I remember very well your amazing tutorial about sub-d and car modelling in Moi!!
Amazing tutorial!
Personally if I have to go with subd-d, altough Moi+Max's SubDiv is a GREAT tool, I prefer to jump into a classic Poly/SDS modeler and do all the stuff there.
A true sub-d modeler can offer a greater flexibility and many more tools for that kind of operation.
Anyway your tutorial was a mind-blowing piece of "art"!
Thanks Marco. Yes - Max's SubD tool is great, but as you say, not a substitute for a dedicated program (nor intended to be I'm sure).
What I like about it is that it's simple, and you stay within MoI. The biggest issue is the lack of ability to specify edges that you want to preserve sharpness. I think if more work was done in this area it would be extremely useful. There are situations where one needs an organic shape and the script is very easy to use.
And thanks again Marco for introducing me to Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer. Inexpensive, very easy to use programs that allowed me to simplify my workflow. I no longer use Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator in my business.
@You : "...And thanks again Marco for introducing me to Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer. Inexpensive, very easy to use programs that allowed me to simplify my workflow. I no longer use Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator in my business..."
You're welcome!
With Affinity Designer and Moi I'm experiencing very very powerful 2D workflows!!
At Affinity team, seems that times is ripe for new powerful functions in new releases. Maybe this summer.
I'm talking about some kind of deforming tools for curves and other advanced vector tools.
In this way Affinity Designer will become an even better companion for Moi.
While you may be correct about the SubD being easier in poly modelers, the benefits of doing it in MoI would be the accuracy in adding the details after the form is built. Creating details on a SubD cage in poly modelers is a most difficult process at the best (unless you're a true master at polyflow and Sub-D modeling, which in my experience is not that common).
Modo has a set of SubD boolean tools which do help, but I've heard mixed reviews. Trimming door handles, light openings, even body seams is much much easier in a NURBS package.
I will agree Zarkow is also such a master using NURBs in MoI, but once one can arrive at a basic shape, it is much simpler to add the rest of the details. And, from my perspective as one who has used both SubDs and NURBs to model hard surface objects, I find NURBs infinitely easier to use.
I'm hoping this isn't too long or boring... In the last month, I pulled up an old modeling challenge I had set for myself over 10 years ago. I had found an interesting hard surface model I felt represented many of the challenges I would like to conquer as I developed my modeling skills.
In the late 90's, as CEO of Human Code, we bought a design firm in Tokyo based on a personal relationship I had with the owner (a fellow Industrial Designer). Over the years I visited Japan over 30 times, and very much enjoyed the culture. The anime Ghost in the Shell had just come out, and it's sketchbook displayed a ridiculously talented team of artists and designers with a very interesting design language, not unlike what Syd Mead had created in the first Blade Runner.
In the book, was the following picture:
While it looks like some sort of hybrid Winnebago, it definitely has some interesting design challenges. My goal was to be able to design it in a single sitting, not days, but hours.
Then I discovered the HardOps Blender plugin, and it's author, Jerry Perkins.
( https://www.artstation.com/jerryperkins1447 )
Turns out he lives in Austin so we set up a lunch to visit.
It turns out Jerry is probably one of the top 10 best Blender modelers in the world. He's amazing and I've been lucky to work with him over the past 9 months on Alamo Reality as well.
We hangout a lot while I created all the Alamo architecture and new shaders, and he created all the characters, animations, and workflows. In the meantime he taught me Substance Painter as well, which I am forever grateful for.
One night I suggested we take a break and "take the Ghost in the Shell challenge" -- him working in Blender and I in SketchUp. I had not tried this in SketchUp in awhile and my chops have been fine tuned after the last 10 months working in SU and Unity. The goal was not a perfect model, but just a "proof of concept" for the top shape.
So, we both shared each others screen and began. After a very short time, I realized while I *could* build it in SU, it would take days, not hours to get it right-- so I switched to MoI.
Now, keeping in mind I really haven't touched MoI in over a year, I was able to create the toughest part of this in literally minutes, not hours. Suffice to say, Jerry was impressed as he quickly recognized the simple form of the top of this model was not as easy as it looked.
This is what I came up with in probably less than 30 minutes:
and then in KeyShot:
For me it cemented in my mind a couple of key points I can sometimes forget.
1. A key component of 3D software is not only ease of use, but also how easy you can return to it and "pick up where you left off."
2. Nothing beats NURBS when it comes to after the fact adding details! Full Disclosure, I did end up exporting as STEP to Onshape for some of the more problem fillets, but it took only a couple minutes and imported perfectly back into MoI.
In my mind, another testament to NURBS over Polys (for some things) and the ease of use AND ease of remembering HOW to use in MoI!
MoI Car Model.jpg
