In my opinion, blender would be hardest to learn, then Maya and finally Modo. That said, there is far more information out there for Maya and Blender. (Believe me, I've looked).
It's a nice middle ground with Maya. The interface is a little confusing but at the same time, there is a LOT of resource material out there!
My best piece of advice however would be try each for a week and see which one you prefer. It's the artist that makes a great piece, not the tools!
I have noticed that Blender recalculates normals every time you switch from edit mode to object mode.
Another thing I noticed is that normal edits also get overwritten by object modifiers.
How to manage normals ?
Cant find a custom normals feature.
I don't think Blender has normals editing built but there were a few plugins that sort of worked. One had a method there it stored the normal data seperate so after normals would recalculate when switching between edit and object mode it would just re apply the normal info it stored. But I believe that addon didn't have an exporter to go with it.
There was another newer one but I don't know if it will work with the most recent versions of Blender or not.
I have noticed that Blender recalculates normals every time you switch from edit mode to object mode.
Another thing I noticed is that normal edits also get overwritten by object modifiers.
How to manage normals ?
Cant find a custom normals feature.
ty
thats sort of one of the biggest problems in the modelling department
as far as i know its not that easy to fix, but i guess it will be done at some point
and there are some addons to work around this (more or less successful i guess)
I've used Maya and Max for the past 8 years. Initially I hated Max, but came to love it after a long time of being forced to use it. I picked up Modo indie a week ago and I can't seem to find a real reason to make the leap from Max. I would probably choose it over Maya for modeling.
I've got indi Modo license and understand absolutely nothing even after couple weekends of learning.
It's my personal threshold. If I wasted a weekend for a tool and still can't get anything useful I tend to believe it's not because of my IQ , ha-ha, but rather something wrong with the tool itself "made by artists for the artists" maybe at another planet .
It's really not that hard. I recommend changing the controls to the Maya keymap and turning off track ball rotation. The tools are self explanatory. Figuring out the shader tree is a bit harder, but once you get it down its pretty simple as well...though it can be a bit convoluted for some operations.
I highly recommend popping into the Modo Indie chat channel in steam and ask the Foundry guys questions, they can help you through some stuff, and if they are not there the users there will.
I've used Maya and Max for the past 8 years. Initially I hated Max, but came to love it after a long time of being forced to use it. I picked up Modo indie a week ago and I can't seem to find a real reason to make the leap from Max. I would probably choose it over Maya for modeling.
Well, at the very least try the UV and Retopology tools (rooms). Those alone are usually worth it. Same with modeling but only once you give up the modifier stack mentality.
Hi,
i am using Mac OS X, so i can't use Max. I started couple of months before with Maya 2014. I had feel that Maya is best and other programs like Blender/Modo/SoftImage are just little brothers. Today i know that they can be maybe better in modeling (that is where i am interesting in - create game assets), but still not sure. I want to try master one program, but still can't decide where to put my effort. I know some tools are same in all 3D programs, but you know ....
Has anyone experience with latest versions of Modo and Maya? Are for instance in Modo any tools, which are really great and Maya is missing them? I don't care much about better shortcuts etc., just in funcionality. I heard even blender is really great these days.
We are using Maya for rigging, skinning and animation, everything else is Modo. Using Fbx to transfer between apps. Modo is awesome for modeling, UVing, polygon reduction, retopo, baking and render. I have use Modo for rigging/skinning as well. It has potential in animation (still not up to Maya's standard) but its response when animating is amazingly slooooooooow which makes it practically unusable.
If you need animation go with Maya, for everything else Modo is great choice.
I have noticed that Blender recalculates normals every time you switch from edit mode to object mode.
Another thing I noticed is that normal edits also get overwritten by object modifiers.
How to manage normals ?
Cant find a custom normals feature.
ty
Editing custom normals haven't been implemented yet, but it's a work in progress I guess.
But I haven't noticed that Blender is recalculating normals when switching between edit and object modes, because you can control them by yourself (flipping normals inside or out in the edit mode, and the object mode shouldn't have any effect to that). I've had no problems using hard edges as smoothing groups or viewing normal maps on my triangulated low poly models.
Can anyone shed some light on what maks Modo's UV tools so great?
Only used them very little so far, and there didn't seem to be that many tools available on first glance. I'm personally still a big fan of Headus UVLayout for unwrapping.
There's nothing particularly stand-out about the UV tools. They're good, but about the same level as anything else.
What I like is that it's just another viewport. So you can do modelling operations and stuff in there, too.
