modo is for Product Designers
Meet the Product Design Professionals who use modo.
Phil Brace is the design leader at phil&teds, a New Zealand-based company with a strong, fresh sense of design. We were anxious to speak to them about their product creation process on the eve of the company’s introduction of a fabulous new jogging stroller called the “Sub 4” aka “The world’s fastest jogger.”
Meet Phil Brace »
Paul Beards
Any regular visitor to the modo forums is familiar with the many WIP (Works in Progress) posts by Sumimasen. You might also recognize his work on packaging of Dyson Vacuum cleaner products. We decided to get to know the person behind all of these great product design images and posts... Mr. Paul Beards.
Meet Paul Beards »
Barnaby Gunning
Barnaby Gunning, principal at Barnaby Gunning Architects, designed the LEGO house built for James May’s Toy Stories television show, where each episode is focused on the creation of ambitious projects using classic toys. Gunning used modo to design the house built out of more than three million standard-sized LEGO bricks.
Meet Barnaby Gunning »
Gene Dupont
Gene Dupont is a graphic artist specializing in creating 3D illustrations of packages and products at the Thompson Design Group, and at his web based business, www.genedupont.com. We talk to Gene about using of modo to create images for product design, packaging and computer graphic imagery for print advertising.
Meet Gene Dupont »
Graeme Findlay
Graeme Findlay is a London-based designer who works at IDEO. In this customer profile, we feature the 3D modeling work in some of Graeme’s extra-curricular projects outside of IDEO, including the exhibition Design and the Elastic Mind, and the Project Smell +.
Meet Graeme Findlay »
McKay Hawkes
McKay Hawkes is a digital effects artist and experienced photo retoucher. In this interview, McKay explains how he was able to create photorealistic advertising graphics for Kensington’s line of computer input devices using the original CAD engineering data.
Meet McKay Hawkes »
Ronald Rael
Ronald Rael is a Professor of Architecture at the University of California at Berkeley in the School of Architecture. Bob Bennett visited Professor Rael and discovered the passion he and his students share for developing new concepts in architecture, and how modo has become an important tool in the design process.
Meet Ronald Rael »
Alfredo Joel Martiz Jaen
Alfredo Joel Martiz Jaen came to Tokyo from Panama to study for the Master’s degree in Architecture Design at Tokyo University of Science. Jaen had the opportunity to collaborate in the project for the Ho Chi Minh City University of Architecture, and in international competitions for projects to be built in Mexico, Kenya and Estonia.
Meet Alfredo Joel Martiz Jaen »
modo for Product Design
modo is used by:
shoe designers, jewelry designers, automotive stylists, tradeshow and stage
designers, toy designers, athletic goods designers, packaging designers.
for these operations:
rapid ideation of alternative product design
concepts prior to approval and engineering. modo is also used for rendering
final engineered models into images for catalogs, websites, manuals and
any variety of other marketing materials.
“modo is key to providing our designers with more fluid workflows for design exploration and we applaud Luxology for openly collaborating with other software makers in the design/engineering field. With this new .3DM translator we can create geometry in either modo and/or Rhino and bring all the data in mesh form to modo for 3D visualization, materials and finishes exploration, photorealistic rendering and animation. We can also send design data back to Rhino to output STL data managed by parts/layers/materials for rapid prototyping.”
– Gustavo Fontana, Lead Industrial Designer,
Advanced Development Group, Bose Corporation
modo Advantages
World-Class Modeler
modo’s hybrid polygon/SubD modeler has proven to be
one of the world's great modelers, allowing rapid ideation of virtually
any manmade or organic shape. Many are finding that modo is quicker for
producing alternative concepts and enabling wholesale changes than traditional
nurbs-based modeling. Need to iterate on a concept? modo is your tool.
Surface Detail
modo excels at creating "structured organic shapes" which are objects that
have detailed organic features in conjunction with mechanical or engineered
shapes. The surface detail might be an extruded tire tread, foil wrapping,
plastic scrubbing fibers, a flexible hand grip with memory, bubbled paint,
embossed details—whatever you want.
