Modo 601, Lightwave 11

Community Forums/Developer Stations/Modo 601, Lightwave 11

AdamRedwoods(Posted 2012) [#1]
Wow, just after Lightwave 11 was released, Luxology goes and releases a stunning update to Modo.


I may be looking into Modo601 now.
http://www.luxology.com/modo/601/tour/index.aspx

Zbrush 4r3 is also out:
http://www.pixologic.com/zbrush/features/ZBrush4R3/

Lightwave 11
http://www.newtek.com/lw11-featuresvideo


therevills(Posted 2012) [#2]
Looks good... but the costs are way out of my budget :(

Modo601: $1,195.00

ZBrush: $699

Lightwave 11: $1,495


MadJack(Posted 2012) [#3]
Adam

Have just gone the LW11 route. I am aware the Modo team are ex-Newtek guys striking out with their own software. However I went with what I know (and which integrates with Visual Nature Studio). Still, Newtek are going to have to lift their game if they're not going to be outdone by the Modo team...

Just going by the features list, much of what Modo offers is available in LW, however they seem to have a much friendlier interface. LW is pretty stodgy and old-fashioned interface wise.

Last edited 2012


MadJack(Posted 2012) [#4]
Looks like Lightwave 11.5 will have a new character rigging system, 'Genoma'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfut_KXamKw

About time. I've been trying to get my head around basic character rigging this last month using LW's skelegons and it just seems overly complicated and finicky. The ability to apply pre-made rigs in an intuitive fashion would be most welcome.


scribbla(Posted 2012) [#5]
looks interesting, skelegons has always been a bit hit n miss with pitch handles

i still havnt found the time to try out the new modo rigging yet


AdamRedwoods(Posted 2012) [#6]
Genoma is a great idea, i'll have to see how it works in practice.


MadJack(Posted 2012) [#7]
Here's my workflow for boned animated meshes to B3d;
1, setup animation in lightwave layout
2, export to fbx
3, import into Unwrap3d
4, export as B3d

This exports the animation ok, however Unwrap doesn't pick up multi layer textured surfaces. As my models typically include an additive texture, I then have to manually re-add those textures each time I tweak and re-export from Lightwave - which is a pain in the ass.

Thing is, for animated models, the only utility I've found that won't destroy the animation from a B3d, is Terrabit's old B3dtweak! (Hurrah for Terrabit!)

It's not so bad for static models as I can re-import into Giles and as Giles recognises surfaces, it simply reapplies to the re-imported model. This allows me to rapidly iterate and try different things.

Can anyone suggest any other utilities that allow me to tweak surfaces on boned B3d models?


RemiD(Posted 2012) [#8]

Can anyone suggest any other utilities that allow me to tweak surfaces on boned B3d models?


I don't what you mean by "to tweak surfaces", if it is to change their name and properties (diffuse, ambient, specular, emissive, shininess, alpha, ...), then Fragmotion 1.2.0b can do that and it has a clean import and a clean export of .b3d, (except for the groups).

Last edited 2012


MadJack(Posted 2012) [#9]
Have just had a look at Fragmotion. Useful for animation tweaking, but a bit obtuse when it comes to changing surface flags etc. Way too much nested information etc.. I couldn't for the life of me see how to set a lightmap to the second UV set.

Also preview doesn't seem to show multi-texture layers particularly well.