How to describe the depth of options in modo 401: Rich. I’ll cover some of the newer options in this review. For a description of other features, please check out my review of modo 302.
Animation
While basic animation was possible in modo301/302, 401 has some serious improvements in this area. I’ll not list all of the individual additions to avoid boring you - just go check out the full list at Luxology for a full listing.
The best demonstration of these new features is a tank animation on the Luxology site. Wow. The level to which you can create interactive elements that respect not only their own motion requirements but also interact with elements in a scene is outstanding.
To sum up the improved animation features - sweet. Modo 401 has mechanical-centric animation down. The Inverse Kinematic (IK) features are a snap to use. (This is for moving something like a foot and having the leg follow automatically.) While most often associated with models that have feet and hands, realistic mechanical animation relies heavily on good IK too. IK can then be controlled with constraints for precise movement. 401 comes with 32 motion channel modifiers giving the user unprecedented control of motion of their objects.
The cool part is, any given animated behavior can be connected to another object's animated behavior. This sophisticated interaction is friendly to implement and easy to modify. Like everything on modo, textures, motion, and parent child relationships function with a hierarchical format. Changing interactions is as easy as dragging layers/channels up and down in the structure.
This hierarchy method, somewhat different from other 3D packages, must be learned to get the most bang out of modo 401. Fortunately, it’s very easy to get the hang of.
Replication
With this release, modo has graduated from object builder to scene builder. The new ability to replicate geometry within a scene is critical to fast scene builds with low overhead in memory. Replication doesn’t actually create duplicate geometry. Rather, in instantiates a “ghost” of the source image letting users create vastness even on modest computer systems. In addition to the usual method of controlling replicator instances with a texture map, users can also introduce randomization via the replicator controls themselves.
Unfortunately, there isn’t an option for previewing the actual replicated instances or choices for displaying the instances in anything other than a wireframe box. Previews require engaging the interactive preview. It would be nice to turn of the boxes sometimes and replace them with a point or icon, but also have the ability to see wireframe presentations of the objects themselves. Obviously, the latter would be tough on computer systems if the object were complex. However, for simpler objects it could be a tremendous help.
