The MODO Situation...

[@3dsolidmodel]

Thank you for this heartfelt message. I know we’ll be working with Modo for a long time to come and that we’ll see each other often. I hope someone will respond to your suggestions and take action. Thank you for everything you’ve done so far, and I wholeheartedly encourage you to continue advocating for and promoting Modo.

[@Flavio_Mark]

If it wasn’t for PF I wouldn’t be able to use Modo at all. I have learnt so much from you guys, Foundry should really consider your proposals. They make way more sense than burying the software like they have been doing these last years. Thanks for being the voice of our community, Greg!

[@angushume2054]

I really hope Foundry takes note. Like you I have projects that return regularly over many years. Working on one now that is 11 years. Thank you so much for you and the PF team’s support.

[@verboommm]

Thank you, Greg for all!!! I hope that Foundry still won't stay to bury Modo completely and will give you the code - at least now, after many years of slowly killing Modo, they could act decently towards the community at least once.

[@TinyForgeDK]

Thanks for the video Greg. I've always been so greatful for your Modo content and also your commitment to the Software. I love Modo and the community and I really hope that Foundry listens to your proposals. Makes a lot of sense.

[@amigarulez]

Thank you for this video and your passion, you are a beautiful human being Greg.

[@MrElicola]

Thanks, Greg to do this video and what you do for the Modo community. We can’t loose this software.

[@mattwestrup2000]

Thank you for doing this Greg, and also for all your work with Pixel Fondue over the years. I learned a lot from you guys. I hope The Foundry are able to come to an agreement that improves on the mess they have left everything in. I thought I was the only one that has been frustrated by the business model and performance of Modo over the last few years, so its refreshing to hear I wasn't the only one pulling their hair out. I'm sure I speak for many when I say that if I can do anything to help improve the situation then please let us know!

[@myxsys]

Foundry killing Modo has put up all their other products at risk. No beginner would want to invest time and money learning a software that might get cancelled in the near future. Completely support you Greg. Hope they agree to your proposals.

[@robingrotenfelt5025]

Thank you, Greg. I truly hope the Foundry considers this, though I must admit, history hasn’t left me feeling too optimistic.

[@curtthurston7931]

Hi Greg. Thanks for all you have done 'so far' in the Modo-verse. I'm one of the freelancers who has been using Modo since 1.01. One of my selling points to clients is that I create libraries of their products that can be reused indefinitely in illustrations and animations which helps keep their costs down because I don't have to rebuild everything every time. I literally have terabytes upon terabytes of files that go back far beyond 10 years, and I still have to access them from time to time. I hope they honor your proposals. This seriously affects my business. Thanks for all you're doing!

[@Pixelfondue]

I'm in the exact same place as you. So far they have been open to finding solutions and I think there's a decent chance we can work something out. I'm certainly not going to just cave in.

[@dimitrineron]

Thank you for your time to help modo community!

[@marlosteed]

Thanks Greg, I like your proposals! Thanks for all you have done to promote Modo and help and inspire all us Modo users.

[@seanriley3]

Spoken from the heart Greg, I really appreciate what you and your team have done and continue to do for us Modonauts, and it really angers me how the Foundry have treated the lot of us these past few years. They will not be around for too long at this rate, so if they release the code to you guys, it may be a blessing in disguise. Thank you so much for your time and efforts over the years

[@alexanderk8150]

Thank you Greg for putting this up! I love using Modo, it's a great tool and I really hope it will survive this.

[@jamesatkinson3699]

Thanks for this video Greg. It was great to work and have a passion for 3D along such a great community during the life of Modo. Such a passionate group.

[@JoelAppugliese]

Thanks for your insight Greg. Spot on as always. I can only imagine how incredible it would be if Pixel Fondue were to acquire the source code. It would feel like a return to the Luxology days when it was being by people who were passionate about their product.

[@lucagiarrettino1545]

Greg, thank you so much for your tenacity. I think we need to start talking about Crowdfunding to keep these initiatives you talk about alive. The time that you and the Pixel Foundue team dedicate to Modo needs to be paid in some way, even more so now that none of us pay Foundry anymore.

