3D Silo.... 1.2... a modeling app almost there...

[gidge]

Well, it's been out for a while, but, non the less, thought since no one has posted the news as of yet that I would take this opportunity to do so...

Silo is a new modeler on the block, and though it's earlier version was somewhat of a limited app not offering a workflow that eneabled one to even concider switching from say Wings3D for box modeling, the latest version of Silo... 1.2 is IMHO almost there...

the good....

well, right off the top I would suggest that when working directly with manipulating a mesh that Silo truly has no competition anywhere in the way of workflow... it's workflow is fassssst.... set up a combo of Mirai cam control on your mouse, and then work out some Keyboard hotkey setup that suits your way of interacting and you will soon discover just how fast this apps workflow is....

like there you are hitting your extrude along normal key, and without clicking out hit your scale hotkey, then back to your extrude normal, oops you did not extrude it out far enough, no biggy, just hit your move along normal hotkey and adjust.... want the maniplulator handles for what ever op, just bind them to alt/whatever op, and whoila, work with widgits.... the options are there for you to decide on just how you want to interact... so cool

the subd features of Silo are perhaps the best in the business.... want to work in subd without the cage, the new isoline tech allows for this, with a variety of options... I mean this Subd toolset of Silo's is as easy to use as it gets... bing the subdivide to one key, unsubd to another, and refine mesh to another and you are rock'n... no menu's to climb, no tags to drag, nada... this is the best there is folks....

Soft selection tools are also the best in the business... gradient colors for your selection showing in color from near to far the area of influence for your next move... awesome, just frigging awesome...

Silo does have spline tools and poly tools, which is a bonus for those who make use of them...

As I touched on re-workflow, this app is very much user definable for UI prefs... customization includes the ability to setup mouse configs, hotkey configs, button pages which enable you to place butons where you need them, in which order you want them, and all the way to allowing you to import your own button designs...

all in all the modeling tools in Silo, along with it's customization factors make this app a winner in so many areas for those who are looking for a good modeling app..... but...

the not good as of yet...

Silo has a fw tools missing which for all intensive purposes makes this app, even with it's superior to all workflow speed, not quite as good as it is going to be in the near future... I say this becuase the makers of Silo do intend to impliment some of these missing tools within the next few micro updates

I think the most noteable tools missing are a "bridge tool", extrude verts, bump, dissolve, similar select tool, and the ever important snapping tool know in Wings3D as "put on" ... when you think about it these are some pretty durn important tools when it comes to box modeling, as without them it makes for some pretty time consuming workarounds which in turn sort of defeat the otherwise fantastic workflow this app has...

other than that IMHO the Virtual Mirror is not near as easy to use as the one found in Wings3D, which liked to the subd tools in Silo, is the best in the business...

Also the materials editor could use some work...

on the plus side, the developers are very keen to make this app rock, and the feedback by the userbase is listened to by the developing team unlike anything I have seen before

So there ya have it, some of the good and some of the not so good as of yet.... thing is, this modeling app is well worth trying out and getting used to in the way of learning curves, as IMHO, this little modeler is going to be one of the best modeling apps of the near future... it's workflow and some of it's features are simply too good to ignore.



http://nevercenter.com/index.php/Downloads/260

and for it's plugins go to this thread and download...

http://www.silo3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=772

have fun playing around with this cool modeling app

 

[Erik]

I looked at the features, watched the video tutorials, saw the price-tag, and, combined with your short overview of the app, I suppose it's certainly worth its money.
I have visited the forums, saw MAX, Cinema and Maya users state how fast this ilo is, I saw how it works with C4D renderer and with ZBrush2, read about the n-gons etc,and...I downloaded the 17-day trial.

Arrrggghhh...I have no money to spend!!!

 

[kiwi]

That is very nice bud



I suppose I am more of a slower modeller,for the time being,I make less mistakes



I like all this competition these modellers now have as well,its good for the consumer.Mesh sugery is rocketing along now as well.

 

[gidge]

Glad yas liked what yas saw guys....

@ Erik.... haha, I wished I had enough for a new puter, and a few more apps myself, so don't feel too badly

I kinda figure by the time this app reaches 1.3 it will be an app which will be too good not to get, but in the mean time, well heck, playing with the demo's is great fun

@ Stu... hey slow and steady is just the perfect speed for me too bud... yea, all the competition is totaly a good thing... Just wait, Silo is being ported for Mac as we type here, should be up and running pretty soon from what I can gather... so you will have a trial app to play with too and yea, Mesh Surgery sort of makes things happen very cool like for sure

ah well, just got in the door from doing some lawn and gardening at the inlaws so I am going to relax abit... talk to you guys soon

 

[gidge]

Bridge is now a plugin ... and will be included into the main app with the next version's release... oh yea baby...

also found in the plugin forum is a delete plugin for auto deleting those leftover verts when deleting edges/loops

Silo just keeps getting better and better almost daily... what a modeling app this is going to be in the near future...



http://www.silo3d.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=13&sid=a48915fa9eacae5b6d6fe7108d807b06

 

[gidge]

there were actualy a few bugs to sort out with the last release, but... they are indicating that a new, much more stable version is soon to be released... and that is good news indeed...

