By John Johnson and Patrice Leymarie

Painting

Painting in Modo 301 has become an art form for the 3D artist. Procedural brushes and the ability to paint directly on to the UV Map give the artist the ability to create a 3D masterpiece in less time than more conventional 3D applications.

Modo allows you to paint in 2D in the UV viewport or in 3D in any 3D viewport. The 3D painting uses UVs to control the paint unless you use Projection Painting which works to avoid any paint stroke distortion from an irregular UV map. Here there is standard 3D painting, which paints on the 3D model directly via the UV map, and there is Projection Painting which is somewhat akin to painting on a pane of glass that floats above your 3D model and having that paint projected down onto the mesh beneath.

Painting with Modo is a real pleasure and we must tell Mac user that Modo is one of the fastest 3D applications we've used. Combined with the new sculpt tool, Modo has surely integrated the best tools to win the efficiency battle.

Conclusion

The lack of support for NURBS is a big disappointment, but more important is the absence of a particle system, dynamics and character animation tools for rigging, which hinders the animation potential for Modo 301. Also, having to "drop" a tool to select a new polygon, edge or vertex and then select the transform tool again becomes tedious.

Powerful rendering options, faster render times and network rendering capability allow the 3D artist to spend more time creating and less time waiting. Macros can easily be recorded or scripted in Perl, Lua or Python languages. Modo 301 also contains well documented help files, training videos and a responsive community forum; all of which provide for an easy learning curve for the new user.

Overall, We were very impressed with all of Modo 301's bells and whistles. If your goal is to produce stunning 3D models that you will render in Modo as production stills then this is a complete package and money well spent. If you need character animation capabilities then Modo may not meet all of your graphics needs. Also, Modo's innovative sculpting technology is so far ahead of the pack that you may have difficulty exporting your work into a suitable animation application. Be sure to check for compatibility before you buy. Since Luxology recently announced their licensing of Pixar's technology for future products we're very interested in seeing what the future holds for this 3D application. There is hope that it may become the one-size-fits-all 3D application that so many of us have been craving. Until then, we'll have to just keep exporting and importing with our proverbial fingers crossed.

Modo has been created as an application to be integrated in a pipeline and lots of studios have already integrated it to design their projects. We've been really impressed by the simplicity of the sculpting process and the response of the application and can say that we really enjoyed working on it.

While Modo 301 is a leap ahead in the 3D application race, it is missing a few key components that would give it supreme dominance. We will feature some sculpting/painting examples very soon.

And we would be happy to read your comments and testimonials about the review of this application on the forum.

Price : $895 (Boxed or Download version), Mac OSX and Win.

Official Website : www.luxology.com

A Modo trial can be found here on this page : www.luxology.com/trymodo

About the Reviewers:

John Johnson began his career over 20 years ago as a freelance photojournalist. He has worked in the graphic arts industry for the past 12 years developing software, 3D models and animation for video games and Internet-based advertising. John is now the Editor-in-chief of Art&Prose Magazine, an online magazine dedicated to helping artists and writers improve their own abilities through articles, stories, interviews, and tutorials.

Patrice Leymarie was drawn into the 3D world when Lightwave 3.0 and the Amiga 500 came out. For the last two years he has been publishing IT’S ART and all the affiliated websites.