Marc Wakefield

Hey 3d coaters! Have any of you heard of the Makibox by Makible? It is a new-ish 3D Printer currently available to buy at a very reasonable price. Here is a link: Makibox I may just have to get one. They are only $200 for the cheapest version and $400 for the most expensive version. It really cound bring 3D printing to the masses. As someone who has used 3D Coat for 3D printing the idea of printing my models in my own office is very apealling to me. I will let you know if I get one and will post the results. Anyone else thinking of jumping on the bandwagon with me? Maybe you already have a 3D printer....

Wow, Andrew is so quick to get new technology implemented into 3D Coat. Thanks for pointing that out Carlosa. I can not believe I did not see it before. Looks like I was a bit of a Microsloth for being so behind!

Hey People! Have any of you guys seen Sketchfab? It looks like an awesome (and easy) way for 3D artists to get their work on the web in realtime for the whole world to see and it also supports shaders! Sculpt in 3D Coat, Retopo, export to a Blender friendly format like an Obj (If needed - there is a Blender exporter on the site), Upload and share your awesome work in WebGL like a youtube video or image! Excited! The future of the web looks awesome! Too bad Internet Explorer - when will you catch up Microsloth? https://sketchfab.com/

I held my arms straight in front of me at a 90 degree angle for 2 hours and then tried to wiggle my fingers.... They fell off. I must admit I only thought of the positives when I first saw this but actually pretending to model something with your hands without any feedback certainly does feel very odd. I am still very happy using my wacom tablet, keyboard and mouse. I just thought this looked cool. Its a bit like the Wii and Kinnect in a way. It's fun to wave your arms around for a bit but it quickly becomes tiring. I still always prefer playing games with a control pad.

Hi guys, It's been a while. With launching a new business this year and a one year old son, I have been a little absent from the 3D Coat forums. I thought I would drop by though and start doing a bit more 3d sculpting again. I also found out about this: http://live.leapmotion.com/about.html They created it for 3D modellers and artists : "Who is LEAP? How did you get started? The original inspiration behind Leap came from our frustration with 3D modeling— something that took 10 seconds in real life would take 30 minutes with a computer. Molding virtual clay with a computer should be as easy as molding clay in the real world. The mouse and keyboard were simply getting in the way." It looks like a slice of the future for us artists and they have an SDK available for developers. Had any of you heard of it before? How do you think it would work with 3D Coat?

I would be very interested in working on this project for you. I am currently working on something similar. You can also take a look at this tread for examples of another project I completed a little while ago: http://www.3d-coat.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=4957 I look forward to hearing from you. Best Regards,

Thanks, It has been a while. I am just finding that I never stop working at the moment. I got married in December and my first child arrives in May so I have also been really busy with all of the preparations. Plus I need to earn shed loads of dosh now that my wife will be on maternity leave for a while.

Wahay! that was my 100th post. I am no longer a Neophyte. I have now graduated to Novice.

There are definitely exciting times ahead for us! Haven't been on in a while as I have been otherwise engaged in web work but I am currently working on a great project using 3D Coat and will post images soon if the client allows it. Welcome Raul. I can't wait to see the awesomeness that you will inject into an already awesome program.

Great work Andrew! I can't wait to start uploading turntables. That feature rocks! Cheers,

Strange. I wonder if that's a Vista thing. I have tested it in Chrome and it didn't ask me to download anything. Did it ask you to download a wirefusion plugin or a java plugin? Thanks

Thanks Tinker, I will definitely try that. I had tried searching the Unity forums for a fix but hadn't found the solution... until now that is! It's the only thing that has held me up with Unity as I love the way it works otherwise. One good thing about Wirefusion though: No plugins needed as long as the end machine has a Java based browser and most people do. (90%) You cant do animation in the version I use but for straight browser based 3d object viewing, it is pretty neat. Thanks again.

Sorry for the delay. I have been pretty busy lately. I was going to use Unity but I still get an annoying issue with seams on normal maps. Do you ever run into that?

Thanks so much for checking it for me Tony, I was trying to keep the polycount as low as possible but yeah, I have given him a bit of a blockhead haven't I? How long did it take to load for you? Cheers,

Thanks Andrew! Downloading now. I finished a retopo today using the old way and uploaded it as a 3D presentation. Feel free to take a look: http://www.mrmdesign.com/samueljackson.html I think it would be possible to create a gallery of interactive 3D Coat work using this workflow. Enjoy your time at SIGGRAPH.

Hi Guys, Just wanted to get feedback on this Sculpt. All of the finer details don't really come across in the web presentation but it's awesome to play with. Can you let me know how it works for you please? Too Slow? Reflection and Bump Map visibility? Thanks Peeps. Here is the Link: http://www.mrmdesign.com/samueljackson.html P.s. Depending on your internet speed it may take a while to load.

