Zeddicus

Thank you for the excellent tutorials. I'm watching them right now!

That's a decent price, less than ZBrush even (Edit: Nope ZB is still a bit cheaper) and you get a lot more. I've only ever tried the demo and found I like the interface; well laid out and intuitive. These videos really make it look like a solid one stop shop that could meet all of an artists needs and I'm finding it hard to resist. Do I want to learn a new program though? I'm still fumbling about with 3D Coat, trying to figure out how some things work (like extracting higrez details from a voxel sculpt to my low poly cage as displacement maps).

I think that one is affecting everyone at the moment, including myself.

So long as one can afford to, yeah. The flu is awful and the best way to convalesce is to take it easy and get lots of rest, maybe watch some good movies to take your mind off of how you're feeling. I've always been succeptible to throat infections and came close to losing my hearing from one bad case in particular. I now take much better care of myself as a result. What I've found is that taking lots of vitamin C at the very beginning helps stop things before they get out of control. I take it when there is even the slightest hint of a cold/flu coming on and that seems to stop it in its tracks. Hardly get sick at all these days. Could be annectodal evidence but its better than the alternative lol. Anyways I hope you get better soon, Andrew. PS: Is there a good tutorial anywhere on how to take the vertex paint on a voxel sculpt and apply it to a low poly retopo mesh for export as a bitmap texture? So far I've figured out how to sculpt, then retopo, then create UV's for that, then paint textures the traditional way. I'm just stuck on projecting/baking vertex paint instead (and creating normal/displacement maps from high poly voxel to low poly retopo too, but that is a whole separate question). Thanks!

Edit > Preferences > Show 'Focal shift' in top panel I think it's off by default. I'm still a 3DC noob but maybe that might help you. Values can be set from -100% to +100% (-90% works good). While playing around I found the fourth brush (counting horizontally from left to right) seems to produce the softest edge. I'm sure you already know, but I'll say it anyways; you can always make your own brushes. Don't forget you can smooth by holding the shift key as well. There is also varying stroke types in the upper left of the menu and a setting for borer width that might also help depending on which stroke your using (try the rectangle at zero and then 100 to see the difference).

Same here. We are talking voxels, right?

Works fine for me in 3.07.04B.

Holy cow that was fast, and I'm happy about the gizmo change too. Your awesome, Andrew! I sure wish other devs were more like you.

3.07.04A: If you Res+ a voxel mesh, you lose your ability to properly place the sphere in the Primitive tool. The other primitives don't seem to suffer from this problem. Are others seeing this? Just curious whether I need to perhaps delete my prefs file or not. Edit: Just noticed clicking some primitives highlights the cylinder button lol.

FiberMesh is awesome indeed and I'm having a lot of fun with it. I'm not so sure about the whole copying bit though. More likely it's the constant flow of artists requesting better retopo tools in ZBrush, with 3D Coat pointed to as the obvious example of how to do it right. As for swirl, yeah I don't think Pixlogic would have ever thought of that one on their own if 3D Coat didn't exist. It's just not obvious at all.

Yes, exactly like that along with the ability to keep all hard edges nice and sharp. Then I delete the cube/sphere/etc layer so that I'm left with the VoxLayer creation only. All my edges keep ending up crinkled. I can smooth out these artifacts a little bit, but that leads to rounded edges and areas where the mesh sinks inward (losing it's planar appearance, usualy near corners). It's been a lot more difficult getting good results out of 3DC compared to ZB, but I'm positive it can be done. I just can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. High resolution 4m plus starting meshes and different brush types don't help, while smooth all tends to cause it's own strange stair-stepping artifacts.

