Thanks cekuhnen, I will give it a try when I get a chance!
It looks like a more premium and refined version of blender to be honest, not worth the cost though!
Some designer love it, other hate it, don’t hate at all (but some worse workflow design hurt me), but I think it don’t worth the money.
Anyway I hear the price rise up to 1800 $ (801 is 1400 $), only rumours?
At the moment I’m more impressed by maya 2016 update than 901 release.
Of course you are as you saw full update of Maya and 10% (or less) of MODO … I mean …
Where you read is only 10% (or less) new features showed?
Anyway I wrote “at the moment”
I agree with you about the money part. The cost of these kinds of applications is astounding, but I guess when some end up making their money back quite fast via projects… then it makes sense. Preferably I would like Modo, Maya…ect to be in the Zbrush pricing range, $600-700 tops. That wont happen though.
Anyways… the prices have been this so far:
modo 501 = $995 ($1000)
modo 601 = $1195 ($1200) +$200
MODO 701 = $1495 ($1500) +$300
MODO 801 = $1495 ($1500)
MODO 901 = $1799 ($1800) +$300
Users have been expressing some fears as to how far they are going to push it. Thankfully upgrade prices have not gone up, so its still $500 for an upgrade, which is still quite a lot. There are also the sales they do with up to 45% off.
As for the 901 update… vs Maya 2016. Maya let their cat out of the bag already, Modo gave only a peek. License holders have access to their direct connect forum, which you should be able to check out. There’s some good stuff in there. Now if thats just the tip of the iceberg as they say, then we are in for a lot of features (they estimate over 100 new features in fact)… or they are just over hyping. One way to find out.
Also with Maya, its up to $3675… so still around double the price point, so even if it were more impressive, the con is the cost is still high.
As a professional making a living and money from the software you use it is pretty cheap compared to max, maya, c4D.
For the hobbyist there is the more reasonably priced indie version for $299 which is more or less full featured. In the attached link you can compare full modo to indie version.
Thats true - but to be honest I rather would have like them to break things down like C4D with different modules if you dont need them.
They kind of do that (not entirely, not in the same way). For example plugins and kits can be purchased on top of Modo proper, which then have added features for specific markets. Its kind of a joint effort between a third party and luxology. Mesh Fusion was one of them, but now its added as a normal feature.
Part of me wants to agree, just give me the stuff I need and not have to pay for the stuff I dont. But at the end of the day, the best software exist in one complete version, which clearly puts a load off of the devs shoulders as well. The most they did was offer an Indie version with commercial viability, so there’s that. How it evolves from here is anyone’s guess, but having a near full featured application for $300 while the non indie is $1500 (soon to be $1800 with 901), is a fairly competitive option instead of just a module.
Time ago I posted a comment about MODO (it was Modo then) rising prices, about the effects that the move to The Foundry would have and about frogs… the “pond” is starting to feel like a finnish sauna, doesn’t it? <sumg grin a-la Jabba the Hutt>.
I would totally buy the modo indi version if it had mesh fusion in it.
Or if there was at least an option to use Modo indie with Meshfusion.
Completely agree with that concern. I never was a big fan of the Foundry (before modo acquisition), and still not the biggest fan after. They got a bit of a free pass because Luxology’s Brad Peebler got a high ranking position out of it and the Modo user’s hoped it would change radically change the company. Technically thats exactly what happened but at the same time it didnt mix well either. The Foundry has a bad habit of thinking too highly of itself and its worth. Why Mari cost over $2000 is beyond me… its not really a great or even modern feeling texturing application. So anyways, their effect or outlook on Modo definitely results in natural concern. To be completely fair though, the prices have been going up with out the Foundry involvement as well… I just didnt think it would be that fast before they tried reaching past the $1500 mark. If anything, you would think they would have stayed competitive with the current offerings outside of autodesk.
There is definitely no way to use Mesh Fusion with Indie as it stands now. The 901 update is planned to hit Indie after a few service packs come out (silly if you ask me, they should just launch at the same time). They still seem to fear Indie will cannibalize Modo proper sales so theres a chance we wont see MF in Indie IF they think thats the magic required to get people to hop on up to the non indie version. I know there are some in the Foundry though who will want to see Fusion in Indie as well. So there’s no way of knowing. Either way you cant export over 100k so at most you could bake out the details from a fusion mesh or render within Modo.
Mesh Fusion is a big hit. It’s mind blowing. It’s a great time saver for Hard Surface Modeler. I started experimenting a workflow using blender with zBrush Dynamesh bool operations . And it works fine, but not perfect. MODO 901’s mesh fusion seems to be an ultimate upgrade of this kind of “Machinery” workflow. But to be honest, Mesh Fusion would be probably the only reason I even consider using MODO. Because everything else is being generously offered by blender, maybe not as specialized and powerful, but better and easier to use.
And, if we put aside the performance part of problems, one of the most useful feature of Mesh Fusion, the Boolean Edge Bevel’s concept is very simple. It creates an “I-curve” loop around the intersection, and this loop is the hard edge after the normal boolean operation, so if we cut off the edge section based through a radius(or something else) around the I curve, we can profile bridge the two cut-loop with some kind of algorithm. it is the concept, cut and bridge. That’s why I think Mesh Fusion names it as Stripe. Because it is actually a stripe, a stripe that bridges the after-cut A and B mesh. It’s a very common feature for any curve modelling or CAD modelling software, like Rhinoceros and Solidworks. Usually it’s called Sweep.
