RabenWulf

I have two 32 inch LGs (lb5600/ln5300)+ cintiq, I dont recommend going above 32. Used a 42 for awhile and it doesnt have the right pixel density for sitting up that close. The LGs are great though once you put them in PC mode.

Did you open up the brush editor and enable or tweak some of the behavior you expect from the brush? For example, sometimes people like an opacity or size tied to the pressure, some brushes intentionally have that toggled off. Just turning it on via the brush editor will allow for more. Additionally, lets hypothetically assume that for some reason the pencil effect is just something you like in krita, it would be like me not liking 3D Coat because its sculpt brush doesnt feel or behave exactly in the way I expect it to in say Zbrush. The option is then to either adapt so the new software adapts to new expectations or compare and contrast to see if what you gain is outweighs what is lost. In other words is a certain feel to the pencil brush the deciding factor in usage or are there other considerations. Either the pro outweighs the con or it doesnt. =) Anyway, see if you can get the effect you want with the brush editor, if not see if you can adapt or give up that feel in one app in favor of another. Krita is free regardless, so its not like you lose anything and if you have a copy of CSP/Manga studio, then its not like there will be any financial pressure on picking one or the other. On a side note some krita artist have shown off great pencil like sketches, so we know it can get results.

For the best natural media brushes at the moment you either need to make your own or grab some user made ones. I think what you are seeing is a mix of unfamiliarity with the software and how it works as well as the fact that CSP is geared towards a certain kind of media and it does it very well. So it in part depends on what you need out of your software. Krita is far more vast in the art styles it can achieve, on top of that its the workflow that also stands out. It is extremely good with tablet based workflows, whether its scaling the brush, rotating the canvas (make sure openGL is on under configure krita), zooming, snapping..ect Its a very smooth process that doesnt require you to break concentration. For Pencil Brushes I recommend looking at: https://krita.org/item/the-muses-preset-pack/ http://www.davidrevoy.com/article180/ressource-krita-brushes http://www.davidrevoy.com/article238/ressource-krita-brushes-v5 http://meemodraws.deviantart.com/art/Krita-Brush-Pack-311306611 Among others....

That's like asking if 3d Coat has a layer system... =) Krita's Stabilization feature is great in my opinion. Pretty much like most 3d software, you get a tool options window (tab). When selecting a brush, a pull down menu appears in the tool options tab allowing for "Basic Smoothing, Weighted Smoothing, and Stabilizer". All function as they should and include sliders for additional settings. The brush engine is fairly advanced and you can find some great natural media brush packs online. Krita is extremely good and worth adopting into your pipeline, its only going to get more popular as time goes on.

That's one of the problems though, the desire to not emulate or copy zbrush brushes when thats the very thing some people need. A lot of people want the exact same brushes, in the same way one would want the same brush (with its dynamics in place) they use in photoshop to be present in say something like Mari, or GIMP/Krita. Zbrush is at the top of its game as far as sculpting goes, to achieve even the basic brushes and their behavior thats found in Zbrush is something I would consider an accomplishment.

BTW this application works extremely well when linked to 3D Coat as an external editor.

What's interesting is that if done right such effects can be applied to sculpting as well, things like erosion and gravity effecting its strokes..ect

I suppose you could try a few different options: >Bake out a displacement map and apply it to a lower poly model... ( possibly try out Xnormal for baking ) >Try reducing the rez with one of the brushes in 3d coat that does that > Try Blender's Decimate Modifier. Also close as much unnecessary applications as possible, including background processes. Maybe run some sort of memory booster app.

From what I have experienced so far I would love to see the sculpting side of 3D Coat get drastically improved, more so along the lines of brush behavior and detail creation. Anything to get it feeling a lot closer to zbrush's brush quality. Other than that, generally see the UI both visually and layout go through a metamorphosis, a lot can be simplified and presented in a visually/functionally streamlined manner.

@Nirsul You can easily do that in Zbrush actually, you just have to know the workflow. Masking, and polygroups are necessary as well as knowing how to manipulate the primitives. Zbrush still kicks the living crap out of 3d Coat from what I have seen of 3d coat so far, but its methodology is also very unconventional. 4R7 will certainly increase the ease of entry when it comes to hard surface modeling in Zbrush. Both applications are fast if you know what you are doing.

To be honest, I was thinking the same thing when I first discovered it. Some post processing type of glow would be extremely useful for visualization. Allow a layer to have properties like a pulse or static. While it may seem useless eye candy, it helps visualize and generate concept and idea. It will always be up to the engine you are exporting to do the real work in how it looks. At the very least some glow or light emission would help.

Thanks Andrew, that is music to my ears. =)

I certainly hope for its continued growth, but like Javis pointed out its flaws are pretty big as well. On a side note, check out Sunvox as well. Its a neat tracker style mini-DAW that makes use of nodes and a timeline of sorts. Very fun to work in.

PBR painting is great so far, but I am starting to be concerned (still as a new user of sorts) that some how one of the biggest pulls for grabbing 3d coat is going to be lost in the process. I am specifically referring to that hand painted "blizzard" style of texture painting that 3d Coat has in part become known for. Quite a few Blizzard artist use 3d coat for just that. With the current PBR setup I cannot find a way to have the old diffuse/spec shader enabled. This means when painting black values you get light grey because of the PBR, nor will you get accurate representation of the texture itself. Am I missing something? If its completely gone in with the push to add PBR, then could it be perhaps added in the same way one would toggle voxels with surface (pbr vs non-pbr), or just have a separate room for it?

