Inside this rigging course modo users will discover and learn concepts and techniques essential to rigging models for animation in modo 501. Rich Hurrey leads students from the basics of the modo interface and tools on towards such challenging topics as inverse kinematics and schematic viewports. With the basics behind you students can then approach tackling a tutorial that ultimately leads them to a production-ready asset.

There are 26+ hours of searchable video with indexed chapters in this interactive training series. Items are cross-referenced and linked to online documentation. There is an extensive FAQ section as well. All of this is packaged up in a beautiful and easy to use interface. All materials are downloaded from the Web. Users will need modo 501 SP4 or later to complete the course plus the basic requirements of QuickTime software from Apple.

01 - rigging master course at Luxology is new.

The price is 149.USD until 24 October 2011 and then it will be 199.USD. To learn more visit here.

Microstation and SolidWorks 2011 Friendly

SES 2 comes with a variety of HDRI spherical images complete with ground planes and professional lighting. This second SES set is ideal for people who want to visualize smaller sized objects

“The ability to render an animation and see all 50 environments with zero setup time takes all of the guess work out of studio lighting,”

said Branden Coker, Creative Multimedia Specialist at Analytical Graphics Inc.

01 - SES 2 for modo 501. SES 2 ships with over 50 HDRI images for spherical mapping. Image by Jan Ove Rust. (Courtesy, Luxology LLC).

“The variety of environments in this set is stellar. It makes studio lighting so easy, it’s almost an afterthought.”

Typical users of SES 2 are architects, artists, industrial and product designers, engineers, packaging designers and CAD specialists. It is compatible with modo 501 on both Mac and Windows and works with Microstation and SolidWorks on Windows. Retails for 69.00USD.

For more information

The Australian company, Design+Industry was asked by Strike Motors to turn a concept of a three-wheeled “trike” into a commercially manufacturable vehicle. What was born was ‘the Trike’, half-car, half-motorcycle, this two seater combines cornering capability and high stopping power. With stability and speed, this car is estimated to catch car enthusiasts and collectors, for its sleek futuristic design.

“We began using modo when clients started requesting features we were not able to provide with the visualisation software we were using at the time,” said Ben Carroll, industrial designer at Design+Industry.

He continued to say, ”We have had clients ask to see the physical prototype after our presentation based solely on a picture done in modo and that ‘wow’ factor has always served us well.”

For more info on the Trike.

To learn more about Luxology’s modo go here: www.luxology.com

During the event we tweeted key comments during both of their talks on our Architosh Twitter feed. You can revisit that now here.

Huw Roberts

Huw Roberts AIA is an architect who has been with Bentley for many years now. He has a deep understanding of practice and its many forms and orientations. He also understands the many challenges all AEC firms face in a global economy where practice is increasingly complex and often geographically dispersed.

01 - Huw Roberts AIA of Bentley, speaking at Smartgeometry 2011 Copenhagen.

During his talk he mentioned that Bentley is the world’s largest software company dedicated to all of the AEC market. Bentley has a diverse product portfolio that goes far beyond building design and engineering to civil and plant design, facilities and more. They are the world’s number one software company for structural engineering solutions. And the company’s annual revenue is now at half billion US dollars.

One of the more interesting things Huw said was that Bentley spends up to 20 percent of its annual revenue on research and development. And Generative Components is not actually apart of that figure. Generative Components, he said, is actually free software and therefore is placed outside those figures. Certainly there is ongoing R&D for GC as well but there was no mention of a dollar figure.

Why GC? Why Smartgeometry Conference?

Huw explained that the company is invested in advancing Generative Components because as a product it aligns with the company’s overall visions for innovation. And Bentley is interested in “open information…sharing data.” And the types of projects and problems firms around the world are facing and using GC to solve critically inform Bentley’s full line of software solutions. Generative Components dovetails with Bentley’s software for architects and engineers and Huw noted that going forward it will continue to inform and impact the development of other products.

