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[Solved] Shadow Box for 3D Coat?


JimB
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Go to solution Solved by AbnRanger,

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Funny you should ask about this, as it's actually a feature Pixologic "borrowed" from 3D Coat. That is the "Sketch" tool and Logo tools in the Voxel Room. It functions a bit differently in ZB but the concept is still the same, and once you make your basic shape in voxels, you can trim, cut, pose (especially with the new FFD cage) and modify it in ways you can't in ZB. What I do oftentimes is use the logo tool to create a very fast 3D shape, and drag and drop it into my MODELS pallet, ala ZBrush's Subtools. Now I can use it anytime I like or create a 3D Brush alpha with it, to project the object onto a model...fully conformed to the model's shape.

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3dcoat is already a shadowbox!!!!I think you misunderstood the different functions of 3dcoat, look at the lasso, rectangle, and the construction of an object voxel with 3 pictures...

++Chris

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So can I use 3D Coats Sketch tool like in the video above and like in Glen Southerns video?

http://southerngfx.co.uk/2011/05/3545

Again, it works a bit differently, but the overall concept is the same. With 3D Coat's sketch tool, you'd want to paint your 2D images in Photoshop, Gimp, Illustrator, etc. Then you bring those images into the Sketch tool to create the same result that you get in Shadowbox.

http://www.3d-coat.com/play_video.php?link=http://www.pilgway.com/~javis2/Voxel_Tools/Voxel-Sketch.mp4

Pixologic borrowed the idea from 3D Coat, so it makes me chuckle when I hear people hype it (including 3D World, who is submitting it for voting as "Innovation" of the year) as this amazing NEW thing Pixologic came up with.

It would be like us hyping the Curves tool in 3D Coat as a NEW innovation in the 3D community....knowing that it is essentially 3D Coat's version of ZSpheres.

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Again, it works a bit differently, but the overall concept is the same. With 3D Coat's sketch tool, you'd want to paint your 2D images in Photoshop, Gimp, Illustrator, etc. Then you bring those images into the Sketch tool to create the same result that you get in Shadowbox.

http://www.3d-coat.com/play_video.php?link=http://www.pilgway.com/~javis2/Voxel_Tools/Voxel-Sketch.mp4

Pixologic borrowed the idea from 3D Coat, so it makes me chuckle when I hear people hype it (including 3D World, who is submitting it for voting as "Innovation" of the year) as this amazing NEW thing Pixologic came up with.

It would be like us hyping the Curves tool in 3D Coat as a NEW innovation in the 3D community....knowing that it is essentially 3D Coat's version of ZSpheres.

Pixologic appear to have refind thier version and I do like the way it works no offence but it makes 3D Coats Sketch tool look a little rough and unfinished.

Perhaps that is why 3D World is submitting it for voting as "Innovation" of the year.

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  • 3 weeks later...
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I found the sketch tool in 3dc to be rather convoluted, and dropped it as a potentially useful tool in my process. Pixologic's shadowbox advantage is that it is right in the app and changes appear in real time. I'd love to see sketch evolve a bit and become more integrated into 3dc itself, rather than depending on working in another app. It's kindof counter productive to the idea of sculpting where you want access to your tools and to see your results immediately. My alternative to using sketch is to use the freeform primitives and 3dc's boolean capabilities to get the same end results.

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I found the sketch tool in 3dc to be rather convoluted, and dropped it as a potentially useful tool in my process. Pixologic's shadowbox advantage is that it is right in the app and changes appear in real time. I'd love to see sketch evolve a bit and become more integrated into 3dc itself, rather than depending on working in another app. It's kindof counter productive to the idea of sculpting where you want access to your tools and to see your results immediately. My alternative to using sketch is to use the freeform primitives and 3dc's boolean capabilities to get the same end results.

If we suddenly had Shadowbox in the Voxel room tomorrow, I don't see myself using it anymore than I did/would the Sketch tool. Because 99.9% of what it does, I already do in the viewport at whatever position and angle I want.

For example, instead of constructing objects in a little confined space with 3 adjacent planes, I use the freeform primitives and splines to make a belt buckle right on the belt, or shoelaces right on the shoe. The Sketch tool was created before Freeform Primitives and thus, I don't see the benefit in asking Andrew to waste development time in making it more like a tool that is a copy what he has already built.

It is a cool addition for ZBrush users, though.

