Dilla

Arkanis, I'm guessing the plan is to introduce the interface overhaul in v3? Also, there was talk about different modes (i.e. Paint/Texture, Sculpt/Detail, Volumetric Sculpt)... - Will there be a visible indication of the current mode that the application is in? - Most of the existing tools fall into the Paint/Texture category, so I'm guessing that the Sculpt, Volumetric Sculpt, UV Edit and Retopology 'tools' will be turned into full-blown modes? - UV Editing and Retopology currently have little use for the standard palettes that the other brush-based modes use. Will these palettes be disabled or hidden away?

Does that mean that volumetric sculpting will generally support layers?

I totally second this sentiment. I bought 3D-Coat fo $120, a total bargain. It was only a matter of time until Andrew realized that this was a bit underpriced for the features offered. Of course the low entry price helped to build the community in the first place... Furthermore, I find Andrew's method of calculating the upgrade price totally fair. The way he puts it (if I've understood correctly), registered users will be paying: The price difference between the current price of v2 and the price of v3 PLUS a customer service charge. Thus, we're paying for new features PLUS the very responsive, dedicated and astoundingly fast customer service (which includes bugfixing and the improvement of existing features). However, one could argue that it would be prudent to have a limited pre-order period offering the v3 upgrade at a slightly reduced price for loyal customers. After all, the success of the software is - in part - also founded on the (freely given) efforts of the loyal alpha and beta-testers frequenting this forum.

Yup, its a very nice and convenient tool. The question is, do we need various poly create tools with differing methodology, or can we combine all these tools into a single one (and maybe give it several 'modes' of operation)? Nope, but that's because I don't use Maya (mainly because I don't like it! :lol: ). I'm using 3dsmax and modo for all my 3D needs. I've edited my first post here and added two 'functionality' categories I forgot... Thanks. I'm glad you appreciate it, Andrew!

