Something special about Modo

[ivan louette]

As you see on this part of the image it seems that this subdivision surface system can handle polys with more than 4 sides (which is the limit in LW). And if you take a look at the file format slider in the interface on the different screenshots, you will see that this possibility is linked with a new one called ".nxs". Otherwise on some screenshots you will see that Modo can also handle ".lwo" file format with objects composed of 3 to 4 sides polys only.

Interesting !!!

ivan

My mini-tutorials
botarosa

[ivan louette]

As you see on this part of the image it seems that this subdivision surface system can handle polys with more than 4 sides (which is the limit in LW). And if you take a look at the file format slider in the interface on the different screenshots, you will see that this possibility is linked with a new one called ".nxs". Otherwise on some screenshots you will see that Modo can also handle ".lwo" file format with objects composed of 3 to 4 sides polys only.

Interesting !!!

ivan

My mini-tutorials
botarosa

[s.winders]

Ya it is Ivan


I was just thinking unless the Modo guys own the patents to most of their LW toolset themselves then unless they have bought/leased that toolset of LW they wont be able to/allowed to include old LW technology,so it will be all new.....hmmm.


Stu.

[gidgit]

yea, ngon support, very cool Ivan, and yea it may just be all new stuff, though I dunno for sure on this Stu... these guys have been around since the good ole days of the Amiga eh, so they may have retained rights which are not seen these days... who knows...

All I knows for sure is I can hardly wait eh... Like Wings with widgits... ooooh, very cool

[bmh216]

Or, like Wings with a healthy price tag. I'm not sure what transpired between Luxology and Newtek (hell, you could read about it for hours and still not have a clue), but I do understand that Luxology founders Alan & Stuart left Newtek over money issues. In other words, don't expect Modo to be cheap! Just think about that name: Modo. Hmmm, could it mean "More Dough" as in more money for the programmers that created it? All speculation, I know...

Anyways, the LW toolset seems to be almost entirely intact in Modo. I have seen the screenshots: they have "bandsaw", "smooth shift", "spikey", etc.-- All LW tools. They coded the original, and they definitely seem to own the intellectual property to use as they see fit. Even the viewport buttons are exactly the same as LW Modeler.

Since LW Modeler is widely considered the strongest poly-only modeler available, and they invented it, it seems they can only improve on it (edge support, n-gons, etc.).

Should be an interesting competetion for LW, provided their business model allows them to stay in business. I'm not sure how many animation houses are interested in a new modeler, although some lay out the $$$ for LW and pay for a complete package only to use the modeler, so that may be where their market is.

Hoping my beloved LW survives this storm of new modelers!

Brett

[gidgit]

I think where Modo comes in is say you have a studio and you hire an artist who works on StudioMax or Maya or whatever and many others in said studio work with LW... no biggie, a flick of the switch and voila... Max enviro... this way they can hire based upon skill as in apposed to app preference... Total bonus for all companies looking for such flexability eh

Price ? hmmm, that's one of the big questions yet to be answered for sure Brett.

[bmh216]

I wonder though: will it have the tools of Maya, 3DSMax, etc., or will it just be able to conform to the look? I mean, the modelling workflow in LW is far and away different than that of Max or Maya by any means, and the tools all have differing names and functions. Maya and Max have NURBS. LW and Modo don't. LW's extrude doesn't do what a Maya or Max user would expect (our SmoothShift is more like the traditional extrude).

So what is really gained? The look of the app the new hiree is used to? I'm not sure you can sell a studio on "hey, we can make it look like Max, so you can hire Max guys or use the ones you already employ".

Not trying to dig on Modo, I'm just not sure that the fact that it can emulate the look of different apps means it can emulate the workflow.

In short, it needs to revolutionize the modelling workflow so that people won't say "hey, it works like Maya if I want it to", they'll say "hey, Maya sucks compared to this, I'm going to buy this, and implement it into my pipeline."

Food for thought....

Brett

[s.winders]

I thought LW had ngons?



I wonder if it might be a very expensive plugin in the end..



Stu.

[bmh216]

Stu,
No, Lightwave has no support for subdivision of faces of more than 4 points. I know it seems a bit archaic, but most "proper" models should be constructed of quads anyway, as render engines convert everything into triangles during the render (quads divide nicely into tris--ngons don't always, therefore you can get smoothing errors and pinching of the model). If you read Maya or Max modelling tutorials, you'll note that alot of them emphasize the use of primarily quads, except where they might not be noticed (behind ears, under hair, etc.)

I do think Modo will be a bit more than an expensive plugin, however. We have longed for edge support for a long time, for instance, and it's not easily integrated into the base code of LW Modeler. I do some work in Wings3D just because for certain models, it's difficult to do without edge support. It must be remembered, however, that Lightwave is used extensively in high-end modelling, for games, movies, etc. Its' modeling workflow is incredibly fast in the right hands (although that could apply to any app) and studios like things done NOW. With the resources available on the Final Fantasy film, they still modelled the human characters in Lightwave--giving you an idea of what Alan and Stuart were able to code when they wrote LW Modeler. I think it's a no-brainer that they will be able to surpass their original design. I suppose I just question whether or not they'll find a willing market.

Brett