modo 202
New paint, UV, and rendering tools make modo the new leader in subdivision modellers

Modelling software

Publisher: Luxology

www.luxology.com

Pros: Excellent set of modelling tools, Blend shapes (morph targets), unmatched 3D/2D paint tools, brilliant UV tools, photo-realistic rendering Cons: Fairly expensive, no construction history, limited paint-deformation tools, modest line-modelling tools Min specs: Mac OS X 10.3.9, G3, G4, G5 or Intel processor, 1GB RAM,100MB available hard disk space, OpenGL-enabled graphics card Price: 492 including VAT Star rating: 11113
hough modo 202 features improved modelling, enhanced workow, and even a powerful, new render engine, it is the 3D/2D paint tools and UV mapping tools that take top billing. The paint tools consist of 12 familiar tools, such as airbrush, and eraser, ve brushes and inks that provide dozens of possibilities including parametric textures and patterns. Those experienced with Photoshop, or even Painter, will have no problem with the modo paint tools, as they have a similar look and feel. These tools make it a snap to texture simple or complex 3D models, and are unsurpassed by paint tools in any other subdivision modeller.
The potent UV tools provide solutions that truly reduce the amount of labour required to UV map models. The Unwrap tool predictably unfolds models based on selected seams, and overlapping UVs can be untangled with the Relax tool. The Tear Off and Sew tools allow UVs to be easily repositioned. The UV tools work closely with the paint tools in as much as you can paint directly in the UV Edit view (2D painting). modo 202 is the only subdivision modeller with a comprehensive render engine that rivals the quality found in many animation suites. The proprietary render engine supports advanced features such as Subsurface Scattering, DOF, and Global Illumination. Though the render engine can produce ultra-realistic, photographic images, render setup and rendering may take considerable time, which is no different than other high-end render solutions. Mesh Painting, Instance Item, Solid Sketch and Sculpt round out the major modelling additions in modo 202. Mesh Painting is a useful tool that paints one object on the surface of another, for instance, bolts on the
hull of ship. Instance Item reduces memory overhead by instancing repetitive meshes, and Solid Sketch is a quick way to rough-in organic objects. Sculpt is modos paint deformation implementation, but is comparatively limited compared with, say, Hexagon 2.1s customisable, detailed, micro-displacement.

Macworlds buying advice

modo is a favourite among professionals and amateurs alike for good reason. Beside its awardwinning modelling, amazing paint and UV tools, and sophisticated render engine, its user-centric approach to interface and workow design efciently reduces the amount of work necessary for any modelling, texturing, and rendering task. modo is denitely an excellent buy. Mike de la Flor
Powerful painting modos paint tools can apply complex textures directly on 3D models as well as in the UV Edit view

Exposure

Bridge the gap between lm and digital photography with this Photoshop plug-in

Photoshop plug-in

Publisher: Alien Skin

www.alienskin.com

Pros: Realistic simulations of popular colour and black-andwhite lm stocks, easy to use, fast Cons: Realistic simulations of popular colour and blackand-white lm stocks, easy to use, fast Min specs: Mac OS X 10.3, Mac OS X 10.4 Price: $199 (104) Star rating: 11113
ome professional photographers jumped readily across the divide from lm to digital photography. Others are crossing over more reluctantly. But one thing they all have in common is nostalgia for their favourite lm stock. Exposure is a Photoshop CS and CS2 plug-in that simulates the look of photographs shot with a variety of colour and black-and-white lms. With one click, your digital photographs can take on the saturated colours of Fuji Velvia or the unique grain of Ilford Delta 3200. Alien Skin developed Exposures many lm simulations by carefully analysing real lms, paying special attention to lm grain. Exposure recreates the size, shape, colour, and location of real grain, rather

comprehensive manual and Help les, but the latter is buried in the interface. Exposures image-optimisation settings include some that aim to improve upon editing controls in Photoshop. For example, the Tone tab features an intuitive set of sliders for individually adjusting shadows, midtones, highlights, and contrast. The Color tab contains a useful Cooling/Warming slider for varying colour temperatures while preserving image luminosity. At $199 for a download from Alien Skins website, Exposure is more expensive than other Photoshop plug-ins Double vision Exposures split-screen preview shows the that simulate certain lm stock, such simulation of GAF 500, a discontinued grainy colour film as Visual Innitys Grain Surgery 2 and PixelGeniuss PhotoKit Color 2. But Exposures than just throwing single-pixel digital noise into images. cost is justied by its realistic lm-grain simulations The plug-in also includes some image-optimisation and and comprehensive controls, and by the fact that it is darkroom-effect presets such as cross-processing and marketed primarily to photo pros. soft focus. The detailed interface is well organised and relatively easy to use, considering the number of controls Macworlds buying advice it packs in. The preview screen is large and offers a Exposure is a good choice for professional photographers choice of split or toggle previews. You can stick with who want a quick way to simulate the look of a favourite any of Exposures one-click default settings or create lm stock. The plug-ins lm emulations look quite your own presets using the many controls found in authentic and are easy to preview and apply. the Color, Tone, Focus, and Grain tabs. It ships with a Jan Kabili

