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Modo 201 Released!!!


CHE
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CHE

I am going freelance in the near future and looking for a cost effective (read cheap) alternative to viz. I see that there are some architecture modelling scripts avaliable for modo too. Is modo a viable alternative to viz?

I am hoping to modo with vray stand-alone which (hopefully) be released soon with 1.5.

Thanks Geoff

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Geoff

I'm about to buy Modo. It is the best modeller I've used and it now has its own, really impressive, render engine.

I haven't experienced the renderer yet but it looks amazing, even without animation capabilities.

 

Modo really does look like the future. I'm a LightWave user so I find it a little sad what happened there (ie all the great LW development guys starting up Luxology to create Modo) but I couldn't be too sentimental about something like software.

 

On the negative side, all I'd say is a huge amount of modo's appeal lies in organic (but accurate) modelling and painting but it's poly modelling is fantastic too. I wouldn't call it cheap either but you get what you pay for.

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After reading your post I got interested and went and checked out the news artical on it.

 

This program looks absolutely fantastic, talk about a revolution! It really will turn things on its head and force other developers to get their finger out. The ability to paint the textures on in a sort of piranesi fashion will make photorealistic texturing a hop skip and a jump away from the model itself. I have to say I'm really excited about modo.

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£372 for modo + £71 for architecture scripts = £443

compared to £1500 for viz = cheap to me (at a third of the cost)

 

didn't realise it was made by LW peeps

Hopefully those scripts will help modeling architecture

My other shortlisted alternatives are rhino (£611) and sketchup (£341)

 

Thanks Ian for the info. can't wait to see what you can do in it!

Geoff

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Hhmmm that is cheap. Last time I looked at the pricing it was something like $900 and it had no renderer.

That takes away any nerves I had about asking the firm to buy it!

What retailer are you looking at?

 

By the way, best of luck with going freelance Geoff. Are you specialising or doing general arch viz?

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I looked on the modo website for the price, not looked for a UK reseller yet...

 

Ian I'm not freelance yet...still a full time draughtman

freelance is where I seem to be heading though mainly arch vis

Just got seamless flow from 1 freelance job to another for the 1st time today!

woo hoo

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Geoff,

 

I am relative new to Modo. I got it at the beginning of the year. I have not had the opportunity to use it in production yet but I have been following its development very closely and I got to say that Modo is revolutionizing the way CG artists work. It is definitively the most flexible tool out there right now. I like the fact that there is the open communication between users and developers. Luxology actually listen to its customers and that is very important to me. Modo 301 will have animation capabilities. However, there are users that have been talking about coding scripts to allow simple camera animation for 201. Now, there are some things that need to be improved like its snap system for example. It wasn't developed with cgarchitects in mind. There are ways to get some very use functionality out of it but do not expect to have the same level of control than in Sketch Up for instance. Also, it doesn't import .dwg files. You have to export your CAD info to .dxf or you could buy AccuTrans to convert your files.

I say, go ahead and download the demo and judge Modo for you. See if it would work for you.

 

I got the archvisuals scripts. Neil Hayes is doing a wonderful job with his scripts. He is planning to continue developing new tools for architectural visualization. There are a lot more web sites with scripts and resources for Modo and I can only expect it to grow.

 

I am planning to run some tests over the weekend so I will post some images on Monday or so (hopefully we will have a forum by then right Jeff? ;)). In the meantime make sure to check this links:

 

 

http://www.archvisuals.co.uk/

http://www.vertexmonkey.com/

http://forums.luxology.com/discussion/topic.aspx?id=6214&show=architectural

http://forums.luxology.com/discussion/topic.aspx?id=6006&show=architectural

http://forums.luxology.com/discussion/topic.aspx?id=4473&show=architectural

http://forums.luxology.com/discussion/topic.aspx?id=3739&show=architectural

http://forums.luxology.com/discussion/topic.aspx?id=2983&show=Ham

http://forums.luxology.com/discussion/topic.aspx?id=2913&show=Ham

http://forums.luxology.com/discussion/topic.aspx?id=2264&show=vray

http://forums.luxology.com/discussion/topic.aspx?id=2244&show=vray

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Ok, here is my first try at Modo 201. I have not had time to read the manual yet nor to watch the 1GB worth of video tutorials that Luxology released. I'll try to render something more "photorealistic" over the weekend. The building was modeled in Sketch Up.

Dual Xeon 3.0GHZ 2GB RAM Render time 13min at 1500 pixels

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Nice first attempt CHE. wda have you done any rendering with 201? Just wondering if there is a need for a back up renderer at the moment.

 

I've put my purchase request in today. I'm happy to use it alongside LW untill it's 100% production ready.

 

Lets start a modo revolution. All the posts in the Finished Work and WIP sections could now be called 'modo lounge' and 'first modo interior'.

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They improved the snap system (snap to grid makes sense now). However, it is still not 100% cgarchitect friendly but I still have a lot to learn so it might be just me :p.

 

Welcome aboard Iain. Modo 201 is production ready for stills and it also has the capability to render turntable camera animations. We need a forum!!!!

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I was browsing the Luxology forums and have to say I am quite impressed. The modeling features I was already aware of, but those renderings and shading capabilities knocked my socks off! What's that displacement? Gee... I also heard some good things about archvis on modo. I guess this is one app we definetly must keep an eye on.

Btw, how is the render engine going? Is it as fast/good as they say?

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this is exciting news indeed. ive read rave reviews about its modelling capabilities, now it has its own rendering engine, and will have animation capabilities (as mentioned in this thread) in the future, all for a price similar to that "other" popular render engine. ....soon i will be free from the clutches of big brother A. ....hehe...

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but, have any one of you (who's already got modo) had any success in importing cad files (dxf)???

 

If so, I wonder if you could help me.

- 2d cad drawing put all in one layer, exploded, ungrouped in vectorworks. exported to dxf 12 (text and/or binary) (also tried 2000)

- Open modo and open the dxf file.

I can see in the item list the file xyz.dxf is now xyz.lxo

But in statistics, I don't see any vertices nor polygons. the screen is blank.

 

Am I missing something???

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