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.

Hi Methalina, you've got some great sculpts going on this thread,very inspiring. I love all the alien stuff you're doing too,very imaginative. I also prefer to freeform sculpt in 3D-Coat,I think it was designed with this in mind. I think of it as my 3D sketchpad. The big bonus is if I like it, I can retopo,UV and paint,then take it into Lightwave to animate - perfect! and much fun I used to do 3D years ago the 'old way' , building by polygons by polygon...usually from a 'plan' (top,front and side). not so much fun Needless to say,programs like 3D Coat have reignited my passion for digital 3D. Anyway, excellent work...keep on doodling!

Some cool little doodles here Schwungsau,definately good way to get into 3D Coat,will give you a feel for the tools. Keep on doodlin'

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!

I've been trying to follow the tutorial videos,and one thing i've noticed is that the parameters tab doesn't show up when i've selected a certain tool,for instance,cut and clone. i've searched high and low for this,can somebody help me out please. Many thanks.

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.

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

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.

thanks guys, that gives me plenty to go on with. michalis,what is MV mode? is that microvertex? I will give it a go smoothing in sculpt mode. Digman,i've included a screengrab of the retopo mode,can't seem to get it looking low poly. anyway see what you think. I also re-did it using ptex,see the blue version.much better but still errors at the top of the foot. Not bad though. Once I get over this hurdle,I'll start crankin' them out Also,I will bear in mind the issue with the poles next time I'm doing retopo,hopefully will make a big difference. Trying to keep it very low poly obviously don't help either ,but this is essential to me in order to create animated models in Lightwave.I will get there though. I'm lovin' using 3dCoat workflow, voxel sculpting is a dream,retopo and uv editing are amazing,and the paint mode...well,let's just say i'll be spending a lot more timein the paint room soon once i get round this problem. Thank you both for taking the time to help out,your advice is very much appreciated. I hope once I get better at this I'll be able to help out too. Cheers.

hi digman, thanks for your response. I am using the latest version of 3dCoat,3.5.09 CUDA DX64. I've done what you suggested,and as you can see from the screengrab i've included,a couple of edges are missing ,though this is not apparent on the model when I export into Lightwave modeler. The missing edges are on the mirrored half of the model. There were a couple polygons on the foot which I managed to fix,but nothing on the thigh was showing up. Thanks for you suggestions,I'll see if I can fix it. Bear with me cos I'm still fairly new to 3DCoat,this is the first model I've completed with manual retopology,so it's to be expected. Cheers.

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.

I've just manually retopologized a voxel model,and when I've converted to ptex/microverts/per pixel i keep finding these errors which I can only describe as 'marching ants'. Unfortunately these also show up as errors when I export to Lightwave. Please can anyone shed any light as to what is causing this,as I've spent ages trying to get the retopology right,only to be spoilt by these errors. Any help would be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Hi Psmith, Thank you for taking the time to put these tutorials up,they are really well put together,clear and very informative. I've only been using 3DCoat for a couple of months,so anything like this certainly helps. Looking forward to seeing how you paint the rat. Thanks again.

Latest voxel sculpt. 100% 3D Coat.

Ricky, I've been mighty impressed just the last 4 weeks I've been using and learning 3Dcoat.It has way exceeded my expectations to be honest,it is a joy to use. It would be great to finally get my hands on LW10 - I registered my upgrade and hardcore membership yesterday,unfortunately I am unable to download LWCORE from their ftp link for some reason. It cuts out halfway through down loading and gives the message 'operation timed out'. I've tried disabling antivirus,firewall,etc,as suggested by customer support but to no avail.I'm starting to feel a bit frustrated now edit:finally downloaded Lightwave 10 and lovin' it!

Hi Greg, Excellent work with the Herman Munster sculpt!well done. You definately caught the likeness,and I like the paint job you've given him. I know what you mean about 'letting go' of a piece,especially when you're learning new software like this. If I start to get bored or frustrated,I move on to a fresh new piece. It's all part of the learning process - I feel I don't know 3D coat well enough yet to 'finish' any pieces just yet, I'm sure once I'm more comfortable with all the tools,I'll start seeing them through. And you can always come back to it at a later date when you've learnt more ,and finish it off.

Thanks wave of light, cool nickname Yeah, I've just started dabbling with painting directly onto 3D coat models,can't wait to start dropping them into Lightwave 10. How do you find the workflow with 3D coat? From what I've read so far,3D coat seems very Lw friendly. I'm getting impatient now,so hurry up mr postman,I wanna get my hands dirty with LW10! btw, love your avatar! very cool .

Hi Nilpup, Thanks Yes,I'd like to be able to do all modelling,retopology,UV and painting in 3D Coat ,then export to Lightwave for rigging and animation. Very impressed with what can be done in 3D Coat,I've only bought it a few weeks ago,so I'm spending most of my time practising and getting the hang of it. Also,my Lightwave 10 upgrade should arrive in the post today,I've gotta say Lightwave 10/Core looks pretty damn amazing...bring it on!

Hi all. My name is Sandro Borg and I am based in Surrey,United Kingdom. I'm just getting seriously back into 3d after about an 8 year break,during which time I've been raising my son(my proudest acheivement yet ) Now I have some more time on my hands these days,I've rediscovered my passion for 3D modelling and animation. I spent 5 years before my son was born learning and working with Lightwave. I've dabbled with Zbrush since,but I'm much happier with 3D Coat's workflow and integration with Lightwave. My main aim here is to produce models/textures in 3D Coat to be exported to Lightwave for rigging and animation. I've gotta say I'm having a blast so far I've been impressed and inspired by all the work I've seen on display in this forum,hope I can contribute something to it. Cheers.

what an insane looking critter- nice work. lovin' all the detailing and craziness. gonna be a lotta fun to paint im sure. looking forward to seeing more of this.

lookin' good Greg. plenty of character here. looking forward to seeing this one painted. I've started messing around with the paint tools in 3D Coat today. omg...gonna have a lot of fun here what an amazing program.

hi Psionic. wicked zombies! excellent video tutorials too,thanks for putting those up,they are very informative for a 3D Coat newbie like myself. great stuff

very nice sculpt pencil-head. i really like how you've done the muscles and form. i like the lighting/shading too - was the render done in 3D coat? and do you intend on animating it too? i think it would would look great i'm new to 3D Coat too,so it's very inspiring to see all this great work being done with it. btw,i love the alien head you posted in this thread too - very cool.

This is coming along great. Interesting to see how this develops.

Really cool Predator sculpt,look forward to seeing this one painted. Nice doodles in the rest of this thread too, keep on doodling Seeing all this stuff done just using 3D Coat is really inspiring.