What are your favorite modelling tools?

[anandpg]

Hi!
So nice to hear of your research.... My models are usually polygons, as i think this is the simplest and the most direct method.

I like most of the polygon tools in Maya, except for the the bevel tool... the bevel tool in Maya is the least predictable i have ever seen and i think the most useless.

The bevel in 3DSMax, on the contrary, is quite a handy tool and it helps you make sharp edges pretty fast.

Soft-selection is another cool tool i love in 3DSMax. there is nothing quite like it in Maya or any other software.

Artisan, according to me, is the greatest advantage Maya has over others, in modeling.. XSI has something similar to it, but it is nowhere near artisan.

On the whole, i think modeling in Maya would be the perfect thing to do, if it had Max's bevel and soft-selection added to the inventary.

[TheIvIaxx]

the new connect tool in wings is awesome, along with sliding edges.

[gjpetch]

The tools I find most useful are probably sliding edges, connect, soft select, tighten/relax, and extrude by local normals.

[StephanD]

specifically, what are your favorite/most useful tools when modelling?

-Extrude on Faces/Points

-Chamfer/Bevel on Edges/Points

-Dissolve/Connect Edges

-Tweak Points w/wo Magnets

-Select EdgeLoop/Ring

-Flatten components

[AmbiDextrose]

I use Rhino3D as my primary modeling tool so I'm more into the NURBs side:

- project curve to surface

- find the intersection of two surfaces

- extract edge, point/control point, isocurve

- fillet edge/surface (variable radius)

- blend surfaces (variable blend parameters)

- join surfaces (into poly surface)

- match surfaces (match position, tangency, or curvature of source surface)

- extract surface (from poly surface)

- rebuild surfaces (modify surface degree)

- merge surface

- fit surface (rebuild's surface within a certain tolerance. does not alter the surface's over-all shape)

- create cross-section from surface

- boolean operations (add, subtract, join)

- offset surface/polysurface

- shelling

[Lacos]

Well considering most of my favorite tools were already mentioned, how about the 3d max boolean. I have yet to get Maya's boolean to work just right and have always found the 3DS Max version of the tool the most user friendly.

[nurcc]

Thanks for all the great input. I've played around with some of the tools, and have a good idea what it would take in implement some of them.. others I still need to find which package they're in, download/buy it, and try them out..

Does anyone know what version of 3ds soft selection started in?

I should also mention that if anyone is interested in beta testing the maya plugin that we're working on, there's more information about it at http://www.tspline.com

Thanks..

[f97ao]

The T-splines sound really great. Remember that performance is extremely important for complex modeling. Try it out with big models as well. I strongly recommend you to use some kind of caching when you update the model, and absolutely don't recalculate the whole model if you only have changed one vertex (most programs recalculate everything even for minor changes)

/Andreas

[Xtrude]

one of my most fav tools has to be the "select similar" tool in Wings3d... ;)

[AmbiDextrose]

Hmmm. I visited the site and I must say that it's very interesting. Are you planning to support other 3D packages (e.g. XSI, Max, Lightwave, etc.)?

[nurcc]

Yeah, we've been keeping the geometry code completely separate from the UI functionality. To integrate into other programs we'd just need to write another UI layer for each program, but the underlying surface would be the same code - in fact, we've got the maya plugin, a standalone program, and a unigraphics plugin working with the same codebase, although we're focusing on maya right now.
The implementation also cross-compiles in linux, mac os x, and windows.

I'm not too much on the business side of things, but I imagine that the next program we'd go into would be whatever people ask for. I'm also going to be writing a RenderMan exporter which'll use bezier patches..

[pauljs75]

Wings3D user here...
Extrude, Extrude Region, Slide, Rotate, Magnets (with other tools), Etc... I've pretty much found use for all the tools available in that program. (It's hard to pick a favorite when they're all good to some extent.) But that slide has got to be high on the list when used with smoothing.

[jbo]

the edge loop split command in the mjpolytools script for maya would be nice to have. (also how you can adjust the slide after spliting)

[nurcc]

Yeah, I was looking at MJPolyTools today.. thinking that if we emulate polys in our mel interface, we might be able to get them to work on our surface. I'll have to look into it some more..

