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A 3D program I can appreciate

exupery

exupery

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 26, 2013
36
0
As a traditional sculptor I have been frustrated by not being able to find a 3d program (free) that works more the way I have been working over the years.
Blender has some wonderful features but I have been barely able to master even the basics with the complex UserInterface.

Tonight I discovered Sculpris, a free application for the Mac or PC.
In less than an hour I created a head without even looking at a manual.
What a lot of fun!
 
Blender isn't that bad if you can remember hotkeys. Zbrush is probably one of the best sculpting based programs, but it's UI also takes some time to learn initially. It's somewhat expensive, but some of the resellers often put it on sale for less than Pixologic charges. You can even find the list of resellers on their site. There isn't anything better than sculptris for 3d sculpts unless you want to spend money on it. Autodesk has student software with a non-commercial restriction. If you are able to go that route, you could try mudbox.
 
before reading your post to the end I was going to suggest Z-Brush, but wow, nice little program, by the same maker as Z-Brush.

When you want to go more pro with your modelling definitely Z-Brush is recommendable.
 
As others have said, if you like Sculptris wait until you get to ZBrush.

ZBrush has attracted a lot of traditional sculpters. It is a complex program to learn but once you do its insanely capable of a lot of things. Its also cheap(ish) for what it does ($650 - $700), not to mention so far every single upgrade of ZBrush has been free (thats 12 years of free upgrades for the initial purchasers).
 
I've dabbled with Sculptris and it's a neat little app, need to try it out again and do some more experimenting.
 
exupery said:
As a traditional sculptor I have been frustrated by not being able to find a 3d program (free) that works more the way I have been working over the years.
Blender has some wonderful features but I have been barely able to master even the basics with the complex UserInterface.

Tonight I discovered Sculpris, a free application for the Mac or PC.
In less than an hour I created a head without even looking at a manual.
What a lot of fun!
Click to expand...

You can't post this and not show us! :)
 
sculpris isnt made by the same people as zbrush however it was bought out by zbrush since sculpris was a free program that directly competed with them. so basically they bought it before it turned into a large project like blender and start encroaching on zbrush features for free. now that they have full control of sculpris its not longer a threat.

I havent tried either program because I know I will get way to into it and never get any work done.
 
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What's weird is that Zbrush still doesn't do the one thing that makes Sculptris so good: dynamic tesselation. 3DCoat does it. I think Mudbox does it. Even Blender's doing it these days.

In Zbrush, you have to shape up your basic mesh in another editor, then bring it in to start doing all the fine detail sculpting work. With dynamic tesselation, you can start with a standard cube, and end up whatever shape you want, no matter how wildly different. You don't have to worry about the topology getting stretched and distorted, or one part of your mesh having more resolution than another. You just get in and start doing your thing without any concerns about the underlying geometry.

The two biggest features Zbrush has over its competitors is it's speed (which I'm almost definite they made a deal with the devil to get), and the Projection Master (edit: and shadowbox sculpting...that's pretty cool). These are what keeps Zbrush on the map. But as far as raw sculpting goes, it's no longer the one end all be all go to program you use to get something done, and done well.
 
Renzatic said:
In Zbrush, you have to shape up your basic mesh in another editor, then bring it in to start doing all the fine detail sculpting work. With dynamic tesselation, you can start with a standard cube, and end up whatever shape you want, no matter how wildly different. You don't have to worry about the topology getting stretched and distorted, or one part of your mesh having more resolution than another. You just get in and start doing your thing without any concerns about the underlying geometry.
Click to expand...

I guess you really hate the dynamesh bugs and find it unusable:D?
 
Dynamesh is alright, but (from what I know about it) it only works to a certain point. Once you get your base mesh down, it's sculpting as usual for the higher details.

The neat thing about dynamic tesselation is it makes smooth strokes and details no matter what level of detail your mesh is. You can zoom out and make broad changes, then zoom in and sculpt in fine details. It adds what it needs when it needs it.
 
Renzatic said:
Dynamesh is alright, but (from what I know about it) it only works to a certain point. Once you get your base mesh down, it's sculpting as usual for the higher details.

The neat thing about dynamic tesselation is it makes smooth strokes and details no matter what level of detail your mesh is. You can zoom out and make broad changes, then zoom in and sculpt in fine details. It adds what it needs when it needs it.
Click to expand...

I'm not that familiar with 3d coat. I know it was initially based off the use of voxels. I'm not sure how that works with 3d coat when it comes to exporting something that can be read by other programs. I would probably have to actually spend time with it. I'll see if there's a trial version or anything. I really like their gallery.
 
thekev said:
I'm not that familiar with 3d coat. I know it was initially based off the use of voxels.
Click to expand...

It still is. Though v4, which came out just recently, does have something about dynamic tessellation buried in the new feature list, so I'm assuming it can handle both voxels and traditional polygons.

I'm not sure how that works with 3d coat when it comes to exporting something that can be read by other programs. I would probably have to actually spend time with it. I'll see if there's a trial version or anything. I really like their gallery.
Click to expand...

I think the way it works is that it takes your voxel sculpt and dynamically converts it to tris on export for use in other programs.

And the program itself? I've only done a little bit of dabbling with it (which is about the extent of my experience with all the sculpting programs), but what I saw did look pretty cool. The downside to 3DCoat compared to the rest is that it has the highest spec requirements of the bunch, but the fact you're able to sculpt without having to worry about polygons at all probably makes it worth the hit.
 
Renzatic said:
The downside to 3DCoat compared to the rest is that it has the highest spec requirements of the bunch, but the fact you're able to sculpt without having to worry about polygons at all probably makes it worth the hit.
Click to expand...

In terms of what? Stated specs aren't high. I assume you mean for working with several million polygons. I'll have to look into it at some point. The software itself isn't terribly expensive.
 
thekev said:
In terms of what? Stated specs aren't high. I assume you mean for working with several million polygons. I'll have to look into it at some point. The software itself isn't terribly expensive.
Click to expand...

In the totally subjective terms of my experiences with it vs. Zbrush. Like if I have a voxel mesh in 3DCoat that's roughly the same density equivalent as a poly mesh in Zbrush, the strokes tend to lag a little more and rotating, panning, and zooming feels a bit less smooth in comparison.

Just keep in mind that I last played with it well over 2 years ago, before I got my current computer. With a more recent i5/i7, you probably won't notice as much of a difference.
 
Renzatic said:
In the totally subjective terms of my experiences with it vs. Zbrush. Like if I have a voxel mesh in 3DCoat that's roughly the same density equivalent as a poly mesh in Zbrush, the strokes tend to lag a little more and rotating, panning, and zooming feels a bit less smooth in comparison.

Just keep in mind that I last played with it well over 2 years ago, before I got my current computer. With a more recent i5/i7, you probably won't notice as much of a difference.
Click to expand...

3d coat mentions gpu specs. I'm wondering if it's OpenGL driven or something like Mudbox. Zbrush is cpu bound. The thing about OpenGL drawing is that it's not just a matter of raw hardware but also driver stability. Some cards just have bugs in whatever programs. Sometimes it's just in the form of slight lag.
 
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