3D-Coat 3.0 ALPHA

[Christoph]

I don`t know the programing tech behind voxel/sculpting.

But if jumping back and forth subdivisions levels help with the interaction, faster and real time in the lowest subdivision with big size brushes, the move tool, smooth, and with fast real time interaction in the highest subdivision with small size brushes, just like in poly/sculpting, then definitively please add this feature...

Thanks

[Bancho]

Thank you for the reply.

Those scales made in ZB.

But, we are able to make scales in 3DC.

(It's not easy like the ZB.)

Amazing work! this should give Andrew some fuel to keep pushing 3DC programming How did you make the scales? Ano anatawa nihonjin desuka?

Wao! You can speak japanese!

Yes, I am a japanese.

3.00ALPHA-06(DX)

WinXP Pro sp2 32bit

Dual-Xeon3G HT

3G Ram

RadeonX1950

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

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

[philnolan3d]

Wao! You can speak japanese!

Yes, I am a japanese.

Hehe, just like 2 seconds ago I was sending my mom pictures of the deer in Nara Park.

[Bancho]

Hehe, just like 2 seconds ago I was sending my mom pictures of the deer in Nara Park.

Where are you now!!?

3.00ALPHA-06(DX)

WinXP Pro sp2 32bit

Dual-Xeon3G HT

3G Ram

RadeonX1950

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

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

[SonK]

Thank you for the reply.

Those scales made in ZB.

But, we are able to make scales in 3DC.

(It's not easy like the ZB.)

Wao! You can speak japanese!

Yes, I am a japanese.

3.00ALPHA-06(DX)

WinXP Pro sp2 32bit

Dual-Xeon3G HT

3G Ram

RadeonX1950

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

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

haha, your eigo is better than nihongo. thanks for sharing the tip. Just curious how many polygons was the Zbrush model? And when you merge the mesh, did you subdivide it first? I ask because it looks very detail compare to what i see other people produce with 3.0 alpha so far.

[philnolan3d]

Where are you now!!?

Right now near Philadelphia, PA. Never been to Japan, the pics in question were ones I found on Flickr. I've just always had an interest in Japan. I only understand a little of the language, but I almost had a job at a game studio in Kyoto a few years ago.

[Andrew Shpagin]

This tool is amazing!

It base object imported form ZB.

3.10.00ALPHA-06(DX)

WinXP Pro sp2 32bit

Dual-Xeon3G HT

3G Ram

RadeonX1950

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

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

Wow! Wow! Really cool work.

Now I am not at home (short trip), so I am working only couple of huors per day (yesterday and today), tomorrow I will get back and work will go faster. Now I am improving core of surfacial transforming, it takes some time.

[Crusoe]

It's a little laggy on my notebook's card, but man it is fun. Is there any way to make the model lower res?

Also, the lag will probably improve as you tighten up performance.

[TOXE]

This new tool looks awesome! When we can have also a mac beta?

Congratulations Andrew for your amazing work

-TOXE

[Bo Atkinson]

Now I only know how to increase subdivision level. It is easy and I will make it soon. Decreasing is not so obvious...

About move - it is in process.

Ah, "decreasing subdivision" that is a key interest for me as i think it is key to structural efficiency (and i bet also key to making efficient models).

[Bo Atkinson]

RE geometry of scales... is there no tool for making "displacements" in 3DC. (I have not yet found time to study 3DC, but hope to do so this winter). In other words, make 3D geometry from photo-textures? In my vector 3d ap, (formz), displacements are made based on gray scale. This (presently) can not be a natural photo, but instead must be a sort of a topo-map rendition. Yet through reverse-ray-tracing, it should seem possible to deconstruct the light-scene and reconstruct true 3d elevations of a texture. This is a tool i want. We do see various cameras and devices to make 3d geometry from photos on the market, yet it can be wondered if simplified software might do it.

Perhaps a place to start is with simpler outline tracing of texture-patterns. Use extremely high contrast to pick the important patterns, such as fish scales. Then draw (or trace) lines to make new geometric sub divisions for an new object on a separate layer. Allow user to tweak process. Finally discard the initial 3d object. Keep the resulting 3d mesh. Use the resulting mesh to create a new surface with new subdivision which better match the new geometry.

Some of the newest tutorials almost appear to address this, (or is it just texture painting?) although these videos do not handle well well on Mac. Are other Mac users trying all the video pluggins? Any tips? I am on Mac only and hope 3DC development continues well.

[splodge]

I've been pondering over how 3D Coat could work in future. How about use voxels for creating the base model and then use bump maps for the finer details. (Similar to Modo)?.

As for subdivision levels:

Switching subdivision levels is okay for people with slower machines but I think there are other ways of catering for slow machines. Like having the ability to define areas of your model and then hide those areas when they're not needed.

Subdivision levels are also great for artists in the games industry. These artists are often required to create several levels of detail for their models. I'm not sure if 3D Coat's voxel method would appeal to these kinds of artists anyway. If I was going to make a game asset then I would just use a subdivision based modeler from the start.

