Just graduated, about to buy software, have questions
admin
Hey guys,
So I just graduated from my Architecture degree (first class honours
) and I've had the wonderful luxury of free software for the past few years. The time has now come for me to drop some cash on commercial versions of software and I'm just trying to line up the most appropriate and powerful options.
Firstly, a bit of info for you students using Photoshop/Illustrator et al; as of CS5, Adobe now allow commercial use of Creative Suite if you purchase the Edu version whilst you're a student. This obviously applies after you graduate too. So that's Photoshop sorted.
Now, I should clarify this is all purely for use outside of work, for fun, and possibly freelance projects should the opportunity ever arise.
I'm also using a Mac, and I'd rather stick with Mac native apps too which shouldn't be an issue since the apps I'm familiar with are all available for OS X.
So, I'm looking at a few options; Modo, Silo or Maya.
I've never used Silo, but what attracts me is that I've heard great things about its modeling toolset, and it's also incredibly cheap (currently around $100). I am concerned however about how capable it is in a game-art workflow, and whether I can do it all 'in the box' with Silo or whether it works best when combined with other apps. Any Silo users want to shed some light on this?
Modo, I must admit I didn't get on that well with Modo when I tried the demo. The tools seemed like they were powerful, and I know some people swear by it but some of the concepts did seem pretty alien. That said, it looks plenty powerful enough and it's still reasonably priced.
Finally; Maya. Now normally this would be way out of my budget, but Autodesk run a very generous scheme where students currently on an edu license can upgrade to commercial for around $500. I can't think of any negatives really, I love Maya and I know it can do 'everything'.
So I'd love some thoughts on what may be the best option and whether there's anything else I should factor in with a game-art workflow in mind (tools for retopo, unwrapping, baking etc if any of the above apps are lacking in that department).
I'd like a sculpting app too, but open to suggestion on that front since ZBrush and MudBox are going to run me full price.
So I just graduated from my Architecture degree (first class honours
) and I've had the wonderful luxury of free software for the past few years. The time has now come for me to drop some cash on commercial versions of software and I'm just trying to line up the most appropriate and powerful options.Firstly, a bit of info for you students using Photoshop/Illustrator et al; as of CS5, Adobe now allow commercial use of Creative Suite if you purchase the Edu version whilst you're a student. This obviously applies after you graduate too. So that's Photoshop sorted.
Now, I should clarify this is all purely for use outside of work, for fun, and possibly freelance projects should the opportunity ever arise.
I'm also using a Mac, and I'd rather stick with Mac native apps too which shouldn't be an issue since the apps I'm familiar with are all available for OS X.
So, I'm looking at a few options; Modo, Silo or Maya.
I've never used Silo, but what attracts me is that I've heard great things about its modeling toolset, and it's also incredibly cheap (currently around $100). I am concerned however about how capable it is in a game-art workflow, and whether I can do it all 'in the box' with Silo or whether it works best when combined with other apps. Any Silo users want to shed some light on this?
Modo, I must admit I didn't get on that well with Modo when I tried the demo. The tools seemed like they were powerful, and I know some people swear by it but some of the concepts did seem pretty alien. That said, it looks plenty powerful enough and it's still reasonably priced.
Finally; Maya. Now normally this would be way out of my budget, but Autodesk run a very generous scheme where students currently on an edu license can upgrade to commercial for around $500. I can't think of any negatives really, I love Maya and I know it can do 'everything'.
So I'd love some thoughts on what may be the best option and whether there's anything else I should factor in with a game-art workflow in mind (tools for retopo, unwrapping, baking etc if any of the above apps are lacking in that department).
I'd like a sculpting app too, but open to suggestion on that front since ZBrush and MudBox are going to run me full price.
Replies
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=14185424
Thank you. Yeah I've been using the free license since they started offering it, but I'm thinking now would be a good time to grab a commercial license. I mean, I may or may not actually do any commercial work anytime soon with it, but I think it would be foolish to pass up the chance to grab a Maya license for $500 or so when I have the chance (as far as I know you have to upgrade within 1 month of graduation). Of course, that is if Maya would indeed be the best option based on my OP.
Silo would make a great complement to Maya with it's modeling toolset.
Sadly you just missed a $600 deal on Modo about 2 weeks ago... so now I'd say if you're interested wait for 601, which should be out sometime later this year. Another option is to buy a license off of someone which usually go for around $600-$650. Just keep a lookout for one over here. A word of caution though: I've read that Modo is a bit more buggy on Mac than Windows.
FWIW I'd say get Zbrush instead of Mudbox, You will likely appreciate the free upgrades over the years.
3DCoat might be worth a look at for texturing, retopo, and voxels, though I haven't used it personally so I only say this based on what others have said.
Don't forget about Blender. 2.6 is shaping up nicely and might fit some of your needs.
This sculpting plugin might be of interest to you-
http://www.lbrush.com/
Ok so I checked out Silo. First impressions were that the modeling tools are indeed very good, very fast and very intuitive. I was also pleasantly surprised by the UV tools, and those retopo tools are incredible!
However, it crashed 5 times in the hour or so I used it, twice when I was mirroring something and then a couple of random lockups. I may pick it up just because it's cheap but given my experience with it, I don't think I could use it as my 'go-to' app for everyday work.