After playing with the retopo tools for some time, I can say I really like their intuitive and rock-solid feel. Great work, Andrew! But... ...since the tools are still very young, I thought that some constructive, 'no-offence-intended' criticism might be in order: It appears to me that similar editing functions (various 'splitting' functions for example) are sometimes spread among several tools, when they should IMHO really be unified and streamlined into tools each dedicated exclusively to a single editing function. I've categorized the existing Retopo tools according to their specialized functionality to demonstrate how the toolset might be (re-)structured... CREATE Add/Split Polygons - IMHO the split functionality should belong to a dedicated 'Split' tool (see SPLIT below), so I'd remove it and call this the 'Create Polygons' tool. - If you look at the 'Add/Split polygons' tool with the split functionality removed, it basically does what 'Add quads' does with its '2-clicks method', only that it actually allows creating island polygons where 'Add quads' always requires an edge selection to work on. You could combine these two tools, creating a tool with a default '4-click' method for creating new island polygons and a default '2-click' edge append method working on existing edges (we should keep the other nice edge extension methods, of course). Thus - in effect - the split functionality would be replaced by the 'Add quads' functionality, creating a versatile poly creation tool indeed. - Of course the new 'Create Polygons' tool would need some sort of 'Quad' toggle to constrain its behaviour to that of the former 'Add quads' tool if needed. If this toggle is off, the 'Create Polygons' tool creates island n-gons and n-gons off of edges and vertices (the N-click-method, if you will). I'd say CTRL would be a good hotkey candidate for constraining the tool to quads. Add quads - See 'Add/Split Polygons' above. This could be merged with 'Add/split Polygons' to create a versatile 'Create Polygons' tool. Add points and faces - I'm not sure about the 'laying down of points aspect' of this tool, as the poly creation actually takes 5 clicks instead of 4 clicks with the 'Add/split ploygons' tool. Maybe this method has its merits, but I feel it might be another tool to be unified into the more generic 'Create Polygons' tool suggested above. - What I do like very much is the fantastic snapping and quad detection 'intelligence' built into this tool, sort of like an 'Add quads' on steroids. This feature alone could very well justify keeping this tool as is, but - of course - I'd like to see this integrated into the 'Create Polygons' tool as well. DRAW Draw strokes - Not much to say about this other than: Looks good! This tool definitely deserves its own 'category', but I've tested it only briefly... DELETE Delete Polygons/Delete Edges - IMHO these two should be merged into a single 'Delete Component' tool. - CTRL would highlight edgeloops and polyloops. - ALT (or maybe SHIFT?) would highlight edgerings and polyrings. - CTRL+ALT (or maybe SHIFT?) would highlight connected edge/poly islands. - Also, how about a delete vertex functionality? COLLAPSE Collapse edges - This could be a 'Collapse Component' tool. The ability to collapse polygons appears to be missing from the tools currently, so it could be integrated here. - CTRL would highlight edgeloops/polyloops. - ALT (SHIFT?) would highlight edgerings/polyrings. SPLIT Add/Split Polygons & Split edge rings - IMHO all splitting operations should be combined into one 'Split' tool. The default behaviour of this 'Split' tool could be the splitting function of the 'Add/split polygones' tool, but upon holding CTRL it would work like the current 'Split edge rings'. TWEAK Tweak vertices & Tweak with brush - These two tools look like they could be unified into a single 'Tweak Components' tool. - The smoothing functionality of 'Tweak with Brush' could be made into a dedicated 'Smooth' tool, making its existence more obvious and the tool easy to find. - CTRL would toggle 'Tweak with Brush' behaviour, overriding the selection-based behaviour. - Btw, if you turn off all the selection toggles in the 'Tweak vertices' tool, it tweaks nothing? Maybe it should always select vertices and only the other selection modes should be toggleable? SLIDE Slide edges - This would become a dedicated 'Slide Component' tool. It should also provide functionality to slide vertices and polygons along edges. - CTRL would highlight edgeloops and polyloops. - ALT (SHIFT?) would highlight edgerings and polyrings. - Selection modes should only be vertices, faces and edges, since CTRL and ALT would toggle edgeloop and edgering selection. - How about a 'Stop at Edges' mode toggle a la modo's 'Edge Slide' tool? SPIN - See the discussion of the Select and Operate tool below. There should probably be a dedicated 'Spin' tool! WELD - A 'Weld Vertices' tool could be added. MERGE - A 'Merge Polygons' tool could be added. SMOOTH - See my comments on 'Tweak with Brush' under the TWEAK heading. There should probably be a dedicated 'Smooth' tool! SUBDIVIDE - See the discussion of the 'Select and Operate' tool below. There should probably be a dedicated 'Subdivide' tool! - The 'Subdivide' option on the 'Retopo Commands menu' could be integrated into this tool. SPECIAL CASE: Select and Operate - The 'Select and Operate' tool is a prime example of a very cluttered tool, IMHO. It duplicates various editing functionality, with its uniqueness being that it allows for multiple component selections and painted (i.e. brush-based) selections. If this selection functionality could somehow be generalized across all the retopo tools, we could deal away with this tool completely! Duplicate functionality of 'Select and Operate': - Vertice Mode: In this mode the tool duplicates TWEAK functionality, plus the selection multiple capabilities. - Edges Mode: In this mode the tool duplicates CREATE (edge extend), SPLIT, COLLAPSE and DELETE functionality, plus the multiple selection capabilities. - Faces Mode: In this mode the tool duplicates DELETE functionality, plus the selection multiple capabilities. 'Original' functionality of 'Select and Operate': - Edge Mode: Spin. This should become a dedicated 'Spin' tool. - Faces Mode: Subdivide. This should become a dedicated 'Subdivide' tool. Retopology UI - What I don't like about the current Retopo floating palettes setup is that you have to navigate to the 'mode' dropdown menu and pin it to reveal all the retopo tools. As one will certainly be changing tools/modes often, they should be on the window that pops up when 'Retopogisation' (Retopologize?) is launched instead of being hidden away in a sub-menu. Ok, that'll be it... for now! Thanks for suffering through this long post. Discussion is welcome!

Very much looking forward to this feature!

That's CTRL... got a german keyboard!

I'm getting some strange behaviour from the carve tool here. Try the following: 1) Activate the 'Merge' Tool. 2) Go to 'Select Mesh' and pick the cube.obj. 3) Select 'On pen'. 4) Paint with the cube, holding down STRG and using a bigger radius. 5) Select the 'Carve' tool, turn down the radius and paint along the edges/slopes. 6) While carving, every once in a while the carve will shoot out into screen space in long tubes (see attached image).

Yes, that's it exactly. Fantastic! Looks like I need to take a look at that 'merge' tool after all!

I was referring to using various geometric primitives or imported objects as a tool. These would replace the sphere 'primitive' that is currently used for all sculpting operations.

Been playing around with this... it's great fun! Then how about using other geometric primitives instead of a sphere/ellipsoid? A cube perhaps, or a torus? One could even imagine loading up a custom mesh to sculpt with (a face/skull, some 3D logo/graphic, etc.) Also, how about using 3D procedurals to modulate the sculpt, like so...