9b studios releases SLIK 2 for Modo
9b studios has released SLIK 2 for Modo: the long-awaited update to its popular Studio Lighting and Illumination Kit, adding new workflows for designing highlights on objects and support for HDR baking.
A complete kit of tools to simplify the lighting process in Modo
SLIK 2 – a toolkit of items, presets, scenes and materials designed to simplify lighting setup in Modo – is effectively an official Modo add-on, sold directly through The Foundry’s website.
Since the release of the original SLIK, back in 2010, 9b studios founder Yazan Malkosh has also joined The Foundry as the company’s head of design.
New central controls for SLIK lights
The new release, which Malkosh describes as “a long labour of love”, greatly extends SLIK’s functionality.
At the centre of the update is the new Lightboard Controller: a new “one-stop shop” for controlling SLIK lights, with options to mute, solo or relink lights, or adjust their intensity, colour and global intensity.
The toolkit now comes with 34 new 4K light textures, as well as the 15 base assembly presets, 20 readymade studio lighting setups and 20 2K HDR environment maps.
New lighting design workflows and HDR baking options
There are also new workflows for positioning highlights onto the surface of models by clicking and dragging directly in the 3D viewport, in a similar way to tools like HDR Light Studio.
SLIK 2 also adds a new HDR Bake feature, which renders the scene lighting setup as an HDRI panorama; and SLIK HDR Studio Swap, which does the reverse, convering an HDR to studio lights for editing.
Revamped materials, rendering and compositing options
The update also overhauls SLIK’s materials workflow, adding a new smart materials library, support for material tagging, and a new Material Override option for performing quick render tests.
There are also new lighting and rendering presets, including a ‘relight and recolour’ option, and presets for Modo’s Physical Sun system.
In addition, there are new ‘auto composition’ scripts for automatically assembling render passes in Photoshop CC 2015 or After Effects CC 2015 for compositing.
Pricing and availability
SLIK 2 is available for Modo 901 only. A new licence costs $149.
Read a full list of new features in SLIK 2 for Modo on The Foundry’s website