I can't wait for it, It is the one thing I am most excited about. Andrew has already granted many wishes with the multilevel sculpting and the speed at which 3D Coat changes back from surface to Voxels is sooooooo much faster than it was. I am working on a sculpt of Samuel L Jackson at the moment and I will be presenting it in Wirefusion or Unity. The current Retopo method isn't a massive headache anyway but these video's..... Wow!

Thanks Andrew, I can not wait to give the Linux version a whirl. Will have to wait for the weekend though.... Busy, Busy, Busy....

You are right, the clip makes it pretty clear that his eyes are a little wider. Maybe its just a case of bringing his eyes forward a bit and making the outside overhanging skin-flaps a bit lower. (I couldn't think of another way to describe it ) He's looking good anyway. A few tweaks and he will be there. I wouldn't res up just yet though...

Hi Phil, I tried overlaying the images to see what the issues were and I think the main one is the eyes. Brucie always seems to be squinting a bit! Check out the gif. I hope this helps you. I am working on a Samuel L Jackson and a Ben Kingsley at the moment and it is so tricky to get the features right. I am slightly caricaturing mine though as it can make it a bit easier. I always have a few issues with eyes and sometimes make em too big and although I have been told it works in my paintings it is waaaaay more difficult in 3D with every angle visible and all that...

Morning.... Well, I feel a little bit silly now..... In the cold light of Monday the 80 million + triangles I had actually turned out to be..... um, 8 million + triangles. Doh! Please see the image for the evidence. I did get it up to 14 and a half mil after I took this screen shot though by pushing it with loads of Sphere primitives and it was still highly usable when I scribbled all over em. I am really sorry about this folks but it was way too late on a Friday evening and I was really excited + tired which is a bad combination I guess. It's a good job I am not an accountant or a bank clerk. Anyway, 3D Coat on Linux still rocks. It is still way quicker and way more responsive and it still lets me do way more than the 32 bit non-CUDA Windows version but maybe I should look at upgrading my Ram (or my whole laptop) to take advantage of it's true potential.... It is still a free and highly viable alternative for people with similar systems to me though and I am still going to use it from now on. I did notice it becoming progressively slower with the more time I spent sculpting though but the trick is to save often and close the program and reopen it at regular intervals. One thing missing from the Linux version is a Ram counter so I couldn't see how much was being used for each operation such as moving, smoothing and brush strokes, etc. Just so you know, I have a Dell XPS M1710 with an Nvidia 7900 GS and 4 gig of Ram.

It is way too late/early in the morning and I should be in bed but I just had to let all of you windows XP 32 users know about a beautiful 3D Coating experience I just had! I installed Linux Ubuntu 64 through Windows using Wubi (which was really easy btw and allows me to boot into both os) and downloaded 3D Coat to take it for a spin. I freaking loved it! I was able to get 80 million + tri's in voxel mode (one more level of subdivision than I can usually get away with) while still being able to produce fantastically fluid strokes and achieve detail I have never been able to on Windows XP. I was able to use my full 4 gb of ram (which Windows XP can't see) and this enabled me to edit a few of my windows 3b files and take em up a notch! The whole experience just felt a lot smoother and more like pen on paper or clay on fingers if you get my drift and I recommend anyone with Windows XP 32 or another 32 bit os give it a whirl. Interestingly, the voxel to surface to voxel was still a bit slow to convert when I tested it but the extra speed and power in voxel mode sort of made up for it. The controls are pretty much all the same except for the alt key being different. Ubuntu also has lovely floppy windows that wobble when you drag them! Can I use my serial on both Operating systems? I really think Linux is a keeper! They are both on the same laptop so I could only use one at a time anyway.

Bring on the sculpting goodness! I really can't wait for ptex to be 100% so that Andrew can get started on the poly sculpt room! (if this is his next plan anyway) One of the 'problems' with 3d coat is that we get it so damn good! We get fantastic new features so often that it leaves you wanting more. you can get really excited about a coming update, which has you checking the forums daily in anticipation. Then you get the new feature, you love it and then Andrew goes and does something else fantastic, which you also love and then he goes and does something else fantastic which you find amazing and so on and so forth..... I feel like I'm taking crazy pills! I can't imagine where 3D Coat will be in five years time, but I can wait to find out!

Ha Ha, really? I can't wait to tell my fiancee about that. She won't think he's so hot when she finds out he is a stinker.

Ptex (Link to Andrew's post on it) automatically creates a UV map out of tiny little squares with perfectly blended edges (so no seams) with no input from the user. This means you can sculpt then convert to ptex and paint with ease. You can miss out retopo completely if you don't need to animate the mesh at some point. You can also increase resolution on certain areas by selecting individual tiles, areas for fine details like eyebrows, eyes, detail on clothing such as buttons, seams, etc. It is a thing of absolute beauty. Can't bake local Ambient Occlusion from a sculpt in Ptex yet though.... That is definitely on the wish list!