3D Art Experiment

Modo Mesh Fusion & Substance Painter

Project Overview

Objective: To explore and refine advanced 3D modeling techniques by integrating The Foundry’s Modo with its real-time Mesh Fusion plugin, and enhancing surface textures through Substance Painter. The experiment aimed to produce a high-quality 3D asset suitable for both digital visualization and physical fabrication.

Process

3D Modeling and Boolean Operations:

Employed Modo and Mesh Fusion to create complex shapes and seamless boolean transitions, enabling the efficient iteration of intricate designs.

Texturing and Surface Detailing:

Utilized Substance Painter to apply realistic materials, subtle surface variations, and detailed textures.

Incorporated layered paint workflows, smart materials, and masking techniques to achieve visual depth and authenticity.

Post-Production and Color Grading:

Imported rendered assets into Adobe Photoshop for final color grading, ensuring balanced contrast, vibrant tones, and cohesive overall aesthetics.

3D Printing and Functional Adaptation:

Modified the 3D model for physical production, optimizing its geometry to be stackable and structurally sound.

Integrated features to accommodate LED lighting, transforming the piece into an illuminated, functional object that bridges digital art and practical design.

Outcome
This 3D art experiment successfully demonstrated a multi-tool workflow, combining advanced modeling, texturing, and post-processing techniques. The final result offers a compelling digital asset and a dynamic, light-enabled 3D-printed object, showcasing the creative potential of contemporary 3D tools and processes.

3D Rendering in Modo with textures created in Substance Painter with touch up via Photoshop CC.

User Interface displaying Mesh Fusion tab with resulting high poly 3D mesh. Using Mesh Fusion in Modo provides a very creative and fun way to experiment with interactive booleans.

Substance Painter User Interface displaying hand painted 3D model in the left window and the same hand painted textures displayed in UV space in the right window. Many of the unique surface tuxtures where created using particle brushes for organic and fluid results.

Modo User Interface displaying Model tab. 3D scene setup completed using a scene template "03 Interior" which includes the default room setup with an unclamped sun. Diffuse Color and Roughness, Spectral Amount, Reflection Fresnel, normal and bump map textures created in Substance Painter.

Modo User Interface displaying Camera and Perspective views on the main Render Tab. The top window displaying camera view is using Progressive Rendering to continuously refine the preview render window resolution.

3D printed with LEDs

Stackable Design