[@ronaldbell7429]

I loved Modo back in the day. I used it from 301 to 902. I left after Foundry made it more expensive, switched to subscriptions, and I'm just a hobbyist. It just didn't make sense to continue those ever-increasing costs for something I didn't even use every year. But this makes me sad, and I'd love for Foundry to follow your suggestions. I liked modo's modeling environment more than I like Blender's. (I never got much deeper than modeling in modo, so the rest I don't know).

[@geoffeep]

Thanks for all the work you have done over the years. I still love my Modo 10. I live in Houdini for my hobby projects a lot more over the last 10 years or so, this video was a good reminder to me I need to check out more of your Houdini vids!!

[@GhLee-m1e]

Thank you all your time to help Modo community!

[@VitalMasiukevich]

Thanks for all, Greg! Foundry, #freemodo !!!

[@ivanleko1]

Because of my bad English, I rarely type comments on the Internet. But this one deserves to be commented on. First, I want to express gratitude for taking your time and exposing yourself to this situation and hope that your effort will be rewarded.

[@Pixelfondue]

Thanks. : )😃

[@Nilswille]

Thank you for doing this and everything you PF guys have done over the years. Much obliged ❤ I think there is no chance at all that the Foundry will open source the Modo, I think they just see a legal headache they will never entertain. Question is, however, whether they will consider selling Modo to a crowdfunding Modo community. I wonder what price they will ask, stranger things have happened, we might get surprised.

[@marosini]

That was my first thought. What about a Kickstarter initiative to redeem the source code and give it to a non-profit Fonduetion (so that Pixel Fondue remains a company). If each of us pledged the value of a year's subscription, it would start to get interesting.

[@Nilswille]

@ I like the way you think! 😉🙏🏻

[@gabriel260807]

thanks you for all the content you did for us over the years

[@massimilianoferretti3649]

I really hope the foundry will listen to your proposal, Modo is too beautiful to be lost forever.

[@simoncritchley7466]

I 100% support you on this Greg. I can think of no better custodian of Modo than good yourself. Thank yoiu so much for your help over the years. As a Modo user from the very start I have used your how to videos an embarassing amount of times..I should know better but sometimes I just need that 60 second reminder!!

[@leoslawik]

Thank you so much for always being the biggest voice in the Modo-verse for me! As a user earning my money for the last 16 years with Modo and having seen it's improvements from version 101 on, i cannot feel any other than sad, although we all saw it coming. I really hope the Open Source suggestion will work out!

[@rubberjohnny5]

100% support what you are doing.

[@david_escalante]

We never got MPath with support for volumetrics u.u I don't see myself jumping to anything else soon. I still believe Modo will continue to be developed in the future; there is a lot of technology, code, and effort behind Modo that would be beyond tragic to lose. As much as people try to hype Blender, there are things that Blender just can't do, or at least not as easily as Modo. I am not moving to Blender.

[@StevenScott_studio53]

dropping truth bombs!

[@esparafucio]

Pixel Fondue becoming a foundation and receiving and open sourcing Modo code would be the best outcome, but as Greg said, Foundry is such a weird company. As a Houdini user as well, that rant about Houdini development is 100% on point.

[@csicso3d]

I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings or be harsh, so handle my comment with some humor: Thank you very much MODO-JESUS!!! Keep up the great work! We are all behind you and follow you along this journey!

[@michaelgass190]

Modo user for 12 years. Thankyou Greg. I agree with and support every point of your proposal to Foundry. Regarding the future importance of the indie market to Foundry, that's where the slash-priced (and NC) Mari will be in 1-2 years.

[@szambotube]

I'm totally with you. Thank you.

[@andersborum9267]

Thanks for everything. I used MODO to rebuild some of my best scenes from the days of the Amiga, and the modeling tools were always very good. Also, the viewport felt very similar to Alias Wavefront on SGI workstations. Moved to Blender but am sorry MODO is going away.

[@chrischapman5188]

I was a Modo 101 purchaser back in the day. Was on the beta team for a few years. Great community with Brad Peebler and his podcasts. I also felt the shift when Modo was bought up by the foundry. Sad day but I really think there are enough people out there to keep it going. Modo foundation ?