Huw said the company is doing “syndicated development” projects, whereby Bentley works in a co-op way with major firms or institutions in addressing new challenges through software. Today the company is working on a $24 billion ultimate integration project. And this summer the company will be introducing something they call Model Documentation.

Generative Components is advanced 3D software for design that goes beyond just complex geometry creation or solving. It enables designers to capture and define relationships, set up rules and algorithms, and iterate using numerical methods and rule-based interdependencies.

In a slide Huw showed a building with a complex steel frame holding up a skylight system. Bentley created an algorithm that addressed two inter-related issues and setup a relationship. One issue was that of energy loss (heat gain/loss) through the skylight, while the other issue was that of steel weight. The last issue affects cost directly for the structure. The first issue affects operations costs. How do architects design so that they can solve both sets of problems simultaneously? (see image 01)

02 - Makai Smith, who heads up Generative Components at Bentley gave an engaging talk. In this slide he shows an architecture from form say 1970 and compares it to one today. Not much has changed, he contends. The future of practice will need to change the formation of firms.

Huw said these are the types of problems the technology in Bentley’s product suites address, and will continue to address in more complexity.

Finally, Smartgeometry is something Bentley has been very proud to be involved in and sponsoring for many years. The conference frames and addresses many of the most technically challenging AEC problems in the world, using the latest computational research and practice methodologies. GC is a key component tool for those participating in Smartgeometry.

Next page > Makai’s Talk, Future of GC

“We love 3D and are pleased to see the 3D market growing across the board. Part of Luxology’s contribution is to continue to develop modern 3D software applications that are open and artist friendly,” said Brad Peebler, president and co-founder of Luxology. “A key part of this effort is to listen to our users and create products that match their needs. modo 501 delivers this with a community-inspired set of new features and workflow enhancements that make an actual difference in daily production.”

modo 501’s New Features

modo 501 has dozens of new features but what follows below is a brief summary of key elements of the release:

• Rendering – raytracing is further speed optimized offering 30-40 percent performance gain. The Preview Renderer now progressively renders to near final quality and can prioritize updates in areas where users scrub with a mouse or pen
• User Experience – The new RayGL viewport option lets users model in a raytraced environment, blending modeling and rendering.
• Modeling – modo 501 now supports industry standard Pixar Subdivision Surfaces and new “one click” modeling tools for common modeling operations speeding up the workflow. Procedurural geometry tools make their debut and new snapping and alignment tools enhance precision.
• Sculpting – Sculpting tools now work on multi-resolution meshes, facilitating coarse or fine adjustments to surfaces as needed. This is equivalent to further subdivision levels in similar tools (eg: Autodesk Mudbox).
• Texturing – New occlusion texturing options make it easier to create worn edges, corroded crevices and the like. modo 501 also supports disk-based, tiled-image map formats allowing users to work with images that are much larger than the available system memory.

Other key new features include improvements to fur rendering, a new node-based schematic viewport system for animation and a software development kit for third-party developers.

01 - modo 501 supports Pixar SubDivision Surfaces.

For architectural visualization modo 501 now supports a “billboard” capability to help efficiently visualize trees and leaves.

“This release is really all about the user’s experience,” said Chris Hague, freelance 3D illustrator and modo 501 beta tester. “I think it’s that specific focus that draws me to modo and makes Luxology such a special company.”

modo 501 is available now and comes with a dual license that supports both Mac OS X and Windows. The software has a suggested retail price of 995.USD with upgrades at 395.USD. To learn more or contact an authorized modo reseller visit: www.luxology.com

Highlights

Here are some of the highlights from Peebler’s talk:

• Post Siggraph 2010 Event – Luxology Does its homework
• Brad says Luxology has always been looking at parallel computing
• Luxology works with its CPU partner, Intel, on some research
• Intel and Luxology research begets some CPU optimizations for future modo 501
• Luxology compares Octane Render  vs modo 501
• GPU rendering has promise with brute force rendering but has many more limitations
• Peepler believes Luxology’s CPU code is pretty darn fast!
• Luxology is not pro CPU or anti GPU
• Luxology sees the GPU as additional cores, not alternate cores
• Luxology looks to the “cloud” for additional cores – does pure research on this avenue

Peepler’s talk is very interesting. The bottom line is that Luxology is doing its homework thoroughly to get at the possible futures of rendering with both CPU and GPU cores.

