Softimage - Modo Experience / How are you doing so far?

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forton
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Re: Softimage - Modo Experience / How are you doing so far?

Post by forton » 26 May 2015, 10:25

angus_davidson wrote:
luceric wrote:
Manticor wrote:That may not be totally correct, with fabric engine it should be a possibility.
I don't see how that would work. In order for an operator stack to work, every tool has to be aware of it and not really do its operations directly, but instead express it as a node on the operator stack. You can't mix procedural and non procedural modifications.
I have to agree with Luceric. I dont see fabric doing that at all.
You can of course link fabric operators in the right order in fabric, but a combination with native operators is much more complex I think.
Isn't there an deformer stack in modo?

forton
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Re: Softimage - Modo Experience / How are you doing so far?

Post by forton » 26 May 2015, 10:37

Has anyone here used modo's reference system for complex rigs in production?
Good referencing for rigs is vital for my workflow, that's something that seems to be missing completely in C4D.

NNois
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Re: Softimage - Modo Experience / How are you doing so far?

Post by NNois » 26 May 2015, 11:17

sirdavid32 wrote:...The software allows for powerful rigs but like SI, you need to go and tweak a lot of schematics to work the way you want:

...
Oh man did you look at the frame rate of the simple wave deformation, even if they had a x3 speedup on 901, this is pretty slow !!

Did had a look at the 901 demo video i must say nothing really changed, yeah they catch up some rendering tech, yeah they had a beautifull viewport (but untill it's a clarrise like ipr viewport it's not so important), yeah they have a rock generator ;) and a make circle who clearly deserve a 10min presentation.

I miss Foundry didn't catch the path they draw with nuke, then katana, with their DCC

Manticor
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Re: Softimage - Modo Experience / How are you doing so far?

Post by Manticor » 26 May 2015, 12:01

I also noticed on the demo 901 video that the fps for a playing skinned character went from around 6fps to 11fps ....but this is still abysmally slow .Ive tried character work with 801 and I gave up after frustration ....from what I gather from the video not much has changed in that regard...maybe OpenSubdiv might make a difference.

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Re: Softimage - Modo Experience / How are you doing so far?

Post by angus_davidson » 26 May 2015, 12:31

Manticor wrote:I also noticed on the demo 901 video that the fps for a playing skinned character went from around 6fps to 11fps ....but this is still abysmally slow .Ive tried character work with 801 and I gave up after frustration ....from what I gather from the video not much has changed in that regard...maybe OpenSubdiv might make a difference.
Also just to note the 11fps was with a host of things not included in the first one, ambient occlusion etc. Sure you can turn that off for a much bigger speedup.

Will have to see when I get my hands on it.
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SvalinnAsgard
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Re: Softimage - Modo Experience / How are you doing so far?

Post by SvalinnAsgard » 26 May 2015, 20:01

How is polygon modeling in modo compared to Softimage? Softimage is still the best polygon modeler out there, and I cannot find an alternative.

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Re: Softimage - Modo Experience / How are you doing so far?

Post by El Burritoh » 26 May 2015, 20:34

SvalinnAsgard wrote:How is polygon modeling in modo compared to Softimage? Softimage is still the best polygon modeler out there, and I cannot find an alternative.
This is going to fall into the 'your preference' category real quick. Each does some things that the other doesn't. Modo has its own black magic that comes in handy, and in the hands of someone who knows what they're doing is crazy fast and efficient. Soft still has some things that I miss and have requested even. But I sometimes model in Modo and if I had to switch today I'd have no problem with it.

Really, it's up to what you prefer. I would recommend getting familiar with UI customization, pie menus, shortcuts, and all that before making a call one way or the other though.
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NNois
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Re: Softimage - Modo Experience / How are you doing so far?

Post by NNois » 26 May 2015, 20:44

SvalinnAsgard wrote:How is polygon modeling in modo compared to Softimage? Softimage is still the best polygon modeler out there, and I cannot find an alternative.
If it helps, the experience is similar to what lightwave modeler does, but with a touch of "up to date feeling UI" but also a touch of "old fashioned" tools.

In brief on soft you use the extrude operator to solve 80% of your modeling, in modo this is more a couple of splitted tools, this is the part i don't like.
Extrude an edge is not the same tool than extruding a face, isn't the same tool than insetting and so on...

On soft i had a dream where the bevel tool were unified with the extrude tool to be a perfect workflow. On modo you can keep dreaming for one unified tool.

edit: but to be fair, i've done a toon of modeling work on modeler and somes on modo without a problem, this is just not the same.

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Re: Softimage - Modo Experience / How are you doing so far?

Post by El Burritoh » 26 May 2015, 21:22

Things I miss from Soft when I'm in Modo, modeling-wise:

- An Uber tool like Component tweak. Modo doesn't have a single uber tool that matches this
- Easy to use Relax deformer that maintains the underlying shape. The workaround in Modo is convoluted for this right now. Hope they can give a solution
- Easy to use Deform By Curve operator for modeling tasks. Modo's curve deformer is an animation thing, and not geared for modeling.
- The Create Polygon tool. Modo doesn't have this equivalent per se.

