I was wondering which tool to purchase, as both seem quite similar. Is there anyone who has used both? What are your impressions? Which one would you buy to work with Zbrush 2?
Thanks a lot!
IMO I would purchase XSI Foundations. It is cheaper than Modo and a full blown animation package as well…WITH a license of Mental Ray. The modeling workflow is pretty phenomenal and the community is growing at a rapid pace. It also ships with LOADS of dvd training material so getting up to speed won’t be too hard. If Silo seems like a great tool due to the price point…I’d have a look at Wings3D. It’s absolutely free and is a REALLY nice poly modeler.
What if he’s on Mac. no choice buying XSI. Myself, i bought Silo quite a long time ago, but it was quite difficult for me to use, yet i bought Modo few weeks ago and i fall in love with it, it has very powerful tools, yet ease to use. I advice you to buy Modo, it’s a bit expensive but it worth its price.
I use Silo & it’s a breeze to use, I know people who’ve used Modo & think it’s not much better considering the price difference, which is a hell of a big difference.
Silo works seamlessly with ZB too, XSI is also a good alternative for the price…
I’d wait on Modo, it still needs some improvements
-XSI is not cross-platform. I don’t like it.
-Modo needs improvements and its expensive.
-Silo is very affordable, easy to use, and powerful.
Silo is an excellent companion to ZBrush!!!
Here are some videos of Silo’s topology brush in action!
Excellent to use with ZBrush.
Drawing an eye video
Face video
Also, the Silo forum is one of the most useful and user friendly out there. The folks at Nevercenter are very good about staying in touch with their user base and always open to ideas and suggestions.
Check them out here…
Hope this helps.
Cheers!
Just because XSI doesn’t work on mac doesn’t mean it is bad or an unworthy investment. That’s like saying Final Cut Pro isnt a good investment/app because it only runs on Mac and not on windows. Modo is just way too expensive to justify the purchase when you can get a full animation package like XSI for like 200 bucks less. Silo looks pretty nice too though and it’s fairly cheap. Wings beats em all as it is pretty robust and best of all…free!
Just because XSI doesn’t work on mac doesn’t mean it is bad or an unworthy investment. That’s like saying Final Cut Pro isnt a good investment/app because it only runs on Mac and not on windows.
Hi Forty,
Sorry about the misunderstanding.
When I said:
“XSI is not cross-platform. I don’t like it.”
I should have divided these into two sentences.
Let me try this gain:
-XSI is not cross-platform. (not a plus if you work dual platform or on a Mac)
-I personally don’t like XSI in general.
Cheers!
i come from Lightwave 3D and i own Modo as well. i usaed it and it’s good as a Lw modeler evolution, but i agree it needs better things here and there. layer system could be enhanced greatly, stability and speed too. it has edges and n gons and lets u work in subd mode with them that is good , and it has falloffs and action centers that are good , but IMO needs some time to evolve. probably 1.5 update will be better and will take care of all the suggestions users put in CGtalk modo forum, and here as well.
I downloaded Silo, but i didn’t use it so far even if i’m going to try it in next days. Topology Brush seem to rock as seen in the videos, plus even if i didn’t buy it so far, i appreciated the responsiveness of the team in all Silo evolution. it’s surely a good modeler.
BTW i asked for a topology brush in Modo as well. 
Thanks a lot everybody!
One more question, maybe I am a classic and only use subdivision and such, but…what’s a topology brush?
Now I know what it is after watching the videos posted here by ZBArtist. Wow, great tool!
Hi tayete,
Here is a demo of some of the new Silo 1.3 features in action.
http://www.silo3d.com/Downloads/Videos/brook_demo.mov (2.4MB)
Demonstrating patching with the Topology Brush.
(Note: The patching process will all be automated soon.)
http://www.silo3d.com/Downloads/Videos/topo_patch.mov (1.5MB)
Enjoy!
