Modeling Tool?
Hey guys,
Well, I have been using Blender for about a year, but I am just wondering if there might be something better? I have looked at Silo and Hexagon. Silo is amazing, I love it but it is $150 and I dunno, is it dead? Hexagon is free, and I have never tried it, it does not sound like many people here use it. So I dunno if Silo is worth it if development is dead on it, is Hexagon any good? It's not that Blender is bad, I just don't feel it has any great modeling tools. It seems to be the bare minimum. Extrude, move vertices, etc.
Just wondering what you guys think,
Benton
Well, I have been using Blender for about a year, but I am just wondering if there might be something better? I have looked at Silo and Hexagon. Silo is amazing, I love it but it is $150 and I dunno, is it dead? Hexagon is free, and I have never tried it, it does not sound like many people here use it. So I dunno if Silo is worth it if development is dead on it, is Hexagon any good? It's not that Blender is bad, I just don't feel it has any great modeling tools. It seems to be the bare minimum. Extrude, move vertices, etc.
Just wondering what you guys think,
Benton
Replies
I've been writing a document on the topic, but I need to split and clean it up to make it more readable. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aFxDruEX0zZnWHH5YjEFwJe4g1XqR4YByt_8_HRonTI/edit
Either way, if you want a silo-like workflow, check out voidworld.
I've been using Wings for about 3 years, but am slowly switching over to Voidworld.
I will take a look at Voidworld, but I was wondering what people thought of Silo vs Hexagon vs Blender.
Blender is most probably the weakest polygon modeling tool here. Simply because before this spring it couldn`t deal with NGons. And this means that lots of tools were and are missing that relys at NGons. BMesh, the new core, finally brought this long awaited NGon functionality. But it may still last some years before all tools are converted to play well with BMesh.
Hexagon is a nice modeler, but a bit aged. And it has the same problem like Silo: the development stagnated for years. At least DAZ has spent a service pack not long ago to make it a bit more stable.
I don`t know Silo too good. Development has stopped, that`s true. But i know that it`s a very fast polygon modeling tool. And this hasn`t changed.
VoidWorld is still in development. And has still a few shortcomings here and there. But is a promising tool.
In the end it doesn`t matter what any of us thinks. In the end it`s you who needs to feel comfortable with the tool. I know people that still works with stoneold software for modeling. Because they feel more comfortable with it.
So try them, test them, give them a go. Then grab the one that feels right for you. There is always time to switch at a later point when you feel that you lack of a feature that your current software doesn`t have. A polygon is a polygon, in all 3D software. And the modeling techniques are most of the times transferable.
About Blender, I tried some time ago, and enjoyed a lot. I only have 2 complains: It doesn't handle Ngons, and the cut tool was a real shit. Aside this, is a great modeler too.
EDIT: I've seen on Nevercenter site, Silo is costing US$ 119 if you use the code SILO119 while buying.
if your looking for a very solid, and stable modeling tool set, i would say modo even a older modo like 401 or 501 would do.
Nvil(aka voidworld) is getting to be pretty impressive on the modeling side of things, with interaction(after customization) and tools that far surpass what silo has. But currently it lacks usable UV tools, and is early in dev. Personally i like using Nvil/voidworld + Maya, since with a few scripts maya has some good UV tools, and fills out what nvil lacks or is weak at, while nvil fills out maya on the modeling side of things. i even got some scripts setup for 1 click import export to and from maya and nvil.
you could prolly do the same with voidworld and blender, since blender does have good UV tools, and animation, and all the things voidworld dosnt do.
Oh well, I will just have to customize the hell out of Blender, addons and UI and stuff. Might be good to learn some Blender scripting.
also really $150 is a big deal for you, when investing in tools to do your work?
That said, I have tried to use blender off and on throughout the years and only recently was I able to really dig into it. Normally I would use Maya for all my modeling needs (love maya for quick vertex snapping alone + hotbox). Anyways, I really hated how Blender felt and its UI was horrible...it still isnt great in my opinion, but thankfully there are ways to modify Blender. I managed to make Blender have basic Maya like controls using a keymap file called Maya to Blender. Then there was the context menu addon which allows for the right mouse button to pull up the face, vertex and edge menu. Space bar brings up another menu for adding meshes. In addition to that, toss is some extra modeling specific plug ins and even the use of symmetry and Blender has become a very good modeling tool. Still no good way to vertex snap, but I would say its up there with Silo and then some.
OP, mod the heck out of blender using custom scripts and builds. They can be found on the net. It will make it so much easier and allow you to do so much more. Of course its not going to completely replace my Maya pipeline, but I would recommend that if you are not selling your work, go ahead and grab a free copy of Maya or 3DS Max for non commercial work. Use blender to earn money if you are working freelance (at least till you get get yourself a license for a better application or just hang in there with Blender if its working for you).
I think modeling wise both Blender and Maya are getting some serious attention. Autodesk is focusing a lot more on Maya these days and Blender well, it seems to be really speeding up after the whole 2.5 change.
Beautiful as in interface or actual capability? Even on the luxology forums I see modo users complaining as well about the lack of good modeling capabilities for game art. It has a great renderer and adding some of those pixar like sub-d modifiers is good for animation and high poly work with the intent of rendering out a scene...but as far as modeling goes with the goal of low poly game art...it sinks. Too many other applications do a much better job at it, and faster. Modo can give you precision I think but the workflow is incredibly slow compared to something in maya or max, even blender.
I still dont see any logical reason for the camera to rotate at odd angles when in the view port, or the ability to switch between view port controls. In addition to that, it seems there are a lot of unnecessary steps one has to take to do something simple. In other apps the number of steps to do something modeling wise is usually very short, as opposed to modo which at least from my experience requires far more clicks and mode changes just to accomplish.
I am glad though that others can make use of modo, and its just my opinion, but it feels like the modo crowd likes modo because its not autodesk and they bought into it, not necessarily because of its capabilities. Reminds me of the apple fanbase a bit.
The best thing for any artist is to try it out and see what they feel comfortable with.
And if your viewport is rotating oddly, turn off trackball rotation. :P
Trackball rotation doesnt fix the issue where the world view starts turning on its side just from going left to right.
Add: I just turned on the over ride and that fixed the rotate issue. So nvm on that one
Agreed. One downside to modo is the lack of tutorials (in comparison to max)
This is getting quite off topic but: I wish there was a script/plugin that could calculate a models actual in-engine vertex count. Even if it was just a simple best case scenario / worst case scenario vert count. I understand there used to be a plugin like this for max (or perhaps it was maya) but it sounds quite useful.
Wingers were ever interested in the app marketing and fortunatelly the developers were along all these years concentrated in apprimorated the tools and not in implement a sexy visual interface appeal.
As a 3ds max commercial user, i have to attest you i keep using Autodesk product to animate, rig, render etc, but when the matter is "modelling" i EVER use Wings3d 1.4.1.
I suggest you to experiment it (be sure there are many "experts" around you that ever tryied it):
the chances you switch your contempt smile for a satisfaction one are great! Wings3D is one of the best (if not the best) box modelling application, even between the commercial alternatives.
As to paid modelers, I'm not quite certain. 3DS Max is still considered one of the industry standards, but will set your wallet back a considerable amount. Modo isn't as price heavy, but is still nothing to sniff at. Silo doesn't have active development or improvements, so probably shy away from that one. Autodesk went around and acquired a lot of the previously competing tools, so there aren't quite as many big names to choose from as there used to be.