Sandro Borg 3D sketchbook

[Sandro Borg]

Hi everyone.

My first post here.

I've been using 3D Coat for a couple of weeks now,I absolutely love using this program.

It feels so much like sculpting clay.

I thought I might as well post what I've been doing with it recently,since I seem to be spending most of my free time sculpting in 3D coat these days.

This alien bust I created on Tuesday,I spent a few hours doodling,just trying to get a feel for all the tools.

Still much to learn.

Comments welcome.

Cheers.

[Sandro Borg]

A doodle from yesterday,I started off playing around with the curve tool and then couple of hours later I ended up with this.

Purely voxel sculpting so far.

[Greg]

You are really moving right along with the program!

I love using the curve tool too. Took me forever to get the hang of it and actually like it, but looks like you're definitely on your way with it.

Please keep posting!

Greg

[Sandro Borg]

Thanks for your comments Greg.

The curve tool kinda reminds me of Zspheres in Zbrush,but I'm loving the simplicity of the curve tool and voxels.

Very intuitive.

[Sandro Borg]

Latest voxel sculpt.

100% 3D Coat.

[Sandro Borg]

Just a little creature model I've been working on.

The aim was to create a low poly cage using retopology so I would be able to animate him comfortably in Lightwave,while keeping all the voxel sculpted detail.

Almost successful,unfortunately when I convert to ptex/microvertex/per pixel,I keep getting errors in the mesh (in this case the inside hip/thigh).

Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated.

Original inspiration was Randall from Monsters Inc,as a starting off point.

I managed to get a decent enough low poly cage that should animate well.

[michalis]

Nice sculpts - creatures!

Oh the thigh-hip case LOL, you can manually retopo (carefully) these areas and have a decent low poly PPP model. But what about MV? Subdivision is expected to be messy. Just try to smooth these areas in sculpt room and in paint room.

This cage problem, Andrew should find a solution here, a nice surface -after topology- sculpt room. A zbrush like room.

[Sandro Borg]

thanks michalis,

the model was completely manually retopo'ed,my first attempt.

I tried again the same model with ptex,worked much better but still with errors on top of foot.(see grab)

Still,obviously much to learn,but very happy with results so far using this fantastic program.

[Sandro Borg]

Last night I created a manual retopology over another voxel sculpt,this time I had more success than previously,no errors it seems.

I used the per pixel method this time,just a simple coat of paint and some bump mapping.

Again,the aim is to get something into Lightwave that I can animate.For this purpose I'm keeping it fairly simple for now.

I've enclosed screengrabs from 3DCoat and also Lightwave 10,with VPR render.

VPR is great,load the model straight into LW,turn on VPR and voila,you can instantly see the results of paint/displacements on the model.

I love the way 3DCoat works with LW,all the maps are included with the model,no messing about with setting up,instant results.

Anyway,now time for a 'refresher course' in skelegons,rigging,IK setup and animation! see you all in a while

[michalis]

Nice! So you used PPP for this. Have you tried MV just to check if the hip-thigh problem exists there? As MV subdivides the topo coge.

When you say displacements you mean normal_maps right? To export decent real displacement maps from PPP isn't easy. MV is the best way for this.

[Sandro Borg]

thanks michalis,

yes I used per pixel for this as I find it easiest to use for now,i'm just using normal maps on this at the moment.

I have tried using microvertex and ptex with displacement maps previously,I will try them out also on this model later when I get a chance.yes,mv and ptex are definately the way to go with the displacements.

I'm still finding my way around what works best so bear with me.

Can't wait to see what a difference using the Lightwave/3DCoat Applink will make,things are running pretty smooth between the 2 programs as it is.

I'm so pleased I invested in this software,it is a joy to use

I think the hip/thigh problem from the previous model may have been due to the way i laid out the retopology,i will try again later.

[Kabaal]

Nice work and I like your style. The wee creatures are very cute

Hope you get the hip/thigh problems sorted out.

[Sandro Borg]

Hi Kabaal,thanks for your comments.

I didn't get any hip/thigh problems on my next model,shown here.

I used Per Pixel Painting method on this one again.

When I get a chance I will also try the Mircovertex and Ptex method with displacement with this same model,to see if I still get problems.