48 Macworld WWDC 2006

42-51 reviews.indd 48

8/8/06 10:17:11 am

modo 202
create at the speed of thought
Elegant is a word rarely used when describing 3D content creation tools. With modo 202, however, Luxology delivers a truly elegant integration of technology, raw horsepower, and refined workflow. Through a core-level fusion of modeling, painting, and rendering tools, modo 202 takes you beyond traditional multi-tiered workflows and places you right in the middle of an immersive creation experience.

model like you mean it

modos combination of cutting-edge tools, advanced real-time display, and streamlined workflow provides you with a creation environment that simply gets out of your way. Finally, you are free to create in 3D at speeds that match your active imagination. By employing an artist-first mentality, the hybrid polygon and subdivision surface modeler lets you craft with incredible speed. And modos advanced architecture fully exploits modern computing technologies such as multi-core CPUs, Hyperthreading, and hardwareaccelerated OpenGL so that new levels of modeling flow can be achieved.
UV mapping: Click. Drag. Done.
Creating UV maps used to take as much as twice the effort of actually building the model. To us, this is unacceptable. With modo 202, we deliver a new standard of UV mapping: click, drag, done. Take a look at this.
select the edges to define the uv seams where you want to cut the skin.
activate the uv unwrap tool.
click and drag in the uv view until you are happy with the result.

Cutting-edge toolset

modo has the tools to push your rigid body or organic modeling to the next level. Whether you require precise creased edges or natural details like high-frequency surface turbulence, modo has you covered. The tools you need are at hand and ready to work for you the way you want them tofrom sketching organic surface details to precisely placing instanced objects along an edge.
Other key modeling features
Hybrid subdivision surface/ polygon (N-Gon) modeler Intuitive control over current workplane (including align to selected) Vertex, edge, polygon modeling modes (can convert and preserve while switching) Selection tools (material, item, lasso, rectangle, circle, invert, lock, hide/show etc.) Transform, scale and rotate tools work on user specified Action Centers Snap to grid, geometry or guide Solid Sketch (rapid branching SubD base mesh creation) Curve creation tools (Bezier, curve, patch, tube) Import curves (Illustrator,.EPS) Sketch tool creates curves, faces, lines Edge tools (spin, slide, bevel, bridge, extend, extrude, collapse etc.) Vertex tools (create, bevel, extrude, merge, collapse, center, split etc.) Polygon tools (draw, bevel, reduce, sketch extrude, shift, inset, Booleans etc.) Deformation tools (smooth, sculpt, taper, bulge, shear etc.) Duplication tools (instancing, radial and linear arrays, clone along curve etc.) Mesh paint tool for adding geometry like horns to meshes Vertex mapping Tack tool for attaching polygonal objects together Loop and axis slicing Morph tool (create morph targets for an animation system) Symmetry mode and mirroring Extensive Falloff System (e.g. Cylindrical) for tool influence Reference layers Open multiple scenes at once Turntable viewing Model over backdrop image Object-to-Object baking SI, metric and English units supported

Customizable workflow

Many companies give lip service to workflow, but Luxology delivers. From the highly fluid user interface to the ability to remap navigation and keyboard inputs, modo lets you control everything, including the controls. The modo user interface is designed so that you can quickly arrange user interface elements to your liking as you perform different tasks. Our philosophy is that details in workflow really matter, and the payoff is that often modo feels as if it knows just what you want to do and how to do it.

paint + texture

spray it on, layer it up
modo 202 merges painting and texture creation in ways previously unimaginable. Create complex procedural surfaces complete with advanced noise functions, cellular textures, and gradients, and then blend them together with the simple stroke of a pressure sensitive pen. You have the choice to meticulously paint details directly on your model or let modo generate the details procedurally.
Layered and masked-based texturing
modo 202 not only brings you an intuitive and groundbreaking new way to layer materials, it also adds a powerful masking system that gives you an amazing level of control over texture placement. The Shader Tree makes it simple to layer rich textures onto your model in a fashion similar to layers in a 2D image editing system. But modo goes much further by allowing you to use 3D and texture data as masks to control the application of texture and material layers. Apply surfaces at any level of your scene, or to all of it at once!
Painting objects the way you want
Use the integrated painting engine to create complex 2D maps that cover even the most detailed models. Like the modeling tools, painting tools directly benefit from the modo tool pipe, allowing you to combine brushes, inks, and nozzles for a myriad of custom painting tools and effects. Link directly into modos 3D falloff system for unprecedented control over each strokes application. With modos advanced real-time feedback, painting is fast and beautiful.
Other key painting and texturing features
Airbrush, paintbrush blur, smudge, sharpen, erase Full UV Editor with interactive unwrapping Paint any image attribute (e.g. specular color) See painted results in OpenGL and in near real-time in a rendered view Advanced Procedural Textures Control micropolygon tessellation via any one or combination of multiple texture layers
blend between complex collections of textures
Real-Time Bump Map Painting Procedural Painting Parametric ink leverages 3D data to modulate attributes Control painting tools with modeling falloffs Jitter Nozzle Image Based Brushes and Inks
paint in 2d uv view with all available paint options
or paint in 3d and see the results in real-time
paint on bump detail and see the results in open gl

