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TimmyZDesign

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Everything posted by TimmyZDesign

  1. I'm glad to help Richard, and happy you found my suggestions useful! After thinking a little more about your project, I realized that maybe you want to make actual moving parts (like moving interlocking gears and mechanical parts that really fit together and actually work), and if that's the case, then 3D-Coat isn't a good tool for that kind of thing. I mean, it can make artistic things just fine, and to some degree you can make working mechanical stuff, but it is not intended for serious engineering of mechanical parts. So therefore I would recommend that you make most of the artistic parts of the steam punk fish in 3D-Coat, but then you should make the mechanical parts with engineering CAD software. CAD software will allow you to make very precise measurements for all the parts, which will insure that they fit together more perfectly after they are milled or 3D-printed. In the end you would combine the artistic 3D-Coat stuff with the CAD stuff to create real world moveable models. For CAD software, I would recommend using Autodesk Fusion 360. Although not as easy to use as 3D-Coat, it still is pretty easy to use. Autodesk gives out free licenses to new small biz, indies, freelancers, and hobbyists. Or you can rent it for a very reasonable monthly price ($25 per month on annual subscription, or $40 on a strictly per month basis) if you run a bigger business. There is also Onshape (made by the same people who made the famous Solidworks), and it is very similar to Fusion 360. There is also a free small biz/indie/freelancer/hobbyist version of that too. Essentially all I'm saying is that it makes a lot of sense to use a CAD tool in combination with 3D-Coat, and since you can get excellent ones literally for free, then why not? Here is a video demo of Fusion 360: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-GBpUZ3piY
  2. Hello there Jarel Design! Here are some suggestions to get you started on your steam punk fish project in 3D-Coat. (I'm including a lot of embedded images in this post, so if your internet connection speed is slow, it might take a moment to load the images because they are being pulled in from a Dropbox url.) 1. You need to place your ref image into 3D-Coat. See the image below: 2. Then go to the Retopo Room and double-click on the "pill-shaped" model in the Retopo Models panel. It will import the model into the viewport. Use the transform gizmo to place it in the right position, and then click on Apply: 3. Next you want to scale the model a bit so that it is more similar to the shape of the fish. To do this you need to select all the faces. Then use the transform tool. Click and drag on the side scale button on the transform gizmo to "squeeze" it a bit: 4. Next, go to the Sculpt Room and select the Import Tool. Choose "pick from Retopo" to get the model you just made out from the Retopo Room and into the Sculpt Room. Also subdivide it before clicking on Apply. 5. Now use the Pose Tool to reshape the model to better fit your reference image: 6. You probably should switch over to orthographic view now, so you can view your model exactly from the side: 7. Now use the CutOff Tool to cut the model to better fit your reference image. Make sure you use the "Close Spline" Stroke Mode in the Stroke Mode panel (press the "e" key on your keyboard and choose the "Closed Spline" mode) to draw out the spline shape which will be used to cut the object: 8. Also switch to Top view in orthographic mode and cut up the model to better look like a fish. You can use symmetry, the Move Tool, and the Sym Copy command (in the Geometry menu), and whatever else it takes to end up with the right shape as viewed from above. View from top before: View from top after: 9. I also used the Pose Tool again to make the fish a bit fatter in the middle: 10. Next use the CutOff Tool again from the side to cut out the interior section so that you can put the gear thingy in there: 11. Then use the Primitives Tool to pick a gear primitive, place it with the transform gizmo, and then alter the Tool Options to make the gear the way you like. Also you can add other primitives and start building the mechanics in there: 12. So far the fish looks like this (I temporarily turned off the reference image to have a better look at it): 13. If you are wondering how to make the metal panels all over the fish body, then you can create the panels in the Retopo Room with the retopo tools (like the Add/Split Tool to create polygons, and the Brush Tool to slide the polygons around over the surface of the fish). When you are done, you should have made one of the panels like this: 14. You can use the Shell Tool to make the panels have thickness: 15. You can add some extra edge loops to hold the shape better (after you subdivide it later on): 16. Then go back to the Sculpt Room and use the Import Tool to import the panel: 17. Why not change the shaders a bit so the model looks like metal? 18. To put screws on the panels, you could make a screw head in the Retopo Room: 19. Then click and drag the Retopo layer into the Models Panel: 20. Now go to the Sculpt Room, double-click on the screw head in the Models panel, select "On Brush" in the Tool Options, and now you can use your brush to click and place the screws onto the model's surface. You will probably need to adjust the settings like "roll" and "shift Y" to get it to place correctly on the surface: Basically you can just use these techniques over and over again to complete the whole model. Then finally you would export it as an STL, and then import that STL file into your 3D printing software, or your CNC software, so that you can convert it into a real-world object. Best of luck!
  3. Cool article! Congrats! I was wondering if there are any mocap retargeting tools, or autorig tools in Houdini? Also any good renderfarms that support Houdini?
  4. That looks to me like the import preview superimposed over the top of your mesh. When you import it shows a preview before you actually import. Only after you click on "Apply", then it will import the actual mesh, but the preview will still be visible until you exit the Import Tool. To exit the Import Tool, simply choose another tool in the toolbar, then the preview will go away, and you will finally see your actual mesh.
  5. Whaaaat? I had no idea the poly modeling tools in 3D-Coat were already so advanced! I guess there are some Retopo Room tools I haven't been using to full effect yet!Carlosan, thank you! That video was awesome...but I wish there was an English version... Edit: Well after watching that video I decided to try it out myself. A couple of hours messing around and I see the tools are somewhat limited, and a little buggy, but overall I'm pretty impressed! It's funny how those extrude tools have been there for a while, but I never really noticed. Andrew mentioned that he would be adding even more low poly modeling tools, so I'm excited to see what he adds next!
