Modo 401 Released — Higher Price, Few Surprises for the Sculptor

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Kerwin
on June 19, 2009
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newmodologoModo 401 was released yesterday.  USD $395 to update and USD $995 for new seats.  While its new animation and enhanced rendering is here, as a modeller, very little has changed.   There have been very minor updates to the sculpting system (still a pale refelection of something like Zbrush or Mudbox), the painting is at least multithreaded, but a pale refelection of something like Bodypaint or ZB, and the UV system has been sped-up some, but still isn’t as complete and or advanced as a stand-alone UV tool like UVLayout Pro.  Indeed, they are slowly marching towards a “complete package” (similar to Newtek’s Lightwave) but so far hasn’t impressed me that they can ever truly aim at something like Maya, Max, or Softimage without a significant enhancement to their animaiton sub-system.  Right now, it seems OK for motion graphics, but it is a devil to really animate.  Luxology is showing things akin to character animation on their web site, but be very cautious before parting with your money.  While it may be true that some of these projects were modeled and rendered in Modo401, the actual animating appears to have taken place in external programs (like Messiah or Motion-builder) and the animation has been re-imported into Modo.   In other words, you need to do your animaiton elsewhere before rendering in Modo.

Details of the upgrade can be found here: http://www.luxology.com/modo/product_information/documents/modo401_Improvements.pdf.   The modelling, sculpting, painting, and UV sections I think speak for themselves.

GoZbrush

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Kerwin
on June 3, 2009
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gozlogoSome exciting news from Pixologic.   Coming with ZBrush 4 (sooner for Mac Users) scritped interaction with key applications is coming.   This initiative is called GoZbrush and will address probably the most difficult of aspect of ZB: integration with other applications.   GoZB promises to offer one-button shipping of models between enabled applications, seemingly effortlessly.  It’s worth takling a look at the preview video here: http://www.pixologic.com/zbrush/features/GoZBrush/.

The applications are immediately interesting.   GoZB promises to make jumping out to a polygon  modeler such as Modo to tweak topology and then back to ZB virtually effortless.   I’ll reserve judgment until I can try it for myself, but if it simplifies re-topology of ZB models (perhaps through more conserving reprojection algoilrithms) this will be a major advance for ZB4.  As those who have experienced it know, re-adjusting geometry in ZB3 currently has risks as reprojection from one topology to another shows different degrees of artifacts.   The simple examples in the video (add edge loop for example) don’t make it clear what will happen when more wholesale changes to the underlying geometry.  If it is really as seamless as marketed, GoZB promises a new era in topology management and bridging the world of polygonal-built & rigged models with the freedom of ZB sculpting.

The other advantage promised of GoZB will be the easy export of maps and models back to ZB-enabled applications.   While this path has been endlessly discussed among ZB users and though complicated, doable (given repairs to the displacement map generators), the simplicity actually will enhance the ability to go between test renders and model tweaking.   This will become indespensible in game and animation pipelines where tweaks are often needed to handle unpredicted artifacting in the deformation of models when animated.

First up for GoZB enabled applications: Maya, C4D, and Modo.   Brad Peebler acknowledged Modo’s involvement in the GoZB project in one of his webcasts.  Given the apparent lack of development in Modo painting and sculpting (at least as so far “revealed” over the past few months) this will be a good thing for the Modo community as it will allow easy access to more sophisticated sculpting solution without the pain of matching back and forth between Modo and ZB.

Modo 401 Reveals Continue

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Kerwin
on May 4, 2009
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newmodologoLuxology’s ’s intentions continue to come more into focus with each reveal.  I think it is pretty clear that Luxology is intending to move more into the ArcViz space as well as offer significant motion graphics capabilities.   In their latest reveal, they’re showing basic IK relationships between objects and path constraints.   It’s not Character Animation (CA) like the bigger packages offer, but it is a clear start on the way to a full animation system.  Will 401 replace Maya, C4D, Lightwave, etc?   Probably not, but it is clear that they are trying for an all-in-one solution that can be used for a variety of paratical animations, including technical animation and architecture fly-throughs.

Still not addressed from my point-of-view is the model-creation side.   It feels like (despite some clever enhancements in the Modelling “reveal”) that Lux has stagnated here.    Very little has been said about sculpting or texturing.  That being said, Modo’s creatiion capabilities may be more restricted to traditional box-modeling (SDS) approaches as the performance of the sculpting solution is very limited when compared to more advanced solutions like Zbrush and Mudbox.    Similarly, I don’t see Modo 401 (yet) challenging Bodypaint’s more complete model painting environment.

So, 401 is shaping up as a bit of a risk for Luxology.   Not really the top modeler (though a very good one), not really a full animation package (though some interesting starts on basic object animation, hair and fibers), and a decent rendering system (though not quite as nice as a full nodal system.)  It’s a lot of middle, but I’m still waiting for Modo 401’s killer app to reveal itself.

ZBrush 4 Announced and ZB Mac News

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Kerwin
on April 24, 2009
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Well, on the heels if Mudbox 2009 arriving to the Mac, Pixologic has offered their response.  ZB Mac 3.12B will ship on Monday, April 27th.   While the exact content was not disclosed, the statement posted on ZB’s forums was “ZBrush 3.12B contains optimizations and feature adjustments to ZBrush 3.12″.   We can hope it will fix some of the more significant problems in ZB 3.12.

Also, this week Pixologic announced ZBrush4.    The statement is:

zb4ZBrush 4 to be released in August, 2009

Since its inception, Pixologic revolutionized the world of digital art. When ZBrush was unleashed, it became the tool of choice for artists by allowing them to bridge their richest imaginations with reality.

With each new release of ZBrush, came a fundamental change to the way artists created some of the world’s most groundbreaking artwork. Through out these past years, innovative new tools coupled with unparalleled leaps in performance, enabled artists to maximize their creativity.

THE REVOLUTION CONTINUES with ZBrush 4

As with previous versions of ZBrush, Pixologic is dedicated to develop tools that not only break the mold, but also reinvent it. ZBrush 4 offers significant enhancements to existing features, and a host of new innovative tools that will allow you to explore and ignite your imagination.

THE FUTURE BEGINS August 2009

ZBrush 4 will be a free upgrade for all registered users of ZBrush on Windows and Mac systems.

It looks like things are heating up in the sculpitng applicaiton market and ZBrush intends to keep in the game.


Mudbox 2009 For Mac is Shipping

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Kerwin
on April 15, 2009
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Autodesk Mudbox

With unusually little fanfare, Autodesk Mudbox 2009 is now shipping for the Mac.    It looks like there will be 30-day demo version available next week.  Read about here: http://area.autodesk.com/index.php/forums/viewthread/25575/.   Not suprisingly, Pixologic (makers of Zbrush) erradicated the thread on their forums written by concerned Mac users about the lack of displacement map generation.   ZB 3.5 is still lost in space, so mac users might want to join the Mudbox party at DashDotSlash.Net, where you can find lots of tutorial material from Wayne Robson (former ZB guru) on the new sculpting entry on the Mac, Mudbox: http://www.dashdotslash.net/.