hard surface tool set

[adamdaly]

I'd really lik to see some hard surface tools implimented. I've been trying to create dome airplanes but an ahving difficulty creating the shapes i need because the tools end up being too distructive on the surface. Like in this image for example:

you can see the trailing edge of the fin isn't very straight. Using the scrap too to taper of the edge results in destroying the uniformity of the volume. I think the 3d coat workflow would be really great for creating more organic hard surface models such as airplanes or cars but the current tool set (though great for organic models) has too many limitations for this.

adam

[Calabi]

This guy may disagree with you.

http://www.3d-coat.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=6244&pid=47672&st=0entry47672

[Ratchet]

In fact for hard surface, you sometimes need some good voxel resolution also.

Some tools like Hide and delete Hidden Voxels are very usefull.

For example by using the select polygon area Pen Or any other like Bezier curve region selection ; that sort of things in combination with With Hide voxels allow you to create good hard surfaces.

If it's a simple edge in a surface, use extrude along a path some Shape simply.

You have the Plane tool , very usefull, in combination with Hidding voxel, you can make plane only the area you want.

There are lot of ways , just try them

Be carefull , sometimes to have good results on edges you will need good resolution on voxels that can be too slow with 3D Coat (already very discussed problem) !

An example of Using the Hide Tool :

(We can see that to have precise hard surface, we neeed a hight resolution, not the basic you can sse in the picture below)

After using a basic sphere with some better resolution (10 Mb) and using the Hide tool you can see that edges becomes lot more precise and hard, it becomes

a matter of voxel resolution also :

And finnaly by using the curve selection pen with the Hide Voxel and Delete Hidden Voxel tools you can do things like this :

I think it's some things like this you wanted to make ?

The remaining problem is to make the edeges lot more precise without any jerks you need to increase one more time resolution and it remains 3D Coat main problem in fact.

Another great way is to switch to surface mode , in this mode hard surface making is lot more better result than in voxel mode.

Be carefull when going back to voxels, sometimes you loose the initial voxel resolution of the model !!

[adamdaly]

This guy may disagree with you.

http://www.3d-coat.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=6244&pid=47672&st=0entry47672

Well i can hardly compete with a Weta Master.

If Bay can model a f86 sabre with a stright leading/trailing edge i'll shut my mouth.

adam

[Ratchet]

But i agree the pinch tool in Voxel Mode , i use it rarelly caus i reach what i want i another ways.

I agree if we would have some new Brushes for Hard Edges in 3D Coat (perhaps some inpired by Zbrush like Flatten Finish and some others).

Another tool , could be flatten tool , but along a curve or a path (like curve tool) !

Or flatten some size along a cruve or a path , i think it could be usefull also.

For the sword anyone using a good resolution on voxels can do it easily if he knows the good tools !

[Digital777]

I also would like some more tools for this type of thing. There is various ways to do this type of stuff as people point out but most of that is either using models already made or needing very high detail. Needing very high res can make things go slow if you don't have a high end system though so some tools aimed at sharp details/edges when voxel sculpting would be great.

Another thing that would go well with that is a reduction brush similar to sculptris which is good for parts that are flat or very smooth. That also optimizes things and i think doing the opposite would work well also, so you have a low res and then paint a area that needs detail. With that you could have a lower res model and then add detail to the edge and cut that for a hard surface etc, this would keep things optimized but also allow high detail where needed.