Silo - 3D Modeling Zen (Apparently)

iClone Custom
ToonMaker 2 Character.
I've been looking around for a 3D modeling application for some time now after slowly making some headway into the world of 3D animation with Reallusion's iClone. iClone is great for 3D animation but much of the time you're a slave to whatever content you can buy from various online market places and libraries - which is pretty darn extensive I must say.

However the one thing I can't buy is my own 2D character designs re-imagined as 3D characters. I can sort of make my own toon characters with Reallusion's ToonMaker and ToonMaker 2 but it's not quite the same. Whilst I'm not in a hurry to start cranking out 3D animation with my own characters it is something I'm interested in tinkering with now and then and I'd rather build my own characters.

Anyone who's signed up to SmithMicro's mailing list (the makers of Anime Studio and Manga Studio) may have come across special deals on Never Center's 3D Modeling Software, Silo, often being sold for half price or less.

Compared to other modeling programs Silo seems to live up to its tagline, '3D Modeling Zen'. The way you build and sculpt models seems very natural, almost like working with digital clay. See the demo video below.



Before making my purchase of Silo I did a quick search of the internet for people's opinions on the software. Most seemed to agree the User Interface and approach was really very good but the program had a tendency to crash on complex models. I'm not planning to make anything much more complex than my ToonMaker2 character above so I hope I'm going to be fine.

There were also some concerns that Silo is no longer receiving updates or development. I don't know if this is true. I just figure if the software works and I can import finished models into iClone through Reallusion's 3DXchange software, that's good enough for me.

I've yet to work with this software extensively but I must say it's very easy to get started and to begin modeling right away. The online video tutorials on Nevercenter's site are all very easy to follow and won't strain your mind with too much complex jargon.

Hopefully over the coming months I'll get to use Silo much more extensively and maybe even show you a few of my models in action. For now, I just wanted to tell you about the latest addition to my animation tool box.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Learning Moho Pro 12 (Anime Studio Pro) - Part 6, Pro Only Videos 7-13

Image
Continuing to work my way through Moho's Pro Video Tutorials (which were actually created for Anime Studio Pro 11) I must admit the training is becoming a bit of a grind. There's a lot to take in, with much of it being things that it's nice to be aware of but aren't entirely essential to know. As well, many of these videos rehash things already covered - which is not a bad thing and certainly helps each time I pick up from where I left off (particularly this time when it's been nearly three weeks between training sessions) The next seven videos don't contain anything particularly amazing in terms of program capability but each still contains valuable information. Below is the video titles I worked through. Pro - Advanced Fill Tools Pro - Advanced Style Palette Pro - Styles Improvements Pro - Eye Dropper Update Pro - Texture Transparency Pro - Advanced Layer Tools Pro - Layer Options Since nothing particularly stands out I'll just give a brief summary of eac
Read more

Review: Renderforest 3D Explainer Toolkit - Fast Cloud Animated Video

Image
I first reviewed video creation site Renderforest back in November of 2017 . Since then they have been adding more and more content packs/tools to their cloud based video creation studio, branching into animated explainer video territory in the process (as well as logo and website design too). This review is focussed on their 3D Explainer Toolkit , but keep in mind, along with several different animated toolkits (including whiteboard), Renderforest has toolkit/templates to suit almost any video need from logo stings and music visualizations, through to complete video templates that can be highly customized with your own content. Click here to browse their template library. I am planning to review some of their other animated toolkits in the future but their 3D Explainer Toolkit particularly caught my eye because few (if any?) similar cloud animation services offer 3D animated styles. Global animation customizations in Renderforest's Studio. Renderforest's editing studio revol
Read more

Hand Drawn 2D Digital Animation - Get Started with These 3 Free Applications

Image
Penguin Jump Pencil Roughs by TET. Hand drawn 2D animation, more commonly described as 'traditional' animation, where each character movement is meticulously drawn frame by frame is still one of the most versatile forms of the art. Essentially, if you can draw it, then it can be animated. There's really no limits other than your own drawing and animation skills. If you already have a digital drawing tablet or pen display monitor and want to get into hand drawn, 2D digital animation then these three applications are a great starting point and they're all completely free. Pencil2D Pencil 2D's User Interface is clean and very easy to learn. Pencil2D has been around for many years. In fact I first wrote about it here in 2009. It's an application that was a great idea but wasn't fully developed and could be buggy. After many years with no updates a new team appears to have taken on the task of developing the software further with a few upgrades. I took some tim
Read more