7.5 Surface Mode & Tools
to edit. To change to surface mode, you must click on the cube icon in the VoxTree for which layer you would like to edit in surface mode, you will then see a wavy line, this line represents surface mode. Surface mode vs volume mode is MUCH faster for sculpting. Only the surface mode tools will be available while editing in surface mode along with the Pose, Move and Transform tools. All of the surface tools have counter-parts from the volume sculpting tools: Draw is similar to Airbrush, Pinch is to Vox Pinch, Shift is to Vox Follow, Flatten is to Scrape, and Clay is to Clay. There are also two unique tools to the surface tool set,
which we shall discuss below:
Draw. The draw tool is great for sculpting horns, or anything else like that very
quickly. It is very much like the airbrush tool, however it only operates on the surface
of a volumetric object.
Pinch. This is very great for making very nice tight edges, cavities and peaks. You can better see that on the pictures below. It is indentical to the Vox Pinch tool, however it only operations on the surface of a volumentric object.
Shift. This tool drags the surface topology along with the brush. It’s great for producing wrinkles and so on the character or a creature or for making cloth. It is indentical to the Vox Follow tool, however it only operations on the surface of a volumentric
object.
Surface Clay. The clay tool will allow you to place strokes quickly onto your voxel sculpt. The difference with this tool and the carve brush, is that it will also simultaneously smooth the surface after you’ve brushed it. It is indentical to the volume
clay tool, however it only operations on the surface of a volumentric object.
Gum. The gum tool is really great for getting nice details on a mesh, it is unique to the surface tool set. It’s the fastest way to make skin, pores and wrinkles. The higher resolution the better will details look. This tool is commonly used to sculpt minute details onto an object.
Rapid. The rapid tool’s name is pretty descriptive, it’s one of the quickest tools in 3DCoat to sculpt in general shapes. This tool is almost the opposite of the gum tool in this regard, it doesn’t respect pen alphas, only brush size and intensity. Another great thing about the rapid tool, is that if you have two voxel object layers in the viewport that are
overlapping eachother in space, it will try its best to compensate by building up the area between the two.