Luxology modo Utilized in BBC Television Series James May’s Toy Stories

modo’s 3D Modeling and Rendering Software Tools Help Design Team Create and Visualize Full-size House Made of LEGO bricks

Mountain View, Calif. – Jan. 13, 2010 – One of the most popular children’s toys of all time, LEGOs, were used in a new and innovative way when Barnaby Gunning Architects leveraged Luxology’s modern 3D software modo® to model and visualize a full-size house made entirely out of the building bricks. The LEGO house was created for the series finale of the BBC’s James May’s Toy Stories television show, where each episode focused on the creation of ambitious projects using classic toys.

With an army of construction workers waiting in the wings, Barnaby Gunning, principal at Barnaby Gunning Architects, had only two weeks to finish the two storey, single bedroom home design before over 2,000 members of the general public and a dedicated team of volunteers were brought in to physically build the structure using nearly 3 million standard sized LEGO bricks. In order to meet the tight deadline, Gunning used Luxology’s 3D content creation software, modo 401, to create a virtual LEGO set using the LEGO pieces to build models of each basic component.

“modo 401 gave us a feel for the material quality of LEGOs as a large-scale building material long before we were actually able to put any of the components together,” said Gunning. “It made it easy for us to lay out exactly what we needed to build this structure and helped keep tabs on the number of bricks being used for each piece.”

A textured virtual model of the entire LEGO house was also made and used to explore the layout and overall design of the final product. Gunning explained how using modo helped speed up his design process, saying, “Creating the instructions for building each component could have been very time consuming. Instead, we were able to write a simple script that created the various pyramids quickly from our virtual LEGO set, which was a major added benefit.”

The James May’s Toy Stories television series also included the construction of a Spitfire model aircraft, bridging a canal using only Meccano, recreating and racing on a full-sized motor racing circuit in Scalextric and reinstating a 10 mile railway line using Hornby 00 gauge tracks. For more information about Barnaby Gunning and the LEGO house, please visit http://www.luxology.com/community/profiles/barnaby_gunning/

About modo

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’s modern workflow and advanced toolset easily deliver enhanced productivity for 3D artists working in design visualization, package design, game development, film visual effects, video production and graphic arts. A favorite tool among many designers and artists, modo’s innovative toolset offers one of the fastest paths to content creation on the PC and Mac.

About Luxology

Based in Mountain View, Calif., Luxology® LLC is an independent technology company developing next-generation 3D content creation software that enhances productivity via artist-friendly tools powered by a modern underlying architecture called Nexus®. Founded in 2002 by Allen Hastings, Stuart Ferguson and Brad Peebler, Luxology is home to some of the top 3D engineering expertise in the industry. More information on the company, its licensable Nexus technology, its flagship product modo®, and a gallery of artists’ images from the active modo community is available online at www.luxology.com

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