[@randoma83]

Thank you for the video. I switched to modo 801 from 3ds max after university (and the end of student license) as the main tool for doing my first jobs, it was so much cheaper respect 3ds max, something I could pay and use legally. I was using the combo Rhinoceros for modeling and Modo for rendering with Vray. I dropped modo the moment Vray stopped supporting it. I struggled with modo many years seeing expecially in the viewport, seeing how other softwares could handle high poly meshes so much better. It's a pity that Foundry never really took in consideration improving modo. I really hope Foundry will accept your requests.

[@rickk4990]

35:30 I thought you guys were part of the official modo team lol

[@Pixelfondue]

nope, lol - but I can see how you thought that.

[@chrisjessee9789]

Some great ideas! Hopeful it works out.

[@zoltankemeny2583]

Foundry is cutting both my hands off right now.

[@samartini1]

A very heartfelt video, it's a massive shame how things turned out. I remember trying to convert some Max guys over to MODO, I'm glad they didn't take to it now! If it's any consolation, it might be worth converting your animations to FBX format, baking ABC's just in case MODO dev is properly EOL'd.

[@scarabrae]

Thanks, Greg. 💌

[@foolsanticsstudio]

I had no idea this was going on. I love Modo. It is the most user friendly modeling software in my opinion. I bought the perpetual license like 5 years ago and never paid for an update cuz if it ain't broke, why update? lol. I really can't believe it didn't become the top paid modeling software. Thanks for the information, I wouldn't of known about all this if your video didn't pop up in my youtube feed

[@Zeffyras]

Your proposals are great! I really hope Foundary will listen. Wish there someone like you for XSI back in the day.

[@Michal.P.P.]

Foudry will listen to complaints and suggestions just like Autodesk did when it killed Softimage. The best thing Modo users can do is start learning another program.

[@RicheUK]

Cheers Greg

[@Aleksandrlllmakov]

Crossed my fingers🤞

[@krsfrzr]

Greg, you are amazing. I will follow Pixel Fondue even if Modo isn't it. Our talents will be met with other tools and advancements. Very saddened by Foundry's decision. Since I paid for it, I will keep Modo as a tool in my chest.

[@omw2876]

I really hope other programs like Blender create an importer for .lxo files. I have projects with Hallmark that I from time to time need to open and use. Projects created back in 2009 in MODO 401. It would kill me to loose assets like that forever. Thank you and all of the Modo community.

[@TheGuardianofAzarath]

I first bought modo back in 2010 i believe? Round about modo 401, then upgraded to 501, then 801 then modo 10, then stopped. I don't know if my current 10 perpetual licence will work with 17.1 or if i'll have to use that 10 year license. About the download link, the one ones i can find are in their support section for "previous versions", clicking on the "download trial" link on their site takes me to the "we're killing mode" webpage. I'm not sure if 17.1 is out yet, as it isn't listed in any of the download links i can find. Lets hope the Foundry listens to these proposals.

[@simonhughes3128]

I can, just refreshed!

[@3dhotshot]

make a bridge for modo to ( lightwave or other apps ) so they can use as a new modeler and update to their modelling workflow so in some form it will live on like that

[@FredKuramura]

i remember going to the local Amiga hobby users group in Sunnyvale/San Jose. Stuart and Allen would come there to showing off Lightwave3D/Toaster back in the day. Or going to secret Purple/Nexus meeting that where held during Siggraph in there hotel room where they would show the begins of Modo.

[@davemauriello8088]

I loved the early days of Modo where the strategy was to simply make an incredible modeling app that integrates easily with any pipeline...and then they tried to be more. Long story short, here we are now. I wish someone would just focus on making a kickass modeling app. Some of us still model. We don't just retopo scans, photogrammetry or ZBrush sculpts. I don't need procedural modeling or literally any non-modeling features. I have other apps for that. This is sad but inevitable news, I guess. Ironic that Lightwave still lives on somehow.

[@ambocc]

I think it might be best and easier to port some of Modo best tech to Blender as a paid Addon. My impression is that the foundational code that Modo was built on was not coded to be team friendly. Only Stuart can work with it efficiently.

[@VanillaVercetti]

Switched from Modo to Blender a few years ago after seeing just how big the Blender community was. Also, I wasn't experiencing many GPU benefits in Modo. I really hope the Foundry takes you up on all the proposals. I really miss Modo. Completely agree as far as the precarious position: relearning new software is very time consuming

[@grahambutterworth3958]

i think how The Foundry behave will largely influence our companies use of their other products as its not worth investing in products that can vanish quickly.