Now then, the thing I most like about modeling within Silo, beyond some of it's cool tools, is how much it's UI is somewhat similar in sparce design as is the UI of Wings3D...

I mean, yea sure, there comes a point beyond the modeling stages when ya need a full blown app with all the bells and whistle in order to do fx like particle stuff, enviro fx, cool lighting, and all the rest of what makes up a solid composition...

but for modeling alone, I personaly agree with many of the best modeling dudes on the planet in that less UI is the way to go when in the modeling stages... no button/icon distractions to lure your eyes away, rather lot's of realestate to work within...

here's a few small screen capture's of a silly bird thingie I am fooling around with in Silo...

the first one you can see that all there is showing is your model, and the gizmo's, which can be turned on or off, depending on how you prefer to model... I tend to model utilizing mostly hotkeys, but have the manips turned on most of the time anyways, as sometimes when you are in close it is just as easy to grab em as it is to hit a key for axis constraint... but yea, basically just you and your model... btw, this bird was boxed out, and then in this shot it has been subd'ed to level 1, with the isoline's still at level 0, cage optin turned off, and so you work with the level 0 isolines which are totaly interactive in drawing display, and the model view is smooth wire shade... so awesome to work with...

and the second shot shows the minimal button setup for interacting while doing ops... there are yet more buttons than can appear, and you can place em/design em to pretty much show where ever you wish, and look however you wish, including designing them to resemble your other fav app if that's what you wish...

The best way is to work with as many hotkeys as you can muster, utilize the gizmo's/widgits when ever it is handy, and have the buttons turned off... and when you need an option that is not on your hotkey setup you can simply hit the spacebar and whoila, the buttons appear...

 

[badboyXL]

this look very cool gidge !!!

please keep us up to date with your silly bird !!!
i'm enjoying your work

 

[gidge]

Haha, thanx bbXL.... this silly bird was but a few minutes of playing around with some of Silo's new tools in the latest release... just to get the hotkey's setup and tested out was all.... a doodle at best... but yea, sure I might just do some more with him... who knows, might just take him into ZBrush and really get funky

Gotta go, lawns to cut, hedges to trim and garden beds to fluff... see you soon, and thanks again for the nice comments

 

[Erik]

I now downloaded AND installed the 1.25 version.
I played with it one afternoon and I am hooked. Really am.

-Hold alt and use your three mouse buttons to rotate, translate and zoom
-Create your own buttons for whatever can be done, and place them as you want and where you want
-Extrude, Subdivide...I all know that, but choose to add the new points when subdividing or not???
-Soft selections, naahh...look for yourselves...
It even convinced me that n-gons can be useful. Sometimes.

It's no renderer, and the materials are limited.
But it is an option I keep open when C4D9 should be too expensive to upgrade, and as a compensation I want to SPEND MONEY [slick]

The mac version is in its final beta stage, and a Linux version will probably follow as soon as the OSX version proves to be as stable as the Win version.

Aaarrgghhh...I HATE puters and the Internet.
As Judy Tzuke sang: "the flesh is weak and the heart is willing..."

I'll post something done in it soon...

 

[Raven]

...if the puter is taking too much from you...try this radical method ...just pick up the brushes, paints, canvas, paper, pencils, etc. and turn the puter "off" occasionally. Wow, what a relief it is! It's probably not going to work for everyone...but I found I just craved getting out in the open sunshine and creating stuff I could actually "touch" with not only the eyes and mind.........just makes me want to go grab a lump of clay right now! You know, that stuff that sticks to your hands....

---Maya

 

[Erik]

Yup, Maya, that's it...You hit the nail on the head.
Thing is I do paint, I do make my drawings etc, but I also love digital creation. Just for fun. Problem is, to have anything digital in your fingers, you need much, much time. Time that is spent learning, meaning: brain activity. And I 'm more for emotional involvement, diving in.
Yet there are things I cannot draw, or paint. Fractals for example.
I love acoustic instruments, but I also enjoy electronic music a lot.
Real renaissance...

 

[Raven]

Yeah, Erik, I agree there are soooo many "tools" for creation that it can be mind boggling and rather taxing at times. Learning, etc. is great. I get to the point, though, where I just need to unwind from it all and take everything less seriously. When I do digital artwork I still come away from the pieces with the feeling that I didn't actually "create" them, that the machine/ap did...like with fractal designs... even though I realize the puter and aps are just different tools like a brush or pencil and paper is, I still get the sense of the resulting images as "unreal" somehow. Yeah, I know it gets to the ol' "what is real?" and "what is reality?" stuff....yet, for all the arguments on that one, I'm still left with some dissatisfaction regarding digital media. Then I spend time away from the puter---gees, just outdoors looking at the sky, etc., and painting....these things are more tangible for me and I need them. I guess I'm just not able to wrap my mind around the digital and embrace it like so many others.