You're right, I misinterpeted your comment. Too many late nights getting Windows and all my apps set up again lol. You're still going to need a low res cage for many applications though. Rendering just isn't all that great in 3D Coat and the ones that are don't handle a lot of polygons very well (though they are slowly improving). Vertex painting is cool, but only so long as you can bake to multiple map types for export, in which case UV's of one sort or another will still be required. This is why I asked about baking vertex painting to ptex earlier. This path will make life a lot easier once ptex becomes better supported, provided I've understood it all correctly (obviously not a guarantee). I see Andrew has stated going in the other direction will be possible at some point in the future too (convert map to vertex paint), so it seems he does have his eye on this area at the moment. Maybe he'll speak up on this, provided he has some time to spare from being a one man army lol. I'm having a lot of fun with this tool. It allows me to create interesting, complex geometry very quickly and use primitives as the scaffolding. I have a question (possibly a request) though. Is it possible to sharpen/blur the selections you make, like with masks in ZBrush? I'm having a lot of trouble getting clean edges with VoxLayer and Smooth All isn't all that helpful, especially if one doesn't want soft rounded edges. If not, perhaps simple plus and minus buttons in the dialog box would do. A check box for getting rid of all selections after clicking apply would be helpful too. It's easy to forget they're still there sometimes, especially when their hidden behind the new geometry, and it can result in extra unnecessary extractions happening (increasing calculation time) which overlap and may be hard to notice until it's too late. Speaking of the Smooth All button, a Sharpen All button would also be helpful. Something like ZBrush's ability to polish, like when remeshing a dynamesh. I think I may have found a glitch with Smooth All as well. Try loading the third sphere from the startup screen, hit the Res+ button twice, then hit the Smooth All button a couple of times. You should see a whole lot of stair stepping emerge. I discovered this when using the sphere as scaffolding for creating some VoxLayer stuff. I was getting stair stepping in my extractions and figured smoothing the sphere first before drawing selections on it would solve the problem, but it only makes things worse. They can be smoothed out using the smooth brush, but this is rather laborious and time consuming. I'm still new to 3DC so if anyone can point out mistakes I'm making or features I'm overlooking, go right ahead and do so please. PS: I actually have a growing list of problems and things I'd like to see, but I'll leave it at that for now. Hopefully this is the right thread to be posting in regarding such issues.

I agree that Ptex isn't very useful right now, but I'm positive it will become so in the near future. Next to 64-bit, I believe ptex is one of the features most asked for over a ZB Central. Ptex has a lot going for it beyond just being a time saver, and with Mudbox becoming so tightly integrated with Autodesk's other products, adding full ptex support to them becomes a no brainer. Maya already supports the ability to preview it in the viewport, and 3ds Max has the stripes plugin (a bit buggy and underdeveloped, but it works). I suspect everything will support it natively within a year or two. Hopefully that's not just wishful thinking on my part. I can also see why people who prefer to work in 2D won't care for it, but projection painting is becoming so good that not being able to work on flattened textures isn't all that big of a loss IMHO, and with a program like 3D Coat it's still useful if you like creating stencils and compositing. In fact painting is what finally sold me on 3DC in the end. I also think that some form of automatic localized flattening might be feasible. Then it's just a matter of sending that to a 2D editor and back. I'm no programmer though, so I don't know what the limits might be to this. I know there is a Mudbox video showing something along these lines already (using Photoshop) and the process looked fine to me. I also agree about refinement though, which is something we can never have too much of lol. PS: I discovered what film the t-rex example on the official ptex site is from. It was , and by happenstance I caught it over the weekend. Funniest part of the movie by far and had me in stitches lmao. Edit: Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Ptex can handle that just fine too.

That's what I figured as well, but it kept happening in ortho view which is the mode I normally work in. Now it's working fine today lol. Could just be user error I suppose, but I distinctly remember turning my gird back on to make sure I was in ortho. Then again my memory is starting to fail me. Whatever the case, thanks for taking the time to answer. Much appreciated.

I'm continually blown away by 3DC and all the time, effort, and genius Andrew puts in for all of us. Thank you! So far I haven't experienced any crashes with a clean install of 3.07.03C, but I did discover something weird with VoxLayer. If I try to use rectangle/circle/spline mode with symmetry on, the selection area gets painted on the other side of my mesh, often in weird places that have no correlation to where I'm drawing. This doesn't happen with the regular/dot/stamp modes. I just finished reinstalling Windows and still need to install my 3DX drivers, so I can't say whether the multiple key press bug has been fixed or not. As for voxelpainting, not having much difficulty here either. Is it possible to transfer paint to ptex prior to export, and is it possible to import ptex painted models from other apps? I haven't gotten that far yet so I have no clue. I'm very hopeful the industry will accept ptex as a commonplace standard this year, and that we'll start seeing it in everything soon. I know it's something a lot of artists desire, including me lol.