Quite pleased with how this one turned out so far,100% voxel sculpt,retopo'ed and UV and per pixel painted in 3DCoat.

Exported to Lightwave 10,where I rigged him in modeler initially with skelegons,and exported to layout to setup IK.Lots of fun.

But lots to learn still.Rigging and animating is a totally different headspace to modeling and painting,yet I find it equally fascinating,that it justifies putting

in all the work to learn to do properly.

When I'm happy with it,I'll post some avi's of the animation tests.

Back to work!

[Sandro Borg]

Another little critter I started today,nearly finished retopo now.

Wanna try doing more detailed texture work this time,will experiment with microvertex and ptex this time too.

I've also modelled proper eyelids this time too,so when I take him into lightwave we can have some blinking action going on too.

[Sandro Borg]

i managed to get the critter manually retopo'ed,gonna call it a night for now.

looking forward to trying out some new ideas for detailing and texturing tomorrow.

[Sandro Borg]

This is the critter in Lightwave 10 layout with VPR.no rendering errors here at all.

I painted the displacement texture in microvertex mode,seems to work a lot better

than ppp for this type of work,whereas previously I'd modeled the texture in voxels

and then tried painting in ppp.that's where i was getting errors.

still,it's all trial and error at the moment,finding what workflow works best.

I'm having a lot of fun with it,very pleased the ease with which the model transfers from 3Dcoat to Lightwave.

I haven't yet tried the Applink with this workflow yet,I will try it with my next model.

[Sandro Borg]

a couple more grabs of this critter in LW layout.

i'm gonna spend a lot more time learning rigging,i wanna be able to have full control of animating my models.

[digman]

I am enjoying seeing your work and animation progress. Looking forward to seeing some of your animation in the future. You might a few extra edge loops around the areas that bend quite a bit, like knees and elbows, That will help on deforming those areas and it gives you more control of your weight map painting in the same areas too...

I found the tutorials by Jeff Lew quite informtive. They are about 3D character animation in general and worth their price. The tutorials are older and he uses Animation Master but the principles are same using any animation software. I'm still very much a beginner in animation but have studied it quite a bit..

http://www.jefflew.com/index.html

[Sandro Borg]

digman,thanks for the feedback,much appreciated.

yes,I agree with what you say about the edgeloops,I've been finding that out whilst setting up for animation.

I've also been studying the polygon flow of what others do,and it makes a lot of sense.

I'll take this into account on my next models.

I love Jeff Lew's Killer Bean animations - they're hilarious.

They were one of many inspirations when I began doing 3D animation back then.

Also,i found it inspiring that one guy with an animation program could produce all that - it certainly motivated me.and still does.

His training videos look very interesting,I may check them out one day.

Right now I'm working through a ton of training material on 3DCoat and Lightwave,Liberty 3D's Adam Gibson 3DCoat for Lightwave users and the Kurv 3DCoat series

in particular.They will keep me busy for a while and are helping me get through the learning curve.

I'm also looking at purchasing the RH Rigging videos soon,they've been noted elsewhere on this site.very recommended.

I seriously want to master rigging my models ,and his tutorials look very comprehensive.

Anyway,thanks again for checking my stuff out.

I'll definately be posting up some animation tests soon - watch this space!

[Sandro Borg]

My link

a quick 30 frame basic walk cycle animation of this critter.

does anyone know how i can 'embed' this link so it can be viewed in this thread.

Thanks in advance.

I will post more animations once I can work this out.

edit:sorted out how to 'embed' the link.

here's the animation again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GB9qSoIHm4

[Sandro Borg]

I thought I'd have a go at doing a 4 legged beastie this time...just something I started this morning,roughed out the basic shape using the curve tool.

I love how you can quickly build up a sketch in 3DCoat...we'll see where this one goes.

[Sandro Borg]

Did some more work on this beastie this evening.

Working in Surface Mode and downgrading the volume

has really made it a lot easier to acheive what I was after.

This is still voxels all the way,I know I could probably

get a lot of the detail done in paint mode,but I just wanna see

how far I can go with the voxels.

I will try the paint displacement detail with another model.

This is all experimentation at the moment and fun

Just getting a feel for 3DCoat tools and workflow.

Very easy to get completely lost in the 'zone' when voxel

sculpting.it's addictive.

http://3d-coat.com/turntableID=129674088025

[chris_solo]

hey nice work here Sandro Borg!!