I also have many other intersts like you do -- one I wish I had more time for is astronomy...it always makes me feel renewed to spend time gazing at the night sky and its mysteries. When I really get tired I also head for the ocean and I can find more balance there.

Balance. That's so difficult sometimes....

---Maya

 

[Erik]

One of my favourite intros into the dreamstate (the hothouse of imagination) is reciting names of stars. These work on me like magickal formulae.
(Algenib Baten Kaitos, Mirach, Zaurak, Aldebaran, Capella, Betelgeuze, Sirius, Acubens, Dubhe, Algenubi, Caphir, Spica, Arcturus, Alphecca, Antares, Sabik, Lesath, Cheleb, Eltanin, Ascella, Wega, Anubrium, Altair, Nashira, Sadalsuud, Denes Algedi, Sadalmelik, Fomalhaut, Achernar, Markab, Scheat,...)
I know the feeling on digital work not being tangible. Guess we're like amphibians, still needing to return to the water from time to time.
Which reminds me I just recently thought that as an artist one is neither father nor mother of the artwork. I feel more like a kind of "midwife" to it, helping it to get materialized and taking its own form and life. Yet this is not complete as I also feel the male side (as my will so mote it be) and the female side (the idea of something growing in the hothouse/womb of imagination, the "this is mine" and also the birthpangs) of creation.
One of the main things, and that i how I interpret your point of view that digital art somehow isn't "real" (read Thruth and reality by Otto Rank if you want to see confirmed that both are mindgames), is that puters tend to make me lose (and loosen?) my awareness of having roots, whilst drawin with a simple pencil, pen or brush has the opposite effect.
Which is why I don't manage to create a real painting in PS. This will come, but I have to learn to say "open" on the other side, to be tuned in to the high frequencies of inspiration and at the same time work on the puter and be firmly rooted. Which is rather complex to do at the same time. Putering only makes my insatiable human mind crave for more and more and more. But the rest of me is lest behind.
Well, something like this. Words are always difficult as the reveal as much as the estrange.

 

[Raven]

Truly the old names of stars are dream-inducing and magickal...it's a lot harder to get that impression from more modern numerical designations, or things like "M-31" for the Andromeda galaxy, etc. Your listing of many of the main constellation stars has sort of a lyrical quality too...very beautiful to hear. I use telescopes to help view stars and deep space objects/to draw or photograph some at times...but really nothing compares to just naked eye viewing on a calm evening without distractions of "gadgets." Also computerization has taken a big foothold into the realm of amateur astronomy with many new telescopes on the market...but I learned my way around the cosmos with just star charts and enjoy being able to just point out and spot with eyes alone where many things are...and I have lots of favorites!

I'm sorry if I got off topic here ... was just that your comments hit me ... rather like a bird hitting a window ... and I am like the amphibian out of water with the digital art.
I must look up that book by Otto Rank...........

Yes, you said it well, about putering makes one crave ever more and more input/experience...and yet there's also a feeling of somehow being left behind through it all. I sometimes feel "out of touch with reality" myself while working with digital pieces, and I guess then seek some sort of realignment through "hands on" type artwork. Afterwards, I can pick up the canvas and feel it's texture, smell the paint, watch how it changes in differing lighting and in placement in differing enviornments. Painting -- It is like a birth process -- and like once a picture is done it is of it's own life at last...all the processes you mentioned really are there. I have a bit of trouble giving up possession of some canvases...rather like when it's time to let children go = it can be a bit hard yet is very rewarding too.
---Maya

 

[Erik]

Indeed, when they find a good home, it's ok. But selling only for the money and knowing it'll disappear inas a possible investment? No deal!
Here, stars are not that visible. Light-pollution of the city. So when I vist my friends in the provence (South of France) I always wonder how many of them there are. And how much variation there is. The naked eye is, of course, unique. But I also do enjoy Hubble pics a lot.
Makes me think of (and that's the end of this little stroll for me) how scale changed...
When Pliny described the eruption of the Vesuvius that destroyed Pompei, he descriped the cloud that came out of the vulcano a having an enormous tree like shape, with branches in all directions.
When we now describe the cloud from a hydrogen bomb, we describe it as...a mushroom-cloud. There's no real-life scale around in that comparison. Why not? Because both imagesof mushroom and nclear blast in newspapers and magazins are at the same size.

The map isn't the country.

Now back to sketching and a bit of 3D. (point-modelling is about the most "real" experience I ever had with a puter as you really create from nothing and do it all yourself. Otoh: I love taking photographs, and there I also only decide on composition, and a bit of how I will make use of the given light situation).

Thanks for this philosophical intermezzo. Mes hommages,

 

[Raven]

Thanks for the voyage, Erik.

 

[gidge]

haha, and a great voyage it was

So... Silo eh ? Good for you Erik... I look forward to your digital sculptures unfolding here