Foundry ships Modo 15.0
Foundry has released Modo 15.0, the latest version of its 3D modelling, animation and rendering software, and the first of the three linked releases that will form the Modo 15 Series.
It’s largely an iterative update, extending the existing toolsets, although there are more major overhauls of the MeshFusion Boolean modelling system and Animation Editor, intended to improve ease of use.
Other changes include support for depth of field in the Advanced Viewport, a new intearctive mode for the mPath renderer, and support for Python 3.
MeshFusion: new UI and more viewport-centric workflow for editing models
Of Modo’s modelling toolsets, real-time Boolean system MeshFusion gets the biggest update, with a simplified UI and new features to promote a more “viewport-centric approach for editing models”.
Key changes include the new Select Source mode, making it possible to select source meshes directly from the viewport, rathter than the items list, and a new Edit Attribute mode intended to help isolate and edit individual strips, patches and corners.
Modelling: new Unsubdivide tool, and support for procedural loop slicing
The direct modelling toolset gets one new tool, Unsubdivide, which reconstructs lower subdivision levels of previously subdivided meshes, outputting a low-poly mesh for baking or real-time use.
The functionality, shown at 01:00 in the video above, is also available as a procedural mesh operation.
It is also now possible to enable Modo’s cage mode by setting the subdivision level of a mesh to 0, reducing mouse clicks; and, as with the past four releases, chamfering workflow gets an iterative update.
Changes to procedural modelling include the option to use Loop Slice as a procedural operation, helping to create evenly spaced slices; and a new Create Vertex mesh operation for adding a single vertex to a mesh.
Rigging and animation: overhauled UI and extensions to Rig Clay
Modo’s Animation Editor also gets a UI overhaul, with the Graph Editor joined in the collapsible lower region of the interface by the Dopesheet and Channels viewport.
Rig Clay, the new system for posing models by dragging directly on the mesh added in Modo 14.2, is now supported in the 2D model view, while Command Regions, which define the part of the mesh deformed by mouse gestures, can now be defined by mesh operations, providing a more procedural workflow.
Rendering: DoF in the AVP, and a new interactive mode for mPath
Rendering changes include support for depth of field in Modo’s Advanced Viewport (AVP).
mPath, Modo’s path tracing render engine, gets a new interactive mode, making it possible to pan, zoom or rotate the view in the render viewport without having to edit the scene camera.
Other changes: support for Python 3 and Qt5
Changes under the hood include support for Python 3 – Python 2 is also still supported, and users can switch between the two – and version 5 of the Qt library used to create the user interface.
There are also a number of smaller workflow improvements, shown in this video.
Pricing and availability
Modo 15.0 is available for 64-bit Windows 10, RHEL and CentOS 7.6+ Linux, and macOS 10.14+. Buying 15.0 grants access to the remaining updates in the Modo 15 Series.
New perpetual licences of the software now cost $1,909, up slightly on the previous release, while rental now starts at $65/month or $659/year, up $30/year.
Read an overview of the new features in Modo 15.0 on Foundry’s website
Read a full list of new features in Modo 15.0 in the online release notes