That also makes it really easy to just jump over and do work in the 3D viewport (unlike Max which has UV editing in a modifier in the stack - which makes jumping back/forth between modelling/UVing is a real slog).
- Camera navigation (might be just me, but I find the one in 3DS Max a bit buggy)
Btw, I can't stand Max's camera navigation. The moment you deselect something and Max magically decides to move the orbit pivot somewhere else just because, drives me nuts. I'll keep playing with Modo, but I'm probably not going to switch until I actually feel like it can perform better overall.
I actually really like modos default camera movement, because it doesn't require middle/right mouse buttons. Comes in really hand when using a wacom in sculpt/paint mode.
I would recommend getting used to it when making the switch.
I actually really like modos default camera movement, because it doesn't require middle/right mouse buttons. Comes in really hand when using a wacom in sculpt/paint mode.
I would recommend getting used to it when making the switch.
what stops you from using mmb and rmb on your wacom pen?
MODO's UI is one of the things that made me try it. I think it's sleek and really nice looking. A superficial reason, sure, but if I'm going to be staring at it all day...
That's because it uses a resolution of 2880x1800 at 192 PPI, provably it's a MacBook Pro and Max isn't adapting its font resolution to match the OS?
no clue i got 2560x1440 @ 108ppi, mine doesn't look close to as weird, it usually gets less cluttered with bigger screensize (hence more space for the bars), on this screens everything is all over the place.
no clue i got 2560x1440 @ 108ppi, mine doesn't look close to as weird, it usually gets less cluttered with bigger screensize (hence more space for the bars), on this screens everything is all over the place.
It's really not a superficial reason. The UI is super important for a good workflow. Modo has a really good UI, the default colors are great, they used icons mixed with text and highlight what shortcut is used to do what and for any other window it's always super clear. It's so fluid that I don't feel like I'm forcing myself to read the software like I do with 3DS max. And that is one of many reasons why I want to stay in Modo and keep working, because my brain isn't thinking ''who the hell designed that poor UI'' and that gives me a peace of mind, I can focus on doing my job. Worst case scenario, I can modify Modo...
coming from Max that was the most shocking thing going into Modo & Blender; so much screen realestate taken up by UI but I'm sure you can customize it all to your liking. It looks like that Max screenshot was 'customized' to make it look more cluttered
One of my favorite parts of the Modo UI is how easily I can assign hotkeys, just open the history and rightclick one of the commands I just used and it'll let me assign a hotkey.
Because it is so simple, I find myself adding new hotkeys much more frequently and thus speeding up my workflow. In max I would have been looking forever to find the right command, and then I have to do it twice for editable poly and edit poly.
In Blender, you can resize UI panels on the fly so when you need more 3D viewport, you just click and drag usually.
You can similarly create and destroy new panels/viewports on the fly.
The tool shelves to the left and right of the 3D viewport can be opened/closed at will.
You can easily have a fullscreen 3D viewport if you want to. How your Blender UI looks depends on what you're currently doing. For example while you're UV unwrapping, you'll have the UV image editor open, which means your 3D viewport becomes smaller, the same while you're working in the dope sheet, the node editor or whatever. And while modelling, you close those things or just enlarge your 3D viewport over them, so it's all dynamic.
-> There is no one "Blender UI" that's set in stone.
I'd say you should watch the video I posted above.
I would have watched it all if it wasn't for the fact the the MODO UI is almost unrecognizable from what it's by default and I wasn't really interest in that UI design.
I can just look to my left at the two character artists who use it at work, or open it up on my own computer :P
It also looks like Max with an extra command panel opened on the left!
Shift+Space in Blender lets you maximize whichever viewport your mouse is over, whether it's something for which that would be useful, like the graph editor or the node editor or the 3D view, or something for which that would not be useful, like the outliner or timeline. It's quite easy to get the real estate you want when you want it once you understand how the windowing system works.
The problem with this kind of videos is that, after watching it, instead of making me want to use their software, I want to implement part of their workflow in mine, without using their software.
MODO always pivots around a spot sort of in front of the camera. It doesn't do the 'orbit selected' thing you see in Max. If you want to orbit your selection, you can center the camera on it with a hotkey and then it will do that until you move again.
I'm like 99% sure that Modo has a setting somewhere that causes it to innately orbit around the selected object when rotating the view, and that I have it active.
MODO always pivots around a spot sort of in front of the camera. It doesn't do the 'orbit selected' thing you see in Max. If you want to orbit your selection, you can center the camera on it with a hotkey and then it will do that until you move again.
