New user looking from some answers...

[Thor]

Hello all,

Firstly I'd just like to say that I have just downloaded the demo today and even though I haven't really done much with it yet, I'm impressed by the clean interface. Although I am bewildered by everything at the moment.

Now firstly I use Cinema 4D, Silo and Maxwell render as well as ZBrush. I use Cinema 4D or Silo to model, and then Cinema 4D to set up the scene before sending it off to Maxwell for the final render. Zbrush I use mainly to detail the mesh etc, but to be honest with you I can't get used to the interface, and Displacement never works out too good for me.

So on to my questions.

1. What kind of polycount could I expect for my system which doesn't use Cuda (I have two 5770's) 4GB of ram and a 6 core 1055T processor clocked at 4GHz. Anything near 20 million polygons would be great.

2. Will I have any problems importing from Silo to 3DC and then out to Cinema 4D with displacements etc?

3. In ZBrush you are able to use Alphas to add engraving etc to the mesh, but it's often hard to position the alpha exactly where I want it. Will it be any easier with 3DC? i.e I have noticed the pen tool.

4. Can you use the pen tool to mask parts easily? Again ZBrush has advanced in this department, but I need more precision. Can 3DC draw multiple masks at once with the pen tool?

5. ZBrush has a nice new feature called MatchMaker which allows you to morph one object around another, does 3DC have anything similar?

Well that's all for now I think, and I hope someone can help me with some of these questions. I'll now go and mess with the demo and try to learn a few things.

Cheers

[philnolan3d]

1. What kind of polycount could I expect for my system which doesn't use Cuda (I have two 5770's) 4GB of ram and a 6 core 1055T processor clocked at 4GHz. Anything near 20 million polygons would be great.

2. Will I have any problems importing from Silo to 3DC and then out to Cinema 4D with displacements etc?

3. In ZBrush you are able to use Alphas to add engraving etc to the mesh, but it's often hard to position the alpha exactly where I want it. Will it be any easier with 3DC? i.e I have noticed the pen tool.

4. Can you use the pen tool to mask parts easily? Again ZBrush has advanced in this department, but I need more precision. Can 3DC draw multiple masks at once with the pen tool?

5. ZBrush has a nice new feature called MatchMaker which allows you to morph one object around another, does 3DC have anything similar?

Well you're CPU kicks mines butt I think you should have no problem reaching 20 mil. Keeping in mind however that voxels have triangle polys on them so that's 20 million tri's versus the quads you may be used to.

As long as they support LWO or OBJ and UV maps there should be no problem at all

I don't know zbrush too well, in 3DC you can load an image as a mask and it has a separate set of controls for handling the placement of the mask on screen

In 3DC this is referred to as Freeze. You have to switch to Surface mode, which temporarily converts the voxels to polys, then the Freeze tool works just like any of the brushes in the painting room. Any pen tip can be used as well as any of the other tools. Here's a little example video:

http://screencast.com/t/M2RmMWE1YWYt

I've never heard of this matchmaker, it's hard to really understand what it does without seeing in action.

[G-Rom84]

I've never heard of this matchmaker, it's hard to really understand what it does without seeing in action.

it forces one piece of mesh to conform the shape of another.

here is demo of the process

[philnolan3d]

Hmm, No I can't think of anything 3DC that would do that. I would probably just sculpt it in that shape in the first place, or use some of the other tools like Pose to bend it into that shape.

[Thor]

Thanks a lot for the response, that's cleared a lot up. I did forget to ask, is it possible to view multiple levels of subdivision in 3DC? i.e in ZBrush you can select different sub-division levels of your model.

[philnolan3d]

Yes but it works differently than poly sculpting apps. 3DC does not need you to start with a low res model, you can start with any resolution and always reduce by 2X, 4X, or 8X, work on the low res version, then jump back up to the high res with all of the changes intact.

Here is the official video on it:

[Psmith]

Actually, if you have a model that is saved as an .obj, etc., you could import that .obj as a brush alpha. ( I'm not sure what the default resolution that 3D-Coat uses when it converts an .obj to a brush alpha). But, once encapsulated in a "brush", you could then use the "Extrude" brush function and just click once on the spot that you want to be the center of the "wrapped" model.

3D-Coat respects surface curvature, for example, (and any other surface feature), when it applies a brush as a "stamp" - which is what it is when you only click once on the parent model. In this way, you have, effectively, "wrapped" one object onto and around another.

In 3D-Coat, this is not as powerful a solution as the one in Zbrush, because, being only a "brush tip", the object is of limited resolution, (so detail might be lost), and "clipping" will take place as the area of the brush alpha exceeds that visible from the camera view.

Try this out, using a sphere and any of the "object-like" alphas that come with the software. You'll see the limitations right away. But, it could work well when you want less than a 180 degree "wrap".

What I have petitioned Andrew about is having a "capture" tool that automatically transfers, any object in the voxel room that has been "captured" by this special tool, and coverts it to a brush alpha. Not that we would be copying anybody by doing so - (Andrew's work has been copied many times). Having such a tool would open up many possibilities and speed up the design process.

Greg Smith

[philnolan3d]

That's a good idea, I hadn't thought to load it as a brush. You could even sculpt something in 3DC like was done in that video, save that as a normal .3B file and load that in as a brush.

[G-Rom84]

I found a tutor(old enough but think it would be useful) on vimeo about wraping objects with cloth in 3DC, not so fast solution like you have in ZBrush, need some time to calculate but... as variant