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If we suddenly had Shadowbox in the Voxel room tomorrow, I don't see myself using it anymore than I did/would the Sketch tool. Because 99.9% of what it does, I already do in the viewport at whatever position and angle I want.

For example, instead of constructing objects in a little confined space with 3 adjacent planes, I use the freeform primitives and splines to make a belt buckle right on the belt, or shoelaces right on the shoe. The Sketch tool was created before Freeform Primitives and thus, I don't see the benefit in asking Andrew to waste development time in making it more like a tool that is a copy what he has already built.

It is a cool addition for ZBrush users, though.

Disagree with you. I've been building tons of hard surface stuff in 3dc, and while primitives and booleans are an acceptable enough solution for simpler things like buckles, that I choose them over building poly meshes by hand, there is still plenty of room for improvement, especially with more complicated, machined components. I could build a lot of that stuff much faster by doing profiles in real(or nearly real time) time in my 3d app (3dc) I know this because I've spent quite a bit of back and forth effort trying to see what is faster between 3dc and zbrush. I'm not using sketch right now because I don't think it is useful or speeds up my process enough to bother. To me that is enough of an indicator that the tool needs improvement. I'd use it if it saved me time. Shadowbox is proof of that. It's a better implementation of sketch, esp. for poly meshes, but not perfect either.

I'd rather see effort made to improve what's been added already to 3dc than have it wasted in dead end tools, which is what sketch will be if it stays as it is IMO. BTW, I'm not necessarily advocating to just copy shadowbox either. I think integrating 3d drawing planes with a preview/build button would be a good start. From there, who knows. I don't need it to generate voxel meshes on the fly. It could even use code from the viewport background planes - whatever is faster and easier to bring that process into 3dc so I don't have to go to photoshop at all to generate separate projection images through trial and error.

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  • 3 weeks later...
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Seems he heard you, from Andrews twitter it looks like he added real-time features to sketch tool.

To be honest Voxels tools like this I feel 3dcoat should be leading the way not Zbrush.

On that note, I still feel there is a huge wealth of innovative tools yet to be discovered that would work well with 3dcoats voxels (Especially curved based)

But Jedwards is right, tools that do not have streamlined workflows will just end up dead in the water.

In the end it comes down to how fast you can accurately make that object.

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I still feel there is a huge wealth of innovative tools yet to be discovered that would work well with 3dcoats voxels (Especially curved based)

Agreed! For a long time now I've been favoring a sculpt first approach to most of my modeling and there is real potential in 3dcoat for this to apply not just to organic sculpting but towards hard surface stuff as well. More and more I'm able to use 3dcoat for this type of work. There are definitely some holes yet to be filled in this area but it is happening, and I think Andrew is making great strides to that end.

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just a thought. because of the voxels, the shadowbox equivalent in 3Dcoat is kinda the ortho camera with the sphere tool.

Not really, shadow box is base around cutting clean silhouette shapes. Closest thing in 3d coat is the sketch tool and difference is the work flows.

Another cool thing I saw, which it wouldn't surprise me if it's already been posted before, is Ilovesketch, it really shows how job rolls will change, and more control will be given to the creators and designers:

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> To be honest Voxels tools like this I feel 3dcoat should be leading the way not Zbrush.

3DC does lead the way at the moment but the problem with 3DC is sometimes things seem more like technology previews rather than complete tools, that's understandable with only a few devs working on 3DC though.

Then other company's just take the idea and think what else can we add to that, they add something new and then magazines like 3D World who seem to be a bit slow with 3D news give the credit to the larger company's with awards or comments like "Innovation of the year".

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Another thing this shows is that ZB/others are following what happens with 3DC and with this new ZB update it looks like they are attempting to bring 3DC style workflows to the program. So they probably see 3DC as big competition or a possible rival later on which i am sure it will be.

With the creative team of Andrew and Farsthary they will have to keep doing this with each release as 3DC just keeps getting better and adding loads of great features. As for the main request i think the Sketch tool is great already but it could be enhanced more, it's very useful so any updates could only be a good thing i think. :D

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Not really, shadow box is base around cutting clean silhouette shapes. Closest thing in 3d coat is the sketch tool and difference is the work flows.

Another cool thing I saw, which it wouldn't surprise me if it's already been posted before, is Ilovesketch, it really shows how job rolls will change, and more control will be given to the creators and designers:

I would like to download it, where can I get an authorized copy?

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  • Carlosan changed the title to [Solved] Shadow Box for 3D Coat?

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