Sculptris - dynamic mesh tesselation

[SonK]

One thing that always drives me nuts about sculptirs is that it always seems to have that seam going down the middle. I haven't tried the most recent version maybe there's a way around it.

oh that's the symmetry tool when its active you'll see the line, you can just turn it off. One thing that bothers me is there's no way to sculpt asymmetrically. The symmetry tool when turn ON will always mirror any changes you make, so you kinda have to model the asymmetrical stuff at the very end.

Sculptris even though its alpha software the brushes feel just right, i dont get taht "feeling" with the voxel brush in 3DCoat, Maybe its time for Andrew to focus on improving the surface tools, IMO were hitting a wall with voxel technology.

BTW, i actually like having that line when symmetry is turn on..its not distracting for me at least and helps you see where your center of gravity is.

[philnolan3d]

I can't say I feel the same way, to me the sculptris brushes feel uncomfortable and unnatural to use.

[SonK]

I can't say I feel the same way, to me the sculptris brushes feel uncomfortable and unnatural to use.

Well the sculptris brush feel like ZB/Mudbox brushes, really! The proof is in the pudding, i can not do that kind of work with 3DCoat voxel brushes, not without frustration(they don't handle thin areas well..)at least.

Oh that Frog was done using a mouse so yea the brushes are great It's the only app i can get away with using a mouse lol. Here is the old head i did:

http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/9242/headvq.png

[Javis]

Yeah Bloodlust is better IMHO too, then the first. Like them both though.

Hey dude, I love Chronotrigger! I just finished it up with 5 or so of the different endings on the DS, they also added another ending too BTW. I always have a hard time when it comes to dealing with Magus (later in Antiquity that is... You know the part I'm talking about. ), what to do with him? Join? Fight? Tough decision.

Right anyway, looking good! Just like Frog.

EDIT: PS, FFIV & Chronotrigger are still some of my fave games on the SNES.

[lino]

I took a ride in Sculptris and I must say I love how brushes react and how you can add very thin detail so smoothly. And is so fast!

I'd really like to see something similar in 3D Coat....variable voxels detail on the same mesh? Is it possible? I'd like to know what Andrew thinks about it.

[philnolan3d]

It's fast until you start adding any amount of detail. Get anywhere near 500,000 polys and it slows to a crawl. Imagine when you get into the millions needed for a detailed character. I'm playing with it right now and while I do enjoy the way the brush works occasionally, most of the time it feels like sculpting on a water balloon. I also hate how things often don't stay where I put them, even when working elsewhere on the model.

[lino]

I'm wondering if we're talking about the same version.

Even getting to about 1 million polys is fast on my system, and the brushes feedback is absolutely good.

I'd really be happy to get the same feeling in Voxel Sculpting in 3D Coat....but probably we're talking about something different here, adaptive poly detail.

It's fast until you start adding any amount of detail. Get anywhere near 500,000 polys and it slows to a crawl. Imagine when you get into the millions needed for a detailed character. I'm playing with it right now and while I do enjoy the way the brush works occasionally, most of the time it feels like sculpting on a water balloon. I also hate how things often don't stay where I put them, even when working elsewhere on the model.

[philnolan3d]

I just downloaded it right before I played with it and commented. Unless there's a newer version than Alpha 3.

[lino]

I just downloaded it right before I played with it and commented. Unless there's a newer version than Alpha 3.

Same version here. Pretty strange then.

I'd like to be able to do

in 3DCoat as smoothly as it can be done in Sculptris (I want that Crease brush!!!).

[SonK]

Yeah Bloodlust is better IMHO too, then the first. Like them both though.

Hey dude, I love Chronotrigger! I just finished it up with 5 or so of the different endings on the DS, they also added another ending too BTW. I always have a hard time when it comes to dealing with Magus (later in Antiquity that is... You know the part I'm talking about. ), what to do with him? Join? Fight? Tough decision.

Right anyway, looking good! Just like Frog.

EDIT: PS, FFIV & Chronotrigger are still some of my fave games on the SNES.

Yeah, usually sequels suck but they manage to make it better I really need to get that on DVD and Akira. Abit off topic, but have you seen this before?:

www.opcoder.com/projects/chrono

I just downloaded it right before I played with it and commented. Unless there's a newer version than Alpha 3.

In Alpha 2 i couldn't really go pass 600,000 triangles - I'm still looking for the upper limits of Alpha 3. The Frog is 1.9 million triangles unoptimized - i think i can push it further. Mind you the current builds aren't multi-threaded(the MT version can handle more polygons brushing).

[philnolan3d]

How are you getting this version that others aren't?

[Pimpmymonkey]

How are you getting this version that others aren't?

Hi Phil,

Here is a link to the thread: http://drpetter.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=tech&action=display&thread=105

Here is the link to the Multi Thread plugin: http://drpetter.se/dump/sculptris-mt.zip

Just unzip it and put it in the same folder as the Alpha 3 exe.

