Masking

[Fabio Dona]

This is another very simple request, and one of the most important things that are still missing in 3dcoat:

Masking.

In Zbrush or mudbox, you can paint a mask, and that protects the surface from any changes while sculpting.

In 3dcoat you can do that too. But only with the pose tool(select with pen). We need this for all tools. I think this is a easy thing to do. Masking is already working in the pose tool, but make it work for all tools/brushes. In Zbrush this is done with control pressed.

[Fabricio Torres]

+1 from me

[3DArtist]

+1

From what I understand, adding masking to voxel sculpting is a fairly large technical challange. Also, the pose tool does not work directly on the voxels but on the polygon "skin" (until you apply the change) which makes it easier for masking. somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

Andrew, Could masking be added to the surface sculpting tools at least?

Also could you have the surface brushes respect the "grow on pen motion" option?

[Fabio Dona]

+1

From what I understand, adding masking to voxel sculpting is a fairly large technical challange. Also, the pose tool does not work directly on the voxels but on the polygon "skin" (until you apply the change) which makes it easier for masking. somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

Andrew, Could masking be added to the surface sculpting tools at least?

Also could you have the surface brushes respect the "grow on pen motion" option?

I'm sure Andrew can find a way to do it.

I can be wrong, but as I see, just use the surface masking to modulate the voxel brush depth. The voxel brushes travels over the surface anyway, so you can detect the masked surface areas for modulation of the effect. This is not a true volumetric masking on the voxels(we don't need that) but the effect should be almost the same.

Also there's textured pen masks already working in voxels so... it's the same principle.

[3DArtist]

I'm sure Andrew can find a way to do it.

I have no doubt with that.

[GabeM]

+1 on mask painting

Only way I've found to do this is with a background image, though not as useful as painting a mask directly on the surface, and it's very slow.

You put an image in the background, then use the voxel brushes to paint. Not all of them work with the mask.

[cuffins]

+1 from me too... must be the most requested new feature now ?

Rene

[renderdemon]

I agree also,masking is needed.

The only problem I see here is that masking in pose tool is really slow,so a different system should be used.

Also loading/saving mask could be cool.

[Andrew Shpagin]

What do you think about idea:

- in special masking mode you will be able to paint mask directly in 3D-Coat. That mask will act exactly as mask in mask tab, but it will be paintable.

- the difference with mask tool is that mask will rotate with object.

[GabeM]

That would be real nice, but would it allow you to do something like holding one part of the surface, and pull another area over?

Places like the fatty layer over an eye lid, or the curve around the ear. The way it works now doesn't allow for that to work right, because the mask is projected. It doesn't really stay in place when you move the surface.

What about using spline shapes? Have that work like a pin, with weight influence/ fall off. Instead of painting a mask, you could work with curves like skinning.

Possibly do more with that for an extra modeling tool, like with drag points in sculpt mode.

[Fabio Dona]

What do you think about idea:

- in special masking mode you will be able to paint mask directly in 3D-Coat. That mask will act exactly as mask in mask tab, but it will be paintable.

- the difference with mask tool is that mask will rotate with object.

Andrew, the only thing is that this mask needs to be locked to the models's surface. But it can't be just a stencil(like the ones in the mask tab). Having a stencil to rotate with the object isn't enough because the shape changes in other angles. What you paint in one angle will not work in others. So It has to be exactly like the masking we have with the pose tool.

Like this:

Note that a better name for the mask tab is stencils. And mask would be the thing that we have in the pose tool. That's the one that we need for the other tools.

[buqa]

I think that masking should be universal in the first place. It should work similar (or the same) for voxels, posing, texturing, texture baking, retopo, rendering or whatever.

No more "additional tools", more "universal" (or "smart") tools please

[Fabio Dona]

That's why I'm asking for the pose tool masking be used for other tools/brushes. It's not really a new feature request. Just build up on things that are working already.

By the way, I have another request like this for the vox follow brush that no one seems to care. That one is the same principle. For example, we don't have a basic move brush that works in voxel mode, but we have a fancy vox follow brush that works. Even though it does just about the same thing (technically speaking). Still we are confined to use the move that is actually a surface mode tool, and that is not really good for lots of reasons.

It's interesting that the move tool is a surface tool, like the pose tool. These tools are related, work technically in the same way, but only one has masking. You paint a mask in the pose tool, select another tool and the mask is gone. This is bad.

This is a selection mask, shouldn't be tied with any specific tool.

[3DArtist]

While I agree that we should have a true voxel masking solution (and move tool), is there a way masking could be implemented on the surface side of sculpting while a solution for voxel sculpting is formulated? This is assuming of course that implementing masking surface side is easier and faster (already there in pose) then voxel side. Just a thought.

[GED]

No more "additional tools", more "universal" (or "smart") tools please

agreed! I would personally rather wait for 3dcoat to truely innovate and come up with a powerful masking feature that doesnt just try to emulate what other applications do but actually improves on the concept and gives us a universal tool that is worth celebrating. A masking feature that works "only in this tool" or "only when not rotating" or only in voxels etc etc is not good, its a quick fix instead of a real solution, stickytape when you needed a hammer and nail.

[Fabio Dona]

No more "additional tools", more "universal" (or "smart") tools please

Andrew, are you reading this?

I ask because it seems to me that you don't realize how important this feature request is. Especially for people coming from Zbrush or Mudbox.

I'll give you some perspective about what we are asking for here:

Open Photoshop and draw a selection mask. Now try to use any brush inside/outside that mask. See, it's that simple. Too see how it works in 3d you can try this on Zbrush or Mudbox. Now, imagine if in Photoshop this selection mask only worked for just ONE tool.

Well that's what's happening in 3d-coat. Very unprofessional IMO.

Some of you may think that I'm now making a big deal about this. But I'm not. It's a question of understanding what artists need. What is priority to the developer may not be priority for us.

[GabeM]

The way the hide brush works now in 3.1 is closer to having a selected mask. I can actually use it for that purpose now.

What could happen with that is to make the hidden part freeze, so it can not be deformed, and have it stay visible or optionally hidden.