wailingmonkey

Hi Pilgrim, Thanks for sharing your technique! I missed this post originally, but now that we've got a tutorials section I've found it. Some of your methods have stimulated some additional ideas for me, so thank you. wailingmonkey

Actually, I think paulrus is referring to something like XSI's texture swim feature (from XSI's help files): "Swim checks to see whether the current projection is reading somewhere in the modeling region of the operator stack and, if so, moves it to the very top of the operator stack. As a result, the texture is applied after all deformations, including enveloping and shape animation, have been completed. In other words, the texture will always appear to slip over on the surface when the object is deformed. This is especially useful when doing camera projections (see Camera Projections)." So this would probably be in direct relation to a camera projection (which might also bring up another feature request to save camera positions ) and would be AFTER you've applied a material and want to be able to then move that texture over the surface...kinda like if you used the Transform tool over an area, but with an entire texture layer instead of a rectangle-selected section. In terms of the second request, I think it would be similar to how CrazyBump allows for sliding the texture over the mesh with the middle-mouse button (so you can check for seams)...check crazybump.com...or if you actually drag your UV's as a group over the image background in XSI's texture editor. But it seems the request is for a way to slide/move the texture around on the model itself and not on the 2D map. I can see the desire to also re-scale areas as well as just slide them based on a radius or something. Anyhow, maybe paulrus can clarify further... wailingmonkey

good to hear! It's late here, and I hadn't tried to re-import with a larger number. It works just fine doing that (kinda blows out some areas, but they are easy to fix/smooth). It might still be nice to have a higher range on the actual layer control tho...and definitely a negative value option would be handy. Will you also be considering 32-bit displacement map import? getting some sleep now....thanks for the quick reply!

Hi again, Andrew. So in my attempts to push things I was wondering if there was a specific reason of 100k on geometry import. I'm working with Zbrush and would like to potentially go back and forth between it and 3d-brush for each tool's strengths, but the 100k limit seems like it might hinder that option a bit in regard to detailed sculpted geometry. I've also found that only being able to set the depth to a maximum of 2 on an imported 16-bit displacement map can be limiting as well. I realize that you are not trying to build a Zbrush clone, but perhaps you might consider raising these limits to something a bit higher? (like 250k---1 subdivision below a million---and maybe allowing for a greater depth range on layers to something like -10 to 10). I've included an image for further explanation. Obviously, if this is just too big of a hit on the software interaction it wouldn't be a good move, but I'm wondering if you set the import limit to 100K for a specific reason or because it sounded like a big enough limit that users would never need or want to have higher. Kind regards, wailingmonkey

from http://www.zbrush.info/docs/index.php/Draw_Palette : "Focal Shift: Adjusts how fast the brush's effect "falls off" as it approaches the edge of the brush. This is really just a shortcut; for drawing tools it is the same as Focal Shift in Alpha:AlphaAdjust, and when modeling it is the same as Focal Shift in Transform:Edit Curve. Both of those curves can be adjusted manually for more control of brush shape. " So in this regard, your focal shift is tweaking the pinch/bulge of the alpha whereas Zbrush's is doing a shift on the curve profile of the alpha--basically effecting the 'hump' of the hill created by the displacement (screenshot below) ...that's why I was hoping you could add the radial fade (but keep the pinch/bulge, as it can be handy too) to effect the actual alpha on the pen from the outside edge to the center. I didn't know that...glad I asked. Nope, in Zbrush you can only repeat the stroke exactly as you laid it down (it will virtually repeat what you last did). Well, if I was to interpret what a preset did, I'd expect it to save a pen's settings (with spec, displacement, color) exactly as I had it set up...including the alpha and jitter/rotation/spacing, etc. That would be ideal, since a user is basically custom-tailoring a pen to do what he wants, he's probably not expecting to choose that preset and then remember what he did to get the exact look/effect he had before. wailingmonkey

hehe....me again. Here's another plug (request) for getting some user-controlled radial fade on pen alpha's. While focal shift is quite handy at what it can do, I still think the addition of radial fade levels (based upon however many pixels in from the borders the user chooses) would be a powerful asset. This would open up the ability to use 'square' custom alphas but fading out their edges radially (instead of pinching or bulging the alpha) for blending or nice falloff instead of square edges. I realize one can make their own alphas with radial fade already on it (circular instead of square), but doing it in 3d-brush allows for realtime experimentation and options for more creative usage. Cheers. wailingmonkey

