Bo Atkinson

I add my hopes for 3Dconnexion. Just returning after a couple of years and 3Dconnexion was first thing needed.... I'll come back again in hopes of eventually learning this software.

BUILD:3.5.00 OS: oSX 10.6.4 HARDWARE: applicable? intel macpro BUG DESCRIPTION: background STEPS TO REPRODUCE: menu/ camera/ background/ choose background image search files does seem to work at first but--- after that a new, unwanted image covers entire background. Attached is default, unwanted image. Also, the "Reference images" panel might have some lack of response. Noted when clicking each button to see what it does. Some buttons do nothing. PS- I'm a returning customer (unlearned) who never managed to find time to learn the specifics of 3dCoat-- Glad to see that SpaceNavigator works at this time.

Glad to see what people want. My issue has been compensating for my UI habits of custom-keyboard short cuts to conform with my polygon ap .( My polygon modeler is fully keyboard-customizable. It works flawlessly on my Mac)-- I need 10-20s corresponding commands for semi-equivalent functions, (for my fast adoption). My difficulty with OSX differences seem due differences with MSWindows. That combined with Connexion- Navigator device-- On my Mac this still is not under control, with new and current Navigator device on 3dC. (This device works normally with my polygon modeler). Every few months i try the preference panels for adjustments and i download updates. I look for video tutorials which correspond with my particular workflows. (I am not the least bit interested in character modeling). All i can say is that adapting to Zbrush was much more attainable, after the major OSX update of that ap. Perhaps this is due to architects and product designers who do use Zbrush. Still, 3dC would seem preferable to me, if somehow i might be enabled to break through these UI barriers. With Zbrush, my major uses were to emulate the geometry of unsharp edges, typical in stone sculpture or clay. To quickly convert hard vector-spline edges into soft edges with polygons of somewhat equalized sizes. Also, the deforming abilities of additive-subtractive polygon or voxels has wondrous potentials-- Indeed if a user got in sync with the UI. Yet i do not complain, as we see the majority of 3dC users are on a very different track. So be it.

On Mac OSX you can very simply hold down the CTL key and mouse click on anything to get the same effect as Right Click... So it seems to me, but i prefer a 4 button track ball, myself, (much more accurate for a non-pen or non-pencil type of person).

In formZ i would just have two (or more) identical object or entity copies, (why not like wise for voxels compared to entities), each with individual chosen colors and partial transparency, so all colors and textures interacted. Later they added multicolor paint and extended light options.... Too much time when content of modeling is key.

If memory serves... Even the previous pages seemed to not allow browser-bookmarking, pointing to "most recent posts" button, to save one more user-steps, each time user wanted to log in real quick.

I wouldn't mind at all except that it seems to miss my regular button on top (or any visible-clickable button). I've been heading to "most recent posts". I'm generally scanning for easier UI demos and tutorials on a number of software-aps. Thanks for great user-tutorial vids-- A1 to all. Sculptors benefit a lot by good user-vids and discussions. - Each site is so different. One click on firsts page helps user-navigation. Recent discussion has more current 3dc version discussions. Better is to shortcut navigation paths as much as possible. The gradient~ green previous version/page style reminds me of the pixol advancement of tech in action, (on an action gradient). Nudge color to a shade of harder celadon green bars.

hi polyxo, OK! very nice, i'd call that first vid kinda masking-NURBS-controllers. nearly invisible tool components, love it! Especially if the wolf image was live vid imagery! then a builder like me could monitor real life progress and design at the same time, best way, real inspiration unleashed, thanx. life is exciting sometimes, why not?

I'm not so eager for 3dC NURBS basics. Why?- Plenty of other aps offer these. Even without a chance yet to get in deep, 3dC, seems like the closest thing to modeling based on atomic reality via cubic pixols, which to me represent space organized cubicly. It's hard to argue about space organization, by use of cubes. This is more like rapid prototyping and less formulaic metaphorically. 3dC already implements spline power tools, so these are the logical extension-area (IMHO) and pure NURBS would seem like an unnecessary extra burden for processors, bus and HD. However translators for common formats like obj would help a whole lot! I'm not sure ultra high end formats will be widely accessible, (especially for the budget minded geniuses out there). After many years of benefiting from NURBS and the similar Smooth objects, i would agree this is very useful stuff, but really just a shorthand for physical design through a formulaic approach to design. Especially where schematic presentation is key, for selling a job idea, showing the dominant profiles, etc.... Vital really, that way. i can highly recommend my ap, formZ, under 2K US$, i think, without photorealistic rendering and more depending on higher rendering options and extra pluggin choices. Tons of powerful tools with both comprehensive solid objects and NURBS tools side by side, Swiss army knife style. Scripting seems fairly open to anyone interested, but is not my own interest area. Pluggin for Maxwell rendering is the best at the moment with some calls for a vray pluggin, a big maybe. Also a smaller faster little brother ap, bonzai3d, with the next generation of Smooth and Nurbz was just released at around 1K US$. Some people disapprove of the UI cosmetics, but it is great industrial strength to me, at affordable pricing, among the very best personal and form based support with the longest presence online. These aps seem to have a long list of translators for 3d and also some tool animation as well. Translating 3dC into outside NURBS models also seems problematic, because there really are a variety NURBS systems, too many to bother with. Instead a user can always intersect sections of objects and project new NURBS objects, within there favorite ap-- Skinning, sweeping, lofting and meshing seem way too much.... That said, if 3dC could offer complex 3d curve extraction as an output, this would be of inestimable value. Extract the curves that 3dC uses to control the wavy branches, etc.. Whole NURBS objects run into that multi-lingual babble. With all due respect, Bo Atkinson

