Intro to 3D for Design using Modo

Basic User Interface and simple Modeling

User interface

• Menu Bar
• Switch Bar
• Tabs
• Navigation
  • Alt+LMB Rotate Around
  • Alt+RMB Rotate Around and keep spinning
  • Alt+MMB Pan Around
  • Alt+CTRL+LMB Zoom
  • Alt+CTRL+RMB Zoom selected
  • Ctrl+Space Viewing Pie Menu
    • Use this to quickly move between viewing directions
  • Ctrl+Tab Switch Layout to different mode
    • Modeling Layout
    • Rendering Layout
    • Texturing Layout
    • Many more Layouts
• What are ITEMS
  • Items in Modo are like layers or groups.
  • You will first need to select the Item before modifying whatever is inside it.
  • Different type of Items
    • Meshes
    • Lights
    • Camera
    • Locators
    • Background Images
    • plus many more
• Presets
  • By Pressing F6 you activate Modos vast library of preset items.
  • These include many meshes, Environments and Materials that can help you get going.
  • Add an Item by double clicking on it or dragging it into the viewpoint 
  • Presets are a great way to get a sense of scale
  • Many very nice materials to get a base going.

Basic Modeling

• Toolbox is the easiest place to find most of the Modo tools you will use.
  • Pressing Shift will add a little plus symbol to our basic shapes
    • This means instead of adding it to your Item, it will create a new Item with the basic shape
• Moving, Rotating and Scaling
  • W to activate Move Tool
  • E to Activate Rotate Tool
  • R to Activate Scale Tool
• Selecting Items, Polygons, Edges and Vertices
  • Press 5 to select an Item in your scene
  • Press 1 to select its Vertices
  • Press 2 to select its Edges
  • Press 3 to select its Faces
• Viewport, workplane and Snapping
  • The Viewport has a grid that changes it's scale based on how far you are looking at the Item. 
  • The Work plane is the white grid that tells you what Axis your mouse will work on
  • Activate the Snapping by selecting it in the Modo Modes Menu or press F11

Basic Materials

• Adding Color 
  • Once you have selected what you want to color press M to add a Material to it.
  • Change the name and the color and press enter.
  • When assigning materials you can use previous ones to color anything else in the scene. 

Exercise 1

• Adding Cubes and snapping them to themselves.
  •  Remember to activate the snapping and select Grid as a snapping option by pressing F11
  • Press Shift and Add a Cube in the Scene using the Toolbox
    • Add color to the cube by pressing M, deselect the Smooth option
    • Select a face of the cube by pressing 3 and move it by press W
    • When done modifying press 5 to select it as an Item
    • Move the Cube around by pressing W
  • Add more Cubes, Modify them and move them around
    • Snap them to each other, challenge yourself to connect one corner to the others.
    • tips
      • Remember to keep in mind that when you are moving the whole object, move it in Item mode. 
      • If you are trying to select a face and it isn't working, double check what selection mode you are in and what item you have select
      • Keep everything snapped to a grid, no crazy numbers

Simple Polygon Modeling

• In the Toolbox, you will find tabs the have labels like Polygon, Edges, Vertices and Mesh Edit
• Polygon Tools
  • Remember to activate Polygon selection press 3
  • Shift is a basic extrusion. It will extrude the face out or in depending on what direction you chose.
  • Insert is a basically a flat bevel. You use this tool to insert a smaller polygon into the polygon you selecting
  • Bevel is a mix of both of these. You can extrude something out then Inset it in to make it a beveled polygon
• Edge Tools
  • Remember to activate Edges selection press 2
  • Add Loop adds an edge (can also be called Loops) to wherever you click on the model
  • Bridge connects edges together by adding polygons that bridge both edges
• Mesh Edit Tools
  • Slice gives us the ability add an edge based on a line the slices the whole mesh.

Simple Preset Rendering

• Activate the Preset menu by pressing F6
  • Under Environment, double click on any environment you wish.
  • Under Materials, Drag and drop the materials to different items in your scene.
  • Go to the Render Layout using Ctrl+Tab 
  • In the Shader tree to your right click on Render, make the frame to 3600x1600
  • Click on the tab marked Settings and change the Anti-Aliasing to 64 samples
  • Change the light samples to 256

Exercise 2

Make  Modern Abstract Building

Using the tools we have learned make a modern building. All points must be based off a grid snap. Add a couple of humans walking around to keep scale. Don't focus too much on purpose of the building. This exercise is meant to get you moving polygons around in a controlled manner. The first mistake I see people make when learning 3D is they don't have any sense of structure or scale. By starting with understanding a grid layout and adding humans for scale, we can build up your skill set with structure. Have fun with this and the crazier the colors the better.