Psmith

The 2 Pinch tools are actually 2 different tools designed to work in a similar manner. Since your poly count is relatively small, try using the Voxel version of the Pinch tool. Remember that Voxels are volume based 3D pixels, so tearing is not an issue with them. In Surface Mode you are dealing with a skin of polygons where it is possible to get stretching (and, sometimes tearing). You only need one layer to go back and forth between Voxel mode and Surface mode. Greg Smith

Are you referring to objects you have created in the Voxel Room? I know that once you move a Primitive, the next one you try to create will be positioned and scaled like the last one. Can you detail the process that you used? It will help us to understand better what you are referring to. Thanks, Greg Smith

I think, at some point, there was an examination of 2 possible paths for 3D-Coat to follow: 1) Keep working to make 3D-Coat faster and more efficient by forcing it to conform to the nVidia GPU-based standards, or 2) Make 3D-Coat more accessible to more types of users by relaxing dependency on hardware (hence the inclusion of LiveClay). I believe Andrew has chosen path No. 2. - while trying to maintain the work that was done in path 1. The 2nd path is the same path Pixologic blazed from the very inception of Zbrush. Mr. Alon wisely foresaw a better reception of his software among a wider group of users - which would manifest itself in much stronger sales - perpetuating both a growing audience and a stronger development environment (because of the resultant profits). Pixologic's is a good business model to follow for prolonged business success. Dependency on hardware standards which are not universally installed is a mistake. Greg Smith

Have you tried the latest beta version? Lots of symmetry problems existed in prior versions. Greg Smith

You are using the latest beta version? Greg Smith

Sounds promising to me. Greg Smith

And, it is quite realistic to think that Pilgway and its products can successfully compete in the marketplace with the Foundry and its products. We should expect it. Greg Smith

All Voxel Layers have to be given topology before they can be permanently moved into the Paint Room. You can either add this topology manually, or use AUTOPO to do this for you. Each Layer in the voxel room needs to be given topology, one at a time - and they appear in the Retopo room as separate "Groups". Each Group must then be "Merged" ("Retopo" menu) into the Paint Room. When this action is completed, there will be a corresponding "Object" layer in the "Tweak" room. You can hide and show each of these Tweak Room layers to see them all or in groups, (in both the Paint Room and the Tweak Room), by clicking the "eye" icon in the Tweak Room. Greg Smith

Michalis: Yes, I've seen it - even on the Big Screen. It impressed everybody. Both the transparent aluminum and the speech input Scotty was attempting with that Mac Plus. Molecular reconstruction, my eye! On a Mac Plus. Whoaa. Yet, it does exist, now: Transparent Aluminum Siri Voice Recognition Things change and technology gets temporarily better. Greg Smith

I sure wish there was a way. Axial arrays are possible and doable now, but not rectangular arrays - as far as I know. No doubt there is a workaround - and Digman probably knows what that is. Greg Smith

Small technological concerns can only exist as a by-product of large corporations and their financial growth. The large corporations initiate and develop technologically creative environments which become suitable for the small fry to proliferate. If it were not for the existence and profitability and success of Microsoft, none of the PC's on which we do our work would exist - nor would the software that empowers the hardware exist. If Apple computer had not financially succeeded, we would not be using any kind of graphical user interface. You can like the facts or hate them - it doesn't change what is fact. You can't make computer hardware or its corresponding computer software without monetary assets on a very large scale. Not at the beginning. Not at the end - only in the interim period between the start and the end - afforded by the large corporations - can small technological development prosper. In down to earth terms: Andrew's success and his ability to develop software which succeeds financially while he lives and works in Ukraine is directly due to the environment that resulted from an initial success in the West. Both political success and financial success. If it were not for that initial success, Ukraine would still be isolated from sales to the West and under the occupation of the Soviet Socialist Republics, who did no financial dealings with the West. They don't buy software in Ukraine, (generally speaking), nor in Russia, to this very day. Greg Smith

Programmers, too, will have an alternative to traditional keyboard input. The current generation of "deep" and talented programmers is dying out, and the next batch will be accustomed to the technology which their phones have initiated them into. Current programmers type and retype the same code, over and over. All of these typed routines can and will be replaced with visual macro "buttons" and intelligent speech recognition for active variables and parameters. Programming software will intelligently anticipate what the programmer is trying to enter. Because the use of our hands is one of the primary things that makes us human, tactile input is here to stay. But, as the world around us becomes more and more complex - visual complexity must take a back seat to sanity. Interfaces will, of necessity, become more and more simple - since the bulk of the population will be spending more and more time with computing devices. New forms of health insurance and legal prosecution will mandate this. All of this kind of future for technology is utterly dependent on society staying relatively "together". If collapse occurs, all of this projection is moot. Greg Smith

