The Foundry has announced that they are discontinuing development of Modo.
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What takes its place?
Nothing as far as the Foundry is concerned. They even advise to “switch to another platform as soon as possible”
woooow…that’s crazy!
kids these days…
(McNeel is going on 26 years old now, and we are just getting started…)
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“cough”
ummm
–glances at Rhino—
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in all seriousness, what does rhino need to add in v9 to help modo users who are looking for a new place to play?
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Kind of feel this exactly describes the surfacing tools development pace…
Oh Lord no, please… focus on the surfacing tools first! 
Shocking news but it’s been a slow, painful death. Stopped using my version of modo many years ago, stability was a real issue.
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touche’
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Well, first and foremost I would focus on the surfacing tool as Rob Stated but also continue to develop the Sub D tools to be more streamlined. I think with rendering which is what I use modo for primarily there are many options out there but frankly the downside is the Rhino interface. Setting up lights is cumbersome , the cameras are well, they suck. For my purposes there are no cinematic cameras and the “widget” camera is just a pain to work with. But to be fair , Rhino was not designed to be a full visualization package. Its a modeler first and foremost and thats where its strength lies. While I would love to be able to model and render in the same package I dont want to do it at the risk of losing further refinement and development for modeling. A bridge to say Blender would be nice if thats even possible but again I wouldnt want to distract from the modeling improvements.
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hard to say maybe better and faster modelling tools and surfacing? subD could use some more love if we compare whats out there
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This is a real shame but I think is an announced death.
Modo never was an CAD and after the acquisition from foundry it become very expensive CGi system. The competion is much harder in the video/rendering field and, to me, the growth of Blender killed it, more capability with no costs…
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Be inspired from the interface, from what I remember it was really well done. Modern and efficient.
Or… buy it and stole all the technology (tools to manipulate SubD)
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The interface is one of the best Ive ever used. I would say that anything you can draw from that would be good.
Also the modeling (SUB D) in particular and the associated tools in Modo would be a goal to reach for in Rhino . But thats just my opinion. Ive tried using blender but always end up back in Modo . The real key is how fluid the interface is and how it can support speed when modeling. If most of your time is used trying to overcome the interface drawbacks its not an efficient work flow.
Might I ask what you are rendering in these days Sky? And are you doing it in the rhino workspace or stand alone?
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I’m an VRay early adopter and I still feel is the best one around but I’ve to admit that I’m rendering high quality images less and less and so I’m using Rhino Raytrace much more than in the past.
The ratio between overall speed and results is really good now with Cycles.
VRay is like F1 car, you need to warm it up, wear the right tire… then you can go lightspeed.
RhinoRaytrace is more like a middle class SUV, it does the job also if is… ehh… (sorry Nathan)
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i had a student colleague while studying architecture and before he showed up working with modo i never heard of it, using c4d for many years then i would not trade it for anything though modo looked in at least those aspects he showed similarly capable.
now that c4d has changed licence strategies i am stranded the same, blender is still goofy as hell… i looked at it once more just today but its basically impossible to configure it to a standard à la Rhino for instance, they have some settings to switch to industry standard but that pulls you even further from a workable navigation.
SCULPTING*
*I’ve seen people developing related plugins for Rhino as much as other known plugins such as ‘clayoo’ have existed for a minute.
However IF Rhino had sculpting capabilities, even if not ultra robust like ZBrush but perhaps close enough to what SculptGL does…oh boy!
The thought of sculpting a mesh low or high poly while doing something to it with GH is pure awesomeness. Disable solver, adjust mesh, re-enable, boom! No need for silly bridges to other programs, or export-import workflow unless it’s strictly necessary.
I’d pay thrice as much for that Rhino, even with bugs.
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Wow, Too bad really. It was a awesome piece of software for subD. I have not used it since version 701. The subD tools were the best I have ever used and always loved the interface. The forums, much like here, was always helpful and welcoming. It was one of my first 3d forums that I was apart of. I love the community as I did the using the software. For me that all changed when the founder Brad Peebler sold his stake and left the company. He was on the forum daily answering questions and taking suggestions. After he left, modo lost a lot itself. The forum felt like I was talking to a company machine with little concern for the user. The software became buggy and treated like a step child. Sad really. The founders were engaged and customer/software focused. I think that was a big part of the using the software that people enjoyed. It was just software but surrounded by people that cared about what they were making. The Foundry I am sure is workhorse production software company that had a goal in mind when they acquired Luxology, but the what they could not acquire was its soul. My career took a different path and my needs changed, so I don’t need anything Rhino could not already do. So when Rhino introduced subD, it filled the gap I was needing modo all together. (Although I do miss some of the tools and workflow sometimes.) Rhino will continue to improve in that space, so I don’t miss it that much.
Just goes to show what happens when a piece of software when it sold off to a larger company from it original vision. We have all seen this time and time again from autodesk. I know it all just software to get work done, but when you work in it all day, everyday it sometimes nice to know that there are people working hard for you so you can work harder to get stuff done. That kind of experience is rare these days. Still sad to see Modo and it users get displaced and put out to pasture.
I do owe Brad and crew for teaching me subD all those years ago. He even call me personally one day out of the blue to show me a new feature they were working on. How many company owners are willing to do that for somebody that only had one license. Crazy.
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Yeah it all changed when Foundry took over sadly. It did loose its soul (perfect way to put it) but they did make some improvements but so much was bloat for my purposes. I still use it to render to this day for the simple reason that I have it, I know it and it quite honestly gives me the render results I like that I havent been able to get in blender as of yet. I could switch to vray or octane and pay a subscription but its not preferred. Getting invested in yet another subscription and package is just not something im interested in. I would love to see Rhinos built in render capabilities improve not only for the ease but also to complete the package. Being able to create something with Rhino is the first step but selling the idea comes from the texturing and rendering at least in my industry.
Sculpting would be nice built in but personally I would rather see the sub d tools improve more before that happens. For now you can sculpt in blender if you dont have or cant afford zbrush.
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Its nice to be sure. But oof that price per year. Im not doing fancy animations or vfx shots. Really just (for lack of better words) product shots of props Im designing. What I love about modo is the materials pallet is laid out like Photoshop. You can save a layered PSD file directly from modo. You also have the option for node based textures . But really, what keeps me in modo, the quality of the lighting. I cant quite put my finger on it. I get such nice lighting in Modo that I havent been able to match in Rhino or Blender. Maybe Im just using blender wrong but I havent found a solution yet.