The Foundry has launched the latest version of it’s darling MODO software, with 801 promising “new, innovative and significantly enhanced 3D content creation workflows”.
As per usual it’s heavily targeted at the gaming and VFX industries, but seeing as a lot of this is transferrable to the modern day modelling/visualisation tool set, there’s a few things in the bag to keep everyone happy.
MODO 801 offers more control when painting curved lines over surfaces, while a world of new materials and textures should add more realism to 3D models – such as simulating the oil-on-water look or the colorful swirls often observed on a soap bubble with the new physically based Thin Film material.
//player.vimeo.com/video/92620722?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&color=f9b41b
Materials and Textures – MODO 801 from The Foundry on Vimeo.
The wide range of industries now using MODO means that the team at The Foundry has had to work on nearly every element of the end-to-end 3D workflow, looking to improve an tweak it.
“With highly intuitive workflows that focus on simplicity and mass usability, 801 will be a delight for artists and designers at every level. With this release we’ve looked closely at MODO’s architecture and re-developed key parts based on what we know users want,” cheered Shane Griffith, MODO product marketing manager at The Foundry.
“This is a massive update for MODO and we can’t wait to let artists and designers get their hands on it.”
In addition The Foundry and MakerBot have announced that they are working together to develop resources to ensure the seamless integration of MODO and the MakerBot 3D printing platform to make 3D printing easier and more accessible for users.
As a result MODO users now get a cheeky 10 per cent discount on the purchase of a MakerBot Replicator, MakerBot Replicator Z18, or a MakerBot Replicator 2 till June 25, 2014.
We’ll have a full review of MODO 801 for you soon in DEVELOP3D – subscribe here for free to avoid missing out.
Other MODO 801 highlights:
– Powerful node based texturing with built-in presets making complex tasks accessible to less technical users
– Enhanced dynamics for large scene handling and destruction
– Improved scattering tools for scene layout and environment creation
– New baking and modeling tools specific for games artists
– Big updates to the animation framework, making it easy for users to animate believable characters
– OpencolorIO integration and improved data exchange with the The Foundry’s COLLECTIVES