One thing to clarify, in case people still don't know. The reason why I am not using Modeler is due to the fact that at the moment I am using Houdini as an enthusiast and because I am in Houdini alpha/beta so I do a lot of testing and for testing having any kind of plugins is just not recommended. So its not berceuse I am not liking it or something similar.

Alexey Vanzhula
3D-Coat is a wonderful program. I'm really glad that the developer is working on classical modeling. But for now, it's more of a solution for low-poly modeling. You can model in 3D-Coat with subdivision, but it's not comparable to other programs. I particularly insist on SubD modeling because it hasn't been phased out and is still popular, even considering the growing popularity of Plasticity as a convenient solution for hard-surface modeling.

I don't like Blender and its development policy, but YouTube is flooded with videos on subdivision modeling in it. Therefore, it's strange to read about your apparent hatred towards it, at least for this reason.

There is no hatred, I only make an honest assessment of Blender's shortcomings, the Blender modelling tools are over 15 years old, the BI has been promising to update them for over 10 years, and like I said, I like to limit the number of applications I use, it just makes no sense to me to add another application to my workflow for modelling when I already have Houdini and 3D Coat for that, besides, I rarely model these days, it's usually much faster to just hard-surface sculpt what I need using 3D Coat voxel-sculpting and then do an auto retopology, than to actually model anything, classical modelling is becoming a thing of the past IMHO!

GCharb

Alexey Vanzhula
3D-Coat is a wonderful program. I'm really glad that the developer is working on classical modeling. But for now, it's more of a solution for low-poly modeling. You can model in 3D-Coat with subdivision, but it's not comparable to other programs. I particularly insist on SubD modeling because it hasn't been phased out and is still popular, even considering the growing popularity of Plasticity as a convenient solution for hard-surface modeling.

I don't like Blender and its development policy, but YouTube is flooded with videos on subdivision modeling in it. Therefore, it's strange to read about your apparent hatred towards it, at least for this reason.

There is no hatred, I only make an honest assessment of Blender's shortcomings, the Blender modelling tools are over 15 years old, the BI has been promising to update them for over 10 years, and like I said, I like to limit the number of applications I use, it just makes no sense to me to add another application to my workflow for modelling when I already have Houdini and 3D Coat for that, besides, I rarely model these days, it's usually much faster to just hard-surface sculpt what I need using 3D Coat voxel-sculpting and then do an auto retopology, than to actually model anything, classical modelling is becoming a thing of the past IMHO!

Blender without addons cant do much, actually cant even compete with Houdini, even in the modeling realm. Houdini have more than 100 nodes to be used within modeling.

P.S. - I have modeled in pretty much all DCC's, and for some reasons, I am always coming back to Houdini.

PolyMarvels
Hey folks seems like a good opportunity for me to chime in and clarify some things around modeling in Houdini. Before I start, just wanted to say thanks to @GCHarb for recommending my videos.

I have learned a ton with your videos, so thanks to you! 😅

Again...

https://www.youtube.com/@polymarvels

Meanwhile, the hated polysplit doesn’t let you get bored

HGaal
Yes, the modeler add-on partially solves something, as I managed to form an opinion, but it is not unable to eliminate the main ulcers of the polysplit.

All this is easily done in Modeler with the PolyPen tool, except for non-screen projection, but this shortcoming is addressed in the upcoming version.

@HGaal, it would be nice if you could record a short video showing the results of using PolySplit and Blender's Knife on the same object.

Blender and Cinema have an ultra feature with the creation and shift of an edge parallel to the original one and the shift of intersections. Both from the outer and inner ribs. I haven't found a simple way to implement this in Houdini. Who knows?
This, by the way, is a great idea for a “modeller”.

Do you see polygons and traditional modeling surviving for much longer? It would be good to know if SideFX believes in it because perhaps it's not something they are considering in their roadmap, and we can let the matter fade away.

Carlos_Rivadulla
Do you see polygons and traditional modeling surviving for much longer? It would be good to know if SideFX believes in it because perhaps it's not something they are considering in their roadmap, and we can let the matter fade away.

Personally, I am moving more and more toward a sculpting/auto-retopology workflow, using 3D Coat voxel sculpting and auto-retopology tools, much faster this way, and I can easily make incredibly complex models that would be very difficult, if not impossible to model the traditional way!

