Modo 701 around the corner

[adrencg]

Today's big webinar we all waited a month for was a nuclear level bust. Cisco botched it big time.

[SreckoM]

Yup, I manage to get into. Can wait to grab Linux version.

Here is more info http://www.luxology.com/modo/701/tour/

[origin]

Thats is the way software should evolve
although this over confident guy speaking is annoying as hell, I assume level of fanboyism among modo users is on par with LW/blender community

[Nizar]

Thats is the way software should evolve
although this over confident guy speaking is annoying as hell, I assume level of fanboyism among modo users is on par with LW/blender community

You are right (many modo users are ex LW or actual LW users). No one, in any case, can beat blender fanboys

[Letterbox]

nice!

ICE challenge? ;)

3 YEARS AGO...
https://vimeo.com/8301014

Time to un-hibernate and smell the coffee Rob ;)

Yep, except that in Modo as far as I can see you click 3 buttons to do that. I dont think Stephan Woermann clicked just 2 buttons to achieve that in ICE.

I'm appalled that you comment mainly based on the count the number of clicks. Seriously, if we ever use that as a basis of judgement of quality of software, all there be is cookie-cutter next-next-next crap.

He (Stephan) did 3 years ago what Luxology have done today, is called "development".

One big difference he did it, at his time and expense, then gave it to the community free. And he, if you care to take the time to look, created a whole set of videos showing the process, progress and work flows.

Show some respect for the very people over the years that have kept softimage alive, and ahead of the game, irrespective of AD's poor marketing, and to all those that have done it at their own time and expense.

Because without those people Softimage probably wouldn't exist.

[Mathaeus]

Thats is the way software should evolve
although this over confident guy speaking is annoying as hell, I assume level of fanboyism among modo users is on par with LW/blender community

Afaik the level of fanboyism isn't that high, but yes - this is a Lightwave style propaganda. Highly counter-productive, imho. At the end of the day, user has to try every single feature, nobody actually knows what's true, of all that.

[SreckoM]

Isn't that like with every app marketing? Can you name one where it is different?

[Nizar]

Isn't that like with every app marketing? Can you name one where it is different?

autodesk softimage?

[Mathaeus]

Isn't that like with every app marketing? Can you name one where it is different?

3d Studio Max, maybe not in first versions, when all advertising was focused against high-end software of this time - that is, Softimage 3d and Alias. If I'm correct, no one Max sample is created outside of Max, the don't use external renderers in advertising, so on.

[wireframex]

Well, I saw all the video about modo 701 and it didn't really convince me.

It seems some of the videos were done in a hurry with strange fast preview effect ...

I never liked the shader/texturing modo system I far prefer the Softimage Render Tree.

Phil

[Pancho]

Modo is really a great app. New, powerful and with a great future if it continues like that.

But currently Modo is nowhere near to be in competition with SI. Just to make a point for everybody who thinks Modo is an alternative to SI. It isn't. LW currently is still more powerful than Modo, but nobody would consider LW an alternative to SI.

Modo just got one of the nicest workflows at present and a great renderer.

[Greg]

I don't think modo is going to be challenging ICE anytime soon for VFX work (or ever, for that matter)...unless The Foundry really decides to put it's time and money in that direction. However, they are rounding out the package nicely and as somebody who has always had to jump over to Maya to do particles it's nice to have such a flexible system inside of modo. There's a lot of modo+SI users out there, I don't think there's probably a lot of SI users just plain old switching over to modo though. But, there's a good present and future for interoperability between the packages, alembic support + Eric Mootz doing modo plugins now. modo is a good companion program - it's nice not to have to jump around to sculpt or paint and even though some people obviously hate the shader tree (I actually prefer it for the most part) it's hard not to imagine some sort of nodal shading in modo's future with all the work being put into the new schematic, node based rigging, dynamics and particles. It's a good release, modo is a lot of fun. In an industry that's become fairly stagnent, modo can still bring some life to the party (I remember when ICE was released and it was 'sooooo cooool'....those feelings are getting fewer and farther between).

-Greg

[TwinSnakes007]

Even with 701, they still are clinging to that darn shading tree. You've of thought The Foundary would've just given them some nodal code from Nuke or something.

If tree's are so great, then why didnt they use them for their new Particle system? Well..because tree's generally suck.

It must just be me, but Modo's GUI looks like the NASA space shuttle, there are just sooooo many options to configure.

[Maximus]

I'm appalled that you comment mainly based on the count the number of clicks. Seriously, if we ever use that as a basis of judgement of quality of software, all there be is cookie-cutter next-next-next crap.

He (Stephan) did 3 years ago what Luxology have done today, is called "development".

One big difference he did it, at his time and expense, then gave it to the community free. And he, if you care to take the time to look, created a whole set of videos showing the process, progress and work flows.

Show some respect for the very people over the years that have kept softimage alive, and ahead of the game, irrespective of AD's poor marketing, and to all those that have done it at their own time and expense.

Because without those people Softimage probably wouldn't exist.

I'm quite tired of people like you who always point out to show some respect here and there. Where do i miss to show respect? Why are you even talking about respect?
You pointed out Modo development compared to Softimage (which is quite pointless to compare because apple and oranges, despite the fact that they are completely different packages so no idea what you wanted to prove with "we got that 3 years ago"). I pointed out that Modo way to do that particular task is more appealing, easy to use, doesnt require a TD, doesnt require immense skill on ICE, and its a fast way to setup a simple thing.

Also I have no idea why you took my words as an offense or disrespect. Where did I insult Stephen? I only pointed out that he has the skill and the knowledge to achieve that in ICE while normal people dont. Thats why Modo to me is better in that particular task. You totally got it wrong, chill man.

Show some respect to me. Thanks.

[angus_davidson]

Even with 701, they still are clinging to that darn shading tree. You've of thought The Foundary would've just given them some nodal code from Nuke or something.

If tree's are so great, then why didnt they use them for their new Particle system? Well..because tree's generally suck.

It must just be me, but Modo's GUI looks like the NASA space shuttle, there are just sooooo many options to configure.

Just give it a bit more time. The relationship with the foundry is pretty new development wise. I am assuming they were a bit far along in implementing all of the requested features to change something as fundamental as that. If they keep up their good record of listening to their subscribers it shouldn't be too long before its at least an option.

[El Burritoh]

Just wanted to chime in...

To the comments about modo not being as powerful as SI... Well sure, but it also kinda depends on what you're doing. A product's usefulness has to be measured against the tasks you need to do. Clearly, modo is not ready to handle all the stages of the pipeline to the degree that Soft can handle them. But it can handle several of them, and some it couldn't handle 2-3 years ago. That's a gap Luxology is obviously trying to close. Plenty of room to grow, still, but they're coding like madmen.

The layered shading is unpopular, but I think people see a tree view and miss the fact that modo's shading is global across the entire scene. Soft's shading is local to each material. Modo's is global. Which means you can build some interesting relationships between materials, or quickly override certain materials. In fact, you're not really shading surfaces per se. You're applying materials to the entire scene, but 'masking' them off to only affect certain faces or items. That's a different way of doing things, and it opens up some really cool options that Softimage just can't deliver. But sadly, that gets lost very quickly when people see a layered tree view. I'm REALLY hoping they can implement a nodal system, but again, it would have to be a nodal system that can allow global access to the scene's shading.

The Foundry merger is indeed very early, and I expect great things from it. These are two companies that command a ton of respect, and consistently score at or near the top in terms of customer satisfaction. They care, they listen, and they have capital (at least I think they do...). There's a lot of forward progress going on, by two passionate companies.