even though im afraid of sounding ignorant, here goes ,)
i just “discovered” ZBrush (yesterday hehe) and it seems amazing…
now i find a program called Modo, and i sounds like the same ?
Is it the “same” program or am i just not getting the point ?
if not, whats the difference ? (not looking for a detailed description, just some highlights)
thnx in advance
Rod, Denmark
I am not familliar with modo… but doesn’t it have a brush tool for detailling only in 201… which is not out yet?
Also i believe Modo is more a traditional modeller then z-brush. like instead of painting extruding faces, splitting polygons, cutting faces etc…
But i never tried it so can’t tell for sure 
Modo and zbrush do some similar things, but the methods to achieve them are very different. A modelling program like modo can work very well with zbrush.
For example, many people create a low or medium detail mesh in another modelling program like modo and then import it into zbrush to add high resolution detail. You can then export displacement maps for an animation engine to use to create a highly detailed animation.
There are many other things as well.
…2D tools painting ?
…not Script system?
Am I right ?
Modo looks like zbrush, I was thinking of trying demo but saw the price and said I’ll stick with learning the Z demo. I think I might try it before I commit to buying just to make sure that the extra bucks mean extra stuff.
The people in the Blender forums say that Modo looks like Blender. 
http://www.elysiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=53040&highlight=modo+blender+interface
The people in the Blender forums say that Modo looks like Blender
…but without aspirin for the interface
Frenchy, I laughed so hard when I read your post. I do have a bottle of aspirin that I bought after a day with Blender. For Zbrush it was a bottle of Jack.
The best description is Modo = Drafting and Zbrush = Sculpting and Painting.
Modo 201 tries to be a bit more painting and modeling on top of drafting.
I have Modo… And I not using it. The native file format is the Lightwave format and things like .obj import and export are not without complication.
Stability has greatly improved from 102 to 103 but is still not instilling confidence in me. But that’s all irrelevant with the 201 Version coming up.
There are ‘Friday’ update videos on the modo forum which are pretty good indicators of what is coming in the next future. Luxology has missed the release date and to calm the overly ethusiastic user community decided to provide weekly product updates.
There is a LOT of new functionality in there. I could not see anything coming close to the detail 3d mesh ‘painting’ with Alphas in ZBrush but the 3D Painting IS superb. I have not seen a sample of a ‘baked’ texture which is the most imiportant texture for people who need to carry their results from one to the other application as materials and sophisticated texture layers or projections do not transport well between applications. But I was assured that this will be part of 201.
In any case, I do not see 201 being able to work with as much detail as ZBrush. But 201 also seems to have Micropolygon Displacement which makes it possible to achieve high acuracy in Modo 201.
I will probably upgrade to 201 and then sell my BodyPaint which is not used much because the integration into XSI is not as good as I thought it might be. In the end I catch myself doing all the 3d Painting in ZBrush 8-). Not in BodyPaint.
If I would be asked if I would buy ZBrush or Modo 201 I would buy Zbrush. ZBrush is, and this is a personal observation, more mature and geared to what YOU need and not what ‘looks fancy’.
If I would never had Modo 103 I would buy Modo 201 because it looks so sexy, Brad Peebler is such a cool dude and the little Gecko onthe front page is sooooo adorable ;-).
But honestly… there is NOTHING more powerfull (for the money!!!) then the combination of ZBrush and XSI Foundation(1000$ together). You have two of the BEST renderers (Mental Ray and ZBrush) and the best Polyclay modeler (Zbrush) and THE best polygon modeler (XSI). Nothing comes close to the power of the XSI modeler. Not even Modo 103. PLUS the best animation functionality all wrapped up in a non destructive non linear workflow.
I that combo and it does not die on me. Modo 201 is DEFINITELY something to look out for. But if you can’t afford a license as a ‘toy’ then stick with Zbrush which works and has a great community! And of course Aurick hahaha.
Lemo
Rats My Body Paint just arrived today! If I’d only known I would have waited!:eek:
Bodypaint IS a great program! Beats ZBrush in the 3D-Painting Projection Master area ANY time. You don’t have to drop and pick up your object!
Good luck with it!
Lemo
Sorry I keep mixing up the Bodypaint and Deep Paint 3d. I have Deep Paint.