  6. There is of course a limit to how many polygons you can have in the viewport at any one time. If you have too many, 3D-Coat will slow down. It is still possible to make highly detailed models, but there are several tricks you need to use in order to keep things moving quickly in the viewport. Try testing the limits of your system by starting out with low poly models and then gradually add more and more polys until you see when your system starts to slow down. Then you will know your limit. Next, try to always keep your poly count under the limit by using techniques such as: 1. Cache your vox layers to make large scale edits 2. Use the decimate command to reduce poly count but keep detail 3. Take note that in Surface Mode you can change the mesh density anywhere by brushing on your mesh while holding Shift, but you need to select the proper Shift key action (look above the viewport to see this drop down list). Also turn on wireframe view to see the results. By using this feature you can reduce poly count wherever detail is not needed on your mesh. 4. I also find the Clean Mesh command to be very useful to get better overall topology which responds well to changes in detail (and therefore reduces the need for excessive subdivision). Maybe this will help with your slowdown issues.
  7. I recently discovered in the latest beta 4.5.34, that there is a check box above the viewport that says "on plane". If you turn that on, and also turn on grid snapping, and also in the Tool Options menu next to "Type of Surface" select "ZX, XY, or YZ", then finally you will get proper snapping to work. You won't need a background object on a separate layer anymore. So basically with those options enabled snapping for curve points works, but unfortunately moving the points after they are created, still does not work. If you turn on "(W)Move" mode, then you will see the points will snap, but not exactly to the grid intersections. They only snap nearby. If Andrew would fix this small bug, then Curves Tool snapping would work perfectly.
  8. Wow! That's great! The last time I did a smoke sim with Blender I had to send the render to Rebusfarm because it was way too slow on my machine. Rebusfarm rendered it really fast, but it cost me like $50 I think. I wonder how much faster that same scene will render on my GPU? I'll have to check it out...Anyways smoke and fire on the GPU in Blender is great news! Thanks for mentioning it!
  9. Beta 34 worked on my Vista machine but I had to use the non-cuda version to get voxel sculpting to work (as Andrew suggested). I had all Windows Vista updates installed. I think you also need DirectX 9 loaded (if it isn't already).Also don't load the Nvidia GeForce driver 364.72 because it supposedly has some bad bugs. Roll back to a previous version. I read somewhere 314.22 is ok.
  10. So many cool plug-ins for Max, but buying so many plug-ins must be expensive, plus you have to pay for Max too. The plug-ins lock you into a payment scheme because you have to buy Max to use the plug-ins, and you have to buy the plug-ins to use Max (because Max doesn't natively give you what you want). I guess maybe it's worth it if you make enough money and you can consider it as a legitimate business expense.
  11. Yeah as Carlosan says, you can paint your mask in the Paint Room, then use it as Freeze in the Sculpt Room. There are options in the menus to convert paint data to freeze data.
  12. Both Neobarok and Vectary look cool! I also recommend to you Onshape and Fusion 360. Onshape and Fusion 360 are CAD software (nurbs), but they actually can be great companions to 3D-Coat. You can build complex hard surface models easily in them and then import those models into 3D-Coat (as STL or OBJ). Onshape has a completely free version with full feature functionality. The only limitation is that you can only have 10 private documents saved at any time. Any other documents you create must be public. I think the 10 document limitation is extremely reasonable for indies or freelancers. Fusion 360 is also wonderful and Autodesk is still giving out free licenses to startup businesses, indies, or freelancers. You only need to go to the Autodesk website and apply for your free license.
  13. Wow! Thanks! The no-cuda version works! Both voxel and surface are ok now!Also, you fixed the Curves Tool snapping? I noticed a new option for "on plane" above the viewport...was that option always there? Anyways, if I turn that on, then snapping works! The only part of snapping that is still broken is moving the points. If I move the points they snap, but not perfectly to the correct spot.
  14. In this latest beta (4.5.34) I think the way the retopo polygons look in the retopo room is amazing! It looks better than any 3D app I have ever used! Great job on the new retopo lighting! I really hope you add low poly modeling. It will look so good like that! On the other hand I'm sad because the Curves Tool points still don't work with snapping (2D or 3D grid).
  15. Try "pick from retopo"...can't remember where it is though...(I'm not near a computer right now; I'm using a mobile forum app)...look maybe in the import options, or the right-click menu...
  16. Yeah I tried it on my Vista machine. It mostly works, but I got lots of random crashes. I also noticed that sculpting in voxel mode doesn't work, only works in surface mode.I'm still gonna upgrade that machine. I'm done with Vista.
  17. Yes it would be great if curves could be generated automatically on hard edges of a high poly sculpt, maybe the algorithm could detect where sharp edges are (based on angle), then it would place curves along those edges. That would be a great time-saver for manual retopo of hard surface models.
  18. I think the key feature we need is the ability to place poles to control edge flow. For example you can see in the following image how a five edge pole (in red) causes the edge flow (blue) to change direction, and a three pointed pole also redirects edge flow. On this model you can see the poles are directing the edges to go into different directions, or sometimes they are used to reduce complexity. You can see how the poles play a very important role. Do you think that it would be possible to simply place poles and then let the QuadPaint tool fill in the rest automatically? It seems to me that your new tool can be used in this way but I am not sure. Maybe it is not sensitive enough to detect the placement of five edges crossing over a single point.
  19. Maybe try changing the normal preset in the Preferences? I know that affects exported normals, but maybe it affects imported normals too?
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