I agree with Mykyl, arguing over which program is better or who copied whom is pointless. Many ideas are obvious and universal, and building one idea on top of another has always been how technology evolves. Each app has their own unique strengths and weaknesses, and it really is a win win situation for those who are willing to get over their fanboy mentality (which we've all been guilty of at one point or another) and use both, provided they can afford it. I also like what 3DArtist said about adding a "Paint Instances" brush, provided I'm understanding this correctly. The video showing off the new instance feature in 3.7 was really interesting and I'm looking forward to playing around with it.
I've actually been thinking about buying 3D Coat on an off for about a year now, especially right now with the current sale price. I've been doing odd jobs here and there, like shoveling sidewalks, for the past month to help cover the costs of this holiday season and I have just enough left over to buy 3DC if I so desire. I just need to be sure it's what I really want to blow that last of my spending money on. I'm also worried that 4.0 may be right around the corner, in which case I'd be better off putting the money away until then so I can avoid having to pay the additional upgrade fee so soon after. Does any have a rough idea on when that might be?
From browsing this site, my impression is that 3DC can do everything ZB can and potentially a whole lot more. That and it seems to be updated a lot more often by a developer whom is clearly paying close attention to what users have to say regarding bugs and requests. What I really love is that It has a ton of features I wish ZBrush had, things I know are going to become the norm as time progresses (ptex, vector displacement, etc).
There are a couple things holding me back though. When I last tried the demo (version 3.5 I think) I had a lot of trouble figuring things out, even with the popup help. Auto-retopo was especially misbehaved. Eventually I grew frustrated and gave up. You'd think 3DC would be easy to grasp as a user coming from ZB, but for some reason that wasn't the case. I doubt it's a failing of 3DC though and more likely my age is to blame lol. Probably the biggest strength ZB seems to have over 3DC is it's popularity. Pixologic is very good at creating hype and their forum, being very artist friendly, may partly account for that. While there are a some videos here and there which cover the varying versions of 3DC, there are a lot more third party video tutorials available for ZB. So I have to ask, are there any comprehensive A to Z tutorials out there for 3.5/3.7 like ZB seems to get with every new release? I've been watching the Lynda.com one for Blender 2.6 on Youtube, the quality and coverage of which being a really good example of what I feel makes an excellent, easy to understand video tutorial.
One final question for now; if I install the latest demo for 3.7, will I be able to use it for 30 days or will I have problems because of version 3.5 which used to be installed on my system? Thanks!
PS: Sorry if I didn't search hard enough for my own answers before posting. I'm still relatively new here and only just getting to know this website and a feel for the type of folks who frequent it. I'll operate on the assumption you're all a bit forgiving when it comes to 3DC noobs like me.
