OT: Modo vs C4D for commercials, composites, & industry compatability

I am looking at Modo & C4D. I have Blender but usability is awkward. I haven't gotten to creating a mesh. I usually take it to PS for painting then to AE.

My 1st thought was C4D since i had some experience with it only about 3months total but enough to know its easy to get started on rather nice beginner models.

Then i saw this - [www.tdt3d.be], and it made want to consider Modo. I saw their site and seen a lot of things that seemed more of what you might see in commercials.

C4D can probably do just as much.

In terms of industry usage which is more widely used?

and

If there people here who are using either of these, Which one would you say gets the job done fastest? Could you please share your opinions on highlights, pluses and minuses. That comparative in some parts, was a bit over my head as of now.

Thanks.

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

Hello I use C4D, as you say it is easy to get started. I've been using it for the last 5 years, mostly for stills but more and more for moving image.
There are some great cheap plugins, Photomatch for camera matching and tracking also Add the Sea for fluids.
Plus points are great Photoshop and AE compatability and FCP, to be able to export a rendered mesh including some transparency with an alpha channel makes it really easy to use.
Also with Bodypaint you can paint and texture in 3D.
As far as industry standard goes Maya by Autodesk is the one, I found it really hard to use and I personally don't like Autodesk.
Autodesk own Maya,Softimarge and 3D Max very expensive.

Here is a link of a little animation done in C4D [exposureroom.com]

This only took a day to model and render.

A friend of mine just started using Modo and really rates it, says its easy to model.I haven't used it myself but it does look interesting.

I think it's really just personal taste or cost!

If you need any help please email me, I'm in London UK not sure where you are

Derek

Yeah, I know Maya is top hound in the industry. I agree its hard to get started.

to me i felt that even though maya was top dog, there had to be other apps that were alternatively used in the industry. Sorta like Avid, FCP, and Premier. (Maya, C4D and Modo)

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

Hi J. I use Modo.

Modo is really great. I used it in a spot I am delivery tonight.
Very easy to get very nice looking photo real images that render very fast (for 3D).
Very modern approach to the interface and tools.

But... It was not originally released as a full featured animation system. Yes you can animate. But there is not strong support for character rigs, there is no particle system. No physics simulations. You can do basic animation, multiple cameras, HDRI illumination, etc. Great for something simple like a photorealistic product shot. Not so great for a full scene full of characters, natural phenomenon...

It does a great job and has a great community, but it is primarily used as an additional tool to whatever primary
3D system is your particular favorite. I use it with Lightwave.

Every new release adds more animation features so it's worth keeping an eye on.

Sprocketz

Would you say that C4D has a better character rigs? I did read that it is easy to animate there.

I mean i would like to get around to creating a full commercial with basic shape, and animated characters.

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

I would "characterize" Modo's CA rigging tools as "under development" right now.

There is a new version coming out soon, 501. From what I have read it will have a new
developers SDK that will allow more easy development of the typical CA toolset.

Modo was originally released as a modeler primarily.

I don't know much about C4D's CA abilities but I would assume it has all the normal tools the
other applications offer: bones, forwards and inverse kinematics, weight maps, etc.

Edit:
I should say that Modo does fit into the CA pipeline as an extremely good app for modeling characters
in the first place. This is the kind of thing it was designed for from the start. Like Z-Brush or Mudbox.

But animating them? Not so much. Not yet anyways.

CA in C4D is very good also there is a plug in so you can import characters and motion capture files from Poser.

Derek