I'm not familiar with that Max function, what I meant is that it doesn't rotate on mouse pointer position, only zoom/dolly do that?
I can't find anything for the universal settings, but if you press O to open the viewport-specific settings, you can go into Drawing and Control and check Orbit Selected.
Opening up the program and messing with it, Modo feels more natural than Blender. I could go into it and start modeling without reading any help files. I tried to get into Blender Cookie but it felt like going back to 3D nursery school, so if the OP is new to modeling in general than Blender might be a better option.
I can't find anything for the universal settings, but if you press O to open the viewport-specific settings, you can go into Drawing and Control and check Orbit Selected.
That I see is the same as pressing on the cogwheel icon on the upper right of the viewport (they moved these options from where I remember them).
Anyway, the Orbit Selected is the contrary of what I meant. I intend a system that let you focus where you want independently of what you have selected.
Opening up the program and messing with it, Modo feels more natural than Blender. I could go into it and start modeling without reading any help files. I tried to get into Blender Cookie but it felt like going back to 3D nursery school, so if the OP is new to modeling in general than Blender might be a better option.
It uses uncommon shortcuts and the properties of your object are scattered around many different panels and condensed in a small space.
Blender is indeed quite weird out of the box. It's like Zbrush in that regard, except Zbrush is actually head and shoulders above the competition in most areas whereas Blender is merely just as good.
Shift+Space in Blender lets you maximize whichever viewport your mouse is over, whether it's something for which that would be useful, like the graph editor or the node editor or the 3D view, or something for which that would not be useful, like the outliner or timeline. It's quite easy to get the real estate you want when you want it once you understand how the windowing system works.
I think after trying both Blender and Modo, I've decided to stick with Modo. Both tools are great but Modo just feels more fluid to me... not to mention all the cool features including Meshfusion!! Just wish I had more time to learn it XO
Hey guys - just before this disappears into the endless void of older posts I wanted to ask, has anyone been using their own license of Modo at a studio which primarily uses Max/Maya? How is it seen using your own software for work, has this been a problem for you?
Working at a small mobile games startup, I had to downloaded the 30 day trial at work to show my art director that I could export an asset with correct scale, smoothing, etc and bring it into maya and unity without any problems, after that there were no objections.
I had also checked with foundry support to make sure it was legally fine to use my personal license at work, which it is as long as I am the only one using it.
Replies
So much love.
It's a nice middle ground with Maya. The interface is a little confusing but at the same time, there is a LOT of resource material out there!
My best piece of advice however would be try each for a week and see which one you prefer. It's the artist that makes a great piece, not the tools!
Another thing I noticed is that normal edits also get overwritten by object modifiers.
How to manage normals ?
Cant find a custom normals feature.
ty
There was another newer one but I don't know if it will work with the most recent versions of Blender or not.
You can see some past developments here.
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?284736-Normals-Editing-in-Blender
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?259554-Addon-EditNormals-Transfer-Vertex-Normals
https://github.com/isathar/Blender_UDK_FBX_Tools
I think the last link is the most recent one that's been updated.
thats sort of one of the biggest problems in the modelling department
as far as i know its not that easy to fix, but i guess it will be done at some point
and there are some addons to work around this (more or less successful i guess)
It's really not that hard. I recommend changing the controls to the Maya keymap and turning off track ball rotation. The tools are self explanatory. Figuring out the shader tree is a bit harder, but once you get it down its pretty simple as well...though it can be a bit convoluted for some operations.
I highly recommend popping into the Modo Indie chat channel in steam and ask the Foundry guys questions, they can help you through some stuff, and if they are not there the users there will.
Well, at the very least try the UV and Retopology tools (rooms). Those alone are usually worth it. Same with modeling but only once you give up the modifier stack mentality.
Modo has still a long way to go to become a well rounded tool for game artists IMO.
We are using Maya for rigging, skinning and animation, everything else is Modo. Using Fbx to transfer between apps. Modo is awesome for modeling, UVing, polygon reduction, retopo, baking and render. I have use Modo for rigging/skinning as well. It has potential in animation (still not up to Maya's standard) but its response when animating is amazingly slooooooooow which makes it practically unusable.
If you need animation go with Maya, for everything else Modo is great choice.
Admir
Editing custom normals haven't been implemented yet, but it's a work in progress I guess.
