JamesE

It's really just a refinement of the curve tool, which is actually closer to what the original zspheres could do. Unless I missed something from the vid, this tool probably disappears once you commit to the voxel shape you want to sculpt, much like the curve tool does now no? To be more like zspheres2 it would need the ability to stay persistent, to deform the voxel mesh at any point during sculpting, reconnect back into itself, etc. Also, being a voxel-specific implementation makes it nothing like zspheres in the end - 2 different approaches towards a similar goal. If it could do all that stuff it would actually be better than zspheres because ultimately they are just an abstraction needed to approximate what the final sculpt surface would be. Voxels do away with that and just let you sculpt. Really all you need is the ability to pose them. My own opinion of course.

Thanks rimasson =] I'm actually planning to do some vids, just been a bit busy between work and home recently. I've had the luxury of being able to use 3dc for both work and play and would love to share some of that experience. Will definitely try to cover some hard surface stuff - though I fear my process isn't nearly complicated enough to impress anyone or teach them something they didn't already know. It's just brute force sculpting for the most part. Still, 3dc is just 'different' from other packages and it's probably worth exposing those differences to others.

This is exactly what I do to make edges on hard surfaces or even creases and such between musculature in some extreme anatomy cases. In fact I'd say the Build brush is what I use the most overall. I switch between the default smooth and pointed alphas all the time depending whether I want soft or sharp strokes.

Or if you could use it with the curve tool. You could do some very complex hard surface carving that way, by first drawing the curve on/around the object, and instead of adding or subtracting it with other brushes, this one flattens, perpendicular to the surface.

Holy smokes! I could use that RIGHT NOW =]

I can't uninstall the license as it is not active in the software. There is no license.dat in the 3dc folder. I tried creating one and pasting my license key into it then loading 3dc out of curiosity and it still prompted me to register, showing my license key in the registration input already, but not validating it. After loading 3dc this way it deletes the License.dat file anyway. The file was gone when I looked in the 3dc folder. I tried uninstalling the software completely but that didn't help either. The program still shows my license key in the registration form but doesn't recognize it. I'm running it in 30 day trial mode at the moment as I'm at work and trying to finish a model with it.

Can't wait to see a 64 bit openCL version of 3dc. =] This is a great opportunity for andrew to pull ahead of the competition by having the best, most current mac support out of any sculpting tool.

My license for 3dc just became invalid. I updated to the latest version and was working in it just fine before going out to lunch. I left the software running while I was out and came back to find a message saying my license is invalid. Uninstalled it and tried to reregister... the web client says thanks for registering but the software is only running in demo mode.

Working with quadrangulate on multiple voxel meshes, is there a way to quadrangulate voxel layers separately without it overwriting your previous retopology layers? I tried doing a few pieces by hand and wanted to mix it up with some quadrangulated pieces and as soon as I quadrangulate it kills everything else - even if I have separate retopo layers. Ideally I'd like to just quadrangulate all of my voxel layers into their own separate retopo layers, then go in and tweak each by hand where needed.

Excellent! Been waiting for this one too!

Actually I'd love to be able to just move the points by click/dragging in screenspace, with no manipulator. I find it gets in the way more than anything. I've never wanted nor needed a true manipulator in zbrush, and I pretty much avoid using it in 3dc in favor of the pose tool. Scaling points could just be a modifier key like ctrl+click/drag or something.

Nice work all around! How do you like the voxel sculpting so far?

First, conirm with Andrew that it's ok. Second, SPILL IT!!! I'll wait right here till you get back with an answer =]

Nice work! Looking forward to seeing the final.

Nice work Gabe! Good to see you using the voxels for their strengths with the object merging. I don't see nearly enough of that, which is confusing since it is a major selling point for using voxels!

I would like it if the falloff gradient, and even the brush strength curve could be disabled when painting, and basically only show up when I right click to adjust them. I find them very distracting when trying to sculpt details in voxels. Whether this is an option or permanent change doesn't matter... it's just a really distracting way to work. To be clear, I don't want to see them even when I'm not making a stroke. Only when I hold down the right button to change them. I know they disappear when you make a stroke... I just don't need to see them at all, until I change them. Controlling them separately might be even better... as in turning off the gradient, but not the curve, or the other way around. Obviously making this an option would be best for everyone. It's just a lot of visual distraction to filter out when I'm trying to focus on precision strokes, especially when there are already details underneath the cursor - makes it hard to start a stroke exactly where I need to.

Not in 3dc - I meant zbrush. You can use either option in ZB. I just prefer the alt+click option myself and would prefer having more than just one solution, so I mentioned it. I don't use extra hardware for navigation as I'm not interested in the hassle involved with compatibility or support with the wide range of software I use, so I have no experience there. Just trying to contribute and expand on the idea of implementing viewport framing - especially for tablet/keyboard workflow, being the most commonly configuration. geothefaust: as far as preferences go, that's fine, I'd just like to have the option for more than one. The most innovative packages I've used so far have all catered to increased mouse and tablet input options and functionality. ZB being a very good example, considering all the masking, navigation, brush and polygroup (mesh visibility) control you have with just 3 modifier keys and the pen. I've never used the F key in zb myself just knowing I can use alt+click. Silo as well. That same functionality is bound to alt+middle mouse simply because I can and I prefer it that way.

You can also hold alt and click in the screen to frame up... I prefer that to the 'f' key in zbrush. I would love to see this functionality and the shift+click to snap to ortho views as in zbrush. Much easier than using separate keybinds or accessing the dropdown in the top of the view.

The Layers option would be nice as you could UV each layer as well, yet still have it all conform to one mesh, which is great for doing characters in games, as they are often built from several pieces and merged together for final texturing, animation and export. Also, you could easily manage visibility of layers just like with the other Layer solutions already in 3dc.

Cool! Nice to see some finer detailing on a voxel piece. I need to try moving up into that level on some of mine too.

Will we be able to view images and filter by layers, etc within the UV view at some point? I have a mesh with overlapping geometry that I'm trying to paint and clean up a normal map that was baked elsewhere and it is difficult to sample colors in the 3d view in some of the overlapping areas. I have the same problem in modo, but at least in modo I can sample color from the bitmap shown in the UV view. The texture editor in 3dc doesn't even show my normal map properly. I'm just painting on it as a diffuse/color map right now cleaning up some of the baking artifacts but it shows up as completely blue/green in the texture editor.

Man I love this program! It has come so far in so little time. It is rapidly becoming my favorite tool to work with. Last build is most impressive!

That would be awesome indeed. On a similar note, It would be cool if there were a ghost mode when working with voxels, so that you can see through the ones that you aren't sculpting on. Sometimes I don't want to just hide them outright. It can be very useful to be able to use a transparent or ghosted mesh as reference, especially when dealing with overlapping or intersecting volumes. I use the transparency feature in zbrush quite a bit for this reason. If there's a way to have this improve performance as well that would be even better.

I got the same results... textures not showing up with the saved file when reloaded. I was testing on an imported mesh that already had finished spec, normal and diffuse maps.

I managed to get an obj exported from max2009 in @ around 12k polygons. Works good... I noticed that 'v' doesn't pick color like it used to. Did this change to something else or is it just one of those 'first release' type things that should be expected. Looking forward to seeing a mac version ASAP as well! I am loving the responsiveness when editing normals now. Once tangent space is supported again this is going to be HUGELY beneficial to cleaning up baked normals etc. I am so looking forward to using this software for more and more of my process from start to finish!