01 - modo with CPU rendering vs Octane with GPU rendering. Brad Peebler shows the results of their internal research to find the best options for faster rendering by utilizing GPU cores in addition to CPU cores.

Even if you don’t use modo for your modeling, rendering and animation needs, this video is a very informative and useful type of content. I am sure you will find it as interesting as we did.

To check it out go here.

sdfs

“Our clients rely on the ILM art department to create world-class concept art and design for their films. To generate that type of work we utilize best-of-breed tools, and modo is turning out to be a terrific 3D tool for the team,” said Richard Kerris, CTO at Lucasfilm Ltd.. “modo is playing a key role in how certain looks and concepts are best created and it has earned its place in our toolset.”

ILM has set the standard for visual effects and has contributed to some of the most influential and groundbreaking films of the last 35 years. Working alongside a full compliment of professional tools, 3D concept art developed in modo has played a key role in a number of recent projects including Confessions of a Shapaholic and Iron Man 2.

Beginning with the first show the podcast focuses on realistic rendering and examining the integration of CAD files with modo 401. Future podcasts will examine how modo fits into a larger visual effects pipeline in a variety of industries.

This new podcast series will be an excellent way for Mac CAD and 3D users to learn about how modo works and how it can be a part of their industry workflow. The podcasts can be found in Apple’s iTunes and PixelCorps.tv

To learn more about modo go to: www.luxology.com

The house was constructed for a TV show, the BBC’s James May’s Toy Stories, where each episode focuses on the creation of ambitious projects using classic toys. Barnably Gunning, architect, used modo 401 to virtually create the LEGO house which consisted of over 3 million pieces. The house was designed in just two weeks and over 2,000 members of the general public and a dedicated team of volunteers physically constructed the house.

“modo 401 gave us a feel for the material quality of LEGOs as a large-scale building material long before we were actually able to put any of the components together,” said Gunning. “It made it easy for us to lay out exactly what we needed to build this structure and helped keep tabls on the number of bricks being used for each piece.”

To see some amazing photos of the LEGO house visit the Luxology website here.

Punch Software’s Shark FX version 7 is available from Cadsoft Solutions Limited, in the UK, for pre-order now. The promotional pricing ends 31 January 2010 for existing users of all Punch CAD software and qualifying competitive software.

The new Shark FX v7 features a host of great new features including HDRI, Global Illumination (GI), and non-Photorealistic Sketch Rendering. There are over 100 new features in Shark FX v7. To learn more visit: http://www.cadsoftsolutions.co.uk/

Luxology Announces Chinese version of modo 401

modo 401 developer Luxology has recently announced a Chinese version of their award-winning 3D software package modo 401. This new version is immediately available from Pikatoons Inc, the exclusive distributor for Luxology software in China.

A localized version of modo 401 for the Chinese market was in demand, as the fastest growing large economy in the world continues to expand. “The Chinese market is steadily growing and this new localized software will allow us to deliver first-class tools and technology to customers in a broad array of disciplines,” said Ye Wei Zhong, president of Pikatoons, Inc.

To learn more about modo in China visit: www.luxology.com

solidThinking News

solidThinking’s latest newsletter had some interesting tips including one on rendering a room with its fast Final Gather rendering algorithms. Other tips can be found on its solidThinkingBlog site here.

solidThinking has garnered some top press reaction from many of the leading industry publications for its new solidThinking Inspired 8.0 product with its new morphogenesis technology. This has included an article in the New York Times and Wired Magazine.

And a solidThinking user has won the MYDA Millenium Yacht Design Award contest with its Prototipi Design. This is a really cool design that we encourage readers to check out!

“The Luxology Customer Gallery is a showcase of images produced with Luxology’s modo software that has grown to thousands of images in just a few short years,” said Brad Peebler, president and co-founder of Luxology. “The gallery is constantly updated and the new LuxGallery app is a convenient way for community members and others to remotely explore what other modo designers and artists are producing.”

