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Here's my first successful retopo and sculpt. The base mesh was made in Archepelis. I retopologized it before voxeling.

This is a Tregg from one of my Vue content product backstories. It's a giant herbivore from the planet Cestus. Kind of a cross between and elephant and an aphid lol....

post-267-1221998514_thumb.jpg

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Voxeltech........the 'on pen' thing is brilliant!!

I'm curious though...this is over 5 million polys. How will this translate outside of voxel space? Would I have to retopo all that detailing?

M

What your looking at right there is a polygon skin thats wrapped over the voxel sculpt. In other words; you never really see the voxels, they are visualised by a polygon representation. In later versions you will be able to save this out as any other mesh (so really; there is not even a conversion to speak of). Its up to you if you want to retopologise that or use it as is after that.

3dioot

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First I want to say how amazed I am about the speed of developing this software - thanks for that!

Is it right that this "alpha-thing" can be used at the moment "only" for sculpting? I haven't found a possibity to export it or for example paint on it. Is that right?

With the the sroll-wheel of my mouse I can change the radius of the tools. But how can I do it with my "stencil" of my wacom? Maybe a shortcut?

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Actually its quite the contrary. Very few lightwavers around these days. Everyone switched to max and maya as is the rest of the world except maybe in the US.

Really? huh I've always heard about how popular LW was in Japan. I thought I heard not to long ago that Japan is like 50% of their market share.

Is it right that this "alpha-thing" can be used at the moment "only" for sculpting? I haven't found a possibity to export it or for example paint on it. Is that right?

For now yes, of course in the future you will be able to paint it one way or another. Many are hoping you will be able to paint directly on the volumetric model, but I think even if it gets converted to polys with maps like the rest of the program I think that will work well too. I'm sure whatever Andrew comes up with will be good.

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For now yes, of course in the future you will be able to paint it one way or another. Many are hoping you will be able to paint directly on the volumetric model, but I think even if it gets converted to polys with maps like the rest of the program I think that will work well too. I'm sure whatever Andrew comes up with will be good.

Thanks for your quick answer. It would be enough for that alpha to make it possible to export it so I can retopologize it and than paint on it as .obj for example!

Do you also have an answer to my other question, Phil, please?

Thanks in advance.

Tilo Deeg

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I work at shinjuku also. Shinjuku gyoen mae. I saw your review of 3dc in cgworld magazine. Maybe I can check out your office. You have a dualxeon. Wow! I use core 2 duo laptop only. But lightwave and 3dc runs perfectly. Lets make 3dc more popular in japan ne?

I was using LW, too.

It is in about 10 years ago.

My LW stopped with 6.5.

My machine is considerably old.

I wanna be 64bit!

A subway was completed this summer.

As a matter of fact, the entrance of the stations is in front of my office.

You can get to my office in a minute from the entrance.

I am disappointed, but cannot invite you to my office.

Because I dislike cleaning. :P

However, I want friend who can tell the 3DC. :lol:

3.00ALPHA-11(DX)

WinXP Pro sp2 32bit

Dual-Xeon3G HT

3G Ram

RadeonX1950

-------------------------

http://www.k2.dion.ne.jp/~output/c/3d-coat.html

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I think i spotted a bit of a flaw in your logic. So you are sculpting with voxels and you come up with a link to reduce the amount of polygons of the surface mesh that is generated from it? If you are talking about resolution in this program it will be reducing or increasing the detail of the voxel grid while maintaining the same volume. The detail of the polygon skin is directly dependant of the resolution of the voxel grid below. It has little use to make it finer then the shapes supplied by the voxels and it would be very silly to make it so low in resolution that it wouldnt display all the shapes made by the voxels. So surface resolution is hardlinked to voxel resolution. Only exception to this is in the final stages where you may want to sculpt the super fine details with meshtools in an extra tesselated version of the surface skin. But that bridge will be crossed when we get there.

3dioot

Just a quick question, since it seems we're on the topic.

I've never sculpted with Voxels before, only in ZB/MB, But I would have thought it would be important to have some way of stepping up and down "resolutions" like in MB/ZB otherwise it seems that it falls victim of the same issues just jumping straight into the highest rez in zb has, the dreaded mesh lumpiness :blink:

Normal practice in zb/mb is to start with the lowest sub-division and sculpt as much as you can, then go up a level...and so on. Likewise for moveing large chunks of the mesh. drop down to a low res, move things around and then step back up again.

How will this will be handled by voxels/3D coat?