"What's Ailing the Video Game Industry" Declining Profits Lots of good statistics and comments here. Getting back into the realm of profit is entirely relative. It does not indicate growth, necessarily. A company can cut its staff by 1/2 and regain some form of profitability, but, in terms of growth, it can still be in negative territory. They are simply being caught in the act of keeping their heads above water. The tablet computer, as it exists at this moment in time, is not the tablet computer that is coming (innovated by Apple). Apple has recently filed a patent for a stylus technology which surpasses anything yet produced. I imagine a tablet that is a cross between a MacBook Air and a Cintiq (with many more "macro" buttons"). Interfaces will become simpler and developed specifically for this Apple platform (and the rip-offs that follow). The traditional typewriter keyboard will be abandoned for speech input and the area occupied by the current keyboard (MacBook Air) will be a composite of a stylus input area and configurable macro "buttons". Neither textual input nor stylus input will happen on the main viewing screen, but on a secondary "screen", hinged to the main screen (like the tiny DS portable gaming device). The current "finger input" will only be an option, but will happen on the secondary screen, since people don't want to obscure the content of their input with their hands. Those who wish to "text" chat will find frequently used textual phrases and abbreviations in a series of buttons which they can pre-program by voice input. The average user's laziness will be directly parallel to the pre-programmed options that will be at their disposal. Both upper and lower hinged screens will be borderless and gradually approach the thickness of a relatively thin sheet of unbreakable glass (Corning). This new technology will not be introduced until the current laptop and tablet technology has been fully drained of profit - which is already happening. I'm not giving up my MacBook Air any time soon - but the near future of technology is becoming apparent. Greg Smith

Digman: That's a really good analogy. I've seen this, too. It would be a miracle if 3DC could be made simple enough, on the surface, I mean - to fit nicely within one tidy window. I'd like that. Greg Smith

"No light at the end of the tunnel for EA Games" "Are AAA Hardcore Games Doomed?" "Blizzard Announces Layoffs of 600 Employees Worldwide" You can do the rest of the research, yourself. Large game making companies are cutting back, period. Losses are the reason. If there is a lot of profit to be made making AAA games - you better hire on as a consultant for those AAA studios who are cutting way back. Yes, the casual games market is much larger than the AAA game market and it is growing, daily. Developers have seen the profits and are leaning to those areas where profits lie. Steam is diversifying because their original offerings were not profitable enough for them. Nobody has claimed that the PC market will disappear entirely - only that the market is shrinking to the point that manufacturers are focusing their energy on markets that are proving to be more profitable - the tablet, the phone. Of course, the shrinking game and entertainment CG companies will still need PC's - but they will need fewer PC's. And, if the trend to send production work to the East continues, powerful PC hardware sales will shrink even more - studios in the East use the hardware which is available cheaply, and simply hire more hands, rather than spend money on powerful hardware, to meet growing production demand. As a kicker to the already declining commercial CG software market - few production houses, in the East, pay for any software, whatsoever. High dollars for high end CG software is a trend that has been declining since the mid-90's. Companies like AutoDesk can afford to raise prices now, because that market is shrinking and driving competitors out of business. And, AutoDesk does not deviate from its dominant marketing plan by doing this - which is to aim their entire product line at the world-wide, high end technical product manufacturing industry, (entertainment based CG software being a tiny part of that plan). Because of AutoDesk's very deep roots, they stand to remain the monopoly that they are - as they actively swallow up those companies weaker and less savvy than themselves. They are poised to become the only sensible supplier of CG software to "The Industry". Others must turn their sights elsewhere and go where the profits go. Greg Smith

I have looked at the new MacBook Pro. It is very powerful and very expensive. And, at its current price point, not many will sell - especially compared to the number of iPads that will sell. Developers of software see these numbers - or soon will - and will not be motivated to produce software that is made to take advantage of the MacBook Pro's powerful hardware. They will look at the broader range of available PC's, and their more modest power - as well as their weak sales numbers vs. the strong sales numbers for iPads and the growing number of sales for competing Android tablets . . . and develop software for the larger market. If they want to stay in business. Apple is gradually weaning its customers away from desktop and laptop computer purchases. Software developers know this. If Apple's sales figures show they have made the right choice - everybody in the hardware manufacturing business will follow their lead. That is, in fact, what we are seeing now. Those who don't plan for the future will be lost in the past. They will become the fodder for nostalgia. A by-product of this reality is what you see happening in the gaming industry. Big title sales are suffering badly. Big studios are witnessing diminishing profits. Console manufacturers sales are dwindling. Steam has just announced their intention to start selling software of every kind - not just games, (due to lack of success). I'm sure we will witness losses and business failures among the largest "Commercial CG" software manufacturers in the near future. The game is changing - people better pay attention. Greg Smith

The "Ignore backfaces" toggle is in the "E" panel - (press "E" on the keyboard to get the panel to pop up). Greg Smith

