[Solved] How to Sculpt sharp edges or the correct usage of Pinch tool

[Malo]

I have tested every thing that you have mentioned.

For these exactly sharp edges that i need on my axe, is cutoff and/or subtract with primitives the best way.

Pinch or crease always deform the area around the edge too, and this is what i dont need.

For hardsurface armors, on that i makes no difference if the areas around the edge get deformed, yes pinch and crease works good.

Maybe the Plane Tool could do the job too, but cutoff is much easier to use in my eyes.

[BeatKitano]

Pinch or crease always deform the area around the edge too, and this is what i dont need.

I'm glad I'm not the only one saying it, pinch in 3dcoat literaly is a black hole: it absorbs the curve energy in the brush radius, and no setting can change that...

I'm really happy to see I'm not the only one noticing it. In zbrush you can use pinch default: it tries to keep the pinched edge the same elevation, press alt and it works like 3dcoat: it pinch to the lowest level. It's REALLY missing in 3dc.

I'm talking about lc/surface pinch. Voxel pinch is almost ok (even if it still round the surface around the center of your brush a bit)

[Malo]

...pinch in 3dcoat literaly is a black hole...

Not realy.

I get in mudbox, blender, zbrush and sculptris the same deformation with pinch. It is not only 3d coat alone.

[digman]

Here is a picture using the pinch brush in surface mode with my own alpha and settings..

I would not call this destroying the plane, Sure the pinch brush is going to slightly round down the edge because it is pinching the surface mode mesh but in my example it is not extreme.

The corners get the worse deformation.

If you want completely straight edges (no beveling at all) you would use different tools and techniques.

I used the strokes with spline tool from the e-panel.

Remove stretching de-selected. I relax the stretching of polygons around the edge if necessary using the TSmooth brush set to relaxation and tangent turned off. You can very close to the edge without destroying it using the TSmooth brush.

[AbnRanger]

I'm glad I'm not the only one saying it, pinch in 3dcoat literaly is a black hole: it absorbs the curve energy in the brush radius, and no setting can change that...

I'm really happy to see I'm not the only one noticing it. In zbrush you can use pinch default: it tries to keep the pinched edge the same elevation, press alt and it works like 3dcoat: it pinch to the lowest level. It's REALLY missing in 3dc.

I'm talking about lc/surface pinch. Voxel pinch is almost ok (even if it still round the surface around the center of your brush a bit)

I'll try and put up a feature request....so we have that option. I still feel like CreaseClay is the closest thing to this. I use a soft brush alpha, lots of falloff and a large brush, and it will usually pull/push gracefully as it creases. I would like to have the specific behavior...as an option...Beat is talking about, in the standard Pinch brushes, though.

[alvordr]

My thoughts on this is that you'll never get that perfect right angle in 3DC, as it is designed to project your voxel mesh onto a polygonal mesh. The only way that I know to do this is to have at least some angle to the edge. However, the perception of a sharp edge is often all that is needed and can be done in 3DC.

[Psmith]

There are some other ways to skin this kind of cat:

When making anything with a "knife edge", there are at least 2 tools which let you automatically apply this kind of profile to an entire edge - the "Grow Tool" and the "2D Paint" Tool - used in conjunction with one of the spline based drawing tools from the "E" panel.

It's true - the knife edge profile will go around the whole edge - but it is a nice bevel that pretty accurately simulates the edge of a blade - without much muss or fuss.

In the case of the "Grow Tool", choose the "Sharp border" option - and you can even adjust the depth of the bevel. The thickness of the object is determined by the depth of the brush.

I do realize we are talking about the edges of a cube primitive - but you can get these kinds of sharp edges simply by thinking ahead and giving the object enough resolution for a sharp edge. The "Cutoff" tool also makes very nice, sharp, crisp edges - and can be any shape.

Now, I have noticed that it is still difficult to "paint" or "draw" a sharp edge - relying on the Brush Alpha shape, alone. Even using a Spacing of 1, I still get the residue of multiple copies being placed, one after another. Seems to me, Andrew almost had this fixed, at one point.

Greg Smith