Modo Arroway questions

arail1 · 10 May 2009, 19:03

I'm interested in Modo for it's ability to paint surfaces. That is to say to be able to paint patterns, images, etc. on 3D surfaces rather than just coloring or texturing a surface.
Question - do most of the programs such as rhino, modo, etc. have this ability or is this unique to modo?

Next question - has anyone used Arroway textures and if so are they as great as they look? How about the maps? Can they be used in V-Ray?

TIA for any input I can get.

thomthom · 10 May 2009, 19:14

I got the Arroway bundle. It's really good in that you get large tileable textures with bump/displacement, specular, reflection and glossy map to go with them. Great time-saver.
Yes, they can be used in V-Ray. That's what I'm using it with. They will work in any renderer.

remus · 11 May 2009, 07:13

I think modo's ability to paint straight on to surfaces is fairly unique. there are a few other packages out there that can do similar things but very few with similar power and in the same price range.

Having said that, if your only interested in the 3d painting aspect, this might be worth a look: http://www.3d-coat.com/
From what ive heard it is a very capable program, especially for the money.

arail1 · 11 May 2009, 13:36

Thanks for the link.
When I'm done with my 30 day trial of Modo I'll try 3D Paint. $140 would be real cheap if the program can do all it says it can.
I have many other reasons to be interested in Modo but the painting tools intrigue me.

ScottPara · 22 May 2009, 00:13

I have both Modo and 3Dpaint. 3Dpaint is a nice program for the money but a bit quirky and prone to crashes if the resolution of the images is to high (typical in many of the programs I have tried).

Modo does do 3D painting quite differently than most if not all programs that allow painting on a 3D surface. You have incredible control not to mention Modo accepts layered PSD files directly from PS. You have said it well in the sense that 3D painting in Modo is only a very small piece of what Modo does really well. The new UVmapping tools coming in 401 are amazing as well.

http://video.luxology.com/modo/401/video/UVRelaxPins.mp4

Scott

arail1 · 23 May 2009, 14:01

Scott -

An update on my modo trial -

Modo is a great program and I will definitely be buying it when my trial ends.

I made the mistake of spending most of my trial time trying to import a SketchUp model to work on. I wasn't very successful with those attempts - models that were grouped would come in but models that were exploded wouldn't, but I couldn't figure out how to ungroup models once they were in Modo, but if I didn't ungroup them the painting tools wouldn't work (insert an image here of me pulling out my hair).

I realized that just creating some primitives within Modo to paint on, layer, texture, etc. was a better way to clarify what the program can do than struggling with the whole Sk to Modo import issue. I figure that can be dealt with later.

Someone in one of these threads made the comment that the rendering program isn't important, they all do essentially the same thing, it's the person running the program that makes the difference. My experience is that he's wrong in thinking that. Modo produces a very different looking object/image than SketchUp/Vray. I find that exciting and challenging. It's like being given two very different mediums to work with.

I'm still just playing with primitives, adding layers, trying out textures. I have a $50 video tutorial from Digital Tutors that's helping me along and I'll probably buy the new Dan Ablan 401 tutorial on 3D garage. His videos are very highly praised on the Modo forums.

Whatever, I'm just moving out of the frustration phase into the excited phase - which is great.

Stinkie · 25 May 2009, 11:29

@unknownuser said:

I have both Modo and 3Dpaint. 3Dpaint is a nice program for the money but a bit quirky and prone to crashes if the resolution of the images is to high (typical in many of the programs I have tried).

Modo crashes a bit too often to my liking as well. Still, I pre-ordered 401. I'm totally looking forward to using it. I have a sneaking suspicion that it'll almost completely replace SU for me. (I am still hoping our friends over at Google HQ will get of their asses, though. Hope is a peculiar thing.) Modo 401's preview renderer and presets will be enormous time savers for me.

@arail1 said:

I made the mistake of spending most of my trial time trying to import a SketchUp model to work on.

Sounds familiar. It's probably better to just bite the bullet and start modelling in Modo. It's tools can run circles around SU's - for the most part, that is.