[@Liaw4896]

my rage of fire still hot.Foundry u better do good. Yes. i work in broadcast industry.

[@szambotube]

How to amplify and diffuse this message?

[@Pixelfondue]

Share it around to other groups. That would be great.

[@tomaszcz.6949]

MODO is a unique software, irreplaceable by anything else. Greg is 100% right and his proposals are justified.

[@Imhotep397]

Pairing with The Foundry was always an ill advised move because Nuke has always been attached to the hip of modo’s most direct competition. I hope Brad Peebler is trying to convince Apple to acquire Modo(I know he’s been an advisor or holds some position there) if that were to happen I know there would be perpetual licenses and I know the development on a rewrite would be top notch.

[@AndyTanguay]

Man, I feel REALLY bad for anyone who have that second nature going with Modo. I switched to it for modeling when it came out because I was looking for a replacement for...ahem...Nendo. That little thing was so much second nature that it was almost like being in a trance. And for modeling, I mostly got that way with Modo again. I had a model in Modo, lay out and render in _______ for many years. So sorry homies.

[@studiomiguel]

Greg, to say that you carried the torch exclusively for Foundry these last few years is NAIL ON THE HEAD. It felt like Foundry just DID NOT CARE. Like they had a personal vested interest in hosing the software. Without PixelFondue, I would have dumped Modo for C4D at LEAST two years ago.

[@Teteerck]

i wish blender could use the best of modo for itself, but i'm not even WISHING and i dont like adobe at all, but i WISH that even adobe could buy modo, make Adobe Modo or something and make it SO successful that foundry regret their incapacity to make this software that was already AMAZING profitable. i honestly don't think modo being open souce would be able to complete with blender.

[@JKC40]

Brad told me at the following SIGGRAPH that he wanted to move on to other projects. Stu is at Apple and has been for awhile.

[@demianpelos]

Brad also went to apple at some point

[@DigitalProphet_]

Good thing Lightwave3D is back :D

[@Pixelfondue]

yah, I don't see a lot of Modo users wanting to jump onto the wayback machine.

[@DigitalProphet_]

@ haha! At least it ain’t dead! We can joke about this but I really felt the sincerity in your video. It a trend of these big companies buying up good software and without a thought for the customer cancels it. Then they say well you just “rented” the option to use it. Yeah ok but it still is pretty bad practice. I like your opensource idea. Also even though people keep saying it’s ancient maybe Lightwave can keep on carrying on. It’s still powerful and there are a lot of plans for it by a good team - but I do understand what you are saying. I liked Modo a lot. I would certainly support an Open Source drive for it as well.

[@Pixelfondue]

@@DigitalProphet_ I'm a big LW fan, used it for years and it got me my first job in the industry back in the day. I'm friends with Allen and Stuart and I'm glad it's still got life. I agree - anything that does to private equity or a corporate conglomerate is going there to die. We have some avenues for Modo, Open Source is one possibility. Hopefully something will work out.

[@buggabugga53]

Funny, same for me... I was a Lightwave user but was quickly getting dated so was excited when Modo came around. I had to go to Maya for work, but also continued to use Modo for modeling. Hated Maya's modeling tools. It was a great combination.

[@JohnDoe-e4o]

Please save Modo! 😢

[@seyferf]

its bad for Foundry and their business closing a whole 3d modeling software. Its like Adobe closing photoshop for good and ignores user that used it for almost all their life. They cant get that out of people with emotions that does artistry and design. Imagine if that was nuke, I think ill pass learning it since they might fluke and close it too... Well at least blender now even if it lacks some polish and state of the art interface like modo they dont just delete or close the whole thing, instead they made a new version (2.8) that took a lot of mind together. I hope you get those request mr. Greg and thank you for putting your heart into this, as you have said its not a threat, its facts that if they dont, they will just loose user base.

[@Andras111]

Great to have the Witcher on our side. :D Thank you Greg. There are so many stuff Foundry did wrong... Pricing and no free student licences, and licencing/sueing scandals of indies, alienating its core audience, and making a glorified shoemodelling app, were major issues for years... Why I stayed is actually Pixelfondue and Vaughan, and yeah the usability and efficient workflow of Modo and the nontoxic community... I will use it for a while still... There is no real alternative yet...

