Modo from Luxology is a wolf in sheep’s clothing - nice and gentle to look at and use, but with fearsome and powerful capabilities. This wolf that comes with a distinguished pedigree, enjoys being scratched behind the ears and will obviously be a faithful companion to anybody that cares to adopt it. Modo is one software package that is like a breath of fresh air in a stuffy, digital office.

Modo is an innovative 3D modeling, painting and rendering software designed to accelerate the creation of world-class models, associated color and normal maps, and ultra high-quality renderings. 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 is a true end-to-end solution that includes true 3D sculpting tools, animation and network rendering! More than just features, modo is a truly elegant integration of technology, raw horsepower and refined workflow.

In this tutorial we take a close look at many of the new animation set-up and rigging tools in modo 401. These tools allow us to rig and animate mechanically-based objects using constraints, inverse kinematics and dynamic parenting.

imageSynth 2 is an advanced technology that allows you to create seamless textures and high-resolution tiled images from low resolution sources. It’s the ultimate organic pattern making tool for creating infinitely tileable images — a “must have” for every artist’s digital tool box. imageSynth 2 now works for you in two ways: you can start the program right inside Adobe Creative Suite Photoshop as a plug-in texture editor, or you can launch imageSynth as a standalone program for creating your own custom, perfectly tiled textures from any graphic image sources. Either way you want to work, imageSynth supports both Mac and PC platforms.

imageSynth takes advantage of today’s modern processors; it’s threaded and optimized for two cores. So you can work up to 10 times faster than before. Improved memory management also speeds up undoing actions. Now there are more options for zooming in and placing texture chunks and you can use the new Eraser tool to selectively remove areas of texture.

imageSynth is ideal for:
- Photoshop Users
- Game Designers
- Character Animators
- Architectural and Mechanical Visualizer
- Advertisers and Print CGI Professionals