Thanks for the suggestion.. :)

[ThomasMahler]

I've used a lot of Modelers... here are some features that I definately need (hope Modo gives me all of that! :)):

- Magnets! And I mean for all Transformation tools. I love Magnets. Think about creating a character in any pose you'd like and use magnet rotations to rotate the limbs around, without creating bones, etc. - That's how Mirai handled that. First you select a vertex then you call the magnet rotation, you select a vertex as the pivot to spin around and another vertex to define the influence field and: Boom, just rotate your arm the way you want to. Great tool, I really miss that in a lot of modeling packages.

- Select Edge Loops and Edge Rings _fast_.

- Soft Selection with visual feedback, like Wings offers. That's a great one. You can think about blocking out and forming first and think about topology second. I don't want to think about topology while sculpting at all. Sadly, I have to. So, Topology refining tools would be awesome.

- Good detailing tools. Extrude, Extrude Region, Bevel, Merge Verts/Region, a cool split tool that not only works on edge corners, extrude along curves, etc. etc.

- Workflow: I don't want to think a lot while sculpting. I don't think a lot while drawing, I'm just doing it. I want Sculpting to be a natural process. Workflow is what most modelers don't care about - Sadly, it's the most important of all things.

- "Tweak Mode". Don't want to grab a vert, call my move tool, grab the manipulator, move my vert around, deselect, repeat on other verts. That's too much work. Entering Tweak Mode and clicking and dragging components is fast and is a lot of fun. And we all love fun!

- Good Virtual Mirror tool. I don't ever want to see seams again. I hate them, really. It just bugs me, working on a cool model with a big, fat seam in the middle.

- Good sliding tools. You need wrinkles? Select the edge loop and start sliding.

- Edge loop back and forth selection: Going up ´n down in the "edge loop hierarchy" is cool.

I pretty much dislike Mayas Modeling tools - Modeling should be a fluent thing nowadays, I don't want to worry about anything anymore while modeling. So let's hope for Modo!

[ambient-whisper]

navigation and selection keys aside.. i think youd love clay :)

sliding/splitting/connecting/extruding/tweaking/pressure sensitivity for some tools.

then you got probably the simplest surface/geometry creation tools out there. ( except for stuff like lathe/loft/array.. those still suck pretty bad :/ imo those type of things could use a gizmo thinger like in lightwave.

[ThomasMahler]

navigation and selection keys aside.. i think youd love clay :)

sliding/splitting/connecting/extruding/tweaking/pressure sensitivity for some tools.

then you got probably the simplest surface/geometry creation tools out there. ( except for stuff like lathe/loft/array.. those still suck pretty bad :/ imo those type of things could use a gizmo thinger like in lightwave.

Hey Martin,

Yeah, I'd love to get my hands on Clay, but you Beta Testers really keep it as a secret... it's kind of an urban legend, isn't it? ;) I'm so desperately looking for a modeler that combines function and workflow, that I'd give my last shirt for it... Do you have more informations bout Clay? Availability? Pricing? I modeled with Maya for quite some time now but I dont wanna use it for modeling anymore. Even with scripts like MJs, etc. Maya still too slow and isn't really suited for a fast modeling workflow, so I'm using a combination of Wings3d and Silo currently - Not really satisfying, though...

I really hope Modo finally gives me everything I want from a polyModeler - I asked Sheep Factory a gazillion questions about Modo on IRC and his answers were awesome. I'm really looking forward to it, allthough I still think it's quite expensive.

[StephanD]

Do you have more informations bout Clay? Availability? Pricing?

Quote from Jason;

If you want to know where Clay is at check this page, please do not harass the beta testers! :-)


http://www.rocket3d.com/

I don't think you're harassing anyone but you may want to read it anyways ;)

[ThomasMahler]

Yeah, I read that. But you know, this page isn't really updated often and maybe Clay will also be available this year? I mean, I heard about it for the first time bout a year ago, so... maybe there's something new :)

Sorry if I bugged you with asking about Clay, Martin!

[StephanD]

I'm sure you didn't.

Your questions are all answered on the site(I don't think it's been a full year since the update too)

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