Bitmap Image Formats

Bitmap images are an essential component of texturing, painting and image-based sculpting. They are also useful as backdrops for modeling, providing reference for shape and scale. They can also be used to light the scene, where information captured in the image can illuminate rendered images. With so many different uses, it is necessary to support a great number of image formats.

There are several ways you can load images into Modo. One is from the Images viewport, typically located near the Item List and Shader Tree viewports on the right side of the default interface. Using the Add Clips button in the Images viewport, you can open an OS-specific dialog box to locate and select an image. Once loaded, images in the Clips list appear throughout the application in applicable menus. You can also load images by simply dragging and dropping them from the operating system into Modo. When you drag and drop an image onto geometry, it appears as a texture on a material. If dragged into a 3D viewport, it appears as a backdrop item. To load a bitmap that is not applied to geometry or a backdrop item, drag it into a non-3D viewport. Items can be dragged from the 3D views directly onto groups (where they become members of the group), or into the Schematic viewport. You can also load images directly from any menu for selecting images, using the Add Image command present in the menu. Once an image is loaded, you can reference the dedicated documentation page for any particular function, specific to how the image is applied and used.

Read Formats

This is a listing of the image map formats Modo can read and use for texturing, backdrops, brushes, and a variety of other functions.

Format Name	Extension	Bit Depth per Channel	Compressed	Type
Flexible Precision Image Format	.flx	HDR	Yes	Lossless
Targa	.tga	8 bit + Alpha	No
Windows BMP	.bmp	8 bit + Alpha	No
Graphic Interchange Format	.gif	256 colors	Yes	Palette
Radiance High Dynamic Range	.hdr	HDR	Yes	Lossless
JPEG	.jpg	8 bit	Yes	Lossy
Portable Network Graphic	.png	8 bit + Alpha	Yes	Lossless
Portable Network Graphic 16 bit	.png	16 bit + Alpha	Yes	Lossless
PSD (Photoshop Document)	.psd	8 bit	No
SGI RGB	.sgi	8 bit	No
Scalable Vector Graphic (bezier curves only)	.svg	resolution independent format	Yes	Lossless
Tagged Image File Format	.tif	8 bit + Alpha	Yes	Lossless
16-Bit TIF	.tif	16 bit + Alpha	Yes	Lossless
16-Bit Uncompressed TIF	.tif	16 bit + Alpha	No
Open EXR	.exr	HDR	Yes/No
Direct Draw Surface	.dds		No

Write Formats

This is a listing of formats Modo supports for creating new images.

Format Name	Extension	Bit Depth per Channel	Compressed	Type
Flexible Precision Image Format	.flx	HDR	Yes	Lossless
Targa	.tga	8 bit + Alpha	No
Windows BMP	.bmp	8 bit + Alpha	No
Radiance High Dynamic Range	.hdr	HDR	Yes	Lossless
JPEG	.jpg	8 bit	Yes	Lossy*
Portable Network Graphic	.png	8 bit + Alpha	Yes	Lossless*
Portable Network Graphic 16 bit	.png	16 bit + Alpha	Yes	Lossless*
PSD (Photoshop Document)	.psd	8 bit	No
SGI RGB	.sgi	8 bit	No
Tagged Image File Format	.tif	8 bit + Alpha	Yes	Lossless
16-Bit TIF	.tif	16 bit + Alpha	Yes	Lossless
16-Bit Uncompressed TIF	.tif	16 bit + Alpha	No
Open EXR (+layers)	.exr	HDR	Preference	Lossless*

*You can set the amount of compression used by Modo in System > Preferences... > File I/O > Image I/O.