3D Coat is really ideal for digital artists that don't want to worry about mesh structure.

[Juan Carlos Montes]

Playing more with this beta and 3dbrush objects in ObjPens folder.

I use base model i didin hexagon, Its kind of creepy but It was fun.

[Bancho]

how many polygons was the Zbrush model? And when you merge the mesh, did you subdivide it first? I ask because it looks very detail compare to what i see other people produce with 3.0 alpha so far.

ZB obj has 858112 polys.

I was not divide it in 3DC.

But that object has 2080758 tris.

I feel that there is not the relationship between Imported-Polygons and Volume.

3DC seems to decide the number of points(triangles) by surface area.

The big object has many points, and the small object has few points.

When divide it, the shape transforms it smoothly, but those polygons are not divided.

The number of points changes, it is a reason that a volume changed.

There is need to do expand object if the detail is necessary.

I'm sorry for my funny English.

3.00ALPHA-06(DX)

WinXP Pro sp2 32bit

Dual-Xeon3G HT

3G Ram

RadeonX1950

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

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

[SonK]

ZB obj has 858112 polys.

I was not divide it in 3DC.

But that object has 2080758 tris.

I feel that there is not the relationship between Imported-Polygons and Volume.

3DC seems to decide the number of points(triangles) by surface area.

The big object has many points, and the small object has few points.

When divide it, the shape transforms it smoothly, but those polygons are not divided.

The number of points changes, it is a reason that a volume changed.

There is need to do expand object if the detail is necessary.

I'm sorry for my funny English.

3.00ALPHA-06(DX)

WinXP Pro sp2 32bit

Dual-Xeon3G HT

3G Ram

RadeonX1950

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

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

Wakarimasu. Basically in the current alpha, if i need to sculpt small details like wrinkles i'll need to scale my imported mesh up. Down side to this workaround is it take alot of ram. Hopefully there'll be easier way to do this in the future.

[Nemoid_]

Playing more with this beta and 3dbrush objects in ObjPens folder.

I use base model i didin hexagon, Its kind of creepy but It was fun.

cool model love it!!! i see how volumetric in 3d coat is starting to rock on !!

[3dioot]

Wow this is something really special. Ive heard of 3dcoat before but doubt it could compete with zbrush (which is currently my sculpting package of choice). Ive always been interested in voxels though and true volumetric sculpting and here it is. An actual working alpha. Im very excited and ive been trying all kind of things already. I really hope you can make this work Andrew. Its quite a challenge cause the tools for "oldschool" polysculpting in zbrush are very advanced and smooth. Ive shown this thread on a site i frequently visited for 3dsmax and it only got a lukewarm reaction. I guess people are unaware and dont see the possibilities this technology brings to digital sculpting. Just the fact i can sculpt with a "constant" resolution regardless of what i do and try is awesome. Even if the resolution itself is rather limited at the moment. To be honest, id love to see you drop everything and just focus on making a really great voxel sculpting program. I think its about time for one. :lol:

As for my question. Id really like to work from a plane (with a bit of thickness of course so it works well voxelized). So ive made one and managed to merge it in but im always stuck with that sphere. Is there any way to get rid of that sphere entirely and replace it with a "primitive" of my own? Just so i can maximize the performance and see what scale gives the best resolution for what it is i want to sculpt. I dont think ive read someone giving a solution for that in this thread (if someone did i apologize). Would be much appreciated.

GrtZ 3dioot

[philnolan3d]

As for my question. Id really like to work from a plane (with a bit of thickness of course so it works well voxelized). So ive made one and managed to merge it in but im always stuck with that sphere. Is there any way to get rid of that sphere entirely and replace it with a "primitive" of my own? Just so i can maximize the performance and see what scale gives the best resolution for what it is i want to sculpt. I dont think ive read someone giving a solution for that in this thread (if someone did i apologize). Would be much appreciated.

Yes. Ckick the merge button and "select" to load your object. Then hit the On Pen button and it will use your object instead of the default sphere. I just tried this and it worked fine. A couple of things I'd like to see with this option though: 1. I picked a cube and it worked, but it kept spinning around as I got to the edges of my object. I'd love to have a way to lock it's rotation it place. 2. it would be nice to have a really quick way to pick some default primitives like a cube , cone, pyramid, etc. Maybe a drop down box or something.

[3dioot]

Nono. Not the shape of the pen tip. Just the sphere that you start out with to sculpt on. I want that replaced by my primitive. Thanks for the effort though.

For now ive erased the sphere by hand by using the line tools which make it very fast and easy. Before i was carving it away which was really slow.

3dioot

PS

First bug report:

When you disable pen pressure influencing radius at the start of each stroke a single blob will be drawn with maximum pressure making this option absolutely unusable.

Also even with this off the stroke will still vary in width depending on pen pressure. It looks as though the stroke consists of a sphere with fixed radius BUT higher pressure will push more of that sphere through the surface thereby creating the impression of the radius (or stroke width) improving.