[@OscarChabrand]

This is awful news and I feel bad for everyone that dedicated their time learning Modo.... I hope this ends up meaning the Modo community ends up joining teams with Blender and the best features of Modo make it into Blender somehow

[@BlenderForge]

I have been using Blender since 2016 and Modo for only the past two years, so I am by no means a Modo expert. You mentioned toward the end that Blender cannot do all of the things that Modo can without forking in to another project. What areas does Modo excel in that Blender would need to do better in?

[@Pixelfondue]

There’s just some fundamental things with selections and workflow, stuff like that which is hardcoded in Blender rather than individual features.

[@david_escalante]

I use Modo passes (not to be confused with output passes) to render up to 30 different renders of the same product using different views and packaging art. All on 1 file and 1 protect. If I am asked to change something in the camera, scene or material I only do it once and it gets reflect on the other 29 renders, can this be done in Blender?

[@BlenderForge]

@david_escalante yes, you would use the compositor nodes that would all branch to different file output nodes. So upon hitting render, it would spit out all 30 looks to 30 files.

[@Gaal_Dornik]

I don't think Foundry can sell it 'cause there is basically nothing to sell (it's too crashy), this is also applies to donation of source code, but what they probably could agree to is to prolong development for another year using fundraised money - several devs working from home maybe... just to make it stable. That's it. In this case they still own Modo which solves IP issues and it's a good thing for them - they don't invest money no more and who knows... maybe the app will be profitable in the future... ;) To put it simple - WE PAY THEM TO FINISH WHAT THEY'VE STARTED. That's what I think.

[@Pixelfondue]

Interesting idea. Giving them more money is kind of hard to take though.

[@MetalGearMk3]

Please someone code a new Modo replacement. I also like the idea of a Blender folk.

[@float9250]

They should really, really make it open source. Be the good guys and put the work into it to make it work! And at that point we could enjoy a real good open source Blender alternative.

[@alfredmuchilwa]

They fired Brad Peebler? Damn. I miss the Modcast days. Things went south after that. Connection with core audience was lost.

[@Nilswille]

I was surprised to hear that too. Thought he just lost interest, now I’m infuriated!!!

[@RogerEberhart]

@@Nilswille I'm pretty sure there were some legal ramifications, therefore neither Brad or Foundry could talk about it. Just guessing here. I'm also fairly certain Brad was dead set against the subscription business model that Foundry wanted to switch over to.

[@rano12321]

Thanks, Roper. Thanks for killing Foundry.

[@Enso-q2n]

I think if they're going to shut down Modo. They should make the app just free like Blender and supported by the community instead.

[@threedslider]

If your proposal will be accept by Foundry to be in open source, I will be happy and then a chance to my contribution in code for Modo as well :) . Thx a lot Greg ! You guys are awesome !

[@Pixelfondue]

Deal!

[@demianpelos]

Imagine the 3 founders of this software to hear this?????

[@voxtm]

So back to basic, back to foundation, back to Lightwave ;)

[@symbiotox5437]

Tim Sweeney, 🙏please buy Modo.

[@cnicolas]

Maybe modo users can provide some ideas/concepts to rightclickselect (blender's feature voting system) to see them implemented in blender too 😊

[@CharacterDev77]

I knew going to Foundry was a huge mistake. I'm a Mari user and they are way behind.

[@GreatWhiteRodeo]

13:00 Feel like this is what happened to Lightwave as well.

[@mariuszzwolak_]

Asking corporation to do the right thing, oh boy. Its obvious investment group had a totally different idea of what to do with it. There is lots of patents in modo that are worth something i would doubt if Foundry let them go for free

[@nicksushkevich]

fascinating how software that killed Lightwave, now also dead, while Lightwave being resurrected recently

[@erikals]

i have a feeling LightWave is immortal now.

[@mymyChannel771]

Software run by dinosaurs that are refusing to evolve. Their social media have 90's level of production value. If they want LW to resurrected they need to make it free and only pay above 100K revenue. Then they need to re write it to be 5 time easier, and then go to every tiktoker on the planet and ask to use it doing their 3d jelly nonesense Also they need to pay popular indie developer to use their product and promote it on youtube Sometimes i am amazed to see how detached all those people are, wasting their amazing c++ talents while don't understand the gravity of social media because they are still living in the 90s

[@erikals]

@@mymyChannel771 hmm...

