Specialty 3d Modeling Apps - Page 2 - Simply Maya User Community

# 16 19-03-2006 , 05:02 PM

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I just DL'ed Modo, and it is very harsh... especially when u just start. You can't do nearly anything.

But then- the tutorial that shows u how everything works- DEAR GOD THIS APP IS AMAZING!!!!

I especially like the reflection map view in the viewport- it realy helps find any lumps in an inorganic model.

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# 17 20-03-2006 , 08:04 AM

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Originally posted by MattTheMan
I just DL'ed Modo, and it is very harsh... especially when u just start. You can't do nearly anything.

But then- the tutorial that shows u how everything works- DEAR GOD THIS APP IS AMAZING!!!!

I especially like the reflection map view in the viewport- it realy helps find any lumps in an inorganic model.

Originally Posted by

I think the main reason you found it difficult until you saw the tutorials is that you have been using Maya for modelling in the past. If you had been using Lightwave, you would have felt right at home as soon as you opened it.

It certainly is an amazing app. I just hope version 2 comes out soon, with that super-fast renderer.

Cheers,
Malcolm

'England Expects That Every Man Will Do His Duty' - Vice-Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson - Battle of Trafalgar - 21st October 1805

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# 18 27-03-2006 , 12:48 AM

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yer right- i have been using maya/3ds max. but now, I love that program. :p

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# 19 06-08-2007 , 07:51 PM

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I've actually been test driving Silo for the past week and I have to say it really leaves Maya in the dust when it comes to box modeling. The problem is that with all the Maya updates, while new features have been added, Autodesk hasn't gone back and refined the modeling workflow which is archaic. You can get the same things done, of course, but it seems like three or four steps for every one in Silo. Silo, isn't perfect and has it's share of bugs, no NURBS or special poly effects but if you're into quick box modeling or poly-by-poly and sub-d switching, it's pretty amazing, especially for the price. If Maya had its modeling set, she'd be unstoppable.

I tried a demo of Modo awhile back and just found it very confusing coming from Maya. Had a frustrating time with it. I guess if I had a LW background, it would've come easier. It looks nice, though, and some of the tuts they offer on their site seem worth the dough.

"Terminat Bora Diem, Terminal Auctor opus."

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# 20 06-08-2007 , 10:55 PM

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Silo user too. Loving it. Fastest modeler to date.

Currently working on reclaiming Space
The Salvation Prophecy

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# 21 06-08-2007 , 11:16 PM

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For those of you using Silo, I've a quick question about assigning shaders on the imported item. I've tried importing as an obj file (and cleaning up the normals) as well as using the silo import plug-in for maya. Everything imports fine and I can assign a simple material. Color shows up fine. Now if I plug a grid texture node into the blinn's color attribute, it doesn't show up correctly. On the .obj file, the piece of geometry (a microphone mesh) turns transparent and silver. If I try on an object imported via the plugin, the transparency is normal but the piece of geometry turns silver. (Yes hardware texturing is on and both show up this way in a render).

I was thinking, 'oh, maybe this has to be mapped' but I applied the same shader to a nurbs, poly, and sub-d primitive created within Maya and the shader shows up the way it should. Am I missing something?

"Terminat Bora Diem, Terminal Auctor opus."

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# 22 07-08-2007 , 08:21 AM

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What is this mysterious 'Silo' which you speak of?

I find it hard to believe that it can beat Maya, especially when its highlights (stated here) are: its 'faster', its has a few more shortcuts, its supposably more customizable than Maya and its cheaper (though price does not make one great)

C. P. U. Its not a big processor... Its a series of pipes!

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# 23 07-08-2007 , 08:24 AM

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Originally posted by The Architect
What is this mysterious 'Silo' which you speak of?

Originally Posted by

https://www.nevercenter.com/

It's a poly/sub-d modeling app.

"Terminat Bora Diem, Terminal Auctor opus."

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# 24 07-08-2007 , 11:25 AM

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I gave modo 201 a go a while back, really liked it, looked at some tutorials and as far as I can remember I customised it to work just like maya, really good, fast modeling tools, great poly painting, all round great app, but alas not got the money of the time to invest!

"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

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# 25 07-08-2007 , 11:47 PM

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I'm not sure I understand the problem Pete. Texture and shader not showing up where? In Silo or in Maya? Is it showing up partially correct somewhere?

Obj is a bit of a dinosaur of a format, only prolonged by being widespread and oh ZBrush picking it up haha.
Obj seems to save .mtl files which is basically just the diffuse, ambient, spec values. You'd typically have to load any textures separately regardless of application.

I've not had time to look into Silo 2's UV/material tools yet. So far only been using it as a modeling app, and the default shaders works great for that.

Currently working on reclaiming Space
The Salvation Prophecy

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# 26 08-08-2007 , 12:06 AM

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No, after I import the mesh into Maya and apply shaders from the hypershade. Standard materials work (i.e., I can create blue blinn and apply it and it shows up correctly). If I plug something like a grid into the blinn's color attr. and apply, it doesn't work. On an imported .obj file, the mesh where the shader was applied turns partially transparent and silver. If I import using the plugin that allows you to import native silo files and apply the shader, the mesh just turns silver. Both render out that way, too. It's weird. I can apply the same shader to any maya primitive and it shows up fine. The problem is only on the imported mesh from silo. I tried importing an unedited simple sphere from Silo and same weird results. I'm trying to find out if there's something you have to do to the file before exporting from silo but haven't seen anything, yet and I've been combing their boards feverishly.

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# 27 08-08-2007 , 12:24 AM

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Transparent objects usually mean Maya knows it has a material and which material. Just not how to display them.
So a UV map will be required. Automatic mapping should give a starting point for test purposes.

The first thing to do is go odd normal hunting, fastest way by turning off Two Sided lighting. I do get one or two odd faces
on imported models, and if using obj I expect some faces to be inverted and locked.

Scroll down to my reply in this thread:
https://forum.simplymaya.com/showthre...threadid=27049

Cool importer: Masilo. Opens .sib/.sia files in Maya. Lovely.
https://animatic.no-ip.com/cgi-bin/silo-wiki/index.cgi?

I've tried to recreate your problem and the grid plugged into color attr shows up just fine here on my imported silo model.

Currently working on reclaiming Space
The Salvation Prophecy

Last edited by AlphaFlyte; 08-08-2007 at 12:37 AM.

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# 28 08-08-2007 , 08:56 AM

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Originally posted by AlphaFlyte
Transparent objects usually mean Maya knows it has a material and which material. Just not how to display them.
So a UV map will be required. Automatic mapping should give a starting point for test purposes.

Originally Posted by

It looks like that was it. I opened up an imported sphere and applied automatic mapping in Maya—the texture showed up fine. It makes sense. I was expecting the imported mesh to work right out of the box since it does on the default Maya primitives—now I know better. I've only been working on modeling in Silo so haven't played around with its UV mapping, yet. The Masilo plugin supposedly imports all UV data as well so maybe I'll do a quick cube test tonight and see how I fare.

With regards to the normals, I know if you're importing .obj files from silo, you have to correct the vertex normals when importing to Maya, otherwise, the model is completely blacked out. The easiest way to fix is to just type the following in the cmd line and hit 'enter':

Code: