Lightwave or Modo for modelling

[vectorman]

Modo or lightwave for modelling????

[Muad]

Modo is more current in terms of architecture and ability so once you get your head around it (if you come from LW) you'll be better served by it in the long run. That said if you're proficient in LW there's not much you can model in Modo that can't be done in LW. For arch stuff I'd stick to LW + LWCAD. For hard surface both are great. Organic things I'd say you'd be better served by Modo.

Hope that helps... Muad

[speedydsl]

Hello,

i find modo is the best and easy software on the markt today. Itīs very easy and fast to create anythink and it s a very large collection plug-ins avaiable for zero money plus a very cool architecture plug-in !!

I would you recomment Modo on all of your work

[purplepills]

I am still new with Modo and it does boast some great tools, but I would still go with Lightwave. Mostly because I am very familiar with it. But in terms of add-ons like LWcad and the collab with Vue, new node texturing. Those things keep me using LW. Plus the rumors keep me hooked to. LW10 is supposed to be the best thing since sliced bread. Plus the community for LW is huge. But when you see the likes of Dan Ablan jumping ship for the Modo boat, it is kinda disheartening.

I dunno, it seems Modo has a very bright future, so a wise man would go with that. But a gambling man would go with Lightwave, were as they seem to be hitting a spike of great releases.

[nio103]

MODO's modeler because of the sculpting and painting tools

[shushens]

Modo has sculpting tools, yes. But is sculpting with those really the best idea? I don't know, maybe. I am used to a completely different workflow. Sculpt in MudBox, bring in the normal map/disp. map to the modeling software, keep the low-poly geometry and get goodlooking render. I do not know how it works in Modo, but are you sure it will offer similar quality in similar polygon count if you sculpt in Modo? I mean, there the sculpts are on the model itself. Those are not maps on low-poly geomtry.

If i had to choose between LW and Modo, I would always choose LW. Because it has been around for many years, has more compatibility with other biggies like Vue and WorldBuilder, has more modeling/rendering plugins than Modo, and Modo is only good for modeling, not for rendering. It has a GI that gives a decent look to your model. But for something advanced, Modo is a nono. It has some huge disadvantages as well, like no direct caustics. If you try to do caustics with a very bright reflector, you won't have that much control over the effect. You can still have caustics, but like I said, it will look very basic. For some fancy, really charming looking light effects, Modo is the last thing you want to use. LW is not that top notch in that respect either, judging from all the LW renders I have seen over the years. But it is better than Modo nonetheless.

Last but not least, the official Luxology community is not very prompt in answering your lame questions if you are just getting started with CG. I know this because I posted many lame questions myself. People keep discussing some extremely convoluted topics that are often Greek to me, but they don't reply to my simple queries. If you ask a simple question in XSIBase on XSI, or TheArea on Maya, usually you get an answer very fast. At least I did! And believe me, you will need that Lux. community a hell lot if you are trying Modo, because there is no cornucopia of tutorials available for Modo.

Just one simple example would explain better. Even after download all three detailed video tutorials on action centres from Vertexmonkey website, I could not figure out how to make sure the action centre always stays at the centre of geometry of the object. In XSI, I did not even have to think. There was this handy CoG button. But anyway, I am talking too much...