Creative 3D modelling, animation, texturing and rendering tools

Modo’s workflow differs significantly from many other mainstream 3D applications. While other products stress using the right tool for the job, Modo artists typically use a much smaller number of basic tools and combine them to create new tools using the Tool Pipe and customizable action centres and falloffs.

Modo allows an artist to choose a tool or action’s “pivot point” in real-time simply by clicking somewhere. Thus, Modo avoids making the artist invoke a separate “adjust pivot point” mode. In addition, the artist can tell Modo to derive a tool’s axis orientation from the selected or clicked-on element, bypassing the need for a separate “adjust tool axis” mode.

Any tool can be modified with a customizable falloff, which modifies its influence and strength according to geometric shapes. Radial falloff will make the current tool affect elements in the centre of a resizable sphere most strongly, while elements at the edges will be barely affected. Linear falloff will make the tool affect elements based on a gradient that lies along a user-chosen line, etc.

Modo allows an artist to paint directly onto 3D models and even paint instances of existing meshes onto the surface of an object. Pressure-sensitive tablets are supported. The painting results are stored in a bitmap, and that map can be driven by anything in Modo’s Shader Tree.

Pros and Cons
Customizing tools using the Tool Pipe
Speedy rendering engine
Character animation
Bullet physics
Easy manipulation of volumetric objects
Scripts in Perl, Python and Lua
Steep learning curve
There are no fluid modelling tools
The price is too high

This software product is popular with CG designers in advertising, packaging design, game development and special effects for video films, and architectural visualization. And it’s easy to see why. The relative ease of use and robust feature set make it one of the best tools for the needs of artists and animators.

Author:The Foundry
Homepage:foundry.com
License:Trial
Updated:September 22, 2023
Latest Version:16.1v8
Available languages:English

Download

Below are the links to download MODO for PC (Windows, macOS, Linux). Choose the distribution you need and download it. All links are direct and checked for malicious inclusions.

What’s new
  • ID 549598 – The Solidworks import plugin has been upgraded to support import of Solidworks 2023 files (The plugin is for Windows only).
  • ID 543114 – Viewport not refreshing with MOP Booleans.
  • ID 544423 – Alembic particles are not displayed in the viewport.
  • ID 546694 – Texture Cache does not work with procedural textures.
  • ID 547546 – Freeze mesh operator leaves unmerged vertex at the end of open curves.
  • ID 548039 – macOS – The names of the input channels on assemblies get progressively corrupted.
  • ID 548282 – Bump layers add instead of overriding lower bump layers when the blend mode is set to Normal.
  • ID 550274 – Bump doesn’t show up in a render with tri-planar mapping on image textures.
Previous versions

Installation

Download the installer you want, run the installation and follow the instructions.

MODO