[@Aleksandrlllmakov]

@@erikals 🤣

[@erikals]

@@Aleksandrlllmakov 😀

[@voltagetoe]

Around 2017 when studios/artists upgraded to 4k monitors, modo with its questionable foundational performance could not run at all anymore with that resolution and the interface also was unscalable/unreadable. Within just months Modo was trash everywhere. Good video and absolutely reasonable solutions btw.

[@Pixelfondue]

yeah, not having hi-dpi support seems to be really crippling, much more so than I would have thought.

[@louissnuggleton4544]

rip modo

[@bryphi77]

I think I am having deja vu...

[@kennethlehtinen8822]

Fab fare well ….. rumor is the modo guys remaining will possibly set up modo plugin for blender?

[@marsmotion]

blender...time to go there. the future belongs to those who change and change often and grow their communities constantly.

[@Pixelfondue]

Join the Pixel Fondue Discord - we have a very active Blender channel. Agree - not so much 'change' but 'Add'

[@studiomiguel]

I've been rewatching this... and it occurs to me that this reeks of a corporation that is over-leveraged. They owe more money than they can repay, so they start slashing costs in order to meet their covenant payments... it's a cut-your-nose-off-in-spite-of-your-face move. It is an end of life indicator for the corporation.

[@Imhotep397]

After watching all this now I’m wondering why the hell The Foundry wanted modo to begin with and why Luxology even accepted the buyout. I didn’t know Brad was fired…I thought he just left because he wanted to do different things.

[@demianpelos]

Love modo,use it since the first release. The first program to paint in 3d into a UV. But every artist is running to learn blender, they didn't wine down. They kill it :( another xsi situation

[@erikals]

41:00 i follow Ai closely, the 3D part of Ai - model tweaking, is nowhere near what a 3D app can do. (luckily) and won't be for another 7 years or so.

[@GustavSkoglund]

For me Modo is good, but with Pixelfondue it is amazing 💜, it fells so strange knowing that Modos story probably will end. Fingers crossed that it will be resurected.

[@tomdent3d]

I'm a 3ds Max user, and over the past year, Modo has seemed like a promising alternative. However, one thing that put me off when trying it was the blurry UI on a 4K monitor. If not for that, I would have switched from Max to Modo. I'm sure I'm not the only Max user who feels the same way. It highlights a missed opportunity for Modo to attract new users with a simple update. That said, its Octane integration looks fantastic. Im also a Nuke user, so maybe it has good integration with Nuke. Great work, Pixel Fondue. It was the baseball tutorial that made me look at Modo years ago, I was modelling stitching for automotive projects. Also watch your Houdini content

[@Pixelfondue]

yes, it's a shame that HDPI wasn't implemented YEARS ago

[@masamiakita993]

Why do you want to switch from 3dsmax?

[@tomdent3d]

​@@masamiakita993 from what I understand Modo has better modeling tools. I also find the 3ds max UI slow.(19 years experience of 3ds max)

[@tomdent3d]

@@masamiakita993 19 years experiance in 3ds max i find the UI slow, Modo looks like it has better for modeling tools. Currently im only using max for 3d modelling and houdini for everything else. So my idea is replace max with modo for modeling reason. I also use moi3D for nurbs modeling.

[@marsmotion]

former max guy here, using blender now. aside from a few things its working well.

[@groogleboogle]

If a new OS prevents Modo from working in the future, would a dedicated VM not solve this by preserving it as a snapshot in time? Also can you not preserve your projects in fbx format or other omniverse-type universal format? What Modo needs is a company that buys IP, improves it, and then makes it free to use such as Epic Games (Unreal Engine).

[@diuslucrii2171]

The only words i can say is, there is no way i can left MODO its what it is MODO for me its a living experiençe that i want be with me forever there isnt any other way or software that can change my mind...the fault is all Foundry team that made this excelent 3d app,i really hope a solution on the way ,if not MODo will live forever....but has a note we have to think if blender is free and MODO its not wy blender that isnt so good has modo become the nr1?