3ds or Modo
polycounter lvl 7
Hey guys,
I'm currently using 3DS Max(used to use Maya) and am contemplating switching to Modo. I really like some of Max's functions and features(the amount of modifiers available, the non-destructiveness of the stack, being able to rotate out of the locked orthographic views without having to switch camera etc) but there are some elements that completely boggle the mind! The standard navigation is not ideal and there is no viable alternative(ie Maya controls in Max prevents you from deselecting) and it seems like Modo has some great selection tools, mesh fusion, rounded edge shader, fast performance and context-sensitive hotkeys. But it doesn't seem to have close to the amound of modifiers/functions that Max has like spherify, shell and doesn't have a non-destructive stack at all.
So to those who have tried both programs, what do you think of them? I have seen threads comparing Maya to Modo or Blender to Modo but not many comparing 3DS to Modo for some reason. Does Modo's features over Max compensate for it's deficits? I played around with Modo a bit and it does remind me more of Maya than Max. I feel not having the non-destructive modifier stack would be hard to get used to? What are the pros/cons of each? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks heaps
I'm currently using 3DS Max(used to use Maya) and am contemplating switching to Modo. I really like some of Max's functions and features(the amount of modifiers available, the non-destructiveness of the stack, being able to rotate out of the locked orthographic views without having to switch camera etc) but there are some elements that completely boggle the mind! The standard navigation is not ideal and there is no viable alternative(ie Maya controls in Max prevents you from deselecting) and it seems like Modo has some great selection tools, mesh fusion, rounded edge shader, fast performance and context-sensitive hotkeys. But it doesn't seem to have close to the amound of modifiers/functions that Max has like spherify, shell and doesn't have a non-destructive stack at all.
So to those who have tried both programs, what do you think of them? I have seen threads comparing Maya to Modo or Blender to Modo but not many comparing 3DS to Modo for some reason. Does Modo's features over Max compensate for it's deficits? I played around with Modo a bit and it does remind me more of Maya than Max. I feel not having the non-destructive modifier stack would be hard to get used to? What are the pros/cons of each? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks heaps
Replies
If you ant to see some examples of it in action I'd recommend checking out this thread:
https://community.foundry.com/discuss/topic/137925/alexander-shmakov-tricks-in-modo-and-more?page=3
MeshOps allowed me to create MOP Booleans:
and Foundry continues to add new Procedural modeling tools every update.
As William mentioned, Modo does feature a procedural stack, which allows you to layer Mesh Operations to work non-destructively. It's an area that will continue to grow and improve. And Modo's procedural system really compliments other areas of Modo, like MeshFusion.
Just so you know, you can start a new free 30 day trial of Modo each time a new version is released. This includes major releases as well as point releases. Currently there are 3 versions of Modo that get released each year. Typically this includes a major release and two point releases. This means you can use Modo for up to 90 days per year, for free!
The most recent version of Modo I've used is 11.2V2 I primarily wanted to add it to my workflow for rounded edge shader baking. I did some pretty extensive testing and found it to be disappointing. The very noticeable shading artifacts made it almost unusable. Plus I had a lot of problems importing .fbx files. The importer seems to be badly broken. I ended up having to use .obj files instead(which also seemed to suffer from shading and geometry issues)
Modo's viewport performance is dreadful on large scenes. It is nowhere near Max on this front.
Modo also tended to crash a LOT. Pretty much every session crashed randomly at some point. Max is rock solid and very rarely crashes for me.
Whilst it's true that Modo has recently introduced procedural modeling, it is in its infancy and is hardly comparable to the modifier stack in Max. Max is pretty much built on this concept and the workflow is at its core.
The navigation for me is obviously not an issue as I've been using Max so long, but I also use UE4/Substance Painter/Blender/Zbrush very frequently so adopting to multiple nav systems is not a problem in my eyes at all.
Last point is on documentation/tutorials/community. Modo is extremely lacking in all 3. Max is the opposite.
Modo is a great application and I can certainly see its appeal, and it is offered at a fair price. If I were you I'd do some serious testing of each in the specific areas you most feel one suits better over the other and make the call from there.
I'm on the Max beta and there are some pretty exciting things coming down the pipeline this year.......enough said.
Before leaving it behind, I had lost a few different projects altogether because of colossal bugs that I couldn't solve.
One time was when attempting to rig/animate, which wound up being virtually impossible because the rig kept randomly breaking and none of the animations would export.
Another time was when I was working on a bunch of foliage and had to modify the normals; the normal editor wasn't working correctly, and the normals would not correctly reset to the default state either, leaving them permanently broken.
And then on two or three separate occasions I had my whole configuration get destroyed while trying to modify hotkeys.
On many occasions, before taking a model into UE4, I would have to import it into something like Blender, then export it back out. Because Modo would create a broken .FBX somehow and cause it to get warped on import into UE4. It would often be stretched along a single axis, or heavily offset in a random direction.
And that isn't to mention all the random little annoying bugs.
If you haven't already, you might want to seriously look into Blender. Its been getting some really amazing improvements and addons lately that make it very powerful (check out HardOps, BoxCutter, DecalMachine, Asset Management, Textools).
I bought Hardops/Boxcutter and it is a workflow that no other program has atm. Plus pretty much any tools/features from other DCC.....there's an add-on for that. 2.8 has EEVEE. The best real-time viewport of any of the main DCCs. It also has a rounded edge shader that can be baked to a normal map, and it is a lot better than Modo's results.
'free key' addon demo video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=48&v=-PIhDR0RIbQ
as for the topic: 3ds max would be my choice between those two: extensive modifier stack, overall customizability, availability of scripts, exporters and the community. i also fancy the quad menu system. lastly it feels pretty fast to me - unlike modo which to be fair i have only trialled a few times over the years.
two reasons not to pick 3ds max: windows-only - if that's an issue for you - and rental-only.