Try it I think you'll like it.

P. Monk

[philnolan3d]

I tried it. It was really fast in the beginning but then as before, if not worse it started really getting sluggish and laggy as soon as I started hitting around 240,000 triangles. Here's even a video and you can see for yourself:

http://screencast.com/t/MWUwMzEwMzct

That on top of the "water balloon" effect just kills it for me, I think it would be great if this could work and wish him luck in getting it there, right now I just don't see it personally.

I did find some use for it on my current 3DC sculpture I had some lumps that were hard to get rid of so I exported and decimated it as an OBJ and loaded into sculptris, I was about to smooth out the lumps. and imported it back into 3DC. I lost some of the detail but in this case it wasn't a big deal to put it back. it did create some of it's own small lumps in the mesh so it wasn't a hundred percent perfect, but it helped.

[SonK]

wow Phil it kinda sucks that your having a totally different experience then most of the people using it. I just finish this alien baby boy and at 1 million triangles it was still butter smooth and thats on the non MT version/build.

I tried it. It was really fast in the beginning but then as before, if not worse it started really getting sluggish and laggy as soon as I started hitting around 240,000 triangles. Here's even a video and you can see for yourself:

http://screencast.com/t/MWUwMzEwMzct

That on top of the "water balloon" effect just kills it for me, I think it would be great if this could work and wish him luck in getting it there, right now I just don't see it personally.

I did find some use for it on my current 3DC sculpture I had some lumps that were hard to get rid of so I exported and decimated it as an OBJ and loaded into sculptris, I was about to smooth out the lumps. and imported it back into 3DC. I lost some of the detail but in this case it wasn't a big deal to put it back. it did create some of it's own small lumps in the mesh so it wasn't a hundred percent perfect, but it helped.

[ifxs]

SonK: GREAT WORK!!!

as for my sculptris experience: buttery smooth here with tons of polys..

I am quite impressed with this app, I've begun doing detail sculpting of exported obj's in sculptris with great speed and none of the hours of merge bar issues 3DC gives me(or the IMO illogical/overly-detailed interface of ZB ??)...

I still like voxels in 3DC for making the base mesh... but I'm beginning to crate sculpts from scratch in sculptris and cant get enough of the optimized poly placement, it alleviates so many unnecessary polys that ALL other sculpt apps apply for detail work, genius IMO

any medium or high level detail is just fluid and logically placed in sculptris..., and still free$$ too.

did anyone see the recent updates on the UV islands/mapping coming in a new build soon? looking good.

[geo_n]

Is this free software? I think it could be great to have sculptris to 3dc retopo and paint workflow.

[ifxs]

sculptris is FREE

[philnolan3d]

For now it's free. He has said he's looking into making it donation ware with a higher price to get added support. Things may also change if it starts getting popular, you never know.

[SonK]

a quick skull sketch, just studying the cheek bones mostly and i think i understand it now

I did experience the brush lag Phil was talking about, but after restarting the app it went away - It might be because of a memory leak(programming issue).

If you have some time and want to help solve the slow down problem:

http://drpetter.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=tech&action=display&thread=142

EDIT: Phil, just curious if you tried the multi-threaded version and if it suffer from the brush lag issue? It doesn't on my computer.

[ifxs]

The MT build did the trick for me too.

a recent sculpt with sculptris that caught my eye(by Taron)

Check out the video on this one

another cool video on this one too

lightwave to sculptris

[philnolan3d]

EDIT: Phil, just curious if you tried the multi-threaded version and if it suffer from the brush lag issue? It doesn't on my computer.

Sorry I didn't see this response. Yes, that's what I was saying post #73, I tried it and it seems just as bad if not worse.

[LJB]

Really impressed by this little application. Unfortunately I haven't the time to sit and play with it too much and it has limited functionality in the areas that I need it like common navigation and predictable short cuts. But I have to agree with Sonk on the brushes feel wonderful. I hope he chooses to develop this app further. I like the smart uncluttered UI to. I can see it will be a nice environment for sketching out stuff.

Im further impressed by the high detail that can be achieved and this really does go to prove like IFXS mentions that Organised tri's can produce high level of detail/crispness.

When I have a little time I will play some more.

[JamesE]

Really impressed by this little application. Unfortunately I haven't the time to sit and play with it too much and it has limited functionality in the areas that I need it like common navigation and predictable short cuts. But I have to agree with Sonk on the brushes feel wonderful. I hope he chooses to develop this app further. I like the smart uncluttered UI to. I can see it will be a nice environment for sketching out stuff.

Im further impressed by the high detail that can be achieved and this really does go to prove like IFXS mentions that Organised tri's can produce high level of detail/crispness.

When I have a little time I will play some more.

