Well, the Luxology gang has been busy previewing Modo 401 for the past few weeks. I’ve held back on commenting in the hopes that I’d see something worth commenting on. To be honest, it looks like Modo 401 is aimed at enhancing their rendering features. Sculpting & Painting (along with the attendant bugs, inefficiencies and just down right baffling errors in terms of understanding what a modeler does . . .) seems to be forgotten in this latest push. The main features they’ve wanted to bring out are: Fur, Lighting & Rendering Enhancements, and replicators. Since Modo’s animation capabilities are somewhere between slim and nil, I’m pretty surprised to see their current obsession with still image work. Without attending to the weaknesses in their hold as modeller, I get the sense that Modo is heading into a neither here nor there world. Not quite the best modeller, not quite the best UV solution (UV Layout has that one locked up at the moment), not quite an animation package, not quite the best hair/fur system, no quite the best sculpting system, not quite the best texture map paint system . . . well, you get the idea. Pretty much everything that Modo offers can be done better elsewhere. Clever stills that infer fluid dynamics (without delivering the actual animation) pretty much is a yawn . . . where’s the cutting edge in still replicators when the real work is animating flocks and crowds? Where is sculpting when it’s crippled by a slow image-based solution which is far outstripped by new contenders like 3D Coat which is already incorporating Voxels into their sculpting . . . Where is the innovation Luxology?
Don’t get me wrong, the still images they’re showing are indeed pretty, but I just don’t see where Modo wants to be in the 3D Universe . . . it seems mildly deficient in many departments, and has given ground in modeling/UV to Silo while giving sculpting up to Zbrush & 3DCoat. Painting they never really had a lock on (sorry, Bodypaint is better at it), Animation is outstripped by XSI, C4D, Maya, max etc.
At $895 a pop (with probably another $295 from existing clients) wher does Lux go? I’ll keep following the story, but it is not a promissing beginning. Prove me wrong Lux, I’m still cheering for you to turn it around, but it looks to me like your development has turned your back on modelers and sculptors for the flash of still rendering.
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Update 4/9/09: So far not much new. They have revealed a few modelling tools which will be welcome enhancements to things like beveling, but nothing earth shaking. Luxology has devoted as much time to the amazing new feature, “Presets”, which apparently they believe is as important as any new modeling enhancement they have made. Judge for yourself.
-K
