Do any of you have experience using both Silo and Hexagon? If so which do you prefer for making morphs for Poser? I think I read on one of the other cg boards a while ago that the Silo developers corrected the 'reordered vertex' issue that pops up with some modelers with respect to Poser. I'm impressed with both these modelers and for my hobbyist purposes I can't justify any of the 'major' apps. I have the demos for each, but I'm in no hurry to reinvent the wheel. (The Hexagon demo just came out so I haven't used it much yet.) If there's a 'deal breaker' for either of them that I haven't stumbled into yet I'd like to know about it. I'm very impressed with what I've heard about how quickly the Silo developers respond to bugs and customer requests. Can't say the same about Eovia from what I've read, but it looks like they did a nice job with Hexagon. Thanks for any feedback.

Not sure about morphs, but I tried Silo and gave up on it, but I have the Hexagon demo and I am loving it. Basically it is like Wings on speed. Not sure whether it is enough of an improvement over Wings, which is free, to justify the price though.

How long ago did you give up on Silo? The latest version seems great to me. I'd love to be a believer in Hexagon but Eovias history with buggy releases that never get fixed makes me twitch ;) It would be nice if Hexagon put that issue to rest. Maybe it will.

My first attempts at sub-division were with the Silo trial (version 1.3) but I ended up getting Hexagon on release. I don't regret the choice, finding Hex much easier to learn and with some great line and surface modelling tools. Best of all is the dynamic geometry. I also prefer the interface to Silo - but that's a personal matter for you to decide. On the other hand, Silo does have some extra features that Hex doesn't, most of them are minor to me except for the topology brush, this may yet sell me the program - if I ever find my modeller's feet that is. The other plus with Silo is that it is a product in development, what you buy will gain new features at no extra cost (until version 2) - with Hex, what you see is what you get.

I use Silo exclusively now, and left Shade in the Shade. I have not used Hexagon yet, but for the prices ~$180 for Hexagon and $109 for Silo, they are both excellent investments. Depending on your particular style of modeling, box modeling, patch, etc, you can adapt to programs to suit your needs. Silo does have a flexible and customizable workspace that you can re-arrange and set certain functions to your mouse buttons, and keyboard shortcuts. I have not tried Hexagon yet, so I cannot truly evaluate it; however, it does appear to be another powerful and ergonomic modeling tool to add to your arsenal. -The Starkdog

I wouldn't let Shade go altogether though, it is a great spline modeller, perfect for architechture. It also has that magic draw tool and meta-elements, which are a bit nifty. I will certainly be putting most of my time in with Hex but Shade is going to remain part of my tool kit.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=2228908

I also hadn't tried Hexagon yet, but one note about Silo... it's output .obj files, well, no sugar-coating it - they suck. If you're on a PC and plan to use Silo to create .obj files for distribution, you might want to take a look at the linked thread, and/but in particular, my posts #58 and #59. Then scroll back up to post #10 for one way to solve the problem.

Yup! I've given that a permanat place on my desktop with the other modelling aps - and many thanks for it. I've got a lot more to learn about the actual modelling, then uv mapping, then assmebely, and when I have, I'll be ready to stomp it all. I haven't yet tried out Hex's output, so I don't know if its better - but I've just re-discovered Isaac Asimov, so the computer is taking a bit of a back seat for while.

I would recommend that before you spend a hundred or 2 on a modeller you have a good look at Wings3D. I think it's a truly superb little application. Sure, it's missing a few of the features you might find in big money modellers, but it has plenty of useful tools well suited to modelling for Poser. It is one of the best-thought-out applications I have ever used, modelling or otherwise. Once you get set up with hotkeys the workflow is very, very smooth. That's not to say Hexagon isn't better (I haven't tried it), but it would have to have everything that Wings has and a whole lot more before I put Wings away and spend $180.

I got in early and used my old Amapi 6 to upgrade for 82. I wouldn't have bought it were it more than that. You are absolutely right about Wings though, its a very capable program and smoothing can be kept to selected regions of a model, rather than performed on the whole object or not at all (as is the case in Hex - not in Silo).

Yea. I'm a long time Wings user. I can still work faster with Wings than any other modeler I have, but I'd like some of the additional tools that Silo and (I think) Hexagon have. As for Amapi, well, I've been using Amapi Designer 7 that comes with C4 Pro a lot for about six months now. I've read every page of the manual and Brycetechs tut and know my way around it pretty well, finally. I've really really tried to like Amapi...but now I'm looking forward to deleting it, hmm, no, shredding it ;)

Message edited on: 05/26/2005 11:35

...thanks for the heads up on Silo obj files, Spanki. Just did a quick and simple test: Extruded one face of a cube twice, first in Silo, then in Hexagon. Saved each as an obj. The Silo obj is four times as big as the Hexagon obj. Sheesh. Don't know if that's a deal breaker for me, but it might be. Going to do a few more tests and take a closer look at the file contents. Then I'll run your nifty looking STOMP utility and see the difference. Thanks for taking the time to make that available to us all for free, Spanki.

I've only used Amapi 6, but from that, Hex is Son of Amapi, no NURBs but all the line, surface and poly tools are there, with some new ones (quite a few new ones from Amapi 6). If you've used Amapi, even if you hated it, you'll find Hex much easier to get into, having familiar tools but with a clear and intuitive interface.

About Wings3D. Wings, for it's price (free), is most probably the best modeller for Poser, but there are certain limitations. Firstly, it lacks some of the more advanced tools, and it has a limit on the size of object it can handle. But that said, every model I make in Cinema 4D, Hexagon or Shade, I import into Wings to check it's compatibility with Poser. If the model won't open in Wings, you know it will have a problem in Poser. Wings shows up inverted normals, double sided polygons, n-gons, etc, better than any other modelling program (and I have tried them all).

OK, I just tried out the evaluation version of Hexagon, and I am hooked. I just need to get used to their object selector tool, as it is easy to hit the wrong key and mess things up. As for the workflow, it is smooth as silk(I cannot refer to a "baby's butt" as it is against Rosity's TOS;)). I have modeled the vase that was in the tutorial pdf file. I just have to figure out how t oindicate levels of subdivision, because my vase is 56800 polygons, and I can stuff about a dozen V3's in it, but I resized it down. I tried to render it in Shade, but Shade crapped out. I rendered it in Poser5, and it looks awesome. I just used a simple stock glass shader, and adjusted the glass color. I then made a light granite texture for the cune, and made it highly polished. I also softened the shadows from only 1 infinate light. Now, who says Poser5/ firefly is crap??? -The Starkdog