But I haven't noticed that Blender is recalculating normals when switching between edit and object modes, because you can control them by yourself (flipping normals inside or out in the edit mode, and the object mode shouldn't have any effect to that). I've had no problems using hard edges as smoothing groups or viewing normal maps on my triangulated low poly models.
Only used them very little so far, and there didn't seem to be that many tools available on first glance. I'm personally still a big fan of Headus UVLayout for unwrapping.
What I like is that it's just another viewport. So you can do modelling operations and stuff in there, too.
That also makes it really easy to just jump over and do work in the 3D viewport (unlike Max which has UV editing in a modifier in the stack - which makes jumping back/forth between modelling/UVing is a real slog).
Btw, I can't stand Max's camera navigation. The moment you deselect something and Max magically decides to move the orbit pivot somewhere else just because, drives me nuts. I'll keep playing with Modo, but I'm probably not going to switch until I actually feel like it can perform better overall.
Still a work in progress. People should get into IRC and nag him to finish it.
I would recommend getting used to it when making the switch.
Yup and having to use MMB for moving around the viewport feels like arthritis just waiting to happen... or as I like to call it, 'The Claw'
I turned trackball rotation off and enabled Maya navigation, now it feels like Maya dipped in awesome-sauce
what stops you from using mmb and rmb on your wacom pen?
You better hope Autodesk agrees with you... you never know with them. Sadly.
Cinema 4D R16
That's because it uses a resolution of 2880x1800 at 192 PPI, provably it's a MacBook Pro and Max isn't adapting its font resolution to match the OS?
no clue i got 2560x1440 @ 108ppi, mine doesn't look close to as weird, it usually gets less cluttered with bigger screensize (hence more space for the bars), on this screens everything is all over the place.
I use maya regularly , and so far has been a nightmare of a broken program.
http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/3ds-max-3ds-max-design-general/why-3ds-max-2015-is-still-not-hidpi-compatible/td-p/4924986?nobounce
This it the original thread.
He didn't changed the DPI settings?
It could also be that the UI is broken on that kind of resolution.
What if I want only icons instead of text and icons?
Also, the panels intelligently resize for the most part, so just shrink the panels until the words vanish if you want.
Because it is so simple, I find myself adding new hotkeys much more frequently and thus speeding up my workflow. In max I would have been looking forever to find the right command, and then I have to do it twice for editable poly and edit poly.
You can similarly create and destroy new panels/viewports on the fly.
The tool shelves to the left and right of the 3D viewport can be opened/closed at will.
You can easily have a fullscreen 3D viewport if you want to. How your Blender UI looks depends on what you're currently doing. For example while you're UV unwrapping, you'll have the UV image editor open, which means your 3D viewport becomes smaller, the same while you're working in the dope sheet, the node editor or whatever. And while modelling, you close those things or just enlarge your 3D viewport over them, so it's all dynamic.
-> There is no one "Blender UI" that's set in stone.
Good to know, I'm not a fan of icon and text if the icon is self explanatory.
The problem will be if you shrink it, you'll have to expand it to access the parameters?
I didn't use MODO from a long time, I think it's in the bottom left that you do that.
I would have watched it all if it wasn't for the fact the the MODO UI is almost unrecognizable from what it's by default and I wasn't really interest in that UI design.
I figured, it's kind of like seeing Blender users complain about the Max features you can turn on and off as well. Only dirty savages use the viewcube
It also looks like Max with an extra command panel opened on the left!
The problem with this kind of videos is that, after watching it, instead of making me want to use their software, I want to implement part of their workflow in mine, without using their software.
I noticed, practically, if the viewport was in fullscreen that wouldn't make any difference for him, lol.
But I noticed something, if you have nothing selected, the camera pivots to where? The centre of the scene?
I'm not familiar with that Max function, what I meant is that it doesn't rotate on mouse pointer position, only zoom/dolly do that?
Better try it for myself
That I see is the same as pressing on the cogwheel icon on the upper right of the viewport (they moved these options from where I remember them).
Anyway, the Orbit Selected is the contrary of what I meant. I intend a system that let you focus where you want independently of what you have selected.
[ame]
I mean this; MODO seems to already do the zoom to cursor, but it's strange that the rotation is still on the centre.
In interior scenes, selection with your mouse pointer where to pivot your camera will save you some headache.
Surprisingly, Blender has this, turned off by default.
It uses uncommon shortcuts and the properties of your object are scattered around many different panels and condensed in a small space.
Ins key on numpad is doing the same in Modo.
I had also checked with foundry support to make sure it was legally fine to use my personal license at work, which it is as long as I am the only one using it.