Plugin for Modo
From RandomControl Wiki
The FRYRENDER plugin for Modo works in both Modo 302 and Modo 401.
This plugin can be downloaded through the plugin web page
Contents |
Installing
Modo 401
Just launch the plugin installer and click on install. When it finishes launch Modo and you should see a new RandomControl menu.
Modo 302
Because this plugin uses ctypes (which is already included in Modo 401 but not in Modo 302), for this version of Modo you'll have to install both Python 2.4 and the ctypes library.
Python 2.4 can be dowloaded from here http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.4.4/python-2.4.4.msi
And ctypes from here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ctypes/files/ctypes/1.0.2/ctypes-1.0.2.win32-py2.4.exe/download
Please install first Python 2.4 and then ctypes. After this, install the Modo plugin just like for Modo 401. At the end you should have a working plugin installation.
Rendering
There are 3 ways to export a Modo scene to fryrender: Export, Export+Render and Quick Export.
In all 3 modes Modo will show the current export path and ask you for confirmation or to set another one. Once this is done, the 3 of them will generate the .fry scene file in the selected path. Then, each option will do different things. Quick Export will do nothing else, while Export and Export+Render will launch FRYRENDER, the last one automatically starting the rendering process.
Cameras
There's no dedicated camera options dialog in this plugin. Instead, it will interpret Modo's own camera settings and translate those to a FRYRENDER camera on export.
Materials
Adding FRYRENDER materials to a scene
The plugin will store FRYRENDER material information inside of Modo materials.
To do this, we just have to select an item or a set of polygons in an item and press the letter M (or activate the menu named Texture->Assign Material Group). After selecting a name in the dialog that will pop up and clicking Ok, a new material group will be created.
Now, to convert that material to a FRYRENDER one, we must select the material layer in the Shader Tree and then click in Edit Current Material in the FRYRENDER Main Form:
This will cause the Material Editor Dialog to show up, where you'll be able to modify your material to fit your needs.
When this editing is done for the first time, the plugin will try to translate the current Modo material into a similar FRYRENDER material. Keep in mind, however, that Modo and FRYRENDER materials are very different, and this conversion doesn't produce optimal results in some cases. It's designed to provide a good starting point to create your own FRYRENDER materials, and not to deliver perfect realistic materials from the start.
Also, under Edit Current Material there's a small button named More.... Clicking this will show an option named Convert Modo Material to FRYRENDER. Activating this command will perform the same translation process from Modo to FRYRENDER material, obviating the current fry data. Under that command you will also find another one named Clear Material Data. This will remove all FRYRENDER data from the current material, and leave it as a normal Modo material.
.FRM Material Replacement
The plugin supports replacement of Modo materials with materials in the FRYRENDER materials library. To do this you just have to name your material starting with the symbols @ or $, and add to that the name of the material in the library. For example, if you have a material in your library that's named "rubber_blue" and is under the folder named "plastic", you would have to create a Modo material named "@plastic\rubber_blue". This Modo material would be substituted with the material in the library on export time.
Note that you have to name the material group, not the material layer. You can see an example of this in the following image:
Environment
Using the Edit Environment Settings button in the FRYRENDER Main Form, the Environment Settings Dialog will be displayed. From there you can change every aspect of the environment in a FRYRENDER scene.
Importing Modo Sun
By clicking on the More option just under Edit Environment Settings in the FRYRENDER Main Form, an option named Import Modo Sun will be displayed. This command will interpret the data stored in the currently selected Directional Light and convert it into a FRYRENDER Physical Atmosphere configuration. Remember that the light must have sun properties activated for this command to work properly. If there's any problem in the conversion, the plugin will notify this with an information dialog.
Note too that because of the way Modo works internally, only custom geographical locations (manually entered latitude and longitude) are supported in this conversion. The predefined locations that appear in the Modo dialog cannot be accessed by plugins, and so this plugin can't get their location.
Instances
This plugin works with Modo's own instances implementation. It will automatically detect any instances in the scene and export them as such to FRYRENDER.
