Modo 14 three-part series complete with considerable feature enhancements for Modeling, Animation and Rendering

Modo 14 three-part series complete with considerable feature enhancements for Modeling, Animation and Rendering

London, 12 November 2020 – Foundry, the leading developer of software for the media and entertainment, and digital design industries, today launches Modo 14, the completed release of a three-part series.

With a focus on accelerating artists’ workflows, Modo 14 rounds up the 2020 updates delivered with several new features, such as USD support, Rig Clay, Grease Pencil, MeshFusion Embossing, and Ghost/Xray Viewport.

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.

Shane Griffith, Director of Product – Digital Design, Foundry, comments:

“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.”

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 & 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 & 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.

For more information about Modo 14, visit Modo’s release page and sign up for the Modo 14 Series webinar taking place on 17 November 2020.

About Modo

Modo brings you the next generation of 3D modeling, texturing, animation, and rendering tools in a powerful integrated software package. Its powerful and flexible toolset empowers artists to explore and develop ideas without jumping through technical hoops.

About Foundry

Foundry develops creative software for the digital design, media, and entertainment industries. With a 20-year heritage and a portfolio of award-winning products, Foundry advances the art and technology of visual experience in partnership with creative leaders around the globe.

Clients and partners include major feature film studios and post-production houses such as Pixar, ILM, MPC, Walt Disney Animation, Weta Digital, DNEG, and Framestore as well as automotive, footwear, apparel and technology companies such as Mercedes, New Balance, Adidas and Google. Foundry partners with these companies to solve complex visualization challenges to turn incredible ideas into reality.

The company’s products are used to create breathtaking visual effects sequences on a wide range of feature films, video-on-demand, television and commercials. Foundry software was integral in the making of every VFX Oscar-winning film, award-winning TV shows and commercials for more than a decade.

Founded in 1996, Foundry is headquartered in London, with over 300 employees and a presence in the US, China, Japan, Australia and Europe. In 2019, the London Stock Exchange named Foundry one of the “1000 Companies to Inspire Britain.” It regularly features in The Sunday Times’ Tech Track as one of Britain’s fastest-growing private technology companies.

Source: Foundry

For more information, please visit at Foundry