The Modo 12 Series delivers a range of innovative features including a VR viewport embedded in the UI and vastly improved animation capabilities

London, 28 March 2018: -  Leading creative software developer, Foundry, today launches Modo 12.0, the first in a series of three instalments of the highly anticipated Modo 12 Series.

Building on its status as the industry’s leading 3D modelling tool, the Modo 12 Series introduces a range of new features and updates that will boost artist creativity and allow for richer content creation and sharing.

William Vaughan, 3D Production Manager at New Balance, commented: "Modo has always been known as a powerful modeling tool, and the improvements to Mesh Paint and additions to MeshOps continue to impress. It’s obvious that a lot of thought has gone into Modo 12.0 to tune and refine the user experience. The ability to create presets inside the Preset Browser has already proven to be invaluable to our workflow at New Balance."

Modo introduces a dedicated VR viewport within the UI—the first of its kind for professional DCC applications. This gives Modo users a uniquely immersive experience for creating VR and AR content. Enhanced model-bashing tools and workflows will dramatically speed up workflows, while a focus on iterative design will empower artists to experiment with creating forms quickly.

Shifting data from Modo to other applications will also be much easier in this series, from improved CAD loaders to the Unreal/Unity Bridge workflows. In addition, users will be able to experience vastly improved animation workflows to easily build, repurpose, combine and adjust animation models.

Key features for Modo 12.0 include:

• glTF Export to Facebook: Developed in conjunction with Facebook's new ‘3D Posts’ functionality, artists can now create 3D objects in Modo and then share them on the Facebook News Feed. This technology presents artists with a unique opportunity to create more engaging and compelling content.

• Mesh Paint Refinements: The tool has been brought up-to-date and enhanced, allowing you to quickly bash out models and environments faster. You can now paint random presets, utilize asset libraries in new and exciting ways, and the array paint modes give you greater control when painting more ordered collections of objects.

• MeshFusion Surface Strips: MeshFusion is significantly enhanced with Surface Strips, an innovative new feature that works by allowing the creation of strip geometry or topology lying flush on any Fusion Item surface, providing a wide range of opportunities for Post-Fusion modeling with Procedural operations or direct modeling of the Fusion Output Mesh.

• Modeling and Design Creation Enhancements: The Jitter tool has new options to randomise the position, scale and rotation of connected geometry within a single Item. It also works with connected selections, allowing you to quickly add subtle realism in situations where previously it would have been difficult. A new tool handle has been added to the Vertex Slide tool, giving you greater control when tweaking the position of vertices in a mesh.

• New Procedural Mesh Operations: A Triangulate MeshOp has been added to which lets you export triangulated models in a non-destructive manner. The Merge Mesh operator can now read replicator items as geometry inputs, allowing replicated geometry to be manipulated using procedural modeling tools. It’s also now possible to modulate the shape of an item falloff via the Mini Graph Editor, allowing for a much wider array of falloff effects when rigging or procedural modelling. The new Falloff Operator lets you drive Mesh Operation Falloffs via a range of scene and geometric parameters.

Ocean Quigley, Creative Director at Facebook, commented: "Modo 12.0 creates an exciting new way to share 3D content on Facebook. It presents artists and advertisers with a unique opportunity to create more engaging content. We look forward to seeing the collaboration with Foundry continue to grow as more people use 3D posts to share their creativity and products on Facebook."

Shane Griffith, Senior Product Manager at Foundry, commented: “We’re pleased to announce the release of the Modo 12 Series, which includes a host of new features for 3D artists to get excited about. From games developers, to product and marketing designers, the Modo 12 Series will help artists to continue pushing the boundaries of 3D design.”

Other key features for this release include a Cloud Assets and Foundry Share Site for creating, sharing and downloading preset assets, UV tools and workflow refinements, and rendering and sharing improvements.

For more information, visit Modo’s latest release page