo is it's oddball snapping setup and usage, but I've already found scripts that work around the few problems I've had with it.
Hopefully even more companies will start to use Modo as one of their accepted content creation apps.
I havn't touched it since because I didn't enjoy the quirky 2 grid viewport navigation. But after seeing the newer updates for 401 to be released. I think i'll give it a shot again and see what the great fuss is about
That made me lol
Im gonna get the trial and see what this mean SOB can do!
The interface looks great and there seems to be a ton of groovy tools added since i last took a peek.
Haha, silo still rocks when it comes to organic modeling, but if the luxology guys priced modo a bit cheaper, I might be more inclined to move to modo.
touche'
http://content.luxology.com/community/user_tutorials/seneca/SENECA_MODO_ACTRS.MOV
Here's Seneca's website it's full of very useful scripts for Modo.
http://www.indigosm.com/modoscripts.htm
There's a few guys at Gearbox that are using it as well, but the majority still use 3ds Max. I've actually been meaning to give it a try at some point, but just have not gotten around to it yet.
ding ding ding
The feature list for Modo 401 looks really good, I especially like the look of the "paint replicate" stuff, and the renderer seems really nice as well. Fast, too, apparently.
I know they're introducing animation to Modo 401 but from the looks of the preview it only works on "elements" of sub-meshes, or individual objects - all rigid deformation. I didn't see any smooth deforming objects in the demo videos on their site... does anyone know if this is the case?
There's a lot of good stuff there, but I really don't want to lay the cash down unless I could do a full lowpoly model, rigged and skinned from start to finish in the app. If I can't do that, then I still have to use separate software anyway, which defeats a bit of the objective for me
once i started using modo, i couldn't go back to use max.
although i must say aswell, that max has some shit i would like to see in modo. like the stack and modifiers.
oh well.. better than nothing.
Every day at work I get a little more and more pissed off with Max.
MoP: Yeah, this isn't their character animation release. They're just getting the foundations in to build on.
Actually expect the price to rise. They've made it pretty clear that they intend for modo to be a full pipeline app eventually. Brad even mentioned raising the buy-in price in the last modcast. Once the app fills out more I would expect to see a more significant price jump for new users.
That's good though, i'd gladly pay whatever they ask for once Modo becomes a full featured app. Right now, I can't really justify the price considering it still has a lot of features missing.
In other words, give me bones
These new tools are written from the ground up much more recently and are able to skip a lot of the outdated layouts, tools and features that things like Max have to lug around as legacy.
Oh, and action centres
Meh, modo's best asset is that its a streamlined, fucosed modeler. Piling on all sorts of other shit is just going to make it turn into the same lame bloated crap that maya/max are.
Just as a quick calculation according to their website, it's currently $895 (£560), they say if you buy 302 now you save $395 on the upgrade to 401, so I guess that's gonna come out priced around $1290 (£810).
Might be worth getting now after all...
I didn't realize it got so much love around here- does anyone think the snapping is OK? I love the modeling workflow in every other way, but the snapping and alignment tools never really clicked with me. Seneca's got some great alignment tools, but the built in stuff never felt right.
The action centres stuff looked a lot like Max's pivot and selection options, along with the new Working Pivot stuff ... just presented a lot more consistently (rather than Maya's options for that stuff which are horribly limited and clunky, and Max's which are pretty effective but a bit of a scattershot approach, far from streamlined).
How tricky would it be for a die hard Maya user to make a change?
You can pick up the basics of modo in an hour, or at worst and afternoon. Its best to just try for yourself.
Exactly. EQ and anyone - Is there a single app out other other than Max, able to do that? Coming from Max I always assumed that this kind of flexibility was the CORE of 3d modelling (ineractive symetry - shell modifier that can be edited later on - modifiers applied at object level instead of per component -...) but seems like it really isn't :P
-Destructive modeling as EarthQuake mentioned above. Everything you do changes things and the only way to undo what you've done is Ctrl+Z.
-No smoothing groups, among other material complaints. The smoothing in Modo sucks. Hard. I'm not a fan of Max for various reasons, but their materials are way better than Modo's.
-Bad OBJ exporting. It seems that they use a weird non-standard version of OBJ that doesn't always play well with other programs.
-As always, instability. I've learned to press Ctrl+S after just about every action just so I won't have to deal with losing work to a crash. The autosave is untrustworthy as well.
Those things said, Modo remains my favorite modeling program, even if it does lack some features that would alleviate a lot of the problems people have with it.