Foundry launches Modo 11.1 with host of new and enhanced features

London, 29th June 2017: Creative software developer, Foundry, today launches Modo 11.1, the latest instalment of the 11 Series, with a range of new and improved features to help 3D artists and designers work more efficiently.

William Vaughan, 3D Production Manager at New Balance, said: "The new vertex map tools in Modo 11.1 add even more functionality and flexibility to an already powerful tool set. Foundry's focus on improving the existing tools has paid off ten-fold."

Building on the success of the new subscription-based pricing model for Modo 11, the next instalment offers an array of exciting benefits, including:

Unreal Bridge

Modo 11.1 continues to enhance the connection to Unreal Engine 4 with a new client-server bridge. Game artists can work in an uninterrupted flow between Modo and Unreal Engine, with the Unreal Bridge providing a bidirectional connection between both applications, allowing entire scenes, or selected elements of a scene, to be pushed and updated. The connection can be remote, on the same machine, or across multiple machines on a network.

Modelling workflow

The modeling tools in Modo 11.1 have undergone a number of upgrades to provide even greater modeling power. The topology pen and standard Smooth tool have been revamped to provide greater control, falloffs are even more dynamic with updates to the move and smoothing modes, whilst the Loop slice tool and radial sweep are easier to use and offer new functionality. In addition to this, enhanced procedural modeling features include new UV create and smooth operators.

UV workflows

The ease of creating UVs in Modo is one of its core strengths, and Modo 11.1 builds upon this with a raft of fresh features. Designers can efficiently arrange UV maps with the new UV coverage indicator, and easily separate or move and position UVs more fluidly with the new Box Transform tool. Detecting potential problems with UV layouts and maintaining uniform texture detail is now easier, while enhanced UV to SVG exporting provides better control over the real world size of the output: great for packaging and industrial design.

Better out of the box experience

Modo 11.1 includes a number of updates to improve usability. Individual textures and materials in the shader tree now have GL channels that override the colors in the GL viewport – a useful feature for designers when modeling shapes that have many different parts and who want to optimize how an object is displayed. The Autosave function let’s designers manually cancel the autosave if it’s about to occur at an inopportune time, template scenes can easily be created and loaded from the preset browser, and the Texture Locator properties form has been reduced for easier use.

Jody Madden, Chief Product and Customer Officer at Foundry, said: “At Foundry, we’re driven by our commitment to inspiring creativity. Modo 11.1 offers a raft of new features that will help artists and visual design professionals work more efficiently than ever before. We’re always reacting to customers’ needs and we hope this latest instalment will continue to make Modo their first-choice for 3D design and creation.”