Ah ok, now I see. I did a search to see if anyone else had reported this but wasn't able to find anything relevant. I wasn't even sure where to post this bug since it could have been the drivers to blame, but it's obviously 3D Coat that is to blame since other apps aren't affected. Hopefully it's a simple fix for Andrew. Until then I suppose the only way to work around it is to remap stuff in 3DC to single key presses. Never any fun... Trial and error my friend, trial and error. Oh and lot's of patience of course. I've been using ZBrush since 2002 and 3D Coat for only a few weeks. It's only natural that the first thing I did was try to emulate what I'm used to lol. I only just discovered how to save presets thanks to Phil answering manticor's question above and I still have much to learn. Perhaps someone more experienced can give us a link to some good tips?

This is why I chose to buy 3D Coat, fantastic support and quick updates. This new "polypainting" feature works really great. Still having trouble exporting it though. The only real issue I've run into so far is when I undo. Sometimes the display doesn't update and still shows the paint I removed. Other than that, I'm really loving it. Retopo, painting, UV mapping, and boolean operations are superior to ZBrush IMHO. ZB still has the better brush system, though I've discovered through trial and error that 3DC can actually mimic ZB quite well in this area. It just takes more tweaking and patience. Masking is better in ZB too, but I've also noticed there are several things that are just easier in 3DC, like stencils, creating/tweaking custom brushes, and painting for example. Now if only 3DC could match the materials and render quality of ZB, that would be mind blowing. Speaking of undo, is anyone else having difficulty getting 3DC to see their 3dConnexion buttons whenever their mapped to undo and redo? All other mappings work fine, so it's not the physical buttons on the device that are the problem. I posted about this in the support area but haven't gotten a response. Since this thread is so hot right now, I felt it might be worth mentioning in case it's a bug. And on the topic of my new 3d "mouse", all I can say is that I'm blown away. I had some trouble getting used to it in the beginning (yesterday lol), but never while in 3ds Max. After sitting down and changing some settings (turned roll off, rotate around Y axis turned on, and a speed increase for two of the six axis) it now matches Max perfectly. After that, the difference in speed and ease while sculpting was huge! Why anyone wouldn't want to support these things is beyond me because they're awesome. I don't usually use a tablet in Max, but gave it a try today anyways. I've never worked faster (and I mean a lot faster) despite my familiarity with Max's hotkeys and navigation. My SpaceMouse Pro was worth every penny, so thanks to all the other users who gave me the push I needed.

I really like this idea. I'm looking forward to the multi-core optimizations Andrew mentioned, which should make a feature like this work well on powerful machines. I'm having trouble with a 2m poly mesh from Zbrush right now that autopo keeps freezing up on. Manual retopo still works fine, except there are areas that are going to be really tough to do, areas some automation would be welcome on since edge flow isn't so important in these places. Being able to paint in what's missing would be incredibly helpful.

I see Nvidia updated the driver quite recently, on December 19, 2011. Have you recently updated your video driver to something newer or change any of it's preferences? This is the kind of thing that can cause weird behavior to appear out of nowhere (forcing AA and/or Aniso to be enabled for example). I'm stuck using older drivers for my card because of a bug they introduced, one they refuse to admit to or fix. Thankfully I don't use my PC for gaming so sticking with older drivers isn't a problem. Don't know if any of this will help, but I figured it doesn't hurt to mention it.

Is this a thread about FiberMesh, or is it about ZB4R2 in general? It's your creation, michalis, so you'll have to tell us if we are indeed going off topic. Someone posted this link over there which I thought I'd share. I'm no mathematician or programmer, but couldn't this be implemented in 3D Coat? It could be an amazing tool when combined with the new instancing feature, especially if one is able to randomize placement asymmetrically. I'm still digging into 3DC so perhaps there is already a quick and easy way to create a lot of varying vegetation, and anything else vegetation-like that might prove beneficial to artists (hair and fur obviously). How about instancing within instancing? I'm thinking randomized leaves and fruit like at the end of the ZB FiberMesh preview.