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Just a quick question, since it seems we're on the topic.

I've never sculpted with Voxels before, only in ZB/MB, But I would have thought it would be important to have some way of stepping up and down "resolutions" like in MB/ZB otherwise it seems that it falls victim of the same issues just jumping straight into the highest rez in zb has, the dreaded mesh lumpiness :blink:

Normal practice in zb/mb is to start with the lowest sub-division and sculpt as much as you can, then go up a level...and so on. Likewise for moveing large chunks of the mesh. drop down to a low res, move things around and then step back up again.

How will this will be handled by voxels/3D coat?

I believe the "lumpy" effect has a lot to do with how powerful the "smooth" brush is. For example, I sometimes stay at high density and I am able to retain form without lumps in Zbrush 3 due to very powerful smooth brush. In Mudbox 1, I cannot work in this fashion and I have to sculpt in the manner that you describe. It's also the reason why ClayBrush has become a common newer workflow compared to Zbrush 2.

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Im enjoying the latest alpha very much Andrew! Since an hour or so im also the proud owner of 3dcoat professional version. Bought just for the voxel sculpting so i hope you keep up the good work! :lol:

Im working on a bigger sculpt but i didnt get to finish it this weekend. So i decided to draw out what the carve brush needs (all brushes really). I hope it helps and im sorry if im stating the obvious.

Depth and orientation sampling

Ill leave the special brush fallof explenation (which is not the same as the brush profile curve) for next time (i need my sleep).

Ill post up detailed findings with the current alpha when ive finished my sculpt. For now just the biggest ones.

Flatten and pinch brake symmetry! This made me shy away from flatten and pinch which would have been brushes i could have used really well. :mellow:

You said you were working on a voxel flatten and that pinch was really easy in voxels. I hope you are still working on those cause i would love to have them. None of the (pure) voxel tools have the problems the meshtools have (splitting the mesh open and braking symmetry). Please.. dont take the "easy" route. Make voxel tools. :)

Goodnight all

3dioot

PS

Average surface normal will be calculated from the voxels and NOT from the preview mesh ofcourse. Also after a nights sleep ive figured out some principles to improve the clay tool and also make it alot faster (currently it bogs down heavily when used on a high resolution sculpt to the point where it becomes unusable; carve still works fine on HR and i know clay can be just as fast). But ill draw that out after work (~8hrs+)

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Really? huh I've always heard about how popular LW was in Japan. I thought I heard not to long ago that Japan is like 50% of their market share.

Lightwave is more like a hobbyist software here. Like shade, truespace, etc. I think autodesk has more than 50% of the market share in the last 5 years. i like supporting small companies than big corporations though. 3dc, lw, perfect for a freelancer.

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I was using LW, too.

It is in about 10 years ago.

My LW stopped with 6.5.

My machine is considerably old.

I wanna be 64bit!

A subway was completed this summer.

As a matter of fact, the entrance of the stations is in front of my office.

You can get to my office in a minute from the entrance.

I am disappointed, but cannot invite you to my office.

Because I dislike cleaning. :P

However, I want friend who can tell the 3DC. :lol:

3.00ALPHA-11(DX)

WinXP Pro sp2 32bit

Dual-Xeon3G HT

3G Ram

RadeonX1950

-------------------------

http://www.k2.dion.ne.jp/~output/c/3d-coat.html

Wow 10 years! You're a cg veteran. Do you have portfolio? Pls. pm me if you have. I'm only doing cg maybe 2 years. Our office is also the same. So messy!!

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I believe the "lumpy" effect has a lot to do with how powerful the "smooth" brush is. For example, I sometimes stay at high density and I am able to retain form without lumps in Zbrush 3 due to very powerful smooth brush. In Mudbox 1, I cannot work in this fashion and I have to sculpt in the manner that you describe. It's also the reason why ClayBrush has become a common newer workflow compared to Zbrush 2.

I agree that extensive smoothing can help get rid of the lumpiness and that sketching with the clay brush is awesome ;) But I don't think its always practical or the fastest way of going about things, at least not for me.

So I'm curious if there is any way of mimicking the "detail levels" you find in the sub-d sculpting packages in voxels?

Or is can this not be done?

Or maybe this isn't needed? I've only used the stepping up levels method of sculpting :)

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I have updated link to V.12. I have fixed several bugs and add interesting tool - Spray/thaw. It is purely volumetric tool and even can't be represented in surface terminology. It works as a snow growing of wax thawing in dependence on CTRL. I like this tool :)

Also, Mac version of ALPHA V.12 will come today (in several hours).