Agree with the nav and shortcuts issues you have too. I don't understand why he wouldn't set up common behavior as seen in all the other sculpting apps. Shift = smooth, ctrl = invert, and alt = nav. It would be so easy to accomodate this by moving the alt brush edit popup over to spacebar and then rearranging the other stuff I just mentioned to match the other sculpting apps. Having a completely separate key bind for smooth is maddening when trying to use it fluidly, and using alt for anything other than nav is just... wrong. I'm surprised SonK isn't bitching up a storm about that, since it's even more bizarre than zbrush's nav. =]

Performance wise it feels pretty good on my crappy work machine, and the feel of the brushes is definitely better than in 3dcoat. Wish he had a mac version though.

[philnolan3d]

Yeah I will agree too, that stuff above bothered me more than the other things mentioned, even if those were resolved I think this stuff would still be a big down side.

[SonK]

Sorry I didn't see this response. Yes, that's what I was saying post #73, I tried it and it seems just as bad if not worse.

Now that is really weird BTW if can reproduce the brush lag with clear steps please please post it - i posted my findings already(which aren't much).

http://drpetter.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=tech&action=display&thread=142

Agree with the nav and shortcuts issues you have too. I don't understand why he wouldn't set up common behavior as seen in all the other sculpting apps. Shift = smooth, ctrl = invert, and alt = nav. It would be so easy to accomodate this by moving the alt brush edit popup over to spacebar and then rearranging the other stuff I just mentioned to match the other sculpting apps. Having a completely separate key bind for smooth is maddening when trying to use it fluidly, and using alt for anything other than nav is just... wrong. I'm surprised SonK isn't bitching up a storm about that, since it's even more bizarre than zbrush's nav. =]

Performance wise it feels pretty good on my crappy work machine, and the feel of the brushes is definitely better than in 3dcoat. Wish he had a mac version though.

The old Sonk might of complain but the new one doesn't There's just way too much positive energy on earth nowadays, it wasn't that way month(s) ago.

The navigation in sculptris is very easy to pick up at lease with my mouse(I have a scroll wheel and a separate middle mouse button).

Most of the time your rotating the mesh so i use my MMB for that, for zoom i use the scroll wheel, for pan i was SHIFT + MMB - it's second nature really. I also like the ALT brush context menu, since my thumb is right there and if you want precising zoom you use Ctrl+Alt+LMB . Guys don't small issue like those hold you back from using a very fun and innovative application!

Zbrush 3.2 right click navigation it's really easy to move,pan,zoom. I do not find sculptris navigation any worse/better then ZB with regards to the right click navigation(both are comfortable for me).

@LJB, it definitely has a place in the sculpting pipeline (i.e. concept sketching), things like rocks are great to sculpt in it also. I do hope he add smooth hotkey/bind(CTRL since its not being used).I can't wait to see what you do with it love the avatar sculpts you did!

[JamesE]

Now that is really weird BTW if can reproduce the brush lag with clear steps please please post it - i posted my findings already(which aren't much).

The old Sonk might off complain - but the new one doesn't there's just way too much positive energy on earth nowadays, it wasn't that way month(s) ago.

The navigation in sculptris is very easy to pick up at lease with my mouse(I have a scroll wheel and a separate middle mouse button).

Most of the time your rotating the mesh so i use my MMB for that, for zoom i use the scroll wheel, for pan i was SHIFT + MMB - it's second nature really. I also like the ALT brush context menu, since my thumb is right there and if you want precising zoom you use Ctrl+Alt+LMB . Guys don't small issue like those hold you back from using a very fun and innovative application!

Zbrush 3.2 right click navigation it's really easy to move,pan,zoom. I do not find sculptris navigation any worse/better then ZB with regards to the right click navigation(both are comfortable for me).

@LJB, it definitely has a place in the sculpting pipeline (i.e. concept sketching), things like rocks are great to sculpt in it also. Ido hope he add smooth hotkey(CTRL since its not being used)

Glad to see you finally got over that issue. =]

You will never catch me sculpting with a mouse. =]

[SonK]

tablet > mouse - but most of the time i just don't feel like using it.

[Ghostdog]

How is it for abstract works? Any tools like 3DC's curves, twist/bend?

*cheeky comment* And what is it with 99% of the sculpting communities preferences for doing head busts and bodies. Poohey! to that I say, do something dark and twisted and ugly!

[philnolan3d]

Thing is doing something dark and ugly is easy, there's no reference for what it should look like. But with a human head or body on the other hand, everybody knows what they look like because we see them every day, so it's much more of a challenge to get it right.

[michalis]

Now philnolan3d, no offence just to have a nice debate, this is quite philosophical. "everybody knows what they look like (humans)". Its like saying, "sun will rise tomorrow " how do you know this? Experience? Science? Faith? Because I'm still trying (after so many years in art schools, personal shows in galleries etc) to understand how a human (even my closer friend or me) looks like. Humans look like monsters, (monster= you can't think or speak about it, remember moby dick). I got tired seen all these monsters, trolls, etc in this CG society. On the other hand, these look more human than other naturalistic portraits in most cases.