Advanced Member Skaven252 Posted December 25, 2008 Advanced Member Report Share Posted December 25, 2008 Hello all, I just recently got introduced to 3D-Coat and it looks really interesting as a part of a 3D modeling and texturing pipeline. Plus the way it's constantly being developed and the new voxel sculpting tools... awesome. I haven't bought it quite yet, but with the discount and all it's a matter of days (I'm on Xmas holiday now). I've tried out the Fractal Fills function in 3D-Coat, and read somewhere here that Andrew has plans to expand the fractal selection and fill functions (rotation? two-axis anisotropy?) someday. I immediately started thinking about DarkTree. It's a program that allows you to combine multiple different fractals to create really good-looking volumetric materials, and thru the Simbiont plugin it works with Maya, 3DS Max and what not. DarkSim are also working on a program called Tactile Ink (currently alpha), which allows you to paint procedural materials on a flat plane. The're working on the ability to paint on meshes, but it's still under development. But then, 3D-Coat already allows you to paint on meshes! I think DarkTree/TI and 3D-Coat - each with their features, advantages and limitations - could complement each other very well. I tried searching this forum but found no mention of DarkTree, so I thought I'd bring this topic up. So, instead of re-inventing the wheel and trying to build all these features in these both programs, how about some kind of integration between the two? It's an interesting thought, no? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member WillBellJr Posted January 1, 2009 Member Report Share Posted January 1, 2009 I'm a DarkTree user as well and any kind of DT support in 3D-Coat would be greatly appreciated! -Will Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Shpagin Posted January 1, 2009 Report Share Posted January 1, 2009 There is very easy way to integrate it. 1) Make texture in Dark Tree and save it 2) Fill Tool->Add custom material, import texture with smooth cube mapping It is good emulation, there will not be seams during filling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advanced Member Skaven252 Posted January 2, 2009 Author Advanced Member Report Share Posted January 2, 2009 1) Make texture in Dark Tree and save it2) Fill Tool->Add custom material, import texture with smooth cube mapping Yep, I've already tried that and it works nicely. But there is a bit of seaming because the textures are reduced to 2D ( = not volumetric), so if there's a recognizable pattern in the texture it will break up where the cubic mapping blends. If you could use a volumetric DarkTree texture to modulate a Fill (via Simbiont), it would give the users access to a huge variety of volumetric procedurals that can be authored with DarkTree, and you would not need to expand the fractal selection of 3DC. From the DarkTree download page you can find the DarkTree Engine which allows you to author Simbiont to any graphics software. In the Simbiont download page there are examples of several "community projects", where people have authored Simbiont for software such as Blender and Mental Ray Maya. DarkTrees can also be Tweaked with maps. You can use a color or grayscale map to control a variable within a DarkTree texture. For example there is a material called "Ghoul" which looks like green skin, but by adjusting a Tweak you can make it look red and boiled. By applying a map to this Tweak parameter, you can make the redness and boiledness appear only in certain parts of the model. In 3DC, maybe this could be done either via Cavity masking, or by creating a grayscale Layer and using that to control the Tweak. So, all in all, it's doable and would be useful, but of course there are more exciting areas of development in 3DC right now. Such as volumetric sculpting, so I'm not ushering you or anything, just cherishing the thought. Since 3DC also supports 3rd party plugins, I suppose some 3rd party could also try the integration. How many 3D-Coat users use DarkTree? I could set up a poll in the discussion forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Shpagin Posted January 2, 2009 Report Share Posted January 2, 2009 If you will find someone who is interested & able to code connection between apps, I will help in realisation of connector. Can Dark tree produce volume texture? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advanced Member Skaven252 Posted January 2, 2009 Author Advanced Member Report Share Posted January 2, 2009 If you will find someone who is interested & able to code connection between apps, I will help in realisation of connector. I can ask around. Can Dark tree produce volume texture? Yes, almost all DarkTree procedurals are volumetric by nature. There are only a few components that are 2D. They can be combined together into a "tree" with various operations and operators to produce very versatile textures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member WillBellJr Posted January 3, 2009 Member Report Share Posted January 3, 2009 Skyler and the other developers are very helpful over at DarkSim. They may have time or incentive to get you going with something to help you support Darktree or their Symbionts. An email may be all that's needed to get a support channel open for 3D-Coat. I admit, having an app like 3D-Coat which also had a Darktree Symbiont for texturing would be pretty amazing. I've had my Symbionts all the way from Hash Animation Master, trueSpace, Lightwave, and now XSI though unsupported. Cinema 4D had Symbiont support in earlier versions, however nothing for v10 & v11 so far... -Will Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advanced Member ggaliens Posted January 8, 2009 Advanced Member Report Share Posted January 8, 2009 Will Bell ... can you tell me (us) a little about how DarkTree shaders get integrated into other apps ???? Is it just during the rendering phase ??? I though DarkTree seemed a bit slow the one time I tried it and decided I wanted to stick with 3Delight/RenderMan shaders w/o extra DarkTree muscle. I guess the idea is that the DarkTree fits into 3DCoat ...rather than 3DCoat having to export a .RIB with .sl shaders and such to do RenderMan style ??? I think I don't know enough about DarkTree. Some some opinions and concepts from a long time user would be interesting. I thought maybe like RenderMan ... DarkTree was dying out in many circles. Excuse me please for my ignorance. I need to know more here. ----------------------------------------------------- I've had my Symbionts all the way from Hash Animation Master, trueSpace, Lightwave, and now XSI though unsupported. Cinema 4D had Symbiont support in earlier versions, however nothing for v10 & v11 so far... -Will Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advanced Member Skaven252 Posted January 9, 2009 Author Advanced Member Report Share Posted January 9, 2009 Will Bell ... can you tell me (us) a little about how DarkTree shaders get integrated into other apps ????Is it just during the rendering phase ??? In other programs this would be the case. But for 3D-Coat, it would be most useful if it was available as a Fill modulator. That is, you could choose a DarkTree texture as one of the fill modulation options. Being able to rotate and scale the built-in fill procedurals in 3D-Coat more freely would also be a very nice feature. Currently they can't be rotated (AFAIK), and Anisotropy only scales the procedural by one axis, in one direction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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