Didn't want to start a whole new thread for this, but you might also want to consider allowing a 'preset' to automatically change folders to the appropriate one that contains the actual pen alpha. I had created a new pen folder and had some alpha's in there associated with custom presets. When clicking my preset, it would not trigger the proper pen due to my being in the 'default' folder and not my newly created custom folder... *edit* and on the topic of presets, if I can ctrl-click to use multiple pens, if I then save that as a preset, the preset doesn't save all of those alphas together, which would be pretty important to getting the right look again. I tried this with a grungy alpha and ctrl-clicked the same alpha so that I had 6 duplicates (but set the brush to jitter and rotate)...when re-calling the preset I end up with just a big lump, not the nice multi-grunge pen that I had before saving the preset.

Howdy Andrew, Zbrush 3.1 has these features which are quite nice for a variety of things. Repeat/Replay: The ability to re-do the same exact stroke you just did. (good if you did something just 'perfect' but you want to double/triple/etc. it's effect---which you could do if it was on it's own layer, but this is more specific to a stroke) Dunno how costly it would be in terms of program interaction, but I guess it would depend on your implementation. 'Corrective' mouse (LazyMouse in Zbrush terms): Cleans up a stroke by delaying it and taking out the natural jitter of the user's hand (by limiting the actual cursor's reactiveness, I guess). Has a visual indicator showing how far behind the mouse pointer the stroke is 'trailing' based upon user settings for auto-smoothing quality. (I've found that this behavior can currently be approximated by using the 'pill' alpha on a pen, turning everything to 0 in the parameters except depth modulation, and having only 'rotate along motion direction' on and spacing on with a setting of 5.00). You might also consider checking the demo of Zbrush3.1 to see if some of their tools stimulate new ideas for 3d-brush. Cheers. wailingmonkey

Thank you for the feedback., Andrew I will try your suggestions for filling and smoothing the entire object. In regard to your other comments: I had thought I'd read that you were not fully subdividing the object but 'emulating' it's effect on the screen (maybe I'd confused your technique with the way zbrush is able to get HD geometry in the 100's of millions of polygons). I will test higher resolutions from now on, and weigh them against viewport interactivity vs. final quality. It has traditionally been done such that the user first clicks the tool then holds down shift and moves the mouse/pen. Yes, but I wasn't able to get the finer control of radially fading my alpha on the pen itself...perhaps user-error on my part, or I need to experiment more with it. Sweet! I figured out how to do it, but hadn't noticed a hotkey for it. (like 'G' or something) I'll double-check as well...perhaps I just overlooked the hotkey placement. Nice! I was manually smoothing with 'shift' over the areas that were rough, but of course, a button to do it automatically with some uniformity and degrees of intensity options would be handy. Looking forward to your next updates! Kind regards, wailingmonkey P.S. By the way, it's awesome to be able to paint specular real-time with custom alpha's and transparency control, all on it's own layer......worth the price for this feature alone. (yay!)