The other very, very useful feature of mesh fusion, that you can manipulate them on the go, in real time. Well I think that part is just invaluable. And the algorithm and technology behind it must be butt hurting to understand. And it maybe worth every person on the planet of $1500 dollars, really what is wrong with these prices. Poor individual person just don’t deserve to use their full-feature, eh? Money suckers. Do they have monthly sub thou?
What I hope is simply an improvement on the current Bevel tool. Like the edge split, if I we can add using mark sharp inside the bevel modifier, it would help. And maybe let the bevel work across multiple polygons <-- I know this is the hard part, so that it would work even after boolean operations. The topology doesn’t have to be clean, as long as it look ok in flat shading… That’s all I wish to come true.
I am having a hard time picturing this. Do you have a pointer to a video demonstrating this?
What I hope is simply an improvement on the current Bevel tool. Like the edge split, if I we can add using mark sharp inside the bevel modifier, it would help. And maybe let the bevel work across multiple polygons <– I know this is the hard part, so that it would work even after boolean operations. The topology doesn’t have to be clean, as long as it look ok in flat shading… That’s all I wish to come true.
Please elaborate. I am the current Bevel tool developer. What do you want mark sharp to do? Set the profile shape to 1? (And I know that the profile=1 case doesn’t always work and needs improvement). Or something else?
And again I am having a hard time picturing what you mean by having it work across multiple polygons. Do you mean that as part of a boolean union, a “bevel” gets added between the meeting faces? A picture here would help.
Just an update to the 901 stuff. Those who have access to the hidden direct connect section of the foundry forums have been getting some more sneaks of whats going into 901. Without going into detail, when the info is publicly announced it should excite quite a few people, probably not as much for game dev though.
On that note, it’s also come to my attention that VR Focus (Fabric Engine) has partnered with the Foundry for Modo Integration.
This is pretty big news in my opinion, here’s the details:
http://fabricengine.com/2015/05/fabric-at-fmx-2015/
http://vrfocus.com/archives/14679/fabric-engine-partners-foundry-modo-integration/
And generic trailer:
Whats also neat is that they have been testing out integration with the Unreal Engine’s Blueprint system. So between that and Modo, some good possibilities are opening up which are really helping to shape the software’s future.
Now we know who bought a majority take in the Foundry.
http://www.thefoundry.co.uk/about-us/news-awards/the-foundry-announces-new-investment-from-hgcapital/
HgCapital, a group known for investing in European Software.
Additionally the big 901 reveal event is TOMORROW. Its going to be 4 hours long with segments on future direction, what’s in 901 (some big changes and features promised) followed by a demo of those features and then user demos from established artist/studios.
Registration: https://www.thefoundry.co.uk/events/live/modo901/
I’ve been saying before to the segment of users who think Blender is nothing more than a headache to use and feels like it robs them of sanity (yet still use it). Grab a license of Modo and enjoy endless bliss away from the land of FOSS (As SaintHaven has done). Modo should be able to take of all your needs now from now on.
Of course with the Fabric engine now in play for the commercial solutions, the BF may end up having an uphill battle if they don’t want to see the complete erasing of progress in increasing the relevancy of Blender (because of the fact is it’s technically impossible for FOSS to keep up with a smartly developed commercial app. that sends a lot of resources into R&D, simply because even the BF has perhaps just 1 percent of the resources that The Foundry has).
The Foundry imo changes its owners a bit too often for my taste and makes
one realise that choosing Blender for certain tasks was and is the right future
safe decision to do unless you love the thrill of uncertainty and gruesome
news which where floating around the last couple months about who
might buy The Foundry.
nevertheless watching what Modo gets as new features is highly interesting.
The only two things I could see The Foundry doing that would give an advantage to Blender is…
1). Raise the licensing fee to the point where it prices out everyone other than wealthy professionals
2). The Foundry starts to rest on its laurels and neglects the software development aspect
Blender would always have the price advantage, but when it comes to having a general functionality advantage, it’s in part a game of how many resources you have available for development. The math states that it’s almost unheard of for FOSS to get development resources to rival the corporations (unless there is a large corporation backing the project), so a commercial vendor that spends millions on actual development will always have the superior (though expensive) solution.
Truth be told, Blender is already very competent at getting the job done for my needs so I have no need to really look at switching (if it’s possible to do projects without spending a dime, I go for it).
The only things that are better in modo are meshfusion, procedural textures and the handling of cad data. Thats what i think about modo. PBR rendering is also a point where blender needs to be improved i think and in best case node based (blender internal render things).
Not worth to spend that amount of money to other 3d companys because everything can be done in blender too. It is better to support blender as much as you can. By the way much more Help and tutorials and great guys who try to help if you run into problems with blender. For sure we need more time to do things but better than paying a lot of money for crazy things blender can do out of the box with some addons and blender has much much much more features than modo max and every other 3D software… just in my opinion… And thats is why I love blender… great developing… great community…wish I had more money to support blender…edit: and all that guys who are doing that great scripts and addons… amazing work and all I can do is to say “thanks”…
cheers