Innovative New Workflows Leverage Deep Functionality Improvements in the Fourth Major Release of modo

The rapid evolution of modo took another leap today as Luxology ® LLC announced the immediate availability of its latest 3D content creation software, modo ® 401. With a focus on rendering and animation enhancements, modo 401 delivers a wealth of new features and innovative workflows, which enable users to easily model on top of existing geometry, see changes in their scene immediately from the radically improved Preview renderer and efficiently re-use assets throughout the content creation process. These new features benefit customers in a broad array of disciplines such as architectural visualization, product design, game development and advertising image production.
“modo 401 continues our emphasis on making the 3D creative process as fluid as possible for designers and artists,” said Brad Peebler, president of Luxology. “This new version is packed with improvements and is clearly our biggest upgrade of modo to date.”

Rendering 
Rendering enhancements include caustics, dispersion, blurry refraction, volumetric lighting and Pixar-patented deep shadows. The new Instance Replicators allow dense amounts of surface detail like welds, rivets, trees and barnacles to be rendered with trillion polygon detail. Light linking and support for multiple environments provides precise control over how each part of a scene is individually lit. modo 401 also supports stereoscopic rendering and will render on up to 32 cores across a network of 50 workstations.

Animation 
Animation improvements in modo 401 include inverse kinematics, dynamic parenting, channel constraints and modifiers. modo’s new animation capabilities facilitate the creation of sophisticated rigs in modo 401 that can be driven with a few simple inputs. For example, a tank model can be rigged to track and turn accurately across undulating terrain while maintaining realistic tread and wheel movement. Pre-built animation assemblies provided with modo 401 allow users to apply animation to their models automatically.

Workflows 
Optimized artist workflows are another essential element of modo 401. Artist feedback during modeling and other operations is enriched with a deeply threaded Preview renderer that boasts extremely rapid updates and progressive rendering capability. modo 401 boosts artist productivity by facilitating the re-use of assets throughout the content creation process. modo 401 ships with over 1,500 pre-built assets including profile curves, realistic surface finishes, fur presets, 3D props, vegetation, animated rigs and professionally designed lighting environments that light a scene in two mouse clicks.

“These pre-built assets in modo offer us a way to get to final quality more quickly,” said Gary Fitzgerald of DesignworksUSA. “modo also allows us to capture and re-use our own design assets for greater efficiency.” 

modo 401 boasts a wide array of other productivity enhancing improvements, including:

Expanded modeling toolset: Most modeling tools in modo now support per vertex collision with geometry. When paired with modo’s new ability to load static meshes that have a lower memory footprint, users can now leverage modo to retopologize even the densest meshes into production ready assets. In addition, new Profile Presets simplify the modeling of edge-based details like crown molding or complex bevels.



More realistic materials: The new Fur material enables a multitude of material appearances from hair, bristles and fur to water droplets, string, grass and tinsel. Carbon fiber and highly glossy clear coat surfaces lend realism to consumer product visualizations.



Data import and export: modo 401 is now even better equipped to read and write data that can be exchanged with other 2D and 3D applications. File exchange improvements include COLLADA, FBX, 3DM and a new SolidWorks 2009 file importer for Windows.

Pricing and Availability 

modo 401 is available immediately for the new suggested retail price of USD $995. Upgrades from any existing version of modo remain at $395. modo 401 runs on Mac and PC platforms, and is newly available for 64 bit Windows. modo 401 is sold and supported by a network of authorized Luxology resellers around the globe. 

About Luxology 
Based in San Mateo, Calif., Luxology ® LLC is an independent technology company developing next-generation 3D content creation software that enhances productivity via artist-friendly tools powered by a modern underlying architecture called Nexus ®. Founded in 2002 by Allen Hastings, Stuart Ferguson and Brad Peebler, Luxology is home to some of the top 3D engineering expertise in the industry. More information on the company, its licensable Nexus technology, its flagship product modo ®, and a gallery of artists’ images from the active modo community is available online at www.luxology.com.