The LuxGallery app for the iPhone is available for free on the Apple App Store. For more information on Luxology visit them here: www.luxology.com

Ronald Rael is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at UC Berkeley and a partner in Rael San Fratello Architects. He used modo to develop his innovative concept for the Bay Bridge. The result is a transformational space he believes would become a San Francisco landmark, with housing units hung from the bottom span of the bridge and a trail that links public spaces along the top level.

“I love how quickly I can prototype ideas using modo,” says Rael. “I believe modo has profound implications for architecture, even though it is not necessarily an architectural software. It opens up wonderful creative opportunities by bringing both freedom and efficiency to this kind of visualization.”

Rael is a staunch advocate of repurposing old urban infrastructure. One of the main inspirations for his Bay Bridge design is a New York City apartment he once lived in that overlooked The High Line Park, an old elevated railway that is currently being converted into a public park.

“These structures are part of our collective culture, and creative minds can re-envision them using tools like modo,” he says. “If a linear park was created on the Bay Bridge, people would come from all over the world to see it. At the least, I hope this proposal helps to gets people thinking about reusing existing structures instead of simply tearing them down.”

In the meantime, Rael is involved in several other high-profile architectural projects that involve modo, including a UCLA-sponsored project called WPA 2.0 that examines new approaches to public infrastructure, with an upcoming presentation to politicians in Washington, D.C. this November. Rael is proposing the use of solar panels or water treatment facilities instead of fences along the U.S.-Mexican border, providing useful functions while preserving border security. He relied heavily upon modo’s replicator feature for the creation of hundreds of photo-realistic solar panels and waterways.

Whether he’s designing bridges, buildings, or fabricating new materials, Rael has found modo to be an essential tool for realizing creative designs.

“I think the language of my work has actually changed through the lens of modo,” he says. “If you use a parallel bar, you would design a certain way, because you’re limited by the linear orientation. But using modo, I actually feel as though I’m using the part of my brain that allows me to be more creative and makes the experience more enjoyable.”

More information about Ronald Rael and his work with modo can be found athttp://www.luxology.com/community/profiles/ronald_rael/.

Introduced concurrently with the recently released modo 401, the custom-developed Web site provides modo artists with an easily accessible online resource for content re-utilization. Asset types include modo Presets and surface materials, 3D meshes, profile curves, animation assemblies and professionally designed lighting environments, which can all be utilized in modo 401. Users can upload their images and other assets to the site so that other users can utilize them. 

“With this new sharing mechanism, we are offering modo users the collective talent, experience and creative output of the entire modo user base,” said Brad Peebler, president and co-founder of Luxology.

“I’ve already found the asset sharing site to be a fantastic resource,” says Yazan Malkosh, a 3D artist and modo 401 beta tester. “Browsing the assets currently available online, including various materials, environments, meshes, assemblies and profiles, is very motivational.”

To learn more visit Luxology online at: www.luxology.com

Luxology has announced the immediate availability of modo 401, the latest version of company’s award-winning 3D software package, for 3D artists working in a wide variety of industries from design visualization, package design, game development, film visual effects (VFX), video production and graphics arts. 

modo 401

Luxology has been adding numerous features to modo for the Mac and PC at a rapid clip and today modo 401 is an end-to-end solution encompassing modeling, sculpting, painting, animation and rendering in an innovative and easy-to-use user-interface (UI). 

modo 401 has a focus of improvements in the areas of rendering and animation, dozens of new features and innovative workflow improvements. ”modo 401 continues our emphasis on making the 3D creative process as fluid as possible for designers and artists,” said Brad Peebler, president of Luxology. “This new version is packed with improvements and is clearly our biggest upgrade of modo to date.”