GCharb

Carlos_Rivadulla
Do you see polygons and traditional modeling surviving for much longer? It would be good to know if SideFX believes in it because perhaps it's not something they are considering in their roadmap, and we can let the matter fade away.

Personally, I am moving more and more toward a sculpting/auto-retopology workflow, using 3D Coat voxel sculpting and auto-retopology tools, much faster this way, and I can easily make incredibly complex models that would be very difficult, if not impossible to model the traditional way!

You misunderstood what he was trying to say. Auto-retopology is still polygons. He was referring stuff like Gaussian Splatting, which (roughly) is a way to capture and render 3D environment without any polygon, let alone retopology.

Personally I think G-Splatting is just way too new for us to make any verdict, just like AI workflow. From what I know so far, it's quite hard to imagine how G-Splatting is going to replace character animation, for example.

kodra
You misunderstood what he was trying to say. Auto-retopology is still polygons. He was referring stuff like Gaussian Splatting, which (roughly) is a way to capture and render 3D environment without any polygon, let alone retopology.

Personally I think G-Splatting is just way too new for us to make any verdict, just like AI workflow. From what I know so far, it's quite hard to imagine how G-Splatting is going to replace character animation, for example.

Oh, my bad, g-splating is mostly a new way to deal with 3D scanning data from what I understand, pretty decent to turn images into 3D models and such, mostly for static objects, but I haven't seen anything that could really be used in production for rigging or painting without turning it into polygons, I have seen really cool stuff in Unreal, but mostly static, so I am not sure if the technology is quite there yet for production of anything that is not static, but this is definitely some cool stuff!

Also, I have a question, how do you go about creating non-existent objects, objects that cannot be photographed or scanned with g splatting, because if you can't, then yes, 3D modelling/sculpting is till pretty much relevant!

As long as you need something specific, 3D modeling will be the thing.

PolyMarvels
As long as you need something specific, 3D modeling will be the thing.

My thought exactly, g-splatting is for existing objects that can be photographed, if you need to create from scratch, then you need to model/sculpt, at least as far as I understand!

HGaal
Blender and Cinema have an ultra feature with the creation and shift of an edge parallel to the original one and the shift of intersections. Both from the outer and inner ribs. I haven't found a simple way to implement this in Houdini. Who knows?
This, by the way, is a great idea for a “modeller”.

Yes I hope edge manipulation like that will find his way in Modeler, I'm used to slide-duplicate existing edges (with metric distance, not %) all the time in Modo too, especially for sub-d edge supports.

PaQ WaK

HGaal
Blender and Cinema have an ultra feature with the creation and shift of an edge parallel to the original one and the shift of intersections. Both from the outer and inner ribs. I haven't found a simple way to implement this in Houdini. Who knows?
This, by the way, is a great idea for a “modeller”.

Yes I hope edge manipulation like that will find his way in Modeler, I'm used to slide-duplicate existing edges (with metric distance, not %) all the time in Modo too, especially for sub-d edge supports.

this feature will be implemented because it is truly useful.
btw, currently, Modo is almost the only source of inspiration

Will a modeler save Houdini from drying out? on the welcome screen of version 21 there will be Alexey’s face, apparently....

I really hope some staff from Sidefx come across this thread, if only to emphasise that there are people who do model in Houdini - and who want to model in Houdini!

Mike_A
I really hope some staff from Sidefx come across this thread, if only to emphasise that there are people who do model in Houdini - and who want to model in Houdini!

For sure there is tons of artist who want to do modeling in Houdini but the current tools makes it longer to do it.
Of course we wish to stay in the same program and do the work from A to Z in Houdini and not leaving the program just for modeling because when you do so you have to deal with different shortcuts/viewport etc.

And as we all know it's much easier for SideFX to do the tools and much quicker because they know the shortest way but sometime I feel they don't want to do it on purpose :/ and they want to stick with FX only.

I was dreaming of proper modeling tools for Houdini for ages and every new major release I say maybe this year they will do it but I get disappointed :/

Sometimes it's enough with 5 modeling and one basic sculpting tool.

jomaro
but sometime I feel they don't want to do it on purpose :/ and they want to stick with FX only.

I also like to model in Houdini and to me Houdini in modeling reminds me of an athlete who ran 10 km, and then did not reach the finish line 100 meters and changed his mind about running. Let me make some feathers. The audience is sad and angry.