From-- http://www.theflucase.com/ Jay Rockefeller turns his attention from biological warfare to the internet Saturday, 29 August 2009 12:33 News - Highlighted News Next > Senator Jay Rockefeller, head of the Senate Committee on Finance that steered through Senate Bill S. 666 -- the Biological, Chemical, and Radiological Weapons Countermeasures Research Act introduced by Sen. Joseph Lieberman -- that provided government money to pharmaceutical companies such as Baxter to increase research to develop biological, chemical, and radiological weapons, is now pushing through a bill for the White House to be given the power to switch off the internet in a "cyberrsecurity" emergency, according to a report by Declan McCullagh on CNET. http://www.infowars.com/bill-would-give-pr...ol-of-internet/ "CNET News has obtained a summary of a proposal from Senators Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) that would create an Office of the National Cybersecurity Advisor, part of the Executive Office of the President. That office would receive the power to disconnect, if it believes they're at risk of a cyberattack, "critical" computer networks from the Internet. "

Yes indeed, masterpiece graphics, but... my 2 cents follows. The game industry might have peaked, most notably with world-economic conditions. Choose your own adjectives for world economic conditions. The "West" has clearly reached it's slash-and-burn economic peak, of commerce and industry-- It is simply speaking "unsustainable", because it exports jobs to repressed regions and imports unsustainable debt. The stronger future for the world and for 3d is reality based: general-arts, building, manufacturing, science-modeling, etc... Implications regarding - 3DC vs Zbrush-- IMHO-- (I'm still pre-newbie in both 3DC & Zbrush because my living is more reality based and less character-modeling-- So i'm still 99.9% formZ) My promo is more content based and less graphically-perfected. I continually intend to learn these aps, but in a different context other than character or game modeling. (Kudos to gamers with good content, but i speak for reality modelers and the need for more youth to consider this growth field). I find reality more amazing than fantasy. See my self-promo site of a multi-disciplined-generalist http://harmoniouspalette.com/ 3DC is on the better path because material organization is more resonant with cartesian-cubic modeling... My perception of voxels is ultra-high-res block building, albeit with some spline-controller-tools and visualizers... Zbrush by comparison seems to be entirely based on splines (versatilely-distorted-spheres). BTW, i love splines as an essential step in model conceptualization. Spheres no dobt adorn reality, but perhaps space is cubic. Perhaps both are essentials. Both aps use texture painting and offer a sensation of using air-brushes or concrete-sprayers. Both aps provide remarkable painting, mapping and texturizing effects. This falls short of reality-based uses, unless a way to output useful 3D data is given. Such that a user can detail texture for rapid-prototyping or realtime-analysis. Such that models can be exported even to FEA and multi-scientific uses-- Texture in terms of real 3D is ultimately important, in terms of modeling. 3DC seems a clear winner in this regard, at least in terms of the development strategy. Yet my perceptions could indeed be flawed. Always grateful for better insights and higher wisdom ;-)

Very nice video, but i'd say it is more zspheric, not voxel-metric. Artists really work towards mastery of metaphor, (the cortex of communication). Metaphor even befuddles science because all scientific observation is described by use of metaphor. The wave-vs-particle argument of physics. Whereas, the Brahmans eons ago realized that metaphor can risk undesirable illusion. Illusion can become fun, but the contrast of order and chaos are mutually dependent. Indeed an artist need not bother too much, with such technicality, but instead use productive tools to emulate and to mingle imagination and reality. Zspheres seem much more NURBS like or vector-spline based, as conceptualizing tools. Whereas voxels seem like high res particle builder tools (platonic-polygonal-solids, quad-meshes). Both seem to mingle at some point in processing. So what? Each produce metaphors for an artist's creation. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks to all Utube contributors. Amazingly great resource, thanks. I can hardly wait to focus closer (when time avails)..... One Question-- Are any of them done with 3dConexion devices? I'm trying to appreciate better which navigation methods are preferred by the more advanced users.

Thanks for sharing Phil. I appreciate seeing what other softwares out there happen to use. I'm very interested in what might qualify as the latest, greatest curve tools around. In my experience, the curve in your first vid is traditionally called an arc, specifically conforming to a section of a circle (having a fixed radius all around). You appeared able to directly edit the arc into what has been called a B-Spline/cubic. Your second vid shows what has been called a Bezier/quadratic-spline... There actually are a variety of other curve types which a comprehensive application will offer, each with differing control-features. A nice editor will let a user change curve types, and even specify the number of control points, or the larger system of geometry used, ie: "Smooth" or facetted. There in fact seem to be potential conflicts in exporting curves from one ap to another ap, perhaps due to the many differences involved, (through out mathematical systems and diverse math languages). Indeed, the ability to minimize the control points is key to the user. Usually few is preferable... Well, until a user wants to introduce other model refinements, heh, heh. When curves control solid objects like NURBS solids or meshes, then it seems even more of a software challenge, (in other software i have used). I'm delighted to explore 3dC, in due time, especially to see how this system of voxels responds to these issues. In a sense, voxels appear to me to be somewhat more "real-world" in terms of the concrete structural sculpting, which i do. The real world of physical matter does seem much more voxel or atom like in terms of gobs of matter and huge scales of imperceptible resolution. By contrast, traditional geometry tended to simplify curves into clearly marked bins of splines and arcs along with ruled-behaviors. I expect to use curve tools a lot in 3dC, but admit to a long and winding road ahead (slow to get a handle on new softwares types). ~Bo

Given even a biped symmetry (2 sided), one ought to be able to multi-copy and rotate-distribute (later). Then "fuse" together... I've used booleans, (or alternatively, loosely "join" or "group" in formZ, even with a "clone" feature which can later allow mutual-simultaneous edits).... At some point i would love to see what tools 3dC uses to fuse and copy-rotate. Very slow going here, but hope to catch up (with learning 3dC) in the coming months.