[philnolan3d]

Sure, it's the same process just remove the last step (on pen). You can subdivide your object and scale it, then hit Enter when your ready to start sculpting.

[Dele]

I like the voxels. Never really messed with anything like that before. The spike and snake tools are very interesting.

I was wondering though, are there any plans on having some kind of basic shape creation? So the user can block out a basic shape to start sculpting from?

As I said, I've never really worked with this kind of sculpting so I might be overlooking or missing something. I think it would be great to have some kind of tool to block out a basic shape with though. Kind of like when you grab clumps of clay in the real world and start smashing them together to block out the basic form.

Would it be possible to have the user add some kind of control points that can have volume values to block out a shape? Something like the image below. The user could add control points and then use the mouse wheel to increase or decrease the volume influence of each control point. Then when done, press a button to finalize the shape and the control points get removed so the user can start sculpting. Would something like this be possible?

-Délé

[Juan Carlos Montes]

I was testing the alpha in my eeepc with DX check out the manipulators in Intel®915Gm/GMS910GML Express Chipset.

But there are still working perfect you can Move Rotate an Scale.

[Juan Carlos Montes]

I like the voxels. Never really messed with anything like that before. The spike and snake tools are very interesting.

I was wondering though, are there any plans on having some kind of basic shape creation? So the user can block out a basic shape to start sculpting from?

As I said, I've never really worked with this kind of sculpting so I might be overlooking or missing something. I think it would be great to have some kind of tool to block out a basic shape with though. Kind of like when you grab clumps of clay in the real world and start smashing them together to block out the basic form.

Would it be possible to have the user add some kind of control points that can have volume values to block out a shape? Something like the image below. The user could add control points and then use the mouse wheel to increase or decrease the volume influence of each control point. Then when done, press a button to finalize the shape and the control points get removed so the user can start sculpting. Would something like this be possible?

-Délé

I think thats a good Idea Délé'

[Crusoe]

If you make a model bigger, it takes up many more Voxels to make it, and thus more ram.

You can already kinda speed blob things out using "Draw 2D", you can then draw things quickly in a flat plain.

Smooth is REALLY REALLY slow right now.

[PoopaScoop]

If you make a model bigger, it takes up many more Voxels to make it, and thus more ram.

You can already kinda speed blob things out using "Draw 2D", you can then draw things quickly in a flat plain.

Smooth is REALLY REALLY slow right now.

Eureka!! So if that's the case, why not have a few quick scale buttons like +50% & -50% buttons, and then we have our subdivsion levels? Makes sense to me... but that could be because I've had a few drinks >.<

[PoopaScoop]

Voxels seems x3 as fast for me in the last release.

Badly in need of a move brush. Or am I missing something?

[splodge]

Badly in need of a move brush. Or am I missing something?

Andrew says it's coming. I suspect he is wanting to get the voxel>surface feature working fully first. The Move brush will use the surface mode.

I personally would like to see all brushes work on voxels. I'm not too keen on the idea of switching modes. But I can imagine that creating new brushes for voxels will be quite time consuming. But early days yet.. I've got faith in Andrew. Whatever he does, he'll do it for a good reason

[philnolan3d]

Would it be possible to have the user add some kind of control points that can have volume values to block out a shape? Something like the image below. The user could add control points and then use the mouse wheel to increase or decrease the volume influence of each control point. Then when done, press a button to finalize the shape and the control points get removed so the user can start sculpting. Would something like this be possible?

Andrew said this is coming. What you describe is like ZBrush's Z-Spheres. The way I understood it his technique will be slightly different, but the same underlying concept.

Is everyone else seeing this bug? Every once it a while while I'm sculpting the brush stroke will shoot towards the camera sometimes straight through the camera so I can see inside of it. If using Ctrl to carve it does the oposite, shooting deep into the model or sometimes punching a hole all the way through.

[PoopaScoop]

This is the area where I think 3dcoat could improve. As more modifiers-like tools & features are added the same main tools for manipulation are re-implemented into the new toolsets. Which will unnecessarily bloat the interface and user friendliness? Its the same reason people hate the Zbrush interface as tools are not in obvious places and scattered around need to me looked for.

I know that the voxels move tool still needs to be implementing but when it is, it should be in the exact same tool and located in the same place as the normal/displacement mode and sculpting mode move tool. And this goes for all tools that ideally from the artist point of view do the exact same thing.

I know it probably calls for a lot of reorganising but 3dcoats biggest gripe is the interface.

I sound harsh >.< just wanting to help

[philnolan3d]

I know that the voxels move tool still needs to be implementing but when it is, it should be in the exact same tool and located in the same place as the normal/displacement mode and sculpting mode move tool. And this goes for all tools that ideally from the artist point of view do the exact same thing.

Yes even if the tool works differently behind the scenes, all the end user knows is "I want to Flatten (or whatever)" So the first Flatten tool they see should be the one they're looking for. And they should see it pretty quickly too.