Silo Q&A With Antony Ward
Author of Game Character Development
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Book Excerpt: "I have been using Silo for over a year now. It's a fantastic modeling package... Its streamlined interface and hotkeys are completely customizable, and the speed with which I can work in it means I can create a model in half the time it would take me using Maya."

How did you find out about and start using Silo?

A friend of mine was already a Silo fan and after hearing him going on about how good it was I thought I would give it a try. I haven't looked back since. :)

How did you get interested in 3D modeling?

I had already been in the games industry for a few years before 3D made an appearance, so it was a case of having to move to 3D to keep up-to-date. I had played with an early 3D package on the Amiga 1200 so I already had a grasp of the basics, and it went from there.

You previously wrote a book specifically about using Maya. What inspired you to use Silo in the second book?

The way games are being made has changed since my first book. You can't use just one application as none can currently do everything, not well anyway. I had been using Silo for a year or so by then, and it seemed an application people had heard about but weren't willing to try, so it made sense to feature it.

What do you like about Silo that's different from other programs?

It's not bogged down with loads of menus and features. It focuses on modeling and does it well. I love how quickly I can produce models which look professional, and complicated, which is essential when generating geometry for normal maps.

What types of users would you recommend Silo to?

Everyone. It's perfect for game development, you can create a high resolution model and a game version in one go. For higher end work you can generate a low proxy model which can be smoothed, meaning changes made by a client are never dramatic as you aren't working with millions of polygons. For students, it's cheap, easy to use and gives great results.