VizWorld.com

id Software’s highly anticipated title “Rage” has finally shipped, to mediocre reviews from most gaming sites.  While they criticize the story and gameplay, nobody can complain about the amazing graphics.  Luxology has just issued a new press release giving a bit of insight behind the graphics, revealing that modo was one of the primary design tools.

“Modeling in modo is faster than using a level editor application, and we really enjoy the precise control we get over our level work, which would be impossible to do with only brushes or modular models,” says Seneca Menard, lead technical artist at Dallas, Texas-based id Software. “Plus, most of the tools needed for game design and development are already in modo, and that’s what we love about it.”

via Luxology.com :: id Software Employs modo to Model Assets for Highly Anticipated Game “Rage”.

Graphics id software, luxology, modo, rage

Luxology has just released a new product that’s a must-have for folks working on Science Fiction or Industrial design renderings.  Their new “Model Bashing Kit” offers up 230 mesh presets and imagemaps to quickly add all the little details that make surfaces feel more real.

“We love spaceships and wanted to make it possible for any modo user to quickly create super technically detailed exteriors or interiors that are absolutely unique,” said Brad Peebler, president and co-founder of Luxology. “This is a must-have collection of modo building blocks that you can tear apart and join together to create intricate futuristic surfaces, and have a blast while doing it.”

Developed by Andy Brown, check out the amazing animation he made with the Model Bashing Kit below.

via Luxology.com :: Luxology Ships Model Bashing Kit for modo 501.

Graphics luxology, modo

CGSociety has a nice writeup on Martina Johansson’s “Fairy Girl” model and rendering, showing her prowess with a whole collection of tools ranging from modeling to painting.

I tried a lot of different styles for the wings. For example I tried give her big butterfly wings but quickly realized that I wanted the wings to be much smaller and with less details to put more focus on the girl. This is in fact something I think we 3D artists can learn from painters. Not everything needs to be given details just because it’s hard or impressive. Give parts of less importance fewer details and vice versa. At least for still images. I made the basemesh in Modo. I then transferred that into ZBrush where I started the actual sculpting. I used Photoshop for the textures and Modo for lighting and render.

via CGSociety – Fairy Girl.

Graphics makingof, modo, zbrush

A new whitepaper from Intel brings in some statistics and stories from Luxology, Luxion, and Modo on the power of CPU’s for ray-tracing and how they can smoke any GPU on the market with CPU-only solutions.

“Modern GPUs offer a brute force solution to ray tracing, but the memory available to GPUs is relatively limited compared to the system memory available to 64-bit CPUs such as Intel Core i7 and Xeon processors. That means that GPUs typically can’t handle the huge scene files required in full-scale production rendering, which may involve tens of millions of polygons and hundreds of high-resolution texture maps. And CPUs offer greater flexibility in terms of shading complexity and plug-in shaders, which may or may not have been ported to run on a GPU.”

These are the same arguments I’ve been hearing for the last year or so.  And I have to admit they’re right, if not a bit short-sighted.  It’s my belief that most of the arguments they use are going to fall apart soon.

• They always talk about the power of Moore’s law in CPU’s.  Well, that same law applies to GPU’s too, they’re going to get faster just like CPU’s will.  Even more so, most likely, as they not only optimize individual cores but add more cores as a rate exponential to CPU’s.
• They always talk about Memory limitations.  There was a time where CPU’s had rather restrictive memory limitations (the fabled “640k is enough for anyone” comment?).  GPU’s will continue to grow in memory.  In fact, Sandy Bridge and Fusion offer the first step towards eliminating the distinction between GPU and CPU memory.
• They always talk about the limited instruction set.  This one isn’t likely to change, and will always be a hindrance to GPU computing.  However, newer algorithms come along at a steady pace showing that you don’t really need the type of complex branching mechanisms of CPU’s, since the GPU has enough horsepower to just compute both sides of the condition and drop the unnecessary one.

In fact, I think within the next 5 years we may see the distinction between CPU and GPU disappear almost entirely, as they both wind up on the same die (similar to how Processor and Math Co-Processor eventually merged several years ago).

It’s a good whitepaper tho, full of some concrete numbers on attempts to GPU-ize code unsuccessfully and benefits achieved from using some of Intel’s newest CPU-optimization technology.

Check it out, and see what you think?

via Why CPU is better than GPU for rendering from Intel with Luxology, Keyshot and Maxwell. – SolidSmack.com.

