Modo does in fact have the ability to edit and build materials with nodes. Just add them into the Schematic view and connect away. You will still have to use it in conjunction with the tree for certain effects as it won't support everything you can do with tree.
On Tue, Jun 19, 2012 at 1:32 PM, Thomas Helzle <[email protected]>wrote: > Steffen, sorry for the confusion - they call it Rendertree as well ;-) > While it's not node based (and I really am a node addict myself) this is > much less of a problem than I thought, in some areas it's even better. Now > that I used it for a while, my old impression (not so different from yours, > Steffen) has changed a lot. > > BTW. Lightwave isn't "layerbased" and never really was, Ronald? Current > versions of Lightwave (for many years now actually) have full blown node > shading which is in some areas better than XSI (no conversion nodes, yay > ;-) ) and less good in others (some factory shaders are a bit simple). But > I think the Lightwave Renderer is still top notch and GI is very fast. > > Again, I don't think modo is for everybody, but IMO it's more artist > friendly and -centered approach goes a long way towards getting stuff done > fast where the big packages can be a bit long in the tooth. > > Regarding the price: 20 years ago even a rotating cube was considered > awesome and you needed a lot of special knowledge, gear and patience for > even the most simple stuff. Been there, done that. > But the times are changing and today 3D is no longer something special. > I see an inflation happening: falling rates, cheaper, better and faster > gear, more people wanting "in" etc. > The big tools are up against Blender - with Cycles, Camera Tracking, > Volumetrics, Fluids, Compositing etc. today. > Very very different times IMO. > > I can't see how Autodesk prices are cost-of-development driven in any > reasonable way. > The packages they have already exist. They are noodling around with them a > bit, but the last time I saw something really impressive in a major 3D > package was ICE in XSI 7. > > But anyway, I don't want to convince anybody of anything here, it's just > that I get the impression of a serious "Stockholm Syndrome" from some of > the discussions on this list ;-) > > Each to his own - YMMV > > Best regards, > > Tom > > On 19 June 2012 12:55, Steffen Dünner <[email protected]>wrote: > >> 2012/6/19 Thomas Helzle <[email protected]> >> >>> especially their render tree >> >> >> They have a render tree? Node based? >> Last time I checked, all I found was some sort of layer-based stack that >> felt somehow "ancient". Can you point me to a tutorial or feature >> description that shows this render tree? I would be very interested in it. >> >> Cheers >> Steffen >> -- >> PGP-ID(RSA): 0xCCE2E989 / 0xE045734C CCE2E989 >> Fingerprint: 394B 3DA9 9A9A 96C6 3A5A 0595 EF92 EE1F >> > > -- ------------ puppetstring.com