Things I miss from Modo, when I'm modeling in Soft:
- Fill Quads will patch a hole with quads (901) and even interpolate based on surrounding curvature. Way too cool.
- Grow Quads will extend an edge selection with an extra strip of quads, same length as the previous span.
- Edge Extend has a local option, which allows you to effectively duplicate a boundary edge, or the entire boundary for that matter, and move it perpepdicular to the surrounding normals if you like
- Falloffs.... XSI just doesn't have these (it's not prop modeling) and they are quite powerful.
- Action Centers are easier to use, except for the handy ctrl-click to snap the gizmo.
- Modo has sculpting tools that work on raw geo. XSI doesn't have these at all.
- Copying and pasting geo from mesh to mesh is a breeze.
- Cloning and duplication can be done more accurately than in XSI
- Modo has the Topology pen, which isn't the same as XSI's Create Polygon tool, and offers its own set of uber-modeling commands
- Capping an n-gon hole by selecting edges and pressing 'P'.
- Snapping options in 801 got completely overhauled and are now crazy cool. XSI has its own snapping options, but not like what Modo offers.
- Customizable Pie Menus. I can make any pie menu I want, even leading to other pie menus... just like custom marking menus in Maya. Really great for customized workflows.
Last edited by El Burritoh on 27 May 2015, 00:41, edited 1 time in total.
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SvalinnAsgard
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Re: Softimage - Modo Experience / How are you doing so far?

Post by SvalinnAsgard » 26 May 2015, 23:39

For myself, what makes Softimage so great for modeling is how solid the tools are--they actually work, and work well. Mostly, I use the extrude tool, add/split edge tools, add polygon tool, weld point tool, and a few others. I'm sure modo has equivalent tools, but how fluid are they to use and do they work well?

I use the tweak component tool a lot, it's a shame modo doesn't have something like it.

Being able to bind pretty much anything to a hotkey in Softimage is also great. For example I can symmetrify a model, merge selected meshes, detach a component, all with a single keypress.

Having used both Max and Maya in the past, neither of them come close. I suppose modo 901 might be worth a try.

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Re: Softimage - Modo Experience / How are you doing so far?

Post by El Burritoh » 26 May 2015, 23:55

I know what you mean. Having modeled in Modo and XSI for years now, I have a different perspective and just as high a level of confidence modeling in one as the other. But again, you need to get familiar with Modo's customization options too, just like you did with XSI. You can streamline the mess out of things.
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sirdavid32
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Re: Softimage - Modo Experience / How are you doing so far?

Post by sirdavid32 » 27 May 2015, 00:14

Character animation should be done as in Xsi 6.0. With LOTS of proxy / ultra low / basic geo. Then switch for hi res. I know...nothing like working directly like SI, but that´s what they give right now.

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Mathaeus
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Re: Softimage - Modo Experience / How are you doing so far?

Post by Mathaeus » 27 May 2015, 12:14

Ok, my story :)

Got Modo 601 2012, mainly I was impressed by renderer, didn't know literally anything about this software.
Used it few times for things like product shots, single object with simple animation for later comp in TV commercials. Worked well for that, renderer was a really nice refresh, compared to Mental Ray. I've used imported models.
I'm not freelancer, just wanted to have some, preferably affordable, commercial software at home.
For all the rest, after few month of learning, somehow just jumped one step further, to improving my knowledge of Blender. For me, Modo was a strange mix of missing features and unbelievable 'over - detailing' of existing ones. Had hard time, just to get the desired selection sequence via tool pipe, found two separate commands for zoom selected component and zoom selected object. Four or five or more types of groups, and so on and so on. But no lattice operator. OK, lattice comes later in 801 I think, but become 'reserved' for animation, in workflow suggested by Modo.
In short, quite opposite to Max or SI, where I've learned to learn only the functionality, while workflow, how I'll use something, for modeling, animation, helper for baking textures or anything else, this is exclusively my choice. This Modo's 'focused' workflow makes me suspicious about all new features in 901, 1001 or else.
Anyway, around 2012 - 2013, Modo - Blender mix was a winner in my 'affordable for home' category. Today, when it's possible to get the 'Dream Team' , Maya LT and Houdini Indie for yearly price of good old XSI Foundation, there is no doubt where I'll see the future. Will not update to Modo 901, I'm pretty sure.
Also hate to say, at least where I live, didn't noticed dedicated Modo users in three years, while in category, there is a moderate growing of C4d and, especially, Blender.

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Re: Softimage - Modo Experience / How are you doing so far?

Post by El Burritoh » 28 May 2015, 05:18

So here are some plugins I made during the 901 beta. A couple are experimental, but stable and usable. All 3 are PySide-based.

LightBank

Image


Project Manager

Image



Popups

Image
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Daniel Brassard
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Re: Softimage - Modo Experience / How are you doing so far?

Post by Daniel Brassard » 28 May 2015, 17:40

Could not resist .... :))
Attachments
popupgetItemSchematic_gag.jpg
$ifndef "Softimage"
set "Softimage" "true"
$endif

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Re: Softimage - Modo Experience / How are you doing so far?

Post by El Burritoh » 28 May 2015, 17:47

Hey, Falloffs are way cool! :D
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