Thanks Carlosan, Looking forward to any further developments on this topic. Cheers.

There really isnt much need for tutorials, as the application is extremely simple to use... they do go over the basics on their website though. For the nitty gritty info though ( as well as help, feature requests..ect), there's an official section on Polycount for it: http://www.polycount.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=85

Just talked with a certain someone working for the Foundry, they are aware of the issue of blank UV channels being uneditted/deletable, and are working on a fix for furute updates. So at least theres that. =) Cheers.

Steam doesnt quite work that way, from what I know. The software's steam page and what options are present, including its moderation of forums and chat for that hub are handled by the software developers themselves, not Valve. If someone needs to upgrade or get the non steam version of say Substance Designer, they have two options...contact Allegorithmic and they give you a key to unlock the steam version or just click the "BUY SUBSTANCE DESIGNER PRO UPGRADE". This isnt wishful thinking, its literally how its been working. Perhaps there is miscommunication, but I do know they generally give the reins to the software developer to manage their hub and storefront...sometimes that will require some dialog between the two parties. Actually since March of 2014 there have been over 14 updates to Substance Painter. Substance Designer has had about 4 updates in the last year and if you own these software packages on steam, you will see them constantly getting updated in the download history of the steam client. This isnt a substance vs 3d coat issue, nor a judgement on which software is better. Pilgway should have the authority to allow upgrades through steam, and knowing full well its run by a small group of people, all I can ask (or inform) is that some consideration be given to allowing upgrades on steam (or more effort being made to do so). At the end of the day its beneficial for all parties involved.

Created a normal map in 3DCoat, export as png, load into Marmoset Toolbag 2.... works fine. Never had any crashes with Marmoset Toolbag since I started using it since version 1. I wonder if its something else. Were you using the default shader and plug it into the surface tab to the right? Marmoset 2 is a great piece of software, worth every penny.

Zbrush is the absolute best sculpting application in the field, it has some good autoretopo features as well but features a fairly rough learning curve due to it being a bit unique in how it opperates. If you are just sculpting for a hobby then 3d coat is fine. Other options include Sculptris and Blender which are free, or mudbox which you can rent from Autodesk for $10 a month. I believe LW has some sculpting capability as well.

Yep thats me. =) I did a quick retopo, then exported as an fbx into Modo Indie, which revealed the same problem you saw. Then under the same retopo menu in 3d coat, I clicked unwrap. Exported again, the problem went away. From there its possible to just edit or delete the UV channel. Did you check to see if a UV was created in 3d coat? Also export retopo mesh? I cant think of anything else. The same issue appears in Modo 701 btw. Also: I noticed something weird going on with the normals of the exported retopo mesh. Fixed by using Farfarer's vertex normal toolkit, but that is not available to Modo Indie users.

So since I have all the software mentioned in this thread... I did a few tests. When you export a retopo mesh as an fbx and load it into Modo Indie you do get a blank UV map taking up a UV slot. You cannot delete or edit this. My guess is that it has to do with some ID info is missing from the export, it still sends out a UV even though nothing is present, no name or anything else to go off of. To get around this, just generate a UV inside of 3d Coat before exporting. This way when you load it up into Modo, the UV channel will have a name and can be deleted or altered. So, before exporting a retopo as an FBX in 3d Coat, just generate a junk UV map first before exporting. Thats all.

There's one problem with this. Allegorithmic does it just fine. Modo SE just recieved and Upgrade to Modo Indie, future updates include steam as their platform. On top of that, I have had access to a handful of beta builts within steam itself. So its certainly possible and is being done. This will however require some effort on Pilgway's side. They have quite a bit of control as to how their store page and community hub on steam opperate. I have about $1000 worth of software tied to steam, and tbh I am better off with it inside than outside of steam. Theres some anti-steam sentiment that can be found coming from some artist, but I dont think they realize the perks of steam as a platform. Everything has a community tied to it, each library is easily managed and if I need to travel, just log into the steam account via laptop or other device and I have access to my library. It goes where I go in other words. This is very empowering for the user. Its a one stop solution to using and obtaining the software, no need to hop to 100 different sites, log in, install and set up. Anyways, I dont want to sound like I'm being to hard on Pilgway, the opposite is happening really. If the software is sold on steam in its full copacity, I just ask or request for the eventual inclusion to allow our software to be tied to the steam platform or upgraded within it. As steam continues to develop as a platform, I believe the demand will go up as well, at its core its empowering to both developers and the consumers. Currently over 65 million active users call steam home and its going up every day. =)

Thanks, I got a response saying they cannot or will not upgrade steam edu versions to the pro version, despite the pro version being sold on steam. I purshased the upgrade anyway. It may not be intentiona, but it does punish the steam user by forcing them outside of steam. I hope Pilgway can take a page from Allegorithmic and eventually allow their licenses to be tied to steam, which has a lot of perks in its own right including how it updates automatically. I have a feeling you will also see a lot of changes with the eventual release of Source 2.0 (Valve's game engine) which will target content creation, so it would be great to see 3d coat integrated into such a platform and marketplace where everything can be easily managed. Cheers

Thinking of upgrading my steam edu version to the Pro before the sale ends... but I have a question before doing so. If we go through Pilgway, is it possible or have people been able to get the pro version unlocked on their steam profile as well? Steam only allows for the purchase of either version, but no upgrade path and I would like to keep the software attached to steam if possible.