Hexagon

[Tirade]

A shameless plug for my favorite modeler.

I posted this one on the Eovia forums (makers of Hex). One of their marketing team replied that he liked it and wants to use it. So I'm pretty jazzed about that.

Another quick render of the knife itself at a different angle, for those that care to see it.

Hexagon+Carrara+Xara

Thanks for letting me share.

~Liam~

[Soquili]

Hi Liam,

Great looking model you have there. Thanks for sharing.

[Grafixman]

Agreed, pretty keen modelling job.
I'm a bit of a Wings diehard, though, and Hexagon has been mentioned in the Wings forum, too. Seems like a good tool to have, much like your Swiss army knife . Just wondering, have you ever used Wings? How would it compare to Hexagon (on the box modelling side, since it's all that Wings can handle, but very well, imo)? Things like mirror modelling, tweaking, etc?
Also, does Carrara do Raytracing or HDR lighting? The chrome parts could be a bit more reflective. Not being picky. Just personal observations...
Cool work.

[mykyl1966]

Carrara has been able to use hdr lighting since version 3. In the current version it has ambient occlusion and all sorts of fancy stuff.

Mirror modelling and tweaking etc are all there in Hexagon. Uv Mapping still needs work in my opinion though.

cheers

Mike R

[Tirade]

Thank you much for the comments.

Graphixman,

The actual renderer in Carrara is quit fantastic. I do not do it justice. I enjoy the modeling and adding 2D anywhere I can, part of the project. I do not enjoy the rendering side of it, though. Subsequently, this is definitly the weak point of my skills.

I have dabbled in Wings and Blender a little. I'm much more familiar with Silo for comparison reasons. But I'll see what I can remember.

Hexagon does not have a mirror tool. It has a symmetry tool. It's a bit different. Some ways good, some ways bad. The biggest negitive is that your center seam is not joined or "snapping". In other words, you can easily cause a split in the seam or cause the edges to cross paths in an unwanted way.

A mirror tool is supposedly slated for the next version. Two other tools that you may miss coming from Wings is the Crease and Flatten tools. Again, both being looked at for the next version.

In my mind, Silo and Wings is better suited for box modeling human, monster, animal, ect. like things. Where as Hexagon would be the tool of choice for anything else such as things around the house, swiss army knife, ect.

The tools in Hexagon are just too great to pass up for this. I wouldn't even know were to begin for making the cork screw in Silo or say an old coiled up telephone cord.

Dug this image up. If I remember right, I made this while learning Wings. Rendered in Carrara 3. It has a little bit better chrome so you can see more what Carrara can do. It's even better in version 5 of course.

Hope that helps.

~Liam~

[gidgit]

Tirade... very nice worx you have shown us here... super on getting the knife to Eovia's attention.

GM...
If you can get a student deal for Carrara 5 I would say go for it... otherwise perhaps wait for another version or so... my problem endorsing Carrara has always been one of where I had to decide whether or not I was supporting a company which knew where they were going with the modeling tools, and UI, or not... and to this day I still am not quite sure... though I think they are moving in the right direction for sure... loving the new widgits...

...All said and done.... they sure make a mighty fine renderer, so fine infact, that yea, later on this spring I will be upgrading to the latest Carrara

[mykyl1966]

I think you will get contradictory replies from just about everyone. lol. Best idea is head over to eovia.com and download both demos for your self and give em a try.

Cheers

Mike R

[gidgit]

um... contradictory??? I would like to contradict that

Great rendering, nice new uI ... modeling tools need work...

Tell you what...just place a cube within and count the moves to completing a model... then do the same in Silo, Wings3d etc...

[mykyl1966]

Actually I was replying to the post listed in my email. I see you edited your post now.

Cheers

Mike R

[gidgit]

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