Science cpu, gpu, intel, luxion, luxology, modo, whitepaper

Yesterday Luxology released modo501, offering a nice 30-40% rendering boost across the board and support for Pixar’s SubD surfaces.  Those two alone would warrant an upgrade, but they didn’t stop there.  They’ve also got a new ‘RayGL’ viewport option, allowing ray-traced viewports updated in realtime, and new occlusion texturing options.

“modo 501 is all about richer visual feedback and faster response as well as exciting new tools and content,” said Peebler. “The latest version of modo offers an even more fluid content creation experience and is optimized for even the most demanding projects.”

“This release is really all about the user’s experience,” said Chris Hague, freelance 3D illustrator and modo 501 beta tester. “I think it’s that specific focus that draws me to modo and makes Luxology such a special company.”

You can buy modo501 for $995, or upgrade for $395, making it one of the more affordable high-end packages around.  SolidSmack has a great writeup of the details.

Get all the details in the press releases after the break.

Read more…

Graphics luxology, modo, software

We’ve discussed a few different projects to do this, but this one seems the furthest along.  To preserve the Piusa Caverns in south-eastern Estonia, they used a Leica HDS3000 to laser-scan them into a high-resolution point cloud (Shown above), and then process the data through modo to present on a high-resolution touchscreen kiosk in 3D.

The caves are presented as interactive real-time 3D model where visitors can hover around using 32“ touchscreen. Cave walls, sandstone colours and minor details such as inscriptions on the sand wall made by the past visitors are observable in the computer model. Visitors can read additional information about the caverns and can take virtual tour inside the caves.

via 3D Technologies R&D us Leica and modo to scan and model the Piusa Caves – SolidSmack.com.

Science leica, modo

I had the privilege of attending a talk by Luxology where they detailed some of their internal research on CPU and GPU rendering technologies, finding GPU rendering approaches surprisingly disappointing in comparison.  He makes a great comparison between CPUs and GPUs, stating that GPUs are very “Wide” but computationally “Shallow”, in contrast to CPUs which are very narrow but computationally deep.

They’ve released the presentation as a Quicktime video showing their results.  I highly recommend you check it out and see their results.  I have some issues with their findings, but it’s a great comparison that shows that GPUs are not a panacea for all problems.  As he says, “It’s clear that the GPU is not the magic bullet they had hoped”, and then moves towards heterogeneous solutions merging the best of both worlds.  Later he shows some “pure research” work with networked rendering using the BOXX renderPro system.

Luxology > TV > View Video.

Graphics, Science gpgpu, luxology, modo

A new press release from Luxology discusses how ILM is using the powerful visualization tools in modo to increase the speed and efficiency of the creative concept development process.  In use in a wide variety of films ranging from “Confessions of a Shopaholic” to “Iron Man 2″, they’ve found 3D previs using modo an invaluable part of getting all of the artists on the same page.

“Our clients rely on the ILM art department to create world-class concept art and design for their films. To generate that type of work we utilize best-of-breed tools, and modo is turning out to be a terrific 3D tool for the team,” noted Richard Kerris, CTO at Lucasfilm Ltd. “modo is playing a key role in how certain looks and concepts are best created and it has earned its place in our toolset.”

Full release after the break.

Read more…

Graphics ilm, luxology, modo, software

While personally I wouldn’t consider jogging with an infant’s stroller, industrial design firm phil&teds has made a pretty good living out of designing children’s products for use by ‘active parents’, and their latest creation is the “World’s Fastest Jogger”, a children’s stroller specifically designed for jogging, modeled and designed in modo401.

“At phil&teds we don’t like to muck around with projects in the hope that we will invent something fantastic over time,” said Brace. “We always test the waters in advance to reduce risk, but in this case, visualizing the final product in modo told us most of what we really needed to know. I can honestly say that modo is the best of the many software solutions I have used over the years.”

Read the full release after the break.
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Graphics design, modo, modo401, phil&teds

Luxology, creators of Modo, have just released a new product called the “Studio Lighting & Illumination Kit” (SLIK), created by Yazan Malkosh, that compiles presets, scenes, items, and more to give you a good starting point when creating your CG scenes.  The result is that you can take your model, import it into one of SLIK’s prebuilt scenes & light rigs, and be ready to go in mere seconds.

“The staging and lighting of a subject can be time-consuming and frustrating without the proper tools, but SLIK allows me to stage and light a scene quickly and painlessly,” said freelance illustrator Warner McGee. “Making small or even large adjustments to the scene is simple and straightforward with these precise and flexible tools.”

The kit is available for $125, but requires a fully functional version of modo401.  Full press release after the break.

Read more…

Graphics luxology, modo, slik, software