There have been a host of notable improvements brought about in the effects industry over the last few months which have eased the artists’ workflows. Foundry, the leading developer of software for the media and entertainment, and digital design industries recently launched Modo 14, the completed release of a three-part series.
Built to ease artists’ workflows, Modo 14 rounded up the 2020 updates delivered with several new features, such as USD support, Rig Clay, Grease Pencil, MeshFusion Embossing, and Ghost/Xray Viewport.
Foundry representative informed, “Alongside these new features, many aspects of the existing workflows for modeling, procedurals, UV tools, and rendering were vastly refined for not only increased creative control but also boosted performance with notable gains of more than 10x speed improvements with booleans, selections, and rendering.”
Foundry’s offerings have supported artists and bolstered their creative prowess. Features floated this time that will serve as three-part series complete with considerable feature enhancements for modeling, animation and rendering.
Foundry director of product – Digital Design Shane Griffith shared: “This year, more than ever, we are committed to supporting artists to boost their creative potential. Engineered to accelerate everyday workflows, Modo 14 focused on meaningful features and enhancements requested by our customer base. More than 60 new unique features and workflow enhancements round out this final instalment and complete Modo 14 as an essential part of any 3D Artist’s Toolbox.”
Here’s a round-up of the Modo 14 improvements:
Direct Modeling: Modo’s direct modeling toolset has long been renowned for its shared focus on workflow and technical innovation. Modo 14 continues this emphasis with an array of direct modeling tools to make the lives of artists easier, with over 17 total features and enhancements in this area alone. New upgrades like the new Mitering Offset and Sharp Corner options for Edge Chamfer, as well as the new Chamfer Edit tool for direct or procedural modelling, give artists the flexibility to revise the offset, depth, or direction of their work creatively.
Procedural Modeling: Introduced in Modo 10, the procedural modeling toolsets have provided Modo with a system built for the future of modeling. These releases brought improvements in all of the direct modeling features to give artists limitless value, including meaningful additions to MeshFusion, Procedural Vmaps and Keep Vertices for Deleted Geometry.
Rendering and Shading: mPath has received an array of upgrades- GPU acceleration via Optix 7, the addition of intel embree support, cryptomatte for intelligent and lightweight automated masking, and shading workflow enhancements from the PBR Loader and Shader Tree Scale Groups.
UV Enhancements: UV Relax has been added to the procedural system. With the addition of Real World Size, the Modos UV tools have become an indispensable part of any 3D design arsenal.
Animation and Rigging: By adding streamlined IK/FK switching for planar IK, Rig Clay for animators to more interactively manipulate shapes or set keys, and USD import/Export for industry-standard exchange, Modo is poised to redefine rigging and animation workflows.
Performance: The advanced viewport has been optimized for faster shader tree processing. Booleans have been accelerated by as much as 380x in complex examples. Component selection is twice as fast, and edge removal operations have shown improvements as high as 100x. Furthermore, Edge Relax is now 5x faster.
Viewport: Upgraded Transparency rendering accelerates and improves the quality of these complex effects. Ghost and Xray offer practical visualization options to improve everyday tasks like modeling, layout, and rigging. The new Topology Presets provide a dramatically superior retopo experience, and Markup enables artists to intuitively notate scenes in the viewport for improved communication and collaboration.
Workflow and User Experience: Modo 14 continues to expand on its workflow-focus with many relevant enhancements like Trackball rotation, Form Presets, and Alt-Click for Inactive Mesh.