Beanie Hat (and the differences between CLO and MD)

Over the last couple of days I've spent some time looking into the new version of Marvelous Designer 9.5 and CLO 6. When I say "new", the last version I've looked at was MD 6.5 (the unusable one with that terrible bug), so I have over three years of features to catch up on. I was always interested in the differences between CLO and MD, and a first had fiddle was a real eye opener.

These renders are made with PBR materials by Travis Davids, whose tutorial on making this beanie I followed this afternoon. I tried the principle in both MD and CLO, and must admit that I love the integrated V-Ray renderer. I could load Substance files directly in CLO and there was no need to export my project for these renders. I can see the appeal for those who are not 3D nerds and may not have a "picture pipeline".

From what I understand, CLO is a year ahead of MD in regards to features. For example, an MD 10 feature that's due to be released is Seamline Sewing, which has been part of CLO 5 for the last year. In the meantime, CLO 6 has been released today and features auto-sewing, Substance material integration, auto-rigging and various other exciting things you can read about here: https://support.clo3d.com/hc/en-us/articles/360053203833-6-0-New-Feature-List If that's anything to go by for what's to come, Marvelous Designer has a bright future.

Not all MD features are in CLO though: MD has a sculpt mode and some snazzy re-topology tools, which CLO is lacking. CLO on the other hand has a seriously good render engine built in and can print out real life clothing patterns in various sizes, from which fashion designers make real life clothing. Each version speaks to a different clientele. Also, MD's interface is orange while CLO's is blue, and there's a little extra content in CLO (like fashion runways) that are not part of MD.

Looks like I know more about the differences than I ever wanted to know. I'll sign off now and stop thinking about it 😬