So, you're an avid part-time MODO user, but you'd still like to be able to keep up-to-date with all the neat tricks and cool ways you can optimize your MODO workflow.
Being a hobbyist sometimes it can be weeks or months before I manage to find some spare time to mess around with MODO, by which time, I've almost forgotten everything. :-/
This site is just as much for me as it is for you. It's a place where all can keep all the tips and tricks I come across, and it's fully indexed, so you should be able to find whatever you're looking for very easily :)
I'm no MODO expert - far from it, but every other month I'd like to be able to present you with a new article that'll become a new string to add to your modo bow.
If you're a longterm 3D artist or professional, then I can't guarantee there'll be much here you don't already know. You can always have a poke around though., or if you are looking for something specific, use the Search menu up the top (and the links with topics, categories and tags underneath) to find exactly what you're after. If you don't have any luck, let me know if there is anything in particular that you're looking for.
- Debi (alphageekgirl)
Most people think that Texture Locators are just those widgets that get in the way while you're trying to work on your scene, but James Darknell takes some time to explain how they work and offers a different way to quickly align them to your item's surface.
| Description | In November 2014, I had the privilege of organising and attending the SWEDEN LOVES MODO event in Gothenburg. I learnt a lot that day, but the one thing I took away and wanted to be able to reproduce when I got back home was an example from a presentation by Paulo Madeira on how to quickly create condensation / water droplets on the outside of an object, like say, on a can of coke. Now, if you have tried this exercise yourself before (or using a preset from the Asset Share site), you'll probably recall that it took a lot of resources, and your render times probably went through the roof. Paulo's method takes all those headaches away with a few clever tricks he's come up with. |
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| Step-by-Step |
In Paulo's example, he used the Chameleon preset that comes with MODO. So for the purpose of this exercise, we will too and assume you have setup your environment and lighting.
As there are now two meshes located in exactly the same space, turn off the original Chameleon. You will then see just the droplets material.
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| URL | https://youtu.be/aOoUJP94QEo | ||
| Source | (Sergio) Paulo Madeira (Madeira3D) | ||
| Description | Regular textures like the ones shown above are adequate for most jobs, but occasionally you may want to mix it up a bit and create something a little more unique, yet still make it look organic. So for example, say I wanted to use the grass, rocks and sand above to create a random terrain image. Now, I could go into Photoshop and create a mashup of these three textures, but once I'm back in modo, if I had to cover an expansive area, I'd still have to contend with the tiling issue, and in the real-world, having tiled rocks and grass just doesn't cut it. That's where texture bombing comes in. Texture bombing is a procedural technique that helps reduce regular pattern artefacts. We do this by first placing a bunch of different textures into a Group, and then using modo's Texture Replicators, a small copy of one of the Group's images is randomly placed at each vertex across the mesh. From there you can further randomly scale, rotate, and blend the textures together to make the surface appear seamless and quite natural-looking. |
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| Preparation | It's assumed that you've already created your mesh item that you wish to apply your textures to. | ||
| Step-by-Step |
Apply textureCorrect Gamma
Increase WrapCreate Group of textures
Replace current image with the Group
Note: Make sure you have the Render Preview Window open, as texture replicators do not show up in the Open GL viewport.
Texture Replicator
And this is a quick and dirty random terrain texture created with the three images at the top of the page. 
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| Source | James has recorded two videos on Texture Replicators. The first shows how to make a seamless grass plane, and the second explains texture bombing where you use multiple texture images under a single material. |
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| Author | MutantPixel (James Darknell) |
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| Description | Making your own unique tileable textures is not all that difficult or time consuming and you don't even need to go out to photoshop. In fact, it can all be done within modo using the paint tools, and you can do it in less than 5 minutes! |
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| Assumptions | That you are already familiar with modo's UV mapping and painting tools. (But if not, and you have any questions, please leave a comment below) |
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| Author | Yazan Malkosh | ||
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[dcs_emptyspace h="10"]Create a new material and set it to a vibrant colour.