Well, after playing around some more, I've decided 3D Coat isn't really all that good. It's... fantastically great! Even though I know I'm barely scratching the surface of what 3DC can do and have only played with 3.7 for one day, I chose to finally pull the trigger and buy it. I picked the educational version because, after reading who it's for and what it's limitations are, I realized I'm exactly the type of person it was meant for. Once I know it better, and especially if I do run up against those imposed limitations, I'll save up some cash and upgrade to the pro version. I also realized I could buy a 3dConnexion Space Navigator with the money I have left over. Hooray! I Hopefully that will make navigating in 3DC much easier. All in all I'm quite happy. In the end it was the comments by the other users here who really helped make my decision easier, so thank you all for taking the time to post. It really goes to show you that artists tend to be your number one resource, Andrew, especially when it comes to advertising! I also realized the ZB-Like navigation "bug" I mentioned earlier is probably meant to work the way it does. When I'm holding the ALT key to pan, then lift the pen off of the tablet, panning continues to happen. I have to pull the pen really far away from the tablet before releasing the ALT key. If I release the ALT key prior to lifting the pen instead, I end up zooming a bit. Just in case anyone is interested, I also accidentally figured out how to roll the camera in that mode. If I draw circles clockwise in empty space, the mesh will slowly roll counter clockwise, while drawing circles counter clockwise causes the mesh to roll clockwise. I also discovered by accident that holding the right mouse button while moving the pen up/down/left/right allows you to change the brush size and strength, and that the cursor also displays opacity level. These are intelligent features that I really like. AbnRanger was right about retopo, UV's, and even painting too which is something I've never really felt comfortable with in ZBrush for some reason. Brushes, materials, and especially rendering are still areas ZBrush feels stronger in though. Someone mentioned in another thread how an Octane license for 3DC might be a good option, and after watching the video on Youtube I have to agree. But I digress. I tend to babble when I'm excited lol. Once again, thank you all for taking the time to comment. Take care all, and happy 3D Coating!

That's kind of my point. Andrew just said in this very thread that "3.7 is the last free update". Buy in now and get little to no updates along with having to fork out extra to upgrade not too far down the line, or be patient and buy in when 4.0 is released which nets me 3-4 years of free updates at no extra cost. Version 5 is a very long way off and a lot of things can happen between now and then. It's not really germane to the 3.7 versus 4.0 conundrum which is far more exigent. I certainly agree with you about the pace of development, though I'm uncertain how relevant this is in regards to ZBrush. In some ways it's a competitor to 3DC, but in some ways it isn't, especially when one looks at the philosophy behind each. It feels as if Pixologic is more interested in making a 3d version of Adobe Illustrator instead of something that could displace any of the other, more established modelling apps. This is actually part of what is attracting me to 3DC. Andrew seems to have a genuine interest in listening to the artists and providing for their needs, unlike Pixologic which often seems obsessed with doing everything their own unique way. Not that this is bad in any way, it's just that there are a number of features a lot of ZB users have been asking for that may never see the light of day, especially given their pace of development. I can't really speak for future versions of Mudbox, though it does look impressive from the demos I've seen. It also has the benefit of tight integration with 3ds Max, Maya, and XSI which is sure to improve and help make it successful. Development is slow here too though, and I get the impression Autodesk doesn't really listen to their users either based on the forums I've browsed. 3DC has a lot going for it and it boggles my mind that it isn't more popular. I honestly don't have a problem with spending money, especially when it's something beneficial and clearly deserving. I've donated to a number of open source projects, which I like to do when I find something imminently useful to me and feel it has the potential to bring others folks some prosperity. I've even been considering buying bSurfaces for Blender even though I don't currently use it. If I won the lottery, I'd probably give much of it away. Unfortunately I'm not a millionaire and have to choose carefully where, and on what, I spend my money. Due to failing health, I'm forced to live on a relatively tight budget these days and don't make any income from doing art. CG is hobby and something I do to placate my soul. It fills an empty part of me that nothing else can. I've considered doing it as a job, and probably would if I could live my life over again. I choose not to however because then it becomes work. Work tends to be stressful, something which would ruin it for me in all likelihood. In any case I doubt I'm good enough to be a pro, so it's really a point that's moot. You'll get no arguments from me there. The capabilities of 3DC are certainly formidable and always improving. I'm really enjoying the 3.7 demo right now and finding it easier to learn this time around. So far I've run into one potential navigation bug, plus I cannot figure out how to roll the camera instead of spinning it, but otherwise things are going relatively well. It's certainly made me more inclined to buy it before the sale ends. Unfortunately the forum is severely limiting my ability to post more than once per day so I can't really get more of my questions answered before then. That's what I get for procrastinating about signing up I guess. I've just watched a video on how to use booleans and they look like a great deal of fun, not to mention easy to use. I should be in bed right now, but I can't resist playing around with everything now that it's all falling into place mentally speaking. I truly am well impressed by what one can achieve with 3DC, and how easy it is to get there. I don't know what the problem was the last time I tried using the demo, which often had me stumped (and rolling my eyes at crashes lol). I can see quite clearly all the ways this program is superior to ZBrush and I don't say that lightly. They are undoubtedly an unbeatable combo when paired together. I wonder if Andrew would consider a highly scaled back free version, similar to what Pixologic is doing with Sculptris. I know he probably doesn't really have the time, but it could be a useful means of drawing more folks in and help increase 3DC's popularity. That in turn means more profits, which means more staff and a little more free time. Could be a win-win for everyone on both sides of the fence. Anyways thanks for taking the time to post your thoughts. I'm now off to sculpt some more and discuss this potential purchase with my wife when dawn breaks hehe. Honestly, buying 3DC is almost a given at this point. The only thing left is for us to decided whether to buy the educational or pro version, and whether to jump in before the sale is over or wait until 4,0 comes out if we go with pro. Catch you later, and take care!

