Double Negative Uses Luxology’s modo to Make John Carter’s Alien World a Reality
Quick Turnaround Times for 3D Modeling, Painting, and Texturing Assignments Help VFX House Meet Big Studio Expectations for Just-Released Space-Epic
LONDON, UK — March 20, 2012 — Award-winning international VFX studio Double Negative didn’t have to leave Earth to go to Mars, they just designed it in-house with the help of Luxology®’s modo® software. Tasked with the creation of costumes and expansive alien worlds for John Carter, two artists looked to modo’s flexible modeling, painting and UV texturing tools for the key detail and texture displacement work that was needed to bring the environments and props on that red planet to life.
“modo is an underrated program in our business,” said Robin Konieczny, Double Negative Senior Artist and Environmental Build Lead. “It’s a constant choice in my workflow, as it allows me to model and texture quickly. This was especially helpful when I was modeling and UVing intricate structures like the Gates of Iss.”
For Barsoom’s environments, Robin and Jonathan used modo’s SubD modeling tools to shape favored assets of the Thark Ruined City with little to no texture distortion. SubDs were chosen for their ability to depict organic surfaces and cut hours of smoothing time off of any multi-res sculpting; and because of modo’s artist-friendly modeling framework, they were able to easily jump back and forth between the software’s poly and SubD tools anytime a need arose.
When a full scale 3D environment wasn’t necessary, modo was used for 2.5D matte painting and the formation of low-res buildings that achieved the effect of a layered cityscape without taking precious hours of production time. For an aerial shot of the Ape Arena, the speed of modo became an essential force that helped one artist quickly set up a 3D scene and determine the appropriate parallax and projection geometries that were requirements for a final stereo shot planned for Nuke.
“modo’s speed allowed me to quickly get through what could have been a very long and difficult process,’ said Jonathan Opgenhaffen, Lead Matte Painter at Double Negative. “It also allowed me to really focus on the artistic side of the process (my favorite), and on other important pieces of detail work, like maintaining continuity between my shots and setting up my matte painting work with lighting passes and modo’s rapid render preview.”
“modo is going to perform for you whether you are using it on a building, a character or even a gigantic upside down pyramid like we did here,” added Konieczny. “It’s dependable, fast, and fun. Not all software can boast as much.”
Disney’s John Carter is in theaters now.
