Hey There!

Again! It's been a while since I wrote here. I've gotta be honest not much has happened on the legacy project front. Lately I've felt that I've needed to spend more time doing other things but now that summer vacation is over I'm slowly moving back towards getting some art done during my evenings.

I guess it's also worth mentioning that My Mentorships have started again and I've got 2 lovely people that I'm working with for September. 

It'll be really fun and I'm looking forward to their progress!

The Future of 3D-modeling packages

Professionally I've been working with 3ds Max , Maya and Modo, lately however I've only felt disappointment regarding the features implemented every year. It's easy to say that I'm probably not the only professional 3D artist that have been considering moving away from the industry-standard packages out there.  Max and Maya are packages that have been around for a really long time and have a lot of history but they have this looming feeling of "Set in its ways" and even "it feels old and legacy" in the way they do things. 

I'm the type of artist that tend to move packages when something new and exciting was introduced or if I had a specific need to learn something. My move from Maya to Modo was basically a way for me to start using a tool that was more intuitive and had less barriers when it came to modeling. I was really excited over the tools and what could be done with the rounded edge shader.

However, since I started using Modo very few features have been implemented that I've felt are relevant to the type of art that I'm currently creating.

Now looking forward, I think it's easy to say that all of us have been baffled by the amount of features and cool shit that has been coming to Blender.  

So at the end of the day I end up asking: 
Is it actually worth paying a monthly subscription fee for a 3d software that isn't really all that better than what Blender provides?

Well, I don't know yet, but I'm finding out. 

So I'm learning blender.

Now, it's not the first time I've moved on and tried mastering a new software. So I'm not completely new to this experience but at least I can tell you about my experiences in doing so. Looking at all the software the I've used I can quickly summarize what I like about each one:
(there are obviously a million things but I'll try to be quick about it) 

Max: 

• Modifier Stack
  • Non-Destructive Workflows
• Splines

Maya 

• UV-Editor
  • Very neat UV-features
• Outliner
  • Good way to organize things IMO.
• Splines
• Preserve UVs

Modo: 

• Modeling Tools
  • Boolean Operations
  • Layouts
  • Easily Cut/Paste Meshes into the Mesh Layers
  • Workplane / Locator
  • Painting Selection, Pattern Selection and Lazzo
• Rounded Edge Shader (Render)
  • Great for look dev and baking it down to textures
• Intuitive
  •  Modo has a lot of functionality that basically knows what you want to do depending on the context. Basically making something in other software that would take several actions and bringing it down to 1 Action.

At face value I feel like almost all of the previous things I like exist inside of Blender or Blender does them even better.

Blender 

So what does Blender have that I'm interested in? 

• Modifier Stack
  • Non-Destructive Workflows
    
    
• Modeling Tools
  • Booleans (https://youtu.be/aTDF94CU5wc?t=66)
    • HardOps Addon 
    • BoxCutter Addon
      
  • Meta Balls (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP14rVhgX9M )
    • 
  • 3D Cursor
  • Lazzo Selection
    
    
• Sculpting Tools
  • 
  • Generally feels more modern and better than what Modo currently provides.
    
    
• Eevee Viewport + Cycles Rendered & Cross-compatibility.
  
  • Amazing viewport, lots of real-time functionality, volumetric lighting etc
    
    
• Shader Editor & Grease Pencil
  
  
  • Procedural Materials (Real Time)
  • Rounded Edge Shader (Real Time)
    
    
    
  • Vertex AO Baking (I've been missing this from Modo for a long time)
    

    
    

• Big Community, Lots of Tutorials and Videos
  • In comparison to Modo, Blender has a much bigger community. One was evident now that I was looking for Modo Sculpting videos and there plainly wrote "Modo Sculpting" into youtube and it showed videos from 5 years ago. Blender however has a sprawling community that provides not only tools and addons but also tutorials.

I'm not saying that the previous software don't have most or all of these features as well, I'm just saying they're very neatly packed into Blender but also completely Free and I believe it's worth having a look into =).

So what is actually Autodesk or The Foundry giving us that is exclusive or better than the rest ?
I'm not sure, but the more I'll use blender, the more I'll find out I guess but I'll be sure to let you guys know what I think.

Oh well, until next time!

Warping out!

/Chris Radsby