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Sketch Thread - JamesE


JamesE
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Figured I'd start my own thread for voxel doodles and WIPS. Here's my first go using the 64 bit build (alpha40).

It started to get a bit sluggish at around 3 million though. Not sure I'd want to continue this one much further without performance optimizations, as it gets pretty painful to work with.

post-885-1226687509_thumb.jpgpost-885-1226687517_thumb.jpgpost-885-1226687524_thumb.jpg

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greast start James!

yeah, 3dc requires more large to small kind of workflow. Looks like you are a little to high for the stage the model is at. I can suggest trying to hide parts of it to speed things up

Thanks Jokermax, that helped a bit. I probably should have waited on upping the resolution, but I had no real plan for what this doodle was going to become and wanted to add more details to the head before I'd decided to give him arms. I suppose there are still workflow considerations to keep in mind when using voxels so I'll keep resolution in mind in the future - especially at such an early stage.

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Ok, started a new sketch - with a bit more focus in mind, partly just for practice with voxel tools, but also to see what I have to work with in terms of resolution and performance at different stages of a sculpt. I didn't up the resolution at all this time and instead just sculpted and let 3dcoat add resolution as needed. This worked much better and gave me a very reasonable mesh in no time. There's plenty of resolution left to spare if I want to keep detailing too. I'm very happy with these new voxel tools overall - especially since it's all still first gen stuff. Very impressive for alpha.

I've been slinging polygons for a long time so I'm fairly proficient with polygon modeling these days. I breathed a sigh of relief though when Zspheres were added to zbrush. They were a real time saver and allowed me to work more often in 3d, especially for concepting. But you still had to deal with the quirks of zsphere modeling, and its ultimate dependency on topology, which can be tricky to work with when posing or constructing. This voxel stuff just blows Zsphere modeling away. It is such a cool feeling to not think about topology anymore in the early stages and just add stuff where you want to - just totally disregard the technical stuff and focus on the subject. The retopology is literally the best I've used, and I've used all of them - not to mention it works right over top of the voxels (thanks to those who pointed that out to me). No more messing with mesh resolutions or separate programs for me for that stage anymore - that is all getting done in 3dc now.

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you might also have a look at using 'curves' tool for adding limbs (similar to zsphere process)...I've found

this to be pretty quick at getting general pose (with symmetry enabled), and depending on where you placed

the 'root' sphere (inside the original sphere you started with) a miminal amount of 'fill' tool to the areas where

curves attached.

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you might also have a look at using 'curves' tool for adding limbs (similar to zsphere process)...I've found

this to be pretty quick at getting general pose (with symmetry enabled), and depending on where you placed

the 'root' sphere (inside the original sphere you started with) a miminal amount of 'fill' tool to the areas where

curves attached.

Yeah I used curves in some of the first alpha builds. It's pretty amazing how many different approaches volumetric sculpting gives you. I've also used the 2d plane to sketch out something like a hand with fingers and then just brush some volume into it and pose it from there. I'd also like to mess with the merge tool and see if it helps when building from a library of pre-built meshes. I've seen a few nice pieces done with that approach already.

Note: with that human sketch I mostly used the build brush with the transpose tool to get what I needed in terms of shape and pose.

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I wanted to mess with some of the retopology and baking tools so I finished off the arms on the brute really quick. I don't think the UV tools in 3dc will make me want to drop UVLayout anytime soon, but they were definitely good enough to do a quick pass on the mesh so that I could try the baking/conversion from voxel to uv mesh. That was very impressive.

I think my next test will be to see how I can export out my retopologized meshes for UV work elsewhere, bring them back in and try baking from the voxels. That would be my ideal approach. Still a bit iffy on using the regular sculpting tools at this point. They just don't feel as nice as in Zb or Mud yet... but I think that might have a lot to do with my own need to get more familiar with editing normal maps in 3d - that's really something I'm interested in too so I'm not giving up on it yet.

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This voxel stuff just blows Zsphere modeling away. It is such a cool feeling to not think about topology anymore in the early stages and just add stuff where you want to - just totally disregard the technical stuff and focus on the subject. The retopology is literally the best I've used, and I've used all of them - not to mention it works right over top of the voxels (thanks to those who pointed that out to me). No more messing with mesh resolutions or separate programs for me for that stage anymore - that is all getting done in 3dc now.

quote]

Your sculpts are great. I couldn't agree more with how much the voxels free me up. I remember when zbrush came out years ago. I was trying the sculpting tolls and I was excited but I ended up hitting the wall rather hard in some places, like when I wanted to make an oversized ear for a cartoon character. I had to ramp up the number of polygons in zbrush to get the nessecary amount to pull the ear out of the head and then get detail on the ear, then my mesh was overly heavy in some places. Then I had would to optimise my workflow. Model the head somewhat roughly in a polygonal modeler then bring it into zbrush and that sort of confined my options. I couldn't just take a simple ball and work it into a finished piece. I also agree the topology tools in 3dc are awesome. I've tried silo and zbrush retopology tools. Zbrush was awkward and glitchy when I tried it (maybe they got it working in the latest verison) and silo doesn't even hug the normals consistantly nor does it update the model when you slice polygons. I'm amazed how Andrew introduced fully functional topology tools in such a short time wheras other developers are still trying to fix and patch up their own topology tools that they introduced 2 years ago.

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Thanks guys! I think I'm going to swap the hands for something more tentacle like and squiggly than 'drippy'. That part of the sculpt hasn't sat well with me since the start, which is probably why I avoided detailing the hands till the end hehe.

