Foundry Modo 11.2 Updates Mesh, UV and Procedural Tools for Modellers
Deformer manipulation
Foundry Modo 11.2, final release in the 11 series, focusses on modelling tools – procedural, poly bevelling and UV texturing - and includes updates to MeshFusion.
Some of the main updates in this release include Poly Bevel improvements, improving edge flow through complex geometry intersections. The new Square Corner tool has the option to add a quadrangle at sharp corners of a polygon’s boundary edge. Offset Even maintains an even distance between the inset faces and the original boundary edge. Edge Rail helps bevel groups of polygons, and Maintain Co-Planar Edge merges unselected co-planar edges to the next unselected sharp edge, giving more predictable results.
Replicator export
Procedural modelling tools are part of what makes Modo very flexible software. The Set Polygon Type mesh operation is new and operates on any selection of surface polygons. It modifies the polygon type, converting polygons into faces, subdivision surfaces or catmull-clark polygons. Flip Polygons is another new mesh operation that reverses the surface normal of polygons. The Select by Previous operation has been updated to support slice related mesh operators such as Slice, Axis Slice, Axis Drill, Solid Drill, Boolean and Curve Slice.
Alembic particle system export
More about meshes are some MeshFusion updates. To speed up interaction with Draft Unions, which split Fusion Items into active and inactive parts automatically, a new workflow temporarily disables the union or seam geometry calculation when the contributing mesh is moved. New support for Catmull Clark Sub-D edge-weighted source geometry results in meshes that handle variable edge weights better. MeshFusion also has a new method for creating material polygon tags and two new assembly presets - Rib Trim Assembly is used for modeling structural ribbing, window and canopy framing and related geometry; ElboPipe assembly creates piping consisting of straight segments and short, tight turns.
Modo's UV tools are also recognised for their ability to texture games assets consistently. New functionality helps align UV islands more quickly and stack islands for more efficient use of textures. A new UV coverage indicator has been introduced to show the coverage percentage of the foreground and all items in a UV map. The Texel Density tools added earlier in Modo 11.1 are now faster and more reliable, and extra display modes make it easier to select missing or distorted UVs. New commands help detect UV errors.
Preset browser
Other updates include animation performance enhancements, alembic replicator and particle data export and a new cloud-based preset browser that accesses the Modo Community share-site, recently updated with thousands of sample files, presets and templates, directly from within modo.
The rigging and animation workflows in Modo 11.2 contain updates to Weight Editing performance and Deformer Manipulation. Interactive performance when weight editing smaller parts of the mesh, such as hands or small skeleton deformations like feet or fingers, are significantly improved.
The replicator exporting workflow that supports data movement between Modo and other content creation software is now easier and more efficient - users can select whether to export replicas as an Alembic particle system, geometry or both via the preferences viewport. The FBX plugin has been updated to version Autodesk FBX 2018.1.
A number of changes to other workflows have been made in Modo 11.2 as well. Unreal Bridge now has a more compact, precise UI for push actions, and a new Playblast command has more options when recording OpenGL viewports. The new shader type, Principled BDRF, is based on the paper from Walt Disney Animation's Brent Burley, and a Scene Cleanup command removes your empty meshes and groups, and purges unused schematic nodes, images, materials and deformers.
Modo 11.2 is available now for purchase. www.foundry.com