[Sandro Borg]

Thanks Chris

I'm stopping here for now as far as voxel sculpting goes.

I'm ready to start retopo now,I may add more detail later in microvertex mode.

btw,3DCoat's retopology tools ROCK!

I started retopology on this model a couple hours ago,and my 9 year old son was observing me.

He is quite familiar with the workings of 3DCoat by now

Anyway,I was explaining to him how in the 'old days'of 3D modeling, ie before he was born,we didn't have

3Coat,Zbrush,Mudbox,etc.,and we had to model polygon by polygon,kinda like retopology but without the

underlying voxel geometry.

The look on his face was priceless!

[Sandro Borg]

phew.

just finished manual retopology on this beastie.

UV next and paint/texture displacement.

[Sandro Borg]

I've spent most of this evening fixing the retopology mesh between 3DCoat and Lightwave modeler.

I was getting 'marching ants' errors when I converted to paint mode(all 3 paint modes),so I figured it must be something to do with the mesh.

A few hours and much trial and error later,I've arrived at this.I've learnt a lot from the process.

Screengrab from Lightwave layout,VPR render.

I'm happy that it looks pretty much like the original voxel sculpt from 3DCoat.

The detail is all there,yet still has a fairly low poly cage to animate with.

I used PTEX with this version,I'll see how I get on with the painting now.

Will be good to take a break from retopology...phew!

[Sandro Borg]

I added texture displacement and color in PTEX mode.

I still got a couple of 'marching ants' errors i couldn't fix .

I did manage to get rid of a few in the sculpt room.

does anyone else have this problem,or have a workaround?

Also,I've found that when I convert my retopology into PTEX mode,

when I save out as an .lwo , it doubles the subdivision on my retopology mesh.

This is not helpful,as I purposefully did the retopology manually in order to

keep the mesh poly count low for animating.

Again,if anyone else has come across this...

Thanks

back to painting...

(edit-i meant PTEX not MICROVERTEX)

Since posting this,I've been working at fixing the erros in sculpt room and paint room ,

and they are barely noticeable now.

but it would still be nice to not have to deal with these problems in the first place.

[chris_solo]

great work and thanks for tips about Lightwave with 3dcoat, because it is interesting for my current project T2126 ...I think I'll follow your example! I also use Lightwave.

[Sandro Borg]

Hi Chris,thanks.

Glad you've found this helpful.

I'm still finding my own way around what works best,so bear with me.

For instance,for this current model,the low res retopology produced by 3dcoat is way too high for me to animate with ease.

The orignally manual retopoly I created within 3DCoat came to approx 5000 polygons,light enough for me to

work comfortably within lightwave.

however after converting to PTex mode,it exported my low poly cage to 4 times that , over 20,000 polygons.

this becomes problematic when selecting polgons/points/edges in lightwave modeler,to create morph targets,

weight maps ,etc.

so I won't take this model any further for animating and try and redo it and find a solution to this problem.

I don't have this issue when working with per pixel painting mode,however if i want to create texture dispacement

maps i have to work with either micro vertex or ptex.

i love the way you can create and apply deformations and displacements with mv and ptex,it would be a shame to

not be able to use them in my animated creations.

if anyone knows a workaround this,it would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT-looking back at my previous model,I used micro vertex paint mode on the model,and it saved out my retopology mesh

exactly as i'd made it,so i know it is possible to acheive this.

but i can't remember how i did it.

note to self - MAKE NOTES!!

LOL

[Sandro Borg]

Another Critter,this was an older 3DCoat voxel sculpt that I dug out yesterday.

I used the same method as previously,microvertex.

no problems this time.

It exported the retopo mesh at the same resolution I created in retopology (this one weighed in at just over 1000 polys...)

this is a big deal to me,if the base mesh is too heavy,it becomes too difficult to animate.

I kept the initial sculpt pretty simple and figured i'd add as much detail as i could in the mv paint mode.

Anyway,I'm just rigging this little critter right now,so hopefully i'll have some animations to put up soon.

EDIT:after doing several tests on several models,I've found that my problems with my previous model were due to my own error,

3DCoat works fine exporting low poly mesh in micro vertex mode.

sorry for any confusion.