digman

I know this has been asked before but here is my reason: When sculpting an imported mesh which you already have imported and snapped in the retopo it would be very helpfull to see a ghosted retopo mesh as you work on your voxel/surface model. You also could have a hotkey to resnap the mesh while still in the voxel/surface room. This way you would see more of a dynamic view of your mesh changing shape as you sculpt.You would be able to see things like "ok, now I need to add a few more edge loops here in the mesh then stop sculpting and add the edge loops" plus at the same time you could see that any resnapping of the mesh is correcly done without leaving the voxel/surface room. Of course there would be a hotkey to turn it off and on. I hope this possible...

Yes, sometimes it hard to understand the short twitters. I think the snapping tool is really a just a part snapping in general anyway. As is right now any tight polygon areas(number of vertices close together) and you get a mess in that area which you already know. This is really true if you resnap as you sculpt in those areas. Any improvements would be a big help.

Andrew is giving the snapping tool some love, yeah.... I'm looking forward to giving it a go when the new update comes out.

Great, you got it working, Try merging your model in at a lower voxel resolution,just enough to catch all the details(less time to merge that way). Sculpt in your larger form changes, then increase the resolution for your finer details. Blender is great but sometimes, your just want a straight subdivision modeller. Check out Wings3d (Free) It has a very intuitive interface and is very quick for making basic models for sculpting though it's not limited to basic modeling. http://www.wings3d.com/

Hi Cube and Welcome Once you learn how better to check your mesh as you learn modeling,you will find less and less problems merging for voxels.Holes in the mesh causes the problem you are having. Check your mesh for duplicated or unmerged vertices. Even one unmerged vertice will cause a hole you cannot even see. Most software can check for unmerged vertices or duplicated ones. 3DCoat cannot fill an unmerged vertice hole. You can even upload the obj model here and I will take a look at it if ya like...

I deleted my last post because the render was poor. Here is a better one rendered in 3dCoat, with the displacement map made in per-pixel.(the image on the right). It will not displace in per-pixel mode but still can be used as a displacement map in another application. As you found out texture baking does not work in per-pixel mode but saving as a displacement map under the texture menu does. The image on the left is real displacement in Carrara. This does not help figuring out your problem but you know exporting for displacement does work in per-pixel mode Is that ptex format you were using, it seems to have a few bugs right now. all the bumps on the mace were meant to be there...

Second pass at the Helmet. Rendered in 3DCoat using the real time render with 3 lights. Top light effect made in another program. I used the split tool as a cutter on objects imported. This allowed me to make harder edged pieces. 3 million triangles...

I have great respect for the artists who conduct the Webinars but am not a happy custumer with Kurv studios. The promos they give for their DVDs are somewhat misleading. I have purchased from them and the information contained in the videos are good but not to the depth of information that the promo suggested, so do your research on the dvd or downloadable dvd when you buy from them... To make it clear, I'm not saying not to buy from them just be carefull in your selections.

Nice shield there and centaur...

Good job and I can see 3DCoat will fit right into your pipeline.

Once you retopo your voxel sculpt merge into scene from the retopo room using one of these 3 methods: Merge for per-pixel painting into scene with a normal map Merge into scene using microverts ( It will bake the high detail of your voxel sculpt to a displacement map which you will see in the paint room Merge into scene using the ptex format. Details again will be baked. You do not need a UV map with the Ptex format

I was going for a little more of a hard edge sculpt look on parts of the helmet. The helmet is really a collection of different ways as I tried to get better edges using just the tools of 3DCoat. Some worked out better than others... More work still to be done.

Execellent hard sculpting work esp, keeping everthing sharp,smooth after importing the polygon base...

Andrew,I know your busy so it is appreciate that you take the time to answer this post...

Well, Hot dog, never knew that or was informed of that fact. Thanks a bunch mate...

Yes, I enjoy testing betas too,just to be clear I was not asking for closed beta testing, just for two versions to run on the same computer, one the release plus a beta version. Right now you can only have one version of 3DCoat running on your computer.

Hi all, I'm putting in a request to Andrew to have two versions running on one computer, The official version and a beta version for whoever wants to test new features without effecting the release version. I like testing all the newest features when they come out but now have reached a frustration level where even areas that were working sometimes now are broken in the new updates. Now it is my choice to test beta but since Andrew does not have closed beta testing having two versions running on one computer does not seem like a bad idea. We had that with the 3.0 alpha version. That way you can keep your important work in a good workflow plus test new features. Also it's hard to help "new" people to 3DCoat when there are several versions floating about. I would prefer to answer only questions for a release version to help new users or someone stumped on a problem. A separate forum section could be setup just for beta testing the new features and reporting on things that get broken. That way you could encourage new users to learn the interface and workflow of 3Dcoat before diving into the beta world. We talk alot about the new features in the forums so they are bound to tryout the newest beta which could have something broken in it. I do like helping people but what has happened on several occasions is I have answered a question based upon something working, After posting the answer, I rechecked the process and found what did work is now broken in the newest beta or they have a beta or two back when something different was broken. It just gets confusing for all. There again is the need for two versions. We then could answer questions with confidence. Any bugs found in the release version would be fixed too. I think that is a reasonable request. The old hats at 3DCoat can keep their important work flowing through the release version without having to worry if something is broken but also test new features for future releases. That is my 2cents worth...

One more quick pic. You can see in the picture how using the reference model as a quide I started the form. This is a very rough draft just so you get the idea...

Also your voxel material that you are sculpting has to be fairly close to the surface of your semi-transparent reference model or it will not do anything... Edit: You can hide and unhide your reference model, to move large areas of voxel or surface mass at the start, then fine tune it.

Yes, by all means you can sculpt... Edit: I had edited my post so my quote is a little different from your post...

You can make a new shader with opacity. I made a Black color png file for the diffuse lighting texture and set diffused strength at around 60 Then reduced the shader opacity to about 43 plus reduced the Frz&Sel, Object Opacity to 0, really don't need to change that one though. It just made a little less contrast. The reference model goes in the bottom layer, the one with less opacity and your sculpting in the top layer. The voxel ball which is in the top layer is inside the reference model. This is a solution till we get layer type opacity, it will help...

Ah! makes me long for the winters when I lived in Minnesota where everyone carried snow shovels on their backs...

Stronger or more accurate snapping tool, I agree with having. I have snapped a number of low-polygon models successfully. Snapping works well on low polygon models as long as your polygons are not packed to close together but any areas with lots of tight edge loops like around mouths, ears and eyes causes problems. Also the extremities of models have issues as well. Things like finger nails are a no go. If accurrate snapping could be accomplished that would be great as we should not have to worry about tight edge loops etc. Right now I sculpt and then resnap, sculpt and resnap again as the model takes shape. This works well but if the initial low polygon import into the retopo room or additional resnapping does not snap correctly then there is no more you can do. We need this whether we get subdivision history or not added to the surface tools.

Very interesting technique, closer to real life sculpting. I will have to give it a whirl...

First let me say, I'm not trying to compare apples to oranges or Sculptris vs 3DCoat. They are two very different programs plus some information you can only give from a subjective view as one move tool just feels easier to use. I have been playing around with Sculptris and the grab tool( it's like 3dcoat's move tool) feels more intuitive and I seem to get form faster and easier with it. The base centaur model (59,000 triangles) was 85 to 90% created with just the grab tool and like I said it felt very intuitive. I'm fighting the move tool in 3DCoat at times. Any improvement in the intuitive nature of 3DCoat's move tool would be great which again I know is subjective but there it is... Screen grab from Sculptris.