Laticis

Thanks for the update Andrew, Cheers Ady

thanks

Thanks for all the tips micahlis, Found this today: http://www.zspline.net/blog/a-3d-game-asset-workflow-part-i/ Small question for you: " the best tools in this case is [E] / select [surround area with lines] / hold ctrl to cut " - Screen shot of this please ( only if you have time ). Cheers Ady

Now that's a good idea, would love to hear how the conversation would go....

sculpting the rocks /asset is the easy part, quick 3DCoat Sculpt. OK, for a Next Gen game asset the smallest amount of triangles (or quads?) would be required but first I need a High res painted model to bake the details onto a low Poly triangulated UV mesh. Onto that mesh I need to bake Diffuse, Specular, Normal or Bump or both, possible Displacement Map ( not sure on that one ) and a Specular map. If the rock was made of three parts, would all the UV's be required to fit onto a 2048 x 2048.

Hi micahlis, "IMO 3DCoat is the right app for this job. And the fastest way " I would have to agree, but... I personally love using both apps closely together. One of my standard workflows: Quick Sculpt of base mesh in ZBrush with Zspheres / Export to 3DCoat for additional Voxel Sculpting /then Retopology ,UV Mapping and PPP or PTex / back to ZBrush for finer detailing and painting. " The clever trick now. 5 export a triangulated mesh under vox palette / decimator at maximum to have ~1-3 K mesh. 6. Import this obj under retopo room/ retopo menu as the retopo mesh 7 Make seams and unwrap 8 bake as PPP 9 do more painting and bumps in paint room " This was the part I was looking for, thanks heaps. I have noticed that most NextGen Props are created with triangles that can be rather large. I am guessing all the detailing will bake to this with no problems. If I was to design a talking or moving rock, would you then suggest quads? Can both be used on the same mesh ? It's the little things like this I am chasing, when and when not to so to speak, the basic rules. Once you have the basics you can branch out in your own direction after that. Cheers Ady

Hi Guys, Yep, another very inspiring thread.....a week or so back there was also this one. http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?t=145403 So inspired, I have been searching for just the right video tutorial that will help me understand the correct workflow to create this type of work. Still on the look out. There where one or two at Eat 3D but not quite what I was looking for. Just a simple detailed rock platform from start to finish would be nice.

Hi Andrew, Thanks heaps for all your hard work and effort, plus your communications with the community. 3.5.17A is looking to be one of the best builds to date.

Great selection of Brushes you have there AbnRanger. Do you have them spread across other apps ie. ZBrush, Photoshop, or are they specifically designed for 3D Coat?

Excellent, thank you.

thanks for the heads up AbnRanger. I have 3DC on a PC with no internet connection, is there a way I can use the Mantis Bug Tracker without. I have an latop I use for Internet browsing and emailing.

Hi Andrew, Are the latest builds coming out mainly targeted towards improving the stability in the sculpting area? Are there an areas that are being left alone until main issues are sorted? IE: AutoUV Mapping Cheers Ady

Been doing some small test lately with the current builds and auto UV Mapping. So far 09 seems to produce the best results (expected results that is) after that things don't work as I believe they should. Please excuse my following terminology: A simple Roman type column imported into 3DC 09 will give me a very clean finished UV Map with an evenly sized/distributed chequer pattern. v10 clean chequers but missing half the column in the uv map...the latest version v14E makes a mess out of the chequer and a disproportioned UV map. PC 64bit Win 7 Cuda GTX480 I7960 12Gig Ram (No Internet Connection) I can redo test if required and post images but more so I wanted to know if this is a known issue and if anyone else is getting the same results. So far build 09 is the one I keep going back too. Cheers Ady Laticis Imagery

I purchased two of the pro licenses. Installation and activation onto a USB (Win7/64bit) went without a hitch. The other I have left in my account inactivate and will leave it there until ready....hope that is not a mistake but it feels safer than activating now onto a USB stick that could get lost because its not in use. Had one small play but have been a bit preoccupied with another project. Looking forward to seeing new works and tests completed, with such a new large and instant user base there should be some pretty cool stuff coming our way for viewing (and bad). First thing when ready though will test out the 3DC/Messiah AppLink.

Good news for those that purchased and a big big thank you to pmG. ( Also posted on DAZ forums ) Just a note: **Due to the overwhelming response, we are in the process of updating the license system to better automate the management of everyone generating their licenses. We have a 3 day delay in finalizing the transactions, and downloading them into the system. We hope to have license generation up by Saturday or perhaps sooner. You will be getting an email to the email address you provided paypal when you purchased, that will contain the url and login info to generate your license for your purchase or purchases(if you did them in more than one transaction). Link again: http://projectmessiah.com/x6/shop.html

Well the article sure answered a few questions...

I've had some of those clients at work and outside of work, all fine and dandy until they have to start paying then they just disappear or become disgruntled because you have to start charging. All we can do at this point is wait and see what happens. Maybe they are all rolling in money and have decided to give back to the community at large

It is possible their sales where already starting to dry up and that could be what sparked this campaign. Sales are all about the numbers and it would be interesting to to see what their target was, I'm sure there was a lot of table talk before their big release. Lets say only 50% of their new client base continue to use Messiah over the next year and 25% incorporate it Messiah into their workflow, this will almost guarantee sales at upgrade time where there might not have been before. There will also be immediate smaller sales in memberships, tutorials and resources. Would they have ended up with the same figures on a 50% off sale, possibly, but their name is well and truly out there now and forum conversation will continue for many days, even weeks after the target has been reached. Lets just hope release runs smoothly, there are still many ways this fire can get out of hand. I had never heard of Messiah before this and neither had many others. Great Marketing. No doubt it is a risk they have taken and I hope it pays off for them, I for one am grateful for the opportunity they have given me and many others with smaller wallets than mine.

I started off thinking it was a small gamble one worth taking, but by the time that bar got to 50% all if any fears subsided and the realisation that their brilliant marketing strategy was working made me feel I had spent my money wisely. I purchased 2 pro versions, one for use and one for safe keeping. It couldn't have come at a better time, with my recent purchase of Lightwave 10, the use of Messiah, Lightwave and 3D Coat will leave me no excuses. It is high time I pulled my finger out and started doing some serious s**t. What ever their reasons I am glad they have done it and I congratulate them for a an outstanding campaign. Messiah has spread like a wild fire throughout the CG community, I wonder if there will be a write up about it in 3D World Magazine

+ 1

I would have to say this is one of the best marketing campaigns I have ever seen, such a brilliant idea. Messiah is spreading throughout every CG forum on the planet (have we missed any ), I cant imagine those of us who have forked out money missing out on this brilliant offer, otherwise all this good publicity will go down the toilet. I feel this will spark a wave of marketing, just like the buying/investing of software in its Beta stage. Well done Messiah, excellent strategy I would say. I would be interested in knowing what their target was, how many copies where they planning on giving away for next to nothing. But one things is for sure, those who end up using and utilising the software in our work-flow will no doubt upgrade to 6 when released.

Working like a charm....Thanks again Andrew.

Thanks Andrew.....much appreciated.

Cool......can't wait. Thanks Andrew.

Hi Andrew, Thanks for the update.