3DKiwi

I depart and Rantin Al returns. Good to have you back

Excellent. This is the type of communication I'm talking about :) Thanks Nigel

Thanks for your kind words Jim. StCanas / Karls post prior to this one by me sums things up very well. While it's been great to get Maxon's product manager posting here in the forums and other Maxon staff they have done virtually nothing to communicate what they are doing about people's concerns. While I don't expect them to tell us what's coming they could and should tell us what they are doing about Team Render and Team Render Server to make it more reliable. That would be an excellent start. Next up would be some of the long standing bugs and give some explanation as to why they won't address them. There could be very reasonable reasons that once we knew them we could accept and understand. I've been following Modo since 301 (spent more on Modo and Modo tutorials than C4D) and seen the stark contrast in communication from the developers towards their users. Maxon's communication is bad, really bad. Modo's is exceptional. Because it's that good and Modo 901 does a lot things much better than C4D does I'm prepared to put up with the occasional crash and the odd bug. Modo 901 once they fix a few bugs is a game changer for hobbyist 3D users in my opinion. For US $1299 I got Modo 901 that beats Cinema 4D R16 Studio that costs US $3695 in many areas and virtually all of the areas that interest me. Yes I know what's coming in R17 and I'm being very careful not to give any indication of what might or might not be in it. People will have to wait. Nigel

Yes Modo has a more complex gui and it does take some time to learn but for those that can get the hang of it as I have done before it is a more powerful application. For a beginner C4D is an easier app to learn and use. I expect to get back up to speed fairly quickly. Nothing unusual about watching a tutorial, I've had to watch my own C4D tutorials when I've forgotten stuff.

I've only ever bought C4D Release 8.5 and some modules. Wasn't the full suite but I recall it had Advanced Render, Dynamics (that were useless) and maybe something else. I had to pretend I was living in the USA and had it delivered to 3DCrew (The other cafe founder). He then posted it to me. The price of buying from the local distributor was about double the US price. I could have flown to the USA, paid for it then flown home again for less. Nothing much has changed since then except there isn't much of a price difference now. Still less in the US however and still less again if I was allowed to but from a US reseller. I bought Modo 801 (with free 901 upgrade) from a US reseller and saved $200 from buying direct from The Foundary. Depending on where you live now you can download C4D as opposed to having to have a boxed version. Release 9 and since I've been provided with review copies and or been a Beta tester. I had a clean out of my cupboard a few weeks ago and threw out all the boxes including bulky manuals. Sure took up a lot of room. I've kept my boxed R16 edition. Thanks for the kind words everyone. It's been a hell of a ride but my time with C4D is over or will be soon. I'll be exporting my extensive library of Lego pieces over to Modo. There's more Lego models that I want to create and I don't want to start from scratch. I should mention that my criticisms of Maxon are not about the people. The people that I've dealt with over the years have been very good to deal with. For anyone that's interested I've written an expanded list of issues I see Maxon as having here. Cheers Nigel ​

Thanks for the kind words everyone. Very humbling As mentioned there are personal reasons for moving on. Cycling is now my major thing in my spare time. I'd been thinking about stepping down from running the cafe well before Modo 901 was announced. Modo 901 as I've said is now a much better fit for what I do than what C4D is. Yes I have some issues with Maxon and how they run their business and I've been vocal about it. When you combine everything together it's clear that now is the time to move on. As I've found out in the past it's not viable to be proficient in 2 3D apps at the same time or not at the level I want to be. Like hsrdelic I can't comment on R17. Some people I'm sure will like it. THE CAFE WILL NOT CLOSE. It will have a new owner. I'll make an announcement soon. It should be business as usual as far as members are concerned. Back to work. Monday morning here in New Zealand. Nigel

LOL - Modo tuts. I've had to buy some today to help me get up to speed. There's actually plenty of very good ones and some good tutorial specific ones, you just have to hunt around the likes of Youtube to find them. I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for me to make some. I'm looking to have more time to myself and my own 3D rather than making tutorials. That said, making a tool specific tutorial is an excellent way to learn everything about a specific tool. Cheers Nigel

Thanks for the kind words guys Modocafe.com In fact I had this domain name and some others just in case I got the urge to start a modo forum. I relinquished all these domain names last year or whenever it was. I have zero interest in starting a Modo forum. The Foundary operated forum works pretty well. Now just maybe I'll post some Modo tutorials on my Vimeo page along side my C4D ones. Time will tell. I've forgotten how to use Modo. Bought some beginner tutorials today plus downloaded all the ones that I had previously bough from Luxology in the past. Now you can see why I didn't want to take donations and shut down the supporter's club. Not appropriate for me to take people's money with me moving on. I've been thinking about moving on all this year. Modo 901 just sealed it. At the end of the day the person owning and running this site needs to be pro C4D and supportive of Maxon. In all honesty I can't be supportive of Maxon any longer and my posts this year have often been quite uncomplimentary at times. That in itself started to make the alarm bells ring for me that it was time to move on. The way The Foundary interacts with their customers compared the almost code of silence from Maxon, that just pisses me off more. Members of The Foundary Management post regularly in their own company forums answering questions and clarifying things. That's a community that I want to be part of. Re R17 and what's in or not in as the case may be. I can't comment because of the NDA. I'll certainly be dropping in here once R17 is announced to see what you people make of it. Better I upgrade the cafe than a new owner not familiar with things take over then mess things up (more than I have). I want the new owner to start with things clean. All the 3rd party modifications have been removed. Everything you currently see is all done with the default applications apart from installing 2 custom themes which are dead easy to install or remove. Off to ride my bike

I was wondering if someone would notice this. I did think about whether I should post or not. I'm not too bothered the cat's out of the hat as it was going to come out soon anyway. To answer the question: Hopefully someone will take over running the cafe. I'm talking to someone now about it. When I've got something to announce I'll announce it properly here at the cafe. Yes I am moving on both from using C4D and also from running the cafe. Shouldn't come as any surprise to people that I'm dumping C4D. I've been increasingly critical / frustrated with Maxon this year in the forums. I no longer have the confidence in Maxon that I did after the R15 and R16 releases where I thought that they were finally getting their act together. Now I don't. I can only bang my head against a brick wall for so long. The Modo 901 upgrade is an absolute killer upgrade and for a hobbyist modeller like me. Modo is a much better fit than C4D is. Luxology / The Foundary also interact with their customers, something Maxon just doesn't get. I am no longer a Beta tester. I obviously can't comment on what's in R17 because of the NDA. Running the cafe has been a blast but the time has come for me to move on. I'm also a lot more into my cycling now. I want less responsibility than what I've had for the last 11 years running the cafe. Regards Nigel Doyle / 3DKiwi

Have there? I'm not aware of any.