MODO 901

Started by TheBadger, June 10, 2015, 04:58:16 PM

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TheBadger

http://www.thefoundry.co.uk/products/modo/features/

Take a look at "painting"! Lots of people who use Zbrush still prefer Mud for painting. But this looks even better then that. Sculpting in MODO looks pretty awesome too!
It has been eaten.

efflux

#1
I've just intalled the Modo 901 demo on Linux. It's looking good. 701 was dead in the water on Linux. Either some library didn't like it or the new Nvidia graphics driver presented a problem. 901 is fine so far though.

The problem now is the upgrade cost. I think they have taken this too high. It will kill hobbyists which was an important part of Modo. I also have a low powered Quadro card. To use Modo to it's best and 3D coat which I have on here I need a new graphics card. Nvidia Geforce GTX 980 seems the best buy. All this adds up to a lot so I'll be hammering Modo until the demo runs out to make sure.

As for Modo and landscape stuff. Modo is the best general 3D program for this in my opinion but you can't do multiple layers of displacement. What you do is create terrain procedurally from a flat plain. When you are happy with this and you want to edit it or add displacements you do a bake geometry cache but make sure the displacement subdivision isn't over the top in complexity. This gets you a terrain mesh which can be pretty complex. Then you can surfaces with displacements. Modo's instancing means you can reuse the same meshes multiple times to create large landscapes.

As for Modo'd new features I'll look to see if anything adds to the procedural power like nodes for example. I got good results with clouds eventually and quite similar to the way Terragen deals with it. This part was quite tricky though. No just sticking a cloud layer in. However, you can create whatever you imagine in Modo. That's what I like about it.

I also noticed somebody had posted on the forum here about Terragen 64 bit working on Linux wine all be it with some problems. I might try that. I thought 64 bit wine was way behind the 32 bit last time I looked.

efflux

Here's a terrain test with Modo 901. I blended perlin ridged with some voronoi. This can obviously be saved for import to Terragen or turned to a mesh for futher work in Modo. I need to slope off the edges though.

efflux

This was in 801 but it's extremely useful for landscape type stuff because you can quickly create piles of rock. I think it's been enhanced in 901.


efflux

I haven't tried sculpting yet but 3D Coat is what I have. The problem is that all other apps except Zbrush rely on your graphics card. I'm considering doing a huge graphics card upgrade then sculpting will be improved multifold. You can sculpt seamless textures in 3D Coat. I've not tried using that elsewhere but it very cool. 3D Coat has been upgraded as well.

Tangled-Universe

What about Houdini, Ryan?

Houdini definitely allows you to do all the Mojoworld style modeling you often referred to in previous discussions. And much more!

efflux

Actually I'm not sure that previous video was all Modo but this is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nuok0rEkx5w

This is so useful not just from the animation point of view but from the results you get after the shatter.


efflux

#7
I remember looking at Houdini before and I see it's Linux as well. I can't actually remember all that does but the price is very high. Modo is currently just viable for non professionals who have already bought a licence when it was cheap. I expect most hobbyists to be pushed out from using Modo eventually but I've already invested in it. I do really like Modo though. I love it for editing materials like those terrains because the UI makes this very easy. Maybe the Indie version of Houdini has all the features. The licence is a yearly subsciption from what I can see. I don't like that.

All of this helps Blender. Blender gets better and better but only very gradually. The cycles rendering engine has not yet got proper micro displacement. This is no good but I think they have added volumetric atmoshere now.

I still do have a Windows partition so I'm not 100% Linux. Terragen is on there but I haven't upgraded. I might do so. I've tried to do other angles or art but to me drawing and painting is for the real world. I'm not that happy using Wacoms and the painting apps but Clip Studio (or Manga Studio - same app) is the best painting app. Mypaint is also very underappreciated. That's free and on Linux. Simple but very good. However, once you've got into big landscape scenes using Mojoworld, Terragen or even other apps like Modo, it's hard to do any 2D stuff. It's boring unless it's in the real world because real paint etc has texture that computers can't recreate.

efflux

The 901 procedural rock item looks cool. Blender can do that. It was one of the features in Blender which I wished Modo had. Now it has it. Blender has mesh displacement modifier because that's the only way to displace. Blender will only be truly great when Cycles get proper micro displacement.

efflux

I tried the sculpting. Granted, I have a crap graphics card but to describe it as chronic would be doing it justice. Blender blows it away. Obviously 3D coat does. It's Modo's weak point.

Tangled-Universe

I guess it has been long ago then since you've looked at Houdini?

I suggest you look again, as they have completely overhauled their business strategy:
http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=117&Itemid=374

There's (still) a Free version which is basically unrestricted in terms of functionality and exploration of the possibilities, but only has restrictions on rendering.

You can lift those restrictions for $199, by getting the Indie type license. Given the sheer possibilities it's a steal. $199 is $199, still, but I think you get the point.

If you don't mind I would strongly suggest you to take a look at it, because it can absolutely do EVERYTHING you are interested in.

efflux

#11
OK. I probably will take a look at it.

As for Modo, which I'm messing in again but haven't explored any new features. The things I don't like are the sculpting and modelling. I don't get why people say this is a great modeller. The problem is that you have a mass of tools but can't do certain stuff that is dead easy in Wings 3D. You can talk till you are blue in the face with these developers but they simply can't get why Wings 3D is so brilliant. In Wings you have a small set of tools but those tools are extremely powerful and the predictive selection process and moving between vertices, edges and Polys is brilliant. In Modo this is a complete nightmare. Modo is the most keyboard centric app. Blender is better. Blender is very logical in it's use of keys and navigation. Having said all this, Modo is a brilliant environment to bring everything together in a technical sense with work where you do work this way and it has a bunch of tools like the instancing, replicators, shatter, management of big scenes etc. The renderer is brilliant and so are the materials. This is why it's good for landscape type things. Modo is a brilliant place to take your models once you've sorted them in Zbrush, 3D coat or Wings etc - or app that is specific to the type of modelling you are doing. 3D Coat is brilliant for retopoly after you've sculpted stuff. Wings is the best box type poly modeller. I don't understand why more people don't use. That app is design perfection.

efflux

I absolutely hate Modo's key commands. I'm left handed to which makes it impossible. There are some absurd key commands. It's like playing twister while you're trying to look at the screen. This is one aspect which makes the modelling hell.

efflux

#13
As for Modo's nodes, I've yet to play with that. I think it looks like a good compromise because the shader tree is very good. Blender cycles has this totally right. It's pure nodes and very good. The problem is that cyles basically isn't finished. The old Blender internal renderer is still good. It's very fast but the problem is that this renderer has a half assed Heath Robinson concoction for materials and textures which to any new user is utterly offputting. It's just really bad as far as the UI. The rest of Blender's UI s fine though. I diagree that Blender's UI is bad, it isn't but the materials/texture part for the internal renderer is.

efflux

#14
I won't be able to try Houdini until I've hammered through Modo 901 before the demo runs out.

This is the kind of thing I hate in Modo. Piece of cake in Wings. Each process can act on individual polygons etc and their normals or whatever you want. It's all a context senitive workflow blowing away all these other modellers. There are endless long threads about trying to do things like this in Modo. You always end up at a brick wall in Modo when doing hard technical type modelling.

http://community.thefoundry.co.uk/discussion/topic.aspx?f=75&t=79149