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dengar169

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 20, 2007
98
0
quick question. How many of you would recommend Modo 301??? I'm thinking of purchasing an Education version of either Maya or XSI. I saw the huge price difference for MODO and was curious if it would be better suited for a companion program or is it good enough for a stand alone? I'm assuming there is a reason for the price difference. What are the benefits/disadvantages of the program? Thanks. Oh I'm primarily going to be using the programs for school projects and personal training.
 

Lone Deranger

macrumors 68000
Apr 23, 2006
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Tokyo, Japan
Depends on what kind of projects exactly you'd like to do.
If you want to do Character Animation for instance then you'll need Maya as Modo's animation tools have not really been implemented yet (certainly no character animation tools). Maya on the other hand has those in abundance.
Maya is incredibly in-depth so much so that it might overwelm you perhaps a bit. Modo's tools in general can be considered to have been designed with a bit more userfriendliness in mind.

XSI sits somewhere inbetween and I prefer it over both Maya and Modo. Problem is that it's not available for OSX.

Have you considered LightWave? Or if you like to work procedurally, Houdini?
 

dengar169

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 20, 2007
98
0
Depends on what kind of projects exactly you'd like to do.
If you want to do Character Animation for instance then you'll need Maya as Modo's animation tools have not really been implemented yet (certainly no character animation tools). Maya on the other hand has those in abundance.
Maya is incredibly in-depth so much so that it might overwelm you perhaps a bit. Modo's tools in general can be considered to have been designed with a bit more userfriendliness in mind.

XSI sits somewhere inbetween and I prefer it over both Maya and Modo. Problem is that it's not available for OSX.

Have you considered LightWave? Or if you like to work procedurally, Houdini?
Thanx for the information! I am currently learning XSI at school. I was hoping to run it under boot camp. We have Houdini at school but we have not been taught on it yet. From what I see, they do not offer an education version and the pricing is very $$$$!! I have played with the PLE Maya and you're right, it is very in-depth. As for Lightwave....I've never tried it out either. But I'm going to research right now.
 

Lone Deranger

macrumors 68000
Apr 23, 2006
1,895
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Oh but Houdini does offer an educational version. And probably the best one out of the lot. It's called Houdini Apprentice HD. It's essentially the full package for $99. No watermarks, no time limit. They only limit animation batch rendering frame size to 1920x1080 px (but still rendering is unlimited in size) and you're not allowed to use it commercially (as in make money off of it). Other than that it's the same. It's a no brainer. But.. it's a very unconventional application and a lot of people can't get their heads around it.... so beware of that.
Houdini on Linux is much more stable than Maya is under Linux, which is much more stable than Maya runs under OSX. So I have good hopes for the OSX version of Houdini being much better than Maya stability wise.
You students these days have so much choice! :)

Thanx for the information! I am currently learning XSI at school. I was hoping to run it under boot camp. We have Houdini at school but we have not been taught on it yet. From what I see, they do not offer an education version and the pricing is very $$$$!! I have played with the PLE Maya and you're right, it is very in-depth. As for Lightwave....I've never tried it out either. But I'm going to research right now.
 

dengar169

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 20, 2007
98
0
I'm going to check that out (houdini). Are you aware of any compatibility issues with running XSI through bootcamp? My MP is on the way as we speak, I'm not sure if I should run it under Vista or XP. Or should I wait for 7.0 to release for xsi? Budget is pretty tight due to the fact that I will have to be purchasing a few other products as well (CS3 production etc). Again, I appreciate all the info you have provided.
 

Lone Deranger

macrumors 68000
Apr 23, 2006
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Tokyo, Japan
I'm running XSI Foundation under XP32 through bootcamp. No problems really other than the pain that is their licensing procedure. I seem to recall there were some problems with certain firewall softwares (Zone Alarm) preventing XSI from running, but that was a few years ago. I would imagine the problem having been solved, or atleast well documented by now.
The only reason I can think of running under Vista is if you want to run the 64bit version of XSI. Though you can do that with XP64 or a 64bit linux distro too. I've not tried this so I can't say how easy this would be to set up.
Be sure to visit XSIBase for lots of useful info. Beware though, there are some condescending individuals prowling on their forums, and the general mood there is very intolerant of anything other than XSI (and that unfortunately includes OSX and to a degree Macs). :(.

I'm going to check that out (houdini). Are you aware of any compatibility issues with running XSI through bootcamp? My MP is on the way as we speak, I'm not sure if I should run it under Vista or XP. Or should I wait for 7.0 to release for xsi? Budget is pretty tight due to the fact that I will have to be purchasing a few other products as well (CS3 production etc). Again, I appreciate all the info you have provided.
 
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