Time to move to Silo?

[JakalDesign]

With the news release of Hexagon 2.5... you guys think its time to move to Silo? A modeling program that is going to stay a modeling program? I am seriously considering it. Although I don't think Silo has much of spline modeling. Correct me if I am wrong.

[jbshorty]

Why "move"? Why not use both? You must try the demo to make sure you are satisfied with it as-is. Version 2 seems to be quite buggier than 1.42 and is advancing at a very slow rate. Almost 2 years of beta/release under it's belt and still at version 2.0.6... Also Silo does not have any spline modeling tools which compare to those in Hexagon. But it does have some very nice tools which Hex does not. So it can be nice complement, but not quite a replacement...

[bwtr]

I have the various versions of Silo and would still consider Hexagon better to use than the current Silo version.

[carrozza]

Speaking about alternatives why not consider Blender?

In the past few weeks I finally got the hang of the interface (with new gray-orange icons!) and find it not bad at all.

The features I like most?
- New snapping tools, working on translate, move and scale.
- Retopo tool. Let me repeat please: retopo tool! Makes some modeling tasks a breeze.
- Approximate ambient occlusion rendering.

I think it should be taken unders serious consideration.

[CGRookie]

Why not Carrara 6? It's cheaper and it's the most complete 3d package of all. I sincerely hope the developers are working on improving the VModeler. Right now, Hex and Carrara are the best combination.

Blender is way too primitive for me. Hexagon and Carrara have more advanced UI. There's nothing like Hex's simplified UI and Carrara's shader tree.

Silo... what about Silo... Naa, I hate iconless interfaces. It's just a modeler. I don't know why they are afraid of adding some twenty icons in there.

[jbshorty]

clutter-free interfaces are the way to go. i made my Rhino UI completley void of docked toolbars. Once you get used to hotkeys and context menus you work so much faster than by locating icons on seperate toolbars...

jonah

[Hopper]

I agree with jbshorty's comment. I use both and I use them in compliment. I always start in Hex because I am more use to it.

[dooki]

Hey Jackal,


Tried an earlier version of Silo, just bought Modo a few months ago. Sure I'm in a learning curve with Modo but I still jump back to HEX a lot. The learning curve for HEX was not as steep as with Modo. Point being that Modo/silo, from what I have experienced, and from what I have read by others, HEX still has one of the better work flows. I think less about the tools and more in just designing. IMHO.

-Dooki

[bwtr]

Have a look at MoI, and as well, 3D Coat. A great combination I feel.
I am amazed at how comfortable I am at modelling with MoIs Nurbs.

[-ash-]

I know where you are coming from. DAZ has a different business model and it makes me unsure which way they are going to jump with their modeling apps.

I have Silo but it doesn't seem to be going anywhere at the moment. Very slow development and the V2 re-write seemed to cause a lot of issues. I'm sure they will fix them eventually. Less tools than Hex. Not really used it since Hex got symmetry.

Hex is still a good modeler as long as the changes DAZ make don't impact your work flow and you can live with the fact that content is their primary business so the tools are likely to be developed to support that. I've installed the update and I'll use it when I need to.

MoI is also good, but it is nurbs, no polygon modeling. So it isn't really a substitute for Hex, more of an addition. There is a bunch of stuff missing at V1 (no ways to organise or name things) but it is really stable and easy to use. Michael is very supportive of his customers and I reckon V2 will be a killer application. Plus MoI 3DM files go straight into Carrara (Pro) with no bother.

However, I have gone the same route as dooki - just bought modo. On Mark Bremmer's advice I bought the In Focus pack and I've been trying out the demo for the past few weeks and I really liked it. It's got loads of cool tools though it's more expensive and the learning curve is higher. But there is loads of training material available.

Only you know which one is going to be best for you. as always - try the demos and see which one you like best

[jbshorty]

Originally Posted by bwtr

Have a look at MoI, and as well, 3D Coat. A great combination I feel.
I am amazed at how comfortable I am at modelling with MoIs Nurbs.

irrelevant. i'm beginning to think you might be a spam-bot...

[bwtr]

You are a funny one for heavens sake.

It's a different way to work but I think the combination of those two apps get to the same end result.

Would you be happier if I said Amapi and Z-Brush?

Have a look at the Galleries for both MoI and 3D Coat and you will se what I mean.

[jbshorty]

Originally Posted by bwtr

You are a funny one for heavens sake.

It's a different way to work but I think the combination of those two apps get to the same end result.

Would you be happier if I said Amapi and Z-Brush?

Have a look at the Galleries for both MoI and 3D Coat and you will se what I mean.

The end result of MoI's n-gon export is far from being usable in subd, which might be Jakal's requirement. Amapi would be a better suggestion as it can model directly in polygons (although not without some news of it's future). If you ask a waiter if he recommends the house salad or the caesar salad, and he suggests you eat a pork chop, do you think he is missing the point?

jonah

[Piem]

c'mon guys, we know what are the weakness of both MOI (too poor) and amapi (too buggy especially when you don't know it, a little bit like hexagon ).

No need to argue with this.

[dooki]

@ash: Hey, I ended up buy that Lemans tut. I was shocked to find out it a tut on PATCH modeling and not Poly's. It was kinda interesting to model that way but I don't to learn yet another technique. Also, one reason I got Modo was the rendering output. So far my tests have been that Modo takes longer to render than Cararra v5.

-Dooki

[jbshorty]

Originally Posted by Piem

...No need to argue with this.

no punches, Piem. Just a few "love taps"

[-ash-]

Originally Posted by dooki

@ash: Hey, I ended up buy that Lemans tut. I was shocked to find out it a tut on PATCH modeling and not Poly's. It was kinda interesting to model that way but I don't to learn yet another technique. Also, one reason I got Modo was the rendering output. So far my tests have been that Modo takes longer to render than Cararra v5.

-Dooki

I looked at that too but settled for the watch - bit more at my level of modeling skills

I tried some renders of a glass bowl thingy as tests. C6 versus modo. Render times were more in C6 and I couldn't get C6 Pro to look as good as the modo ones.

[bwtr]

http://rapidshare.com/files/10412696...r_can.swf.html

[dooki]

HMMM?...

-Dooki

[mayito7777]

Hexagon so far seems one of the most accesible way.