Cytomic "The Scream" stomp box distortion plugin

[MogwaiBoy]

Far out Andy that looks INCREDIBLE now!

[pekbro]

I'm using Modo v11.2 for the texturing and rendering and a bit of the modelling. It is growing into a very serious 3D package now with a non-destructive procedural mesh operations section and fast preview / final rendering. All these final quality renders took around 45 minutes to complete. I render out multiple frames to animate the knobs moving and then have custom software to slice it up and generate knob strips for final use. I've done some of the scuff textures myself using my camera and Affinity Photo, but the majority of the high quality textures like the felt carpet and the most of the scratches and scuffs are from the excellent web page:

http://www.polligon.com
https://www.poliigon.com/texture/fabric-cashmere-001
https://www.poliigon.com/texture/scuffs-medium-001

I also use Moi3D v3 for all the complicated hard surface modelling (engineering type precise boolean intersections of surfaces eg: the box of The Scream, the right angle jacks, the main knobs, the trimpots etc) and some 2D vector work, Affinity Photo / Designer for 2D pixel and vector.

Excellent, nice to see you've taken a serious interest in the art side of things and are having
some fun with it. Modo is an exceptional product with an eminent history, going back to it's predecessor/cousin
Lightwave3D. IMO even the smallest plugin developer should seriously consider Modo, particularly
since it can be acquired via an affordable subscription, 'only' when actually needed. I am amazed that so
many developers seemingly have little interest in graphics, being that the technical side of image synthesis,
should seem to fit right up their alley.

Cant say I ever used Moi3D, but I am familiar with it, and it seems very nice. I tend to use
major CAD or engineering products for modeling stuff myself.

Anyway, keep it up, if your interest continues to grow, I would urge you to consider using
a procedural interface for rendering, for example RenderMan or Mantra/vex (al'a Houdini).
As that is most certainly the way to go for the mathematically inclined.

-Cheers

[acousticglue]

Once again for months messing around on and off with this never once creating what I thought were presets did I flip the dang MOD switch over and Wow what a pedal sound. This is now easily my favorite plugin

[andy-cytomic]

Excellent, nice to see you've taken a serious interest in the art side of things and are having
some fun with it. Modo is an exceptional product with an eminent history, going back to it's predecessor/cousin
Lightwave3D. IMO even the smallest plugin developer should seriously consider Modo, particularly
since it can be acquired via an affordable subscription, 'only' when actually needed. I am amazed that so
many developers seemingly have little interest in graphics, being that the technical side of image synthesis,
should seem to fit right up their alley.

Cant say I ever used Moi3D, but I am familiar with it, and it seems very nice. I tend to use
major CAD or engineering products for modeling stuff myself.

Anyway, keep it up, if your interest continues to grow, I would urge you to consider using
a procedural interface for rendering, for example RenderMan or Mantra/vex (al'a Houdini).
As that is most certainly the way to go for the mathematically inclined.

-Cheers

I had terrible trouble with Modo over the years, but it's really solid now. In the past is was plagued with bugs, especially on the Mac which is my main development platform. I still can't use any pointer devices made by Apple, including my laptops built in trackkpad otherwise Modo hangs when I do certain things! Oh well, now I know the issue and I use an external USB mouse things are good.

Modo has recently also improved its procedural side, with many modelling operations now having a procedural equivalent. It's nowhere near the complexity of Houdini, but for small things it's easily enough. Modo also has a full nodal shading and rigging system, you have a graph view and can add all sorts of math nodes and do arbitrary calculations. For all that stuff I find just writing code much easier, so it's over to python to do anything slightly complicated for me, it's just way neater.

As for Moi3D, I only need to do little bits of CAD, so it's perfect. It's super easy to use, and offers brilliant snapping options. The price is also very attractive, and it is brilliant at importing arbitrary CAD files, neatening them up, and exporting the cleanest polygonal meshes I've ever seen. Another bonus is it's mainly developed by one person Michael Gibson, who used to work on Rhino. I like supporting independent developers, like me He's also very active on the forums and it's great being in direct contact with the developer!

Moi3D $279
Rhino3D $695
Solidworks $3995

Which "major CAD or engineering products" do you use? Do you do 3D CAD type stuff for a living? Do you do any rendering as well, and if so what do you like best?

(edit: sorry for the off topic talk people! This helps me make better products and I hope it may be of interest to a few of you)

[andy-cytomic]

Once again for months messing around on and off with this never once creating what I thought were presets did I flip the dang MOD switch over and Wow what a pedal sound. This is now easily my favorite plugin

Hehe, yeah, I'm actually going to change this for the final release. In the renders you see 1 and 2 next to the MOD switch, so you will be able to edit either slot and switch between two custom mods with that switch. If you want to head back to the default TS808 then you'll just have to click on the RESET button on either slot. The presets already save both MOD slots in your song, you just can't edit the first one at the moment.