Rendering

New improvements in rendering include caustics, dispersion, blurry refraction, volumetric lighting and Pixar-patented deep shadows. New Instance Replicators allow dense amounts of surface detail with trillion polygon detail. Also new are light linking and support for multiple environments provide precise control over how each part of a scene is individually lit.  modo 401 supports stereoscopic rendering and will render on up to 32 cores across a network of 50 workstations. 

Animation

New and improved features include inverse kinematics, dynamic parenting, channel constraints and modifiers. modo 401’s new animation capabilities facilitate the creation of sophisticated rigs that can driven with a few simple inputs. And new pre-built animation assemblies allow users to apply animation to their models automatically. 

Workflows

User-driven feedback has led to optimized workflow improvements. A new deeply threaded Preview renderer boasts extremely rapid updates and progressive rendering capability. modo 401 boosts artist productivity by facilitating the re-use of assets throughout the content creation process. modo 401 ships with over 1500 pre-built assets. 

“These pre-built assets in modo offer us a way to get to final quality more quickly,” said Gary Fitzgerald of DesignworksUSA. “modo also allows us to capture and re-use our own design assets for greater efficiency.” 

New productivity improvements include some items like:

• new per vertex collision with geometry in most modeling tools
• new Profile Presets simplify modeling of edge-based details like crown moulding or complex bevels. 
• new Fur material enables multitude of material appearances from hair, bristles and fur to water droplets
• new data import and export options: Collada, FBX, 3DM and a new SolidWorks 2009 file importer for Windows only

e-on Software has released its long anticipated Vue-7.5 xStream and Vue 7.5 Infinite software for the creation of natural 3D environments. This latest software will help 3D artists, animators, and landscape and building architects create stunning renderings and animations of complete 3D environments for their visualization projects. 

The list of new features for Vue 7.5 is too long to list here but highlights include: color and alpha masks of single clouds and cloud layers; camera mapping; spherical cloud maps; EcoSystem populations that can evolve over time; improved OpenGL sky and cloud views and more. 

Vue 7.5 xStream is their non-standalone professional application that works inside leading 3D production suites including Maya, 3ds Max, LightWave, Cinema 4D and Softimage XSI. To learn more visit their website here.

LightWorks Design Announces Winner of First Rendering Competition

The winning entry came from Aaron Smithey, an architectural renderer based in Scottsdale, Arizona. Aaron uses formZ software from auto-des-sys, Inc., with its integrated LightWorks rendering engine. 

Upon hearing the news Aaron commented, “I have been using formZ since 1994. formZ is a great modeling tool but is also a great rendering tool due to its integration of the LightWorks rendering engine.” 

“The LightWorks rendering engine has proven itself,” Aaron continued, “as an invaluable tool to me and my clients.” To learn more visit: www.lightworkdesign.com and to view the gallery from this competition go here.

Escape Studios to Host Luxology modo 401 Road Show

Luxology LLC, in partnership with Escape Studios, is bringing its modo 401 Roadshow to England with an exciting event scheduled in London June 3, 2009. 

This event will showcase the latest version of Luxology’s award-winning 3D software, modo 401. 

The modo 401 demonstrations, using Roadshow sponsor Wacom’s latest Intuos tablet technology, will be given by Andy Brown, Luxology’s training division manager. Speaking at the event  is freelance artist Robin Konieczny, whose work at various prestigious VFX studios appears in music videos for The Gorillas, visual efffects for the BBC and the Discovery Channel, as well as various shots in “The Da Vinci Code,” HBO’s “Rome” and more. 

Attendees must pre-register and space is limited. Please visit the event page at Escape Studios’ website here.

To learn more about modo 401 go here.

The T-Splines folks will be at SIGGRAPH this summer. Unfortunately the company says there will be no T-Splines plugin for Rhino on Mac OS X yet because the Rhino folks have not yet released a SDK (software development kit) for the Mac version. Matt Sederberg of T-Splines told Architosh that once the SDK for the Mac version of Rhino is available they will produce a T-Splines plugin for the Mac. 