Yes we're all well aware of the fact there is always going to be a newer version, barring something terrible happening such as bankruptcy of course. It's pretty obvious that version 5 is not "just around the corner" though. On the other hand, version 4 is. Inevitably this is an important consideration to folks strapped for cash, a common occurrence at this time of the year. I can pay $250 for 3.7 ($350 if I miss out on the sale) and another $60 for the 4.0 upgrade in the near future. If I wait a little bit longer, I get to save that $60 and put it towards something less wasteful, like groceries or bills. Impatience can get very expensive, very fast. I honestly don't see the harm in being absolutely sure we're not making a mistake by buying 3D Coat within the next 24 hours, which is hardly enough time to give the 3.7 demo a decent shakedown I might add. It's all just good common sense really. PS: Since the forum software won't let me make any new posts for a while, can someone please tell me how to roll the camera? In ZBrush it's just a matter of holding shift, and then letting it go as you LMB drag the cursor over an empty part of the canvas. I have 3DC set to ZB-Like controls and hitting shift only snaps the view. Releasing it does nothing. I've already searched the forum, the manual, and in-program popups but couldn't find an answer. Thanks all!

I'm in the same boat as you, and there is only one more day left to decide. I'm leaning towards the educational version, then if I find I'm using it a lot (provided this old brain can learn it) I'll upgrade to the pro version. I wonder, will it be possible to upgrade from 3.7 Edu to 4.0 Pro when the time comes? Or should I just buy the 3.7 pro version now before this sale ends? Edit: Failed to see that last post by Andreas asking the same question lol. Is that a promise? That is a really good point. The retopo videos I watched were amazing. 3DC might be worth the cost for this feature alone. The UV editing looks good too, plus there is ptex support. In case you haven't guessed, I hate doing retopo and UV's. Anything that makes these tasks swift and easy is a welcome addition to the arsenal. Definitely leaning towards buying it now!

I'm sure you'll be able to create hair as it's own subtool, allowing you to try out any number of radically different hair styles. The plant at the end is indeed interesting. It's looks as if the red "hairs" are replaced with a painted polymesh of a fruit. Unfortunately how this is done is skipped over in the video. It certainly does seem like some kind of instancing is going on. I'd hazard a guess that instancing is something Pixologic probably now desires, especially after seeing 3DC's new implementation of it. It allows the user to save a lot of time if changes are later required, plus you don't have to worry about symmetry if the instanced polymesh is scattered around the scene in a non-symmetrical way. Makes sense seeing as their core philosophy seems to involve making things both easier and less time consuming for the artist. Then there is the array aspect which in ZBrush seems to be limited to 2.5d pixols only (stroke palette with edit turned off). For example, any tools you draw out using the grid stroke cannot be turned into a polymesh.