[Robert Randolph]

Looks fantastic. I don't have any more nitpicks

[andy-cytomic]

Looks fantastic. I don't have any more nitpicks

Thanks again for the nitpicks Robert

I still have a few nitpicks myself, I would like to make the LED slightly bigger again, and also do a better texture with some subtle wear on the main silver stomp button, and on the tops of the knobs, but all that can wait for an update as there are more important things to spend time on now. I'm pretty happy with the results considering it took around 10 work days to complete

[pekbro]

Which "major CAD or engineering products" do you use? Do you do 3D CAD type stuff for a living? Do you do any rendering as well, and if so what do you like best?

Hey Andy, I cant say I do it for a living, but I do work professionally on occasion. Mostly due
to my location, there is not much demand for such work around here. However, when jobs
do come up, they can be pretty interesting, everything from Architectural Visualization to
Television and Feature Film Production. Anyway, I've been involved with computer graphics
for many years, having started out on SGI workstations running Maya, Softimage and PRMan
back in the day. My main focus has always been in the rendering, mostly with Pixar's RenderMan.

As for CAD software, I just use whatever the client is using. Typically, AutoCAD or FormZ and
on occasion Solidworks or Inventor. TBH, I tend not to do CAD work very often as it seems to
always devolve into a drafting situation, in which I have little interest. I do have a few friends
that I will help out though.

As for 3D, I prefer Houdini and Blender actually. I also use 3D Coat in lieu of Z-Brush, and may rent
Maya on occasion. Unfortunately, I am not so up to date on most of the available rendering solutions,
so I can't personally recommend much beyond RenderMan, Mantra or Cycles.

I would think with your current pipeline, Vray or Maxwell Render are probably the best alternatives
to Modo's renderer. Maybe Octane or Toolbag for realtime rendering.

-Cheers

*You can evaluate Renderman for free as it is available as a non-commercial license.
IIRC, someone was working on a bridge for Modo, I don't know of it's status though. The easiest
way to incorporate it into your pipeline would be via Blender. It would probably work well
if you're using Moi3D or Modo to model and using blender to compose the scene, otherwise
you would have to do it via the C++ API. A commercial license cost $495 + $200 yearly maint.
steep, but a huge drop from the $5k + maint. it used to cost not so long ago. Anyway, PRMan
is one of the finest renderers available, and the granddaddy of them all actually.

https://renderman.pixar.com/resources/R ... /home.html

[andy-cytomic]

...

As for 3D, I prefer Houdini and Blender actually. I also use 3D Coat in lieu of Z-Brush, and may rent
Maya on occasion. Unfortunately, I am not so up to date on most of the available rendering solutions,
so I can't personally recommend much beyond RenderMan, Mantra or Cycles.

I would think with your current pipeline, Vray or Maxwell Render are probably the best alternatives
to Modo's renderer. Maybe Octane or Toolbag for realtime rendering.

-Cheers
...

Ok, thanks for the rundown on the stuff you're using. As for renderers I'm pretty happy with Modo's now they added all the environment and light source importance sampling, the "Physically Based" GGX shader, and the Principled Disney shader. I'll just stick with the inbuilt Modo one as the results are still easily good enough for what I'm doing and the render times are around 1 hour tops for high quality final full res renders using their progressive renderer

[pekbro]

I think its perfectly clear that you're doing just fine with the Modo renderer.
Maybe you'll consider modeling the circuit board and the interior as well, the next time
you make a plugin with variable components, that would be pretty snazzy

-Cheers

[Klinke1]

When is it coming out of beta?

(i think the grafics are not important. It's just a silly stomp-box.
It doesn't have to look better than UAD stuff.. it should only sound better... if possible.)

[andy-cytomic]

When is it coming out of beta?

(i think the grafics are not important. It's just a silly stomp-box.
It doesn't have to look better than UAD stuff.. it should only sound better... if possible.)

It will come out of beta when it's finished.

The current version is already full quality in terms of High Definition (HD) DSP, so please feel free to compare the sound quality right now to anything UAD have done. If you would prefer you can search this thread for mention of UAD to read comparisons people have already made.

There is still a decent chunk of work to be done for a production ready version, and even when that it released it will be a beta of that to iron out any bugs, then once it is proved stable I will remove the beta tag. This normally takes around a couple of weeks of final beta to iron everything out, so you'll have roughly two weeks notice when it will officially come out of beta

[andy-cytomic]

Here's a little sneak peak of the new user interface, including the just added schematic based component value editing:

[meloco_go]

Here's a little sneak peak of the new user interface, including the just added schematic based component value editing:

This is amazing!

[Lazylefteye]

Looks great