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I did a couple vids today to show some friends some of the tools and what you can do with voxels.

It's pretty sketchy stuff... more about showing the tools than good sculpting. Plus I didn't want to spend too long on this stuff.

There's definitely easier/faster ways to start a hand in 3d coat but I liked the idea of starting with the 2d-Paint brush and building up from there.

https://dl.getdropbox.com/u/92176/3dcHand1/3dcHand1.html

https://dl.getdropbox.com/u/92176/3dcHand2/3dcHand2.html

https://dl.getdropbox.com/u/92176/3dcHand3/3dcHand3.html

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Cool... looking forward to the possibilities that will unleash.

Did some turntables of my most recent stuff just for kicks:

https://dl.getdropbox.com/u/92176/SwampTroll.mov

https://dl.getdropbox.com/u/92176/zombiesketch.mov

https://dl.getdropbox.com/u/92176/zombieHead.mov

Would be nice to be able to do turntables for anything in 3dc eventually.

I did a quick retopo of the zombie in 3dc as well but had to do the turntable in Zbrush (it's quick and easy):

https://dl.getdropbox.com/u/92176/ZombieLow.mov

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I did a couple vids today to show some friends some of the tools and what you can do with voxels.

It's pretty sketchy stuff... more about showing the tools than good sculpting. Plus I didn't want to spend too long on this stuff.

There's definitely easier/faster ways to start a hand in 3d coat but I liked the idea of starting with the 2d-Paint brush and building up from there.

https://dl.getdropbox.com/u/92176/3dcHand1/3dcHand1.html

https://dl.getdropbox.com/u/92176/3dcHand2/3dcHand2.html

https://dl.getdropbox.com/u/92176/3dcHand3/3dcHand3.html

cool video. very informative with sculpting workflow. thanks.

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Ged: yeah UVLayout is pretty much the ultimate UV toolset for me. I find that just having the UI being 100% focused on uvs alone is a big part of it, whereas all the studio apps or other modelers etc either have very basic tools (3dc included) or you still have to share the UI with other, non-UV related functions. My whole 3d construction process is pretty compartmentalized in general because of this. Silo for modeling, UVLayout for UV, Zbrush for sculpting. The only things I haven't really nailed down are painting and baking, as these tend to get spread out amongst several apps. I think 3dc will probably narrow that down though once 3.0 goes live. I may also be moving more of my initial workflow into 3dc and using voxels for initial construction and retopo in general. Depending on the models and how far andrew wants to push those voxel tools.

Thanks geo_n, glad you liked!

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thanks for the response James I used UVlayout for my last big gameartisans challenge with deadpool and it did a really good job but I found it really frustrating exporting all the models seperately so that I could get to all the hidden areas and then reimporting after uvs and attaching all the models. is there any other way, can you just export it all to uvlayout in one go or something and still get to the seams/polys?

yeah Im thinking it would be nice to import high poly hard surface stuff into 3D coat and then build a voxel model around it for the organic parts of the character, they would have to be seperated from eachother by layers or something but it would be really cool. Then retopo in 3dc and use xnormal to bake some maps :)

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thanks for the response James I used UVlayout for my last big gameartisans challenge with deadpool and it did a really good job but I found it really frustrating exporting all the models seperately so that I could get to all the hidden areas and then reimporting after uvs and attaching all the models. is there any other way, can you just export it all to uvlayout in one go or something and still get to the seams/polys?

yeah Im thinking it would be nice to import high poly hard surface stuff into 3D coat and then build a voxel model around it for the organic parts of the character, they would have to be seperated from eachother by layers or something but it would be really cool. Then retopo in 3dc and use xnormal to bake some maps :)

Hmm I've brought in a few multi-component meshes in the past and I can see what you are saying. Would be nice if there was a way to organize or focus on specific pieces. One thing I do to reduce clutter while I'm making my seams is just dump some pieces to the layout right away if they are getting in my way... then I'll bring them back from the 2d layout when I'm ready for them. It's ghetto scene management but it works pretty well. =]

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post-900-1243486167_thumb.jpg

Another WIP, just messing around with the voxel tree and the copy brush. Started from a sphere as usual, just because you can in 3dc. =]

It's broken down into about 15 pieces mostly sourced from a quick blockout of the full body.

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Nice work, Im liking the mohawk dude. The musculature showing through the tshirt makes it look a bit odd what with the folds and all, unless its wet i guess. is he a wet t-shirt punk :D

Hmm I've brought in a few multi-component meshes in the past and I can see what you are saying. Would be nice if there was a way to organize or focus on specific pieces. One thing I do to reduce clutter while I'm making my seams is just dump some pieces to the layout right away if they are getting in my way... then I'll bring them back from the 2d layout when I'm ready for them. It's ghetto scene management but it works pretty well. =]

Tag a face and press Home. This will set the view focus. Im pretty sure the hide command can hide unselected aswell. I find its nearly as easy to grab an element and move it away from the base mesh then home on it. you can orbit around it with no worries then. I Usually use uvlayout from max so i dont really have to bother with the extra components. i just export out what i want with my plugin and work on it then go to the next bit. There are also plugins for XSI and Maya. Might be worth a check. they make the whole process more cohesive. If we ever get a scripting language in Silo I'll give UVL integration a shot :)

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I like that sculpt.The nice thing about using the shader tree and keeping the meshes separate is the ability to use different shaders for the individual parts.

I would like to see this piece shadered.The copy tool is really good for making clothing off a base mesh.That's the way I've been doing it.

Keep it up!

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