Hi Andrew, I can see you are constantly trying to improve 3d-Brush, and that is probably one of the largest reasons that compelled me to purchase (that and the fact that you've got a ton of handy things built in already.) So I got to work a little more with 3d-brush today and ran across a number of things I'd like to ask about: - Is resolution around stroke edges (where polys get pushed in or pulled out) of subdivided mesh dependent on having millions of polygons (if I want cleaner deformations, do I have to work in the 4million poly number instead of 1-2million)? I'm finding the stroke edge to be too 'furry' and wonder if there's room for an anti-aliasing setting, or whether it's just too few polygons (again, was in the 1-2million range), or whether a better brush alpha can be used (like 512X512 pixels instead of 256X256 or something) - I know we can draw with lines, but it would be handy to have a "shift-constrain" on the tablet brushes as well that would constrain a stroke according to the camera in vertical, horizontal, or 45-degrees, depending how the user moved the pen (similar to zbrush, or photoshop) - Is there an overall radial fade that can be applied to the pen alpha? - I'm finding the pressure response with a tablet pen is significantly less reactive when ending my strokes (the stroke start works nicely, but the response at the end with less pressure seems to remain at a constant size/depth rather than according to pressure I'm applying) - Is it possible to isolate a fully customizable settings palette for the smooth brush? If I'm using a particular alpha pen to sculpt, I generally want to use another default smoothing alpha instead of, for instance, my noisy alpha I was sculpting with. I've kinda found zbrush's ability to hotkey a specific group of settings (like having the smooth area itself be 1.5 times larger than the brush size you're sculpting with) to be ideal. I could see this seperate options palette allowing for parameters relating to specular and color, as well as displacement... - Is it possible to fill the entire object irrespective of different 'zones'. For example, say I've got a pattern fill on an arm, another on a leg, and some text displaced on a chest. Can I fill the whole object with a semi- transparent gradient pattern so that it affects everything? I tried by adding another layer and filling, but it still only fills the region I've clicked on, not the whole object. - Is there a better way to uniformly smooth the entire object at once? (I've thusfar been using the 'paint with elipse' with 'shift' and dragging till the elipse goes outside my object. - Is there a shortcut key to show/hide the viewport grid? - Is it possible to list the shortcut key next to a function's tooltip at the bar on the bottom of the screen? - I ran ambient occlusion at 128 lights and it still seems kinda rough...is it possible to add the ablitiy to blur the map while still retaining seamlessness across UV-seams (instead of running at 256 lights or trying to hack it in Photoshop)? Sorry for the long novel, but I'm really excited about the capabilities I see in 3d-Brush. Kind regards, wailingmonkey

forgot to list this important addition: - ability to use custom repeating textures with Fill tool (with sliders for color transparency and also saturation -- so it can be added as bump/greyscale only)

hmmm...perhaps you can consider native export of OGRE .mesh and .material as well?

Howdy, Here are some things that might be enhancements in no particular order of importance: - ability to lock open edges of mesh (so no distortion occurs with smoothing, for instance) - complete model smoothing (with control over percentage, and not affecting locked edges) - rotate model locally (not camera) for texture projection painting -- ability to reset to default that was imported (or ability to rotate image planes in 3d to better line up with model position...this might actually be more appropriate) - Frame object hotkey (recenters camera to object and zooms to default location) - ability to edit layer names - layer intensity adjustable (initially for whole layer, but also for color, bump, spec) - radial fade option for copy/paste (so edges can be sharp or soft depending on fade) - falloff control for the smoothing curve And here are some things I've found quirky: - 'OK' buttons should function when hitting 'enter' key after changing numerical entries - 'Set Plane' seems a little non-intuitive...perhaps 'Planar Flatten' would be a better term? - Smoothing needs to be realtime (even with medium-sized brushes) -- I found that even by importing at 2million (instead of default 4 million) polys, the Head model smoothed with considerable lag with brush sizes about the same size as the tip of the nose. This is a large time-waster if you've got to experiment with every 'shift+lmb' stroke to see how aggressively it smoothed your geometry...and you can't see it until a half-second after you've laid down the stroke. My machine isn't totally archaic (PIV 2.0 duo-core, 2g RAM, nVidia 7800GO with 256mb RAM) but my performance with smoothing tool is painful. That's about it for now...hope it's of some utility to you. Oh yeah. You probably already know this, but you've done some fine work here! Kind regards, wailingmonkey

Nice work, Juan Carlos Montes. I'd be curious to see your render tree, if you've got a chance. cheers. wailingmonkey