Fast, Physically-Accurate Lighting
modo has one of the fastest global illumination renderers anywhere. That makes your objects look real indoors or out because physics are driving the light calculations. modo supports IES lighting so that alternatives can be seen accurately under a variety of real world lights to assess usability, safety and customer appeal. You can also add sunlight to your scene in seconds.
The Look You Want
modo gives you full control over not just the shape of your designs but also how they are rendered and lit. Simply drag material Presets onto your model and select what type of lighting and background you want by double clicking one of dozens of supplied lighting rigs. Your scene is displayed for you in near real time right inside modo’s Preview Renderer. Type in a location, date and time to accurate sunlight. Achieve a Carbon Fiber look, add Clear Coat to surfaces, and get ultra realistic highlights on metal surfaces with the modo renderer.
“I‘ve had lots of speed-modeling sessions with my clients, and they see the benefits of designing in 3D. For example, at a “major global brand” we are working on a Super-Yacht project and we‘ve had 5 sessions so far with the client. The sessions include me (with modo on a laptop hooked to a projector), the client and 2 designers – all working in real-time. It can be quite intense, but fun. :) I know for a fact that that I could NOT have provided my clients with this service without modo.”
– Jan-Ove Rust,
3D Visualization Specialist
modo Animation and CAD Compatibility
Animated Presentations
modo is ideal for showing how designs work by letting you author simple or complex animations that show how a product is assembled, or how a design would operate. Any object property in modo can be varied over time. In addition to precisely animating parts of your model (like hinges) you can vary the visual appearance to do things like animating opacity to reveal the interior of your design. Even complex subjects like moving tractor treads can be rendered into movies in modo. If the scale of your design is large, you may choose to walk or fly through it. The modo renderer is designed for animation and produces rock solid animations without fuss.
CAD System Compatibility
Solidworks 2010 file import is supported in modo. And you can also read in files Bentley System MicroStation software in the .lxo format. modo also reads a variety of file types supported by most CAD systems, including OBJ, Rhino 3DM and DXF. Once inside of modo, you can position, texture and light your model for gorgeous final renderings. modo reads incoming vertex normals for accurate visualization of imported designs.
Product Design Examples in the Gallery
See more Product Design Gallery Images »
Jewelry Design Examples in the Gallery
See more Jewelry Design Gallery Images »
Packaging Graphics in the Gallery
See more Packaging Graphics Gallery Images »
Cars and Motorcycles in the Gallery
See more Cars and Motorcycles Gallery Images »
Furniture Examples in the Gallery
See more Furniture Gallery Images »
Transportation Examples in the Gallery
See more Transportation Gallery Images »
Additional Resources for Product Designers
modo Pipeline
Use modo in the production pipeline with leading software packages, such as Solidworks, Rhinoceros, Photoshop, 3ds max, Maya, Lightwave 3D and many more.
Find out how modo works with other software »
modo Artists
See the brilliant work digital artists are creating with modo in online, film and broadcast, CGI, print graphics and photography, packaging design, and game developers.
Meet the Artists who use modo »
Learn modo
Resources for learning and using modo.
Learn modo »
Join Us
Become a part of the growing Luxology Community, now over 100,000 strong. Our quick-start guide to the Community will help you find your way around.
Be part of the Luxology Community »
Buy modo
Ready to take the next step? Buy modo today. Already own modo? Upgrade to the latest version, modo 401.
Buy or upgrade to modo 401 »
Tour modo 401
Learn what’s new in the latest version of modo, including Fur, Volumetric Lighting, Replicators, Light and Shadow, Preview and Final Rendering, Modeling, Presets and Animation.
Tour the new modo 401 features »
Product Information
View modo 401 marketing and reference information, including detailed Technical Specifications and other source documents.
See all modo Product Information »
modo 401 Features
Discover modo’s modern, highly-integrated modeling, painting, sculpting, rendering and animation capabilities.
Discover what you can do with modo »
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