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Edit Review: Luxology modo 301

Dec 1, 2007 12:00 PM, Reviewer: Franklin McMahon

Complete 3D modeling and animation program continues to expand.

Many years ago when I worked in cable television, I was producing some graphics with the NewTek Video Toaster and rendering (out to a rack-mounted NTSC monitor, no less) an animation using the included LightWave 3D. I thought to myself, “Boy, if more people knew the power these programs give me, I might have a lot more competition.” A decade and a half later, using Luxology modo 301, I can’t help but think the same thing. What an amazing amount of power. I’m less worried about competition these days.

The parallel here is that the same core of software engineers who created LightWave 3D created modo. And while LightWave went in one direction via some corporate shuffling and acquisitions, Luxology went in another. Kinda. You can feel the homage to LightWave deep inside modo: the ease of use, the unique and smooth user interface, the focus on modeling, and, finally, the fun-to-use element. More expensive programs such as Autodesk 3ds Max cast a long shadow, but modo is worth checking out because of its amazing power and feature set. Plus, the Luxology guys have a podcast about modo in iTunes—still cool, after all these years. Modo has traditionally been focused on modeling, painting, and rendering. With this latest version, Luxology continues to beef up its animation mode, truly making modo 301 a complete package.

The nice thing about the new interface is how compact and natural it feels. I just reviewed 3ds Max 2008, and that program has always seemed sprawling and requestor-box-heavy, saluting the Microsoft tool guidelines with a dizzying array of buttons and sections. Modo, on the other hand, feels tight and efficient—most everything is one click away, with a tabbed interface that keeps you on one screen 95 percent of the time. Not only does this work better on smaller monitors, but it helps the learning curve by not burying a feature you are looking for three levels deep behind something else. It’s also worth mentioning that the program is available for Mac and PC, and it functions the same on both.

One of the big draws of the new version 301 is how it handles the creation of objects—specifically, image-based sculpting. In other 3D programs, objects can get complex very quickly, slowing the creative process down. In fact, the latest version of 3ds Max dedicates a large amount of its new feature set to selectively downgrading your experience, so you could reduce the CPU and GPU drain and still be creative and interactive. With modo, I was able to completely create a test character head— adding nose, ears, mouth, and skin features by using a sphere and image-based sculpting. The only thing I did was draw directly on the sphere. The mapping created all the textures and protrusions. Typically, this kind of modeling could take hours, but modo makes it quick and easy. The best part is that to increase the detail, I just increased the resolution of the image map, which is 100 times more efficient and easier than increasing the object detail (doubling or tripling the polygon count).

Modo combats this common problem with a heavy slant toward using image maps for realtime object sculpting. It’s like bump mapping on steroids. Think of it this way: Typical bump mapping only does height. You can create a mountain on a flat plane, but that’s about it. Now imagine you can sculpt a tree on the mountain and sculpt out branches, and in turn sculpt out leaves. With traditional bump mapping, the only place to go is up; with modo you can go up, then sideways, then down, and back again. Instead of packing up thousands of vertices, you simply increase the resolution of your image map.

The whole process makes the program amazingly efficient—and lots of fun to sculpt in. You can grab an object face and push, smooth, spin, inflate, fold, flatten, curve, and perform just about any other organic maneuver you can think of. I created some background walls for title sequences in that had lots of complex textures and bumps about three minutes just by painting detail instead of laboriously modeling detail.

The other part of the equation is modo’s 3D painting toolset. After you have created organic shapes and quickly rendered some image maps, you can paint your object within the program using its vast toolset of colors, shades, and textures. Other 3D programs handle painting as a separate entity or plug-in, but true to modo’s tight focus on object creation, all the painting tools are built right into the program on its own tab. Modo has always been a great renderer, and this new version offers speed improvements, PC and Mac network rendering, and a LAN view to monitor network rendering. New support for photometric lights is also included. This allows third-party companies to produce and distribute simulations of real-world lights. Separate fresnel values now allow you to control specular and reflection individually, and the renderer now includes support for vector displacements.

The animation tab now includes a very welcome graph editor, allowing complete control over curves and keyframes. Graphs are crucial with any animation system, and now that modo has one, you can create and tweak truly complex animation scenes. Because of this fine detail over keyframes, I intend to use it alternately with Abobe After Effects to create 3D elements for client scenes. The graph editors in both programs are nearly identical, so there is no learning curve for me. I’ve created some basic background animations, and I was able to adjust them in a familiar way. All object properties can be keyframed as well. Multiple morphs can now be incorporated on the timeline for organic shape alterations.

You can also sculpt your animation while it is playing back now, which is very cool. You can animate pivot points, and you can finally export OpenGL previews as movies.

A review of modo must include at least a mention of the company’s website. It is rich with video tutorials, forums, downloadable content, and much more. Luxology has done an amazing job of creating a place for passionate users to co-mingle and share their work and their ideas. Spend even 15 minutes roaming around, and you’ll find it hard not to get caught up in the enthusiasm. While you’re there, you also can grab a free demo of the program to take it for a spin.

How does modo stack up against some of the big names in 3D? Well for one, its price is extremely reasonable—it’s much less expensive than other modeling and animation systems, so it’s less of a hurdle to decide if it’s the right investment for your company or boutique. Plus, with each purchase you get a license for the Mac and PC version; the install is not digitally tied to your machine and there are no annual maintenance fees. This freedom is downright refreshing. Some other companies seem intent on clamping down users with dongles and oppressive licensing restrictions. It’s a pet peeve of mine, but I really hate opening a box and seeing a hardware dongle pop out—and then suffering through response-code calisthenics in overly complex installs.

On the downside, modo does not have the vast array of plug-ins and expandability that other programs, such as 3ds Max, offer—not that this is the mission with Luxology. Instead, the company has attracted a network of users and developers who exchange feedback to create the best 3D modeling and animation system they possibly can. So no, you’re not going to be able to go out and purchase a plug-in that does fur, but you may be able to convince the team to write one. I remember so many years ago that, aside from being powerful, LightWave was just cool. The company was cool, the users were cool, and the spirit of development was exciting and poised for the future. That tradition continues with Luxology and modo. If you have not been keeping a close eye on modo, you should. It’s a robust 3D program with lots of professional features, and I have a feeling it will keep advancing in amazing directions. The best is yet to come, but a lot of the great stuff is here now.

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bottomline

Company: Luxology
www.luxology.com

Product: modo 301

Assets: New image maps ease object sculpting, improved rendering, new graph editor.

Caveats: Doesn’t offer the complete ecosystem of plug-ins that other programs have.

Demographic: Individual video producers and production boutiques making a first foray into 3D animation.

PRICE: $895 (FULL); $395 (UPGRADE)

© 2008 Penton Media, Inc.