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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 onto 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.

*Zoomify is a format for supporting large images based on smaller tiles of .jpeg images. Modo only loads the tiles necessary to render or display, so you can apply massive textures with little effect on system performance. You can export Zoomify-formatted images using the File > Export > Zoomify function in Adobe® Photoshop® (CS5/6) or download Zoomify Express® at Zoomify.com. You can also load large HDR images into Modo and use the Save Image As command and save to the OpenEXR Tiled formats to use the tiled image support on high dynamic range images.

Write Formats

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

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