Tom K

I have Lightwave myself. but it's an older version. I've been looking around also wondering if I should stick with that and upgrade, or try something different. I have to agree with what Abnranger said, " why not Blender?" I've been looking at that recently, and it sure looks tempting. you say you've been using that for a few years. Are you not happy with it? I've also been looking at Modo, it is looking pretty good too. I think that unless you need skills at a particular package for career reasons, you should pick something that you personally "click" with. Different programs have different personalities. One person might love the interface and the way it works and someone else might hate it. Most of the good software has way more power than most people use anyway. Tom

Are you looking as a hobbyist or for professional use? Are you planning on getting a job somewhere where your choice of software matters, or does only the finished result matter? Tom

hmm, that does look pretty cool. Also check out Stella Tom

From what I have seen, It seems like you are using the wrong program for what you appear to be wanting to do. 3d-coat isn't really meant for creating a bunch of separate objects and arranging them in a scene and rendering them. It's mostly meant for individual objects that are to be used in other rendering and animation software. Also, it really seems like a polygon modeling program would be much better suited for "geometrically derived" objects. Did you see your other topic where I suggested taking a look at Blender? It's free and it's available on the Mac. Tom

I don't know about a nudge, but if you're talking about using the transform tool you can type a number in the position box and move an exact amount. Tom

I agree. You don't have to be a master to make a useful tutorial. As long as it presents some useful information for someone to learn from. Tom

Have you heard of Blender? www.blender.org/ It's free. It is available for Mac. It's a highly regarded rendering and animation package. You can use it to render your 3d-coat objects. Tom

I was also wondering if you were trying to actually get the polypainted model out, or just the model with the polypainting already baked onto the a uv map? Is there even a file exchange format that supports vertex color information? Tom

Well, I can definitely see you liking 3d-coat's retopology tools. When I first saw the retopology video, that was probably the moment I felt like I really wanted this program. Tom

I can't answer your question, but I have a question. Why do you need to bring in your Zbrush model at this point in the process? Does 3d-coat do something that Zbrush doesn't? I would definitely recommend trying 3d-coat's painting tools though. I think you will like them. Tom

You can also ctr. click and drag inside the circles to move the edges and corners independently. Tom

yeah, I see that the drag and drop method actually gives you a couple of merge options. one adds an object, the other seems to replace it. Tom

i just tried it and it worked. it comes in on it's own layer.it can be turned on or off or deleted. Tom

you can add additional objects with file, merge object, then move it around in the sculpt room. Tom

So basically, you need to bring more than one object into the paint room. correct? ...and move it around relative to the other object. Tom

Here's a fun looking app I found online. Its a sculpting app for the ipad. cratesoft.com I guess it also works on ipod touch and iphone too. Tom

Well, the program just crashed. so it must have been a bug, cause it's working now. Tom

What would cause the stamp mode brush not to work while painting. the regular brush works, but if I switch to stamp mode it just disappears when I click and drag it out to place a stamp. I probably have something set wrong, but it's aggravating either way. It worked earlier. Tom

I would recommend checking out T-splines for Rhino. www.tsplines.com Rhino 3d has long been a favorite of mine. T-splines works great with it and is fully NURBS compatible. The T-splines forum is actually where I heard about 3d-coat. Someone had mentioned how nice the retopology tools are. I want to explore that workflow. I like the idea of being able to sculpt without constraints, then retopologize , then bring the mesh into Rhino and use T-splines to convert to NURBS so that I can then be able to machine the part.

Yeah, that would have worked too. Tom

And, yes I agree. It is very useful. and really cool to use. Tom

also check the box next to that to adjust the heights or cavities scale once you choose what to use. Tom

Yes. It is possible now. look on the top of the screen where it says pressure not dependent on color. open that up and look towards the bottom of the list. Tom

My computer is a few years old. It just has the stock Intel graphics. As soon as get some money I plan I getting a new computer. I know 3dcoat works well with certain grahics cards, but does it require it? When I installed 3dcoat it came up and said I needed Direct X 9 and it went and downloaded it. I'm sure everything will work great with the new computer, but till then....

There aren't really any steps other than to start a new scene or open 3d coat fresh. Then, if I choose a voxel object I get weird shading on many of the shaders until I pick one that works for me. Maybe half of them work ok and the other half don't work. Picmat_Clay is one I like to use. None of the ones on the top few rows work. If I choose per per pixel painting, pick an object, and say ok. the object comes in , but has a surface that looks all scrambled and makes it impossible to paint on. Check out the included image. The top two objects in the image are voxel objects with bad shaders. The bottom two are objects I opened for per pixel Painting. Thanks.