Marc Wakefield

Definitely. Pressing space brings up a menu but another simple GUIDE at the side would be great.

4r7 really is awesome. It amazes me that I can work with such a huge amount of polys. The new basemesh modelling tools are rapid but will take a bit of getting used to.

Oooh, a very interesting challenge.

I remember being completely amazed by it. I was so glad to have found it. I can not remember how I did though.

I think both programs have their strengths and weaknesses but they work really well together. I absolutely love the multi-level sculpting in Zbrush but find 3D Coat way quicker to just 'create' in. Less menus getting in the way, less to think about and working with voxels feels like true sculpting freedom. Zbrushes Dynamesh still feels clunky in comparison. UV mapping also works really well and really fast in 3D Coat compared to Zbrush. Zremesher is really nice though and I do prefer it over 3D Coat's Autopo. I had a situation recently where I wanted to dramatically pose a 20 million poly sculpt in 3DCoat and it was proving problematic. I took the sculpt into Zbrush, duplicated the sub tool, Zremeshed it, subdivided it a few times and projected the details across creating an easily poseable model. I think there is a similar work-flow in 3D Coat though. Texture painting in 3DCoat is much better especially with the new pbr system. 3D Coat is cheaper and does a lot of things in a quicker, easier way. I am glad I have both but I started with 3DCoat and would never want to be without it.

No time at all over the holiday period but here is my finished sculpt. A strange Giant mouse washed up on the beach and the locals are unable to pin him down. It must be undead Gulliver Mickey. I am going to have to call it done as we are off to the pantomime with the kids. Happy New Year.

A very merry Christmas to all my fellow coaters. :-)

Hmmm... What is the location of this magical drive?

I was really hoping Carrara 9 would make an appearance some time this year but it never came. I have given up on it now though and I am way to comfortable with Blender to ever go back. It is a shame as I have used it for years but Daz definitely seem to have dropped the ball as far as Carrara is concerned. That being said, if it ever appears I will probably upgrade anyway. Always good to have a full arsenal and it is usually pretty cheap. I reckon it would be a wild west style ghost town with only tumble weed blowing through ;-)

Thanks for the advice Javis. Just bought B2M3 pro. I am sure it is going to be really useful to me going forward. It is going to save me a bucket load of time in so many areas.

EEEeeek! Very excited. Do you guys recommend buying Bitmap2Material? It looks like it could be a really useful tool for building a 3D Coat 4.5 compatible material library. Any thoughts? Cheers, Marc

NICE! I can not wait to use this in my workflow.

I kind of let things slip when nobody else posted anything. Things have also been a bit hectic at the moment.

Sounds amazing. Can't wait. :-D

He is talking about Andrew being a good boy for providing us with such awesome, artist friendly tools.

Nice!

I really can not wait to try this out. When can us regular beta lovers get in on the action? I have been knocking around since 2007 and this is a very exciting addition.

The extra time will be appreciated as I also need to create loads of little people. It is completely up to you guys though. I wonder why more people didn't opt in for this one.

Apologies for the delay so far. It has been a very busy month. As usual, I am going in fast and furious. Anyone else got anything to show? It is a cool theme.

First rough, blocking out sculpt with symmetry turned on. He will look very different when I am done.

Yes! Orangemochafrappichino's! Love it!

I think I might have to have a crack at this one. I read Gulliver Mickey to my sons some evenings before bed. It is a Disneyfied version of Gullivers Travel's starring the famous mouse himself! One of the best scenes is a giant Mickey held down by loads of ropes, surrounded by mini people. Imagine if this was real! Imagine if you were one of those little people and a giant walking talking half human mouse thing wearing clothes washed up on your shores! I am thinking of upping the realism using the features of real mice and humans.... Could be fun if I get it finished... Is this OK? I know you say no inspiration images but this will look pretty different when I am done. I may even (slightly) zombiefy him.

The leap is sitting in my laptop bag eating crumbs. It rarely gets to see the light of day and to be honest, I feel sorry for the little guy. I am the first to admit that I get a bit excited and tend to jump around ( much to the annoyance of everyone around me ) proclaiming "THIS is the future!" to which they reply "you said that about the last gadget / bit of software you bought!" Still, It would be nice to be proved wrong. I have a Galaxy Note 3 which is a pretty awesome device and I will probably upgrade to V4 when it comes out. Early tests of the software with a home made Google Cardboard do seem promising.

I absolutely love Blender now and use it as my 'go to' poly modelling and rendering suite. I have tried loads of other tools, spent a lot of time with Carrara and dabbled in Blender many, many times over the years, often running away disgusted at its annoying UI. Things changed around six months ago. I gave it another go and for some reason, I just 'got it' this time. Now I actually prefer using it over anything else. It all just seems easier and quicker to get things done now plus it has some fantastic plugins. Anyone interested in interactive 3D Webgl geared to Artists needs to check out Blend4Web. Even if you model / texture everything elsewhere and then bring it in to Blender with Blend4Web to finish your scene and export to WebGL it is still a really nice solution. I also recently had to model and render a multi-layered fibre optic cable snaking from background to foreground for a client. I did the initial mock-up in 3D Coat, modeled a lower poly version using splines in Blender then rendered with cycles. The process was very quick and painless with great results.

It's only £60 Beat. I think I'll chance it. I would probably mainly use it for games anyway. I am bit of a sucker for shiny new gadgets.