Modo

Description
''Modo delivers the next evolution of 3D modeling, painting and rendering in a single integrated and accelerated package for the Mac and PC. And now, modo also includes true 3D sculpting tools, item animation and network rendering! More than just features, modo is a truly elegant integration of technology, raw horsepower and refined workflow.'' URL: www.luxology.com/whatismodo/ Tutorials: www.luxology.com/community/tutorials/ Current Version: www.luxology.com/trymodo/ Unity Documentation: http://docs.unity3d.com/Documentation/Manual/HOWTO-ImportObjectModo.html

Known Issues
TBA

Unity Scale Calibration
1. Within the Modo preferences panel, go to the Accuracy subsection under the Input category. 2. Set Unit System and Default Units to Game Units.

Meshes (Modelling)
During initial modelling, it's very helpful to do so as a sub-d model with edge-weights. There's no need to freeze the model but it gives a good approximation of the final appearance.

Mimicking Lightwave's "Level 0" Sub-D Approximation
Lightwave has an amazing capability to freeze Sub-D's at "level 0". In other words, the smoothing effect of the Sub-D cage is preserved, but no additional polys are added - the polygon count maintains a 1 to 1 ratio of frozen polys to Sub-D cage. As of 302, there are no know methods of automatically duplicating this in Modo, but it is possibly to manually arrive at the same results.

Merely set the Subdivision Level to "1" in the Mesh Layer's properties panel, then freeze it (Geometry > Freeze...). Preserving the original edges, select every other edge, press "l" for "select loop", and hit backspace to delete. Depending on the topology of the model, this may need some careful attention.

TIP: Set the smoothing angle for the material to 179.5 degrees in the material so it will smooth shade across the edges. This is *very* important when using Normal Maps on the lo-res model.

Hopefully someone will create a script to solve this before too long. It shouldn't be too difficult - the wireframe mesh is visible in the interface EXACTLY how we want it!

--jake carvey 16:13, 19 December 2008 (PST)

Faking Sharp Edges
Modo is a great polygon modeller but does not have specific control of normal angles. At this time, it's currently set in a general way via the Material's smoothing angle. Here's a way to 'fake' the same effect without the need to tweak the model in another 3D app.


 * 1) When the model is complete, turn it back to polygons and select the vertices along the edge you wish to remain sharp.
 * 2) Use the Vertex Split tool (in the Vertex tab of the Modo Tools Panel).
 * 3) Select the faces on each side of the split and Merge Vertices. Remember to do each side individually or all the vertices will be merged as they were before.

--D4rkl1gh7 02:58, 11 January 2007 (GMT)

Textures (UV's)
When modelling in Modo and exporting to .FBX, make sure you have no unused UV maps in your project since these will break the UV mapping once the FBX file is imported into Unity.

This rule applies to Unity for any imported model. Note the options when importing a model into Unity. There is an option to swap primary and secondary UV maps. Therefore 2 UV Maps from Modo are perfectly fine so long as their order in the Vertex Map List is noted. In other words, Unity considers the first in the list as the Primary.

Bones
TBA

Animations
TBA

Scene Cleanup
Before exporting as fbx or ma, remove all Modo-specific items such as cameras, lights, and texture locators as they only end up as empty game objects in Unity anyway. This will also prevent the need to break the link to the original file due to cleanup in the Unity Editor.

There's a nice script to automate this available in this Unity forum posting. For a nice little video tutorial of how to add scripts to modo, see How to add scripts to pie menus in modo 301 (which also works in modo 401 and has some nice tips, too).

Export
Nathan Warden made two video tutorials on exporting models from modo to Unity and setting up a basic scene:

Video 1: http://web.me.com/nathanwardenlee/Tutorials/Unity_2/ModoToUnity_01.mov Video 2: http://web.me.com/nathanwardenlee/Tutorials/Unity_2/ModoToUnity_02.mov