render

from mega polys to mega pixels
The modo renderer was built from the ground up to meet the ever-increasing need for complexity in 3D content creation. Whether polys are modeled or micro-tessellated during rendering, modo is built to load em, create em, and shade em. Fast. With scalability at its core, modo renders billions of polygons at enormous frame sizes. Need to render several million polygons in seconds? No problem. Need an image of 30,000 pixels by 20,000 pixels? Consider it done.

Rendering for real, or not
Creating photo-realism in 3D traditionally requires a lot of effort and some nasty old tricks. Sure you can do it, but it can take forever to get it just right. With the modo rendering engine, you can get real with the click of a button. Activate the Physically Based Shading option, and modo takes into account the laws of energy conservation, reciprocity, and the Fresnel effect. That translates into real-world shading effects like anisotropy and blurred reflections as well as the ability to type in real-world light values.
Complexity is nothing without quality
modo focuses on core components of quality rendering and employs clever techniques to balance memory use, speed and quality. With advancements such as intelligent anti-aliasing algorithms, cutting-edge texture filtering, and variable shading rates, modo is designed to output greatness.
with modo you can rest assured that the laws of physics are there to help.
Other key rendering features
Quick responseminimal or no lag until first rendered pixels appear Fast Ray Tracing with Instancing Support Global Illumination Adaptive Micropolygon Displacement Rendering Interactive Rendering view Orthographic Rendering HDRI lighting IEEE Floating Point Accuracy Anisotropic Blurred Reflections Subsurface Scattering Realistic Camera Models (depth of field, lens distortion, motion blur) Render Baking (e.g. create normal maps or ambient occlusion maps) Optimized for modern hardware architectures and efficient memory use Proprietary BRDF shading model which encapsulates the properties of several popular shading models
4,000 artist created polygons
modo generates 12 million micropolygons for incredible final render detail

simply create

The modo difference
modo 202 is a different kind of application. It is a place where design and technology live in harmony. It is an environment designed by artists, for artists. It is not just a collection of algorithms, but a refined combination of technology, performance and workflow that facilitates the 3D creation process. By integrating the technologies and processes of modeling, painting, and rendering in a fused way, modo transcends the sum of its parts. modo is a unique tool for artists that invites and compels you to achieve your best. to you, not to your computer. If you want to run modo on your workstation all week and your laptop over the weekend, please do. And when you buy modo, we create an account online so that no matter where you are or what happens to your computer, you can always login and download your copy of modo. Our evaluation software is fully featured, not crippled. Basically it comes down to respecting our user community. You trust us to deliver a great product, we trust you to use it properly.

Workflow enhancers

Integrated learning system with video tutorials Full undo support Fast, very high quality OpenGL views including normal mapping Cut, copy, paste support Extensive use of on screen manipulators Input fields for units will perform math and/or unit conversions for you Intelligent object selection and select-through capability Find key in item lists Geometry selections are retained as expected as you switch tools Complete input remapping of mouse and (presets for Maya, 3ds Max etc.) Dynamic control over contents, size and and appearance of viewports and editors Preset layouts for common tasks such as 3D Painting See rendered result of modeling and painting as you work 1-Click macro recording Tool Pipe editor enables high degree of tool customization and control over falloff Floating palettes, and pie menu option Work with multiple scenes at once Scripting via Perl, Python or LUA

Get to know modo

To purchase, get more information, or download an evaluation copy of modo go to www.modo3d.com

System requirements

Minimum 512MB RAM Minimum 100MB available hard disk space OpenGL-enabled graphics card Monitor resolution of 1024 x 768 or greater DVD-ROM drive (for support materials) Internet connection required for product activation

Macintosh

Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later Macintosh G3, G4, G5, or Intel Mac

More than just software

The modo community is one of the most active and vibrant 3D communities on the Web. As a modo user, you are surrounded by a worldwide group of online artists who are constantly sharing their work, creating scripts, and driving the future development of modo.

Windows

Microsoft Windows 2000 or Windows XP Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon processor

Customer respect

Luxology is a different kind of company. From software licensing to distribution, we consider the decisions we make through the lens of how we, as software users, want to be treated. For instance, when you buy modo, you may run it on both a Mac and a PC, not one or the other. We sell modo
1670 South Amphlett Boulevard, Suite 214 San Mateo, CA 94402 650.378.8506 www.modo3d.com
modo is a registered trademark of Luxology LLC., in the USA and/or other countries. All products or brand names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. Wooden toy model created by Studio Hendrih for Raiffeisen Leasing (Zagreb) Copyright 2006 Luxology LLC