Author Topic: MODO to SD4 Tutorial - (complete workflow) wanted (Read 14024 times)

elowan · **on:** June 30, 2014, 01:14:13 pm

hello,

I am about to start a MODO 801 trail soon and I am looking for a complete tutorial on how to prepare models in MODO for bakes/uses in SD and or SP. A tutorial, that covers some mesh and UV basics, like how to keep "hard/soft edge informations" intact and general suggestions and things to keep in mind for this workflow, would be sweet.

So basically a MODO to SD "export workflow", is what I am looking for...

Cheers!

elowan · **Reply #1 on:** July 04, 2014, 08:07:35 am

So no experienced MODO & SD4 users here?!

pelax · **Reply #2 on:** July 09, 2014, 10:55:08 pm

That's currently not possible.

It appears that Modo 701 Substance plug is not yet compatible with Modo 801. So you'll have to wait for 801 version of the plug for at least a couple weeks. That's one thing. The second is that you'll need a B2M Pro (commercial) license to be able to use the plug in the first place!

So after the plug is released and you've got B2M Pro go to your account at 'thefoundry' and search for 'substance plug' in 'registered plugins' tab.

In meantime you can see the training for Modo 701 here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmM1xGWtDNM&list=PLB0wXHrWAmCy7KmPcnmGL38SMVv1yJkaU

sjogren.niklas · **Reply #3 on:** July 10, 2014, 02:33:55 am

Hello, great and interesting topic!
Im a rather experinced Modo user and I think I got the workflow OK between Modo and SD, I got some help and there is always room for improvement!
What kind of meshes are you trying to get to SD, hard or organic?
If nobody else answer, I can try to describe my workflow later or tomorrow when I have a computer in front of me!
/niklas

elowan · **Reply #4 on:** July 10, 2014, 06:09:24 pm

Hello,

I do not meant the Substance Plugin - just general Export, fbx or obj., how to asign material IDs and so on...

Would be cool to get some tipps from an experienced Modo/SD user. So please go ahead, sjogren

Cheers

mario.baldi · **Reply #5 on:** July 11, 2014, 11:00:25 am

Many modo users here, cool!

Anyway, exporting models from Modo to SD it's pretty straight forward.
I believe SD uses materials, not polygon parts, so you just need to assign a material in modo, setting hard edges with Farfarer's plugin where you need, and export to obj or fbx.

sjogren.niklas · **Reply #6 on:** July 11, 2014, 12:28:42 pm

Hello...
Im not that experienced in SD but I think I got the workflow, if Im wrong, Im glad to be corrected!

As mario.baldi said, its pretty straight forward.
In Modo select meshes/polygons and assign materials with the m key,
set the normal smothing (smoothing angle in the material) or farfares plugin is great. Older video by Wes - https://vimeo.com/38822246
I use export selected alot to export high and low poly meshes as obj and then all the meshes as one obj or fbx file.
I had some problems with the smoothing/smoothing angle in the beginning, but thats probably becuase I dont know enough!
Great video that I learned alot from, its not Modo or SD but...
http://youtu.be/kGszEIT4Kww

/Niklas

mario.baldi · **Reply #8 on:** July 11, 2014, 04:28:04 pm

Quote from: Wes McDermott on July 11, 2014, 03:34:29 pm

Hi Mario,

Have you had any issues with exporting materials from MODO FBX? In 801, if I use more than 2 materials, the IDs are getting mixed up. Have you seen this?

Cheers,

Wes

Hum, I just did one fbx test scene, with 6 materials and two very simple meshes/items.
They look fine when imported into SD.

elowan · **Reply #10 on:** July 14, 2014, 12:02:03 pm

Great.... So blender fbx and modo fbx is faulty?!
What 3D app does work with SD4 and SP the best?

Maya?

elowan · **Reply #12 on:** July 14, 2014, 05:21:34 pm

Thanks for the info, Wes!
Very good support, as always *thumbs up*

Ok, so I will have a look into maya, as well.... I used maya a loooong time ago, think it was version 8 or so... On a PPC Mac

But there must have been much changes to it, I guess....

Cheers

elowan · **Reply #13 on:** July 25, 2014, 08:34:02 am

Hey Wes,

were you able to solve this?
Is this an "insulated incident" or is this stuff still problematic in other apps, but maya?

I get a bit frustrated and hold myself back from 3D a bit - I´ve found my way into blender (was hard enough), tried Modo, got my hands on Zbrush for a while, tried Hexagon, Voidworld, 3D Coat and now it seems like "back to maya"... makes my head spin a bit

So I would be glad to finally find a 3D modling app to stick with for the future, to do complete work in and most important - to work 100% with export to unity and SD/SP

Anyways, I made a 6x6 segments cube (in Modo), assigned 5 Materials to different poly-areas and exported as .fbx with no additional settings... imported in SD 4.3.1 (forgot to update my USB-Stick-Version^^) and all material-IDs show up in the baker-dialog, with right face-count and color.

Baking UV to SVG with Material-ID Color works, also...

Kind regards

elowan · **Reply #14 on:** July 25, 2014, 11:41:18 am

But what not works for me, is smoothing (or maybe I did it wrong?)

I exported the .fbx when in modo-catmull-clark subd view - but get ugly lit / relfexions when importing that into SD... and more worse, no rounded edges any more...

Exporting the .fbx when in "normal, non sub-d view" gives 1:1 result in SD.

Cheers

edit: tested a few things, when creating a sub-d cube (rounded edges) in Voidworld and export as .dae file (there is no fbx export) it´s 1:1 in SD (shading is correct and edges are round)
However, when exporting the same Sub-D cube from Modo (.dae), the rounded edges get lost and
shadings looks ugly (in SD and VoidWorld)... so for me, the material IDs are working in Modo, but the smoothing/vertex shading seems not to work on export (no matter if fbx or dae) and it´s not SD´s fault...

edit2: In Modo, have to freeze "sub-D´d geometry" first, then it will display correct... hmmm