Hi Nick,

I agree with Andrei for the most part. If you're into character modeling, then a Sub-D modeler is a good start-- or use a voxel or topology modeler like 3D Coat or ZBrush.

One of the best things about Sub-D is that you can continually 'tweak' the shape of the form, which as you know is all important in concept modeling. If you're planning on building something using NURBs in MoI (or Rhino or Alias like Simon), then you better be correct on the first try, or else you'll need to construct it over from scratch.

That is why you'll see a lot of NURBs models created from real life blueprints and not as much from the imagination, like Vitaly does.

Still, for me, the key is to be as facile as possible in whatever tool you use when creating concept models. If you look closely at Bulgarov, you will see he has created a 'form language' for his models, and he uses it to allow him to 'get it right' on the first (or sometimes second) try. This is really important, and something not easily accomplished-- especially in a 3D modeler. He actually 'sketches' in SoftImage-- I'd assume faster than he can sketch in real life. I also would believe he 'sketches' in MoI as well. I'd bet most of the following were created FIRST in MoI, then imported in SI for final assembly:



He told me the following were done in MoI (and that's the primary reason I jumped into this program to learn).


and I assume:


In fact, I really tried to recreate some of his forms in Lightwave Modeler, as it's very very close to SI in functionality and how it works. See #2 below:


Lightwave:



It was quite a challenge. They were NOT Sub-D but JUST poly only. I still don't know if he used MoI or not for that part of his rail gun. I can certainly see how easy it would be to create in MoI.

I think the point I'm trying to make, is that IF one can actually 'sketch' in their mind, and the application *together*, and 'get it right' the first or second time, then MoI can certainly be great for concept design, just as SI, SketchUp, Lightwave, Nvil, ZBrush and others. For the most part I've been doing a lot of that in MoI on other ID projects (I can't show here). I've found it not that limiting, but then I have had to use SubD for other types of modeling as well. (for instance these are all Sub-D: http://www.argodesign.com/wearables.html )