THEN I wish you even MORE Luck
Lemo
Hey Lemo, have you ever tried Silo? If so, how would you compare the modelling in it to XSI?
lemonnado If you where to pick one freeware modeler that is the most compatible with the commerical stuff. What would you choose?
if you where to pick one freeware modeler
…than this little true gem of Wings 3D 
And he has now a crazzy UV Mapping maker 
And it is the doctor of the 3D models 
And if you see more ergonomic tell me 
Pilou
Ps You must have a mouse with 2 buttons + knurl (?) = more practical 
yeah wings3d…is a great little modeler for a free program it has everything you will need…haven’t tested the new uv thing yet but everyone seems to rave about it so far. Plus it’s very easy to learn…no aspirin or jack needed.
Ok I am giving wings a shot. I hoping it solves my Amophium 3 woes that I’m having with UV maps. I can get pretty detailed models with A3 but if I could just get my texture and bump maps I am doing in paint shop pro or Deep Paint 3d to line up right Things would look awesome.
I hoping I can import into wings, map out UV, take them into deep paint & get the detail and either render in wings or move back to A3. OH Sweet Zbrush! I should just buy you and stop messing with the demo!
Every Modeler which is good in exchanging models in .obj is basically alright. Except you are gearing up towards a specific Package then for a example a Modo/Lightwave combo would be beneficial. But of course… that’s not free.
Always remember… Geometry and UV mapping is pretty much all you can transport without loss in some way or another. Even basic materials like Phong/Lambert or Blin shaders are not transported in general without loosing information regarding specularity, transparancy or whatever else comes with this shader. You can usually be happy WHEN such information is arriving so you only have to tune and not to rebuild…
If you are new to everything… it really does not matter that much. Spend a couple of weeks with Wings till you know the concepts.
That limits you to modeling. Which is a good thing. Once you know your way around take a look at Blender. It’s a good representation of what a larger Package like LW/XSI/Maya/Max looks like. And all the experiments you do there are valid in the realm of the other apps. You will encounter the same thing all over agan in different applications. Some things are frustrating like the ways to move objects, move the viewport. EVERY friggin app has different hotkeys. ALL offer you to map those… BUT unless you set up a production pipeline DONT. Why? ALL your tutorials you get are rubbish after you customize your application. Customize when you have nothing left to learn about an app.
So, I’d recommend Wings. And as soon as you get the hang of it look at blender as it will introduce you to rendering and other issues.
That Journey will quickly bring you up to speed and enable you to make good decisions regarding commercial packages. Maybe even to avoid them in total for your purposes.
@BillRobertson
I have and like Silo. The difference to the modeling part in XSI is that XSI can eat heavy scenes. It also a tweak tool now and the best selections and snap tools I have seen. I don’t want to go into detail but it lacks nothing in that respect. A new tweak tool in V5 is rounding stuff up nicely. The coolest thing is the abilty to model while utilizing the incredible animation capabilities. I can draw a curve, duplicate objects along that curve with spacing of the objects controlled by the animation f-curves. So I can create the most complex Banisters for staircases or equivalent PITA geometry. If I add scripting (REAL EASY drag and drop expression building) I can quickly make a twisted rope which automatically corrects it’s geometry as I change the length and shape while modeling. THAT is cool stuff. It’s like making a magic rope… There are also tonns of free scripts around which do Greeble and other cool stuff. So you can have a space ship hull in a few mintues. So I’d say it’s Silo on steroids. I am not sure if Silo has it because I don;t use that geometry in either app but XSI is good with Nurbs Surfaces and has splines and bezier besides polygon curves… Nurbes and curves can be converted back and forth in an amazing way. And XSI has the best tesselation function I have ever seen when you need to make a polygon mesh copy from a nurbs surface and would like to end up with a result you wish to modify.
There is a free eval version of XSI called the Mod-Tool as it’s free for Valve or Epic game level developers. It can’t save in a regular format but in a proprietary format thus enabling you to play with it without a time constraint.
Gotta run…
Cheers!
Lemo
Thanks for the scoop. There’s a free trial of XSI, so it’s not economic constraints that has kept me from trying it, just not sure I have the time to commit to try to figure it out. 
It sounds like it has some nice bonues for modelling single objects, but where it really shines is composing larger scenes? Is that a fair summarization of what you’re saying?