You're right about Maya, to miss out on that price while I have the chance would be foolish and it does offer 'everything'.
Another spanner in the works now though is Adobe's ridiculous software bundles. I can get PS Extended and Illustrator separately (CS5 not 5.5) for £220, or I could get Design Standard which comes with PS, Illustrator and InDesign CS5.5 for the same price, the annoying thing here is that Photoshop is not the extended version.
Alternatively I could drop an extra £100 and go for Design Premium which includes PS Extended and Illustrator CS5.5 as well as InDesign, Flash and Dreamweaver. Now I will probably never use Dreamweaver, and rarely InDesign, probably never Flash either but part of me thinks £100 for all that extra is a bargain, even though I won't use it.
I'd go for Design Standard in a heartbeat if it was PS Extended, but it's not, and now I'm trying to figure out whether I really need extended. I don't think I've ever used any of the functionality of extended but I know I'll probably end up feeling like I'm 'missing something' if I don't go for it.
Whats the difference with PS extended?
Nah 'Design Premium' is PS Extended, AI, InDesign, Flash and Dreamweaver.
I wish it did come with AE, my ideal combo would be PS/AI/AE. You can get 'Production Premium' which is Premiere/AE/possibly PS but I need Illustrator.
PS Extended has the 3D tools, as far as I know that's the only difference. I'm on the fence, I mean, I haven't used them up to now, and I don't 'need' them, but I have been meaning to check it out. IIRC there's some kind of projection painting DeepPaint style thing but as I said, I haven't checked it out yet so it could be crap.
thinking maya and modo are the way to go, but you wouldn't have to get both at once, just got for maya first, it being a industry standard app, than if your feeling you want better modeling tools pick up modo.
That sounds awesome, is there any more info on this?
Yeah it's good news, I think it's a recent change to their terms. I'm on my phone right now and couldn't seem to link to the original article but the relevant info and links are in this thread:
http://forums.adobe.com/message/2948283?PID=2159997
Do you know how to go about doing this? That is in incredible offer but I don't see where on the autodesk site you can upgrade from an educational license.
Yeah that looks like a great bundle, AE and Premiere are a big plus IMO. Even if you're just making a demo real or something.
Yeah it's pretty well hidden. I've just checked and the original FAQ is 'under review' so whether they're going to change it I'm not sure.
I can't speak for the US but here in the UK I just called my local reseller who said I need to purchase the 'Entertainment Creation Suite' boxed version which is around £150, and then I can use the serial number of 1 of those products (so Max/Maya/Mudbox) to upgrade to a professional license for an additional £300 or so if I remember correctly. It's all done through the reseller though, you give them your serial number which they then upgrade with Autodesk to a professional license. You can also get a discount on the subscription too so you can get the upgrades.
I'm not sure if you're in the UK or US but the reseller I used here in the UK is http://bluegfx.com/
As an aside, I've just been trying the OS X version of Maya and it's pretty terrible with OS X Lion. They've acknowledged the issues and I guess it might be fixed for 2013, but as of now it's pretty laggy and unstable, definitely not usable for daily work.
Thanks, I'll check with my local resellers soon as I can. I'm in the US, so hopefully we've got something close to that. Would appreciate saving thousands of dollars >_>
That's been my experience with Maya 8.5 and 2009 on OSX, but you seemed pretty confident about going with Maya so I figured Autodesk had fixed those problems. I've given up after 4 years of trying to set up an OSX-only pipeline. High-end game art just isn't practical in OSX because the software support's so shoddy, with the exception of C4D, Unity, and Blender.
Where have you heard about that? I can't seem to find anything with a quick Google search and looking on their site.
Yeah last time I used it things were ok, in fact I don't recall having problems at all really. That was just before Lion was released. I will wait and see what happens with 2013 and make a decision based on that.
C4D would be an option, but it's too expensive at this stage and I really disagree with their fragmented bundles where they cleverly leave out just one feature you might want in each 'confuguration' so you would end up wanting the complete package anyway. I used to use it back in R9 though. I remember loving the interface and the Advanced Render is still the best built-in offline renderer I've seen.
Of course pigs may fly and AD might release Max for Mac.
The decision would be easy if Adobe allowed multi-platform use, but they don't, which is bs in my opinion. They allow you to install a license on two machines but they have to be the same platform. Otherwise I'd just grab Max and be done with it.
I suppose that's the price I pay for using a Mac. The problem is my actual day job is all in OS X software; VectorWorks/AutoCAD Mac and SketchUp and for that reason I'll be getting the Adobe stuff for OS X. I'll see what happens with AD's 2013 releases.
You can check out the dates for feature requests here:
http://nevercenter.uservoice.com/forums/5534-general
I still like the UV editing method of Silo though.
by looking!
the last update, was in October of 2010, and there has been no communication with silos community about it's status since, and there is a ever growing bug list, some of which are quite serious, that will crash silo and even corrupt of your scene file sometimes.
so considering that i would consider it;s development dead.
If you want to get a job at id Software, knowing modo can certainly help your cause
ya it really is to-bad, silo could have done very well if maintained, this wont help the OP much being a mac user, but there is Voidworld, in dev, which takes a bit of the smoothness and cool tools from silo, right now i find it;s UV tools lacking, but it;s modeling tools are all on par or better than silo, at this stage, and it;s more stable