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Andrew, I was wondering if the alpha releases have the full capability of the last beta release, which I believe is 2.10.05? If so, would you prefer testers use the alpha version for all testing?

I ask because it would seem to be a good idea to make sure bugs are not introduced into the beta from changes made in this alpha evolution.

Hope this isn't too confusing and I apologize in advance if it's already been addressed.

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Andrew, I was wondering if the alpha releases have the full capability of the last beta release, which I believe is 2.10.05? If so, would you prefer testers use the alpha version for all testing?

I ask because it would seem to be a good idea to make sure bugs are not introduced into the beta from changes made in this alpha evolution.

Hope this isn't too confusing and I apologize in advance if it's already been addressed.

All alpha releases have functionality of 2.10.05 and even better - some improvements in retopo tool was made. It is as stable as 2.10.5, so you can use it as release (of course volumetric is in alpha stage)

Volumetric sculpting is separate module that does not affect overall stability.

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I have updated link to V.12. I have fixed several bugs and add interesting tool - Spray/thaw. It is purely volumetric tool and even can't be represented in surface terminology. It works as a snow growing of wax thawing in dependence on CTRL. I like this tool :)

Also, Mac version of ALPHA V.12 will come today (in several hours).

Just a quick reply to tell you i love the new spray tool! Its perfect. While sculpting past weekend i litterally thought how good it would be to have a tool to fill up area's. And here it is; it reacts perfectly to pen pressure and everything and is lightning fast! Thankyou! :lol:

3dioot

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I have never used an alpha-version of a program. But many beta-versions. Your alpha is even much more stable than other released software! :D

I sculpted this night over one hour - without any crash! It's really amazing - after some time it's like sculpting with clay - which I haven't done for years - but only with clean fingers...

It would be nice to have some different profiles to choose from with the curves-tool. Not only the existing "clay-sausage" (round), but also with sharp edges for example. Even better would be, if I could manipulate a control-curve in a separate window.

Is there a possibility to save the attributes of a brush, so that I can have some presets? (In a separate Window) Than I could have my favorite brushes of which I know how they interact with my model. Maybe even with a merged object?

When do you plan to make a bridge to the main program? I'm very excited in the moment of the possiblities!

Is this format I can save at the moment compatible to a later, released version?

Many questions... THANK YOU FOR YOUR EXCELLENT WORK!!!

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I have never used an alpha-version of a program. But many beta-versions. Your alpha is even much more stable than other released software! :D

I sculpted this night over one hour - without any crash! It's really amazing - after some time it's like sculpting with clay - which I haven't done for years - but only with clean fingers...

It would be nice to have some different profiles to choose from with the curves-tool. Not only the existing "clay-sausage" (round), but also with sharp edges for example. Even better would be, if I could manipulate a control-curve in a separate window.

Is there a possibility to save the attributes of a brush, so that I can have some presets? (In a separate Window) Than I could have my favorite brushes of which I know how they interact with my model. Maybe even with a merged object?

When do you plan to make a bridge to the main program? I'm very excited in the moment of the possiblities!

Is this format I can save at the moment compatible to a later, released version?

Many questions... THANK YOU FOR YOUR EXCELLENT WORK!!!

Thanks for feedback!

I plan to add curves profiles very soon. You will be able to create curve that consist of entire obj-files. For example links, rope, spring,...

Export - you will be able to export raw mesh/auto - simplified mesh/retopologised manually object or merge object in scene and paint over it.

Pens - of course there will be presets.

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Thanks for feedback!

I plan to add curves profiles very soon. You will be able to create curve that consist of entire obj-files. For example links, rope, spring,...

Export - you will be able to export raw mesh/auto - simplified mesh/retopologised manually object or merge object in scene and paint over it.

Pens - of course there will be presets.

That's incredible - you're the best. The new tool with spray/thaw ist awesome - very good to handle. I get much smoother surfaces! I'm only a hobbyist (please be gentle to my first ear...)- here you see what I've got after 45 minutes!

Now in combination with the other tools - a dream comes true!

post-939-1222092602_thumb.jpg

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That's incredible - you're the best. The new tool with spray/thaw ist awesome - very good to handle. I get much smoother surfaces! I'm only a hobbyist (please be gentle to my first ear...)- here you see what I've got after 45 minutes!

Now in combination with the other tools - a dream comes true!

post-939-1222092602_thumb.jpg

Wow! Really nice ear, especially for 45 min!

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