Yep, it's dying for a number of reasons - the primary one being the success of the tablet computer. Fortune Article You can also see the result of this die-off when going to any electronics store (Best Buy): A few years ago you could find several laptops that had powerful graphics processors built-in, of the nVidia variety. Now, I can't find a PC like this anywhere. You can buy a powerful laptop, at BestBuy, from Apple, however. Laptop sales dominate total PC sales, also. So, if anyone is keeping the idea and reality of a powerful laptop alive, it is Apple. Apple, however, is selling far more tablets than laptops and Apple is dominating the tablet market. We better watch Apple's progress and tune in to the fact that tablets will begin to dominate the software manufacturing marketplace as a result of profitability in the tablet sector. Greg Smith

Gravin: It would be helpful to us if you could record a short video of the steps you are taking, so that we can analyze where the problems begin. You can use the free app "Jing" and the free server "Screencast" to do this. Thanks, Greg Smith

This may not be the answer you are seeking, but, to me the simplest way to go about this entire process is to model in voxels, using "Res+" only when you run out of detail resolution - bringing the final voxel mesh into the 6 million triangle region of resolution. I can go up to about 12,000,000 on my humble MacBook Air without too much delay and performance hit. Use the AUTOPO routine without any density shading or guides - just to see what kind of mesh it gives you, at the resolution you want - add density and guides as needed - as shown in my video here (Part 5): AUTOPO For The Rat Merge the satisfactory result into the Paint Room for Per-Pixel painting to add the really high frequency details. Export your model with the settings you require right from the Paint Room. Greg Smith

3D-Coat has a unique working methodology for "getting things out" of the program. The place that you should use for exporting a topologized mesh accompanied by its corresponding textures is the Paint Room, and its export dialogs. It's the safest bet. You also won't get any permanent UV's until you merge a model into the Paint Room. You can isolate a portion of any voxel sculpt (Voxel Room/Mode) and put it on its own layer for scaling, rotating or altering it completely: 1) Use the "Split" tool and one of the "selection" tools from the "E" panel (press "E" to invoke it) - selecting the portion of your mesh to isolate. 2) Modify the voxel object using any of the Voxel tools and Transforms. 3) Use the "Transform" tool to reposition the isolated voxel layer. 4) From the Voxel "Right-Click" menu - select a "Merge" mode that joins the new voxel layer with the original one. Greg Smith

Tony: I understand the phenomenon - and would never accuse you of hearing something "imaginary" - but I can't imagine Andrew engineering any sort of music into his program - unless he has finally . . . flipped. Greg Smith

Kitbashing: Believe it or not, in the late 80's I was a maintenance man for George Lucas' ILM, when it was run out of a warehouse in San Rafael. I used to show up there at around 4 am to empty the trash and clean things. Among other departments, I had the keys to the model room and model "archive" (a large closet with the remains of the battlecruiser (opening Star Wars sequence), R2D2, the Millennium Falcon, the Death Star, the Ken doll "Luke Skywalker" - dangling from a string from one of the "Walkers", and other interesting plastic constructs. To tell you the truth, it was rather underwhelming. I was hoping to be promoted from maintenance man to model maker - (a hope which never matured). Just before you entered the "Modeling Room" there stood a 20 foot long by 8 foot high steel bookcase with every variety of military model kit from every plastic model making company in existence. The boxes were beat up and "bashed" in a little. Inside the Modeling Room were ordinary large school type tables where the illustrious staff sat, working feverishly on new Lucas projects (they made $8 per hour). At the time they were making Indiana Jones kinds of things - but on the tables were the cannibalised remains of various military model kits (Mr. Sutcliffe is completely correct). The air was filled with the rich aroma of burning model plastic. From my examination of the Death Star and Battlecruiser models - the details were largely composed of tank parts - turrets, guns of all sorts, hatches, other rectangular tank ports and intake hardware. To this very day, the tradition remains the same - make the most complicated looking assemblage of tank parts you can imagine - and throw aerodynamics out the window - (since they will be flying in a vacuum). In fact, this has become one of the most over-worked cliches in the science fiction film "Industry". George Lucas, especially, becomes weary at the sight of these things. Greg Smith

Does this happen with only a specific Brush tool? Are you using the latest beta version? What are your machine specs? If you could outline the exact steps that you took, we can determine if this is a bug more quickly. Greg Smith

The 3DC camera is really a "work-oriented" camera, being designed to rotate around the last point on the model that you worked on or "picked" (clicking on model with right mouse button). There isn't a physical representation of this camera in the viewport (like other apps) - nor is there a 2nd view, allowing you to adjust the main camera from a different point of view. By using "Shift", just as you near the orthographic view you are approaching, you can obtain that view precisely (Top, Front, Side, etc.), releasing the Left Mouse Button after that. Greg Smith