Cerbera

I sympathize. Modelling is very much 'my thing' but as scene nodes isn't quite ready for proper deployment in any client jobs I tend to get, where trad modelling is much faster to get what I need, I find myself delaying the full-on in-depth learning of Scene Nodes until such time as they are a) more fully integrated and b) more learning material is available. Of course as SN are relatively new, and still under development it is perhaps understandable that training mats are a bit thin on the ground initially, though I know there are definitely people working on them for the future. CBR

Oh good. Melody Sheep have been at it again, and have just uploaded their 4K 3rd chapter of their amazing Life Beyond Series. Solid 40 minutes of glorious eye and ear candy ! Enjoy ! CBR

Excellent work. Really cool atmospheric image there... love(craft) the tentacles ! CBR

Welcome to the Core ! 🙂 Good to have you onboard - enjoy the learnings ! CBR

Well I had totally misunderstood the question ! I thought HP meant the display type orange outline like objects can have ! CBR

Yep, nice to have you around - enjoy your learnings and teachings alike ! 🙂 CBR

In the object Menu of the OM. I may be wrong but I don't think lights have ever had an outline have they - only their falloff distances when the mode is set to anything other than infinite / none... or am I misremembering ? CBR

I like the colours in that, and the shot in general, but I am feeling the need for a more natural layered smoke / fog rather than the thin mist we have now. Would it detract too much from your stylised look to consider using a fog or cloud medium here instead of the depth pass business ? CBR

Well it started off well, but as things move on the scope for error increases, and in your case the quality decreases the further out toward the wings we get ! 8 ngons (same 4 per side) there still to be resolved, and some rather grim topology on the ends there... that's probably not how we should do that ! On the top here, we have some coplanar quads, which need to be not so by sliding the centre points out a touch to make more kite shaped quads... You could redirect the flow around the cockpit by insetting the polys that comprise it. Likewise the whole top and bottom wings could do with a perimeter loop that way too so we avoid junctions on borders like we see now on the front of the wings where they join the body. And I see we are not yet acknowledging the secondary flows in the reference, like the sectional nature of the front for example) and I think your poly flow needs to reflect that more (ie at all!) before you go on... Lastly, on a silhouette note, I don't think you quite achieving the profile of the wings correctly, that ULTRA organic shape, and your model may not be deep enough compared to reference in the engine areas. So, a few things to think about there for you... I have shied away from just telling you the answers because there is a lot of value in you rebuilding / adapting those bits and trying to find the ideal solutions yourself first. It was a very good start - let's not go duff now ! 🙂 CBR

Welcome to the Core ! 🙂 May your learnings be excellent, and your 3D's extra rewarding ! CBR

I gotta say, not to hijack the thread or anything, but I am having so much fun in Substance, and not missing any of the content I am not getting by not having the Adobe account*. 2 days left to get a perp license for 77 pound or equivalents; not often you see value like that... * except possibly some brush functionality. A lot of the brushes you get in Substance are Photoshop ones, so if you don't have that, you get little helpful warnings about what won't work about them, example below. It doesn't seem to stop them being functionally useful however... CBR

Nope, free updates til end of 2022. No idea what happens after that ! CBR

That's an interesting question. I don't know yet ! We should ask @FLima who's been using it for lots longer than me ! The manual doesn't appear to say, but initially at least it launches from the Steam app, which I believe you have to be online to log in to. But the software is installed on my system and there are instructions for how to launch it directly without the steam interface. CBR

I just went for the steam / substance thing, and am not disappointed. Despite being slightly unclear on what exactly I am missing out on without the Adobe sub, I took a punt, and all seems good ! I do appear to have everything I need to make great materials - loads of presets, brushes, and the sort of things I was hoping for, including those nice particle jobbies ! So that's me happy 🙂 Yep, @HappyPolygon, Steam normally does games but increasingly other things too these days ! I have been 'playing' SD for 2 hours now, and have already won some sort of random gamer style award 🙂 Now for 3 weeks of hardcore learning while I try and make it work with Cinema and Octane and try and get my workflows sorted ! CBR

Know what those are specifically by any chance ?! 🙂 CBR

Very nice ! Thanks for the share - some really good trees in that pack ! CBR

Actually, I missed someone - let's not forget @imashination... and all his 3D fluff tuts over the years. His lucid clarity, great explanatory skill and subtly humorous presentations always raise a smile with me and I enjoy his vids a lot. CBR

Chris Schmidt, Niko Schatz... CBR

yes, by which I mean no 🙂 lols... And also Yes. I would say R25 is stable, most notably moreso than previous versions when switching layouts. CBR

Yes I agree the early months of R23 were dark days in the reliability department, although as noted, that did get better with service pack updates. S24 was better again, and from my experience I would say R25 (in my case with Octane) is a leap up again, and much nearer the fabled R21 levels of stability Cinema was famous for. CBR

That will be a fair expectation, but it is impossible to say when developments in that area will happen. For now, a lot of the gaps are admirably covered by XParticles but of course I appreciate that is an extra cost, and not an insignificant one ! But I don't think the native situation is quite as hopeless as some may imagine; we recently had a look at new dynamics in the S24 placement tool, and it seems reasonable to imagine that PhysX style interaction could be expanded and further integrated as time goes on. I hope cloth gets some love though - it would be great if that were capable of something more than drapes or capes - something that would make it genuinely useful for character clothing. And it can only be a matter of time (though how much time is anyone's guess!) before we get some sort of proper fluid / fire / smoke action... CBR

Modelling-wise, there is nothing quite like Modo in look, feel and precision. I hope it doesn't get subsumed by everything else around it. I often wonder if I would end up there if I ever lost my love for Cinema - although I am more familiar with Max, which seems these days like a sort of stagnant monolith to old school modelling (which in itself isn't a bad thing !), there is something about the look and organisation of Modo which makes me think I would prefer to work in it over Max's horror show muddle of a GUI. Of course now Igor and the interwebs is showing me the wonders of Houdini of course that is also a contender. But I am generally very happy in Cinema now (with the normal list of exceptions 😉 ) so I ain't going anywhere in the short-term, but kinda hope Modo remains there should I ever feel the winds of change (cue Scorpions anthem etc etc)... CBR