At SIGGRAPH 2009 this summer the company will exhibit and the likely big news will be the official unveiling of the T-Splines 2.0 plugin for Rhino on Windows. For more info visit them at: www.tsplines.com

Luxology and modo news

Luxology president Brad Peepler is back on the Web with another modo user interview. This time Seneca Menard of independent game developer studio id Software discusses how modo fits into his daily production pipeline. Seneca has also been scripting in modo since its inception so modo users who are hip on its scripting abilities may want to check this out. 

Also of interest to modo users and architects and AE visualization pros, Luxology has a new architectural interiors training video out focused on lighting. This is currently featured on its home page.

Gehry Technologies News

Famed architect Frank Gehry’s technology offshoot Gehry Technologies has announced the latest release of Digital Project V1 R4. Digital Project is an advanced 3D/BIM application for the architectural industry and it is based on CATIA. The new release features over 200 new and improved features including the full release of the Architecture and Structural Building Information Modeling (BIM) workbench, improvements to its automated production of architectural drawings, and enhanced IFC interoperability. 

There is a new add-on Fitting simulation and 2D layout for 3D design, and new functionalities of photo studio, real time rendering and 3D annotations and dimensions all bundled within GT Designer. To read the full listing of new features go here. 

Back in May 2008 at the AIA conference, Architosh was treated to a private presentation of GT’s Digital Project running on a MacBook Pro under boot camp.

The company will be demonstrating its new plugin at GDC 2009 Chalk Talk session titled, “New COLLADA I/O Plugin for modo 401.” Presented by Luxology’s David Vasquez, the session will take place at the Intel Visual Adrenaline Lounge from 1:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 26.

“There should be no barriers between different applications in a 3D workflow,” says Brad Peebler, president and founder of Luxology. “With our new COLLADA support, modo users will enjoy a transparent workflow that allows them to preserve crucial attributes of 3D files both into and out of modo.”

COLLADA is an open-source, XML-based file format for 3D content creation tools and forms a rival exchange format to Autodesk’s FBX. It is widely used in streamlining mixed-application 3D workflows (also known as pipelines in the VFX industry). 

To learn more visit Luxology here.

modo, is an artist-friendly 3D software that combines modeling, sculpting, painting, animation and rendering in a fused workflow for quick concept modeling and/or physically-based rendering for design visualization. modo is a modern 3D software for it is based on subdivision surface modeling technology and excels at both hard surface and organic modeling. 

“modo provides a substantial benefit to designers who need creative and efficient tools that work seamlessly with SolidWorks 2009,” said Brad Peebler, president and founder of Luxology. “SolidWorks and modo users alike will benefit from being able to import design and engineering data into modo for advanced visualization, and the ability to develop custom materials of virtually any kind.”

For more information visit www.luxology.com.

The reason for NASA’s selection of modo, out of all the 3D rendering design softwares was that they needed precision. Luxology reports that they, NASA designers, relied heavily on modo 302 features such as Micropoly Displacement, which allowed them to get the texture of carbon fiber just right. Luxology is proud to have their softwares participation in helping NASA’s new Moon Rover, which was presented to the public for the first time at President Barack Obama inauguration ceremony yesterday, January 20th 2009. 

modo was used by NASA to develop this new prototype rover

Both parade attendees and TV viewers can view the first public showing of the next-generation SPR, visualized in Luxology’s modo software and produced by NASA for the proposed manned return to the moon in approximately 2020.

For images of the modo-created prototype can be viewed at 

http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/home/LER.html.

“As anyone can see in our image gallery, architectural visualization is one of the most popular uses of modo,” said Bob Bennett, vice president of Luxology. “Plus, the techniques explained in these two new videos are applicable to any modo user who wants to increase their skills in modeling with precision and effectively lighting a scene.” 

modo for Architectural Viz

The “Architectural Modeling” video album demonstrates how to create an architectural model from a given set of dimensions, and the “Architectural Interior: Lighting and Rendering” video album teaches techniques for lighting day and night shots of a contemporary interior living space. To expedite the learning experience, Luxology provides pre-built models and images with each tutorial series. Both albums are produced in high-def resolution and are available immediately for purchase from the Luxology store. 

To learn more go here.