Rendering contest

Yes, this was modeled and rendered in a 3D modeler. Click on it to see the full size and full detail. Amazing. This was one of the entries thatwasn’t chosen as a winner in a Luxology contest to model and render a Hellfire Widow spider. This stuff amazes me. The people who do this use multiple tools to accomplish a single image.

Keep in mind, this Luxology is the same company that brings us PhotoView360 (Rob R, Ricky, Smack). I’m anxious to see where this is going. Frankly, I’m not excited about the fact that SW has put so much development resource (money, time, people, etc) into an area that is so completely half done, if you will pardon the contradiction. PhotoWorks gets gutted every other year, it seems, so I can never get any traction on learning it. But you can’t replace it with this new software because there are too many things it can’t do. Still, the new PV360 is as easy to use as Hypershot, but with a much better interface, and gets good results fast. Most importantly, making small changes enables you to iterate quickly.

I liked the comment so much before I’m going to use it again. Getting images out of SolidWorks is like going to visit my brother. At any one time his house has 2-3 half finished construction projects, and he’s always saying “just wait til this is done, it will be great!”  Or you could say it’s like driving the interstates in Pennsylvania, where the orange cone is the state bird.

One of the great things about software development that is different from my brother’s house, or I-81 in PA, is that you can (and should) do the dirty construction work behind closed doors, and present a finished product when it is ready for real users. SolidWorks is so eager to share the new stuff that as users we are perpetually burdened with determining exactly what percent baked this shiny new stuff is. We need a plan. OpenGL/DirectX, RealView, PhotoWorks, and now PV360. This looks like an appalachain automotive lawn managerie, not a plan.

Anyway.

We as SolidWorks users tend to be a little parochial when it comes to trying to do everything with a single tool, regardless of how ill-suited it is to the task. modo is only $895. Upgrades are $395. Plain and simple. You can get a 30 day trial, and for $25 you can get a 30 day trial with full tutorial documentation.

Here’s a great review of the software that gives you an idea of what it’s all about. This is all from a CG point of view, not considering CAD applications. After reading the review, it sounds like SolidWorks Corp could learn something from these corporate rejects about how to deliver software that people really love and can really excel with. It sounds like modo uses a somewhat limited function set, but what’s there is really there.

There are some real masters out there with this stuff. SolidWorks is capable of creating all of the geometry on this spider. Why do we not see people doing this kind of work in SolidWorks?

I just can’t let this one go. Check out a time-lapse of a stylized car being created in modo, and a little movie of a stylized car being created in SolidThinking. You’ve got to click the “car sketching” button to see the SolidThinking video. This is the difference between mesh and nurbs modelers. The SolidThinking method is very similar to the way I created the Cobra model.

modo is a mesh modeler, and the workflow in a mesh modeler is completely different from the workflow in a parametric nurbs modeler. Of course the utility of the mesh model for manufacturing is limited, but the shape creation and concept development is fantastic. When I get out from under current obligations, I’m going to play around with this stuff a little and see what it’s all about. From time to time a mesh manipulation tool might be just the ticket.

The one thing I am wishing is that the whole PV360 thing is just the beginning and that the real product in the wings is some sort of modeling collaboration between SW and modo. It would have to offer nurbs on top of the mesh to be of any more interest than modo by itself. This could be the concept modeler I’ve been keeping my eye out for.