Non-Organic Models

[link3000]

We all know how good Sculptris is at making organic models, but how about some specifically non-organic features? We have the "Flatten" tool, but that really isn't what I'm talking about. Maybe a "Cut" tool that makes a perfectly straight cut through an object, deleting all on one side of the line? How about a "Line" tool that lets you make a perfect line? Pretty much everything so far is built for organic modeling, which is one of the hardest things to do well, ironically leaving behind more 'traditional' shapes.

This is one of the few things I don't like about Sculptris: I can make people, goblins, and dragons all I want, but I can't ever seem to make a decent building or furniture, which was all I could do on previous software.

[kemmler]

sculptris is really only meant for organic and semi-organic forms. Sculpting in general is not an efficient way to produce non-organic forms.

Not to be a fanboy but you should download Blender for these functionalities. Others might disagree but there is a lot of software that's good for non-organic modeling, and not much software that is as good (and clean/simple) for organic modeling as Sculptris.

[garyr57]

I would recommend something more like SketchUp for geometric sculpture, since it is geared to architectural modeling, rather than organic modeling.

[wasa]

hard hard surface sculpting, you're probably not going to find better than zbrush
all the other sculpting packages, and packages with sculpting features seem to focus on orgaincs
You might check out Mudbox as well, I stopped following it when autodesk bought them

[letoatrell]

May 29, 2010 3:22:03 GMT 1 link3000 said:

How about a "Line" tool that lets you make a perfect line?

Did u see the lazy button on top? Ok maybe not a perfect line but really smooth!

Leto

[worstplayer]

Set detail to zero, turn off "beautify", and use pinch to make (relatively) straight edges.
Not perfect, but useful when you need simple mechanical shape and you need it quick

[voodooshmoodoo]

Coincidentally I was wondering the same thing yesterday evening and was actually thinking about asking for tips on how to to that kind of stuff and only now realized someone already did that.
Anyway, I searched around in Youtube and found this video very inspiring: www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5AzRL4rUow&feature=channel
After spending a couple of hours I came up with this:

Ok, it's not nearly as good as the one in the video and not done even remotely as quick, but for a first try on hard surface stuff I think it's ok, though I could spend another couple of hours working out the the back part, it being rather srude still.
FYI I used Blender only to bake ao with no time spent on unwrapping or refing the baked texture, so that's why it might look a little spotty.
Then again, the longer I look at it the more I think it sucks. Nonetheless, I still think it's possible to to stuff like in the video with sculptris.

[kemmler]

IMO the problem with using sculptris for hard forms like that, is you're using about 10x more vertices than is strictly necessary. I guess this thread: is a good example - iron man is sort of semi-organic, but you can see in some of this fellow's images how few polygons he's using: blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=186653&page=2

I guess all I'm saying is other traditional modeling packages are "better" tools for non-organic modeling, but one may or may not find them "better" in the sense that they have an easier time getting the job done.

[link3000]

kemmler - Yeah, Blender can do non-organic things very well, but the fact that it can do them well doesn't justify why Sculptris shouldn't have them.

garyr57 - For architecture, yes, but what about other non-organic models? It's a huge variety of things.

wasa - Really? I've never found zbrush to be good for things like that.

@leto - The "Lazy" option does help, but hardly accounts for a perfect line.

worstplayer - But that results in the vertecies being pulled to one area, making the model look stretched and difficulty working with it.

voodoo - It's a nice video, but the space ship in it is, you have to admit, very, very curvy and more like the covenant vessels from halo than the Pillar of Autumn, if you get my drift.

kemmler (2) - That's exactly the problem. However, we have the reduction brush. The problem then is that we can't remesh the fewer vertecies into a non-organic sculpture well enough.

I don't want another program to do my non-organic modelling in; what if I have a model in Sculptris that's organic and want to add non-organic elements without going through the process of getting it into another program? Currently, I would have to save it, close sculptris, open the other program, model there, save again, open it in sculptris again, and keep working. It may seem like a small thing, but there really isn't any reason to limiting sculptris to organic modelling.

[voodooshmoodoo]

kemmler: Yeah, it's not really economic and I wouldn't wanna disagree that hard surfaces can be done better elsewhere.

@link: I have to agree, too. It's rather organic mechanical stuff.

[djolar]

There are a few tools that could be added to sculptris to increase its potential with hard surface sculpting. And no, I don't think that digital sculpting tools should be for organic modeling only. The rapid nature of sculpting out forms can be just as essential to product design and architecture.

One thing that would help with hard surface is the ability to use 3d objects as brushes. This can also be accomplished with the existing way Sculptris handles multiple object by just allowing the ability to merge them or subtract or cut them out.

The second thing would be to be able to use the isolate selection tools already present in Sculptris but have an option to delete or remove hidden polygons.

The third suggestion is more or better flatten brushes or to find a way to mimick zbrush's polish brushes.

The fourth way is to make a more robust reduction brush. Or maybe changethe reduction brush into a remove and merge polygon brush.

[wasa]

May 30, 2010 20:22:35 GMT 1 link3000 said:

wasa - Really? I've never found zbrush to be good for things like that.

yep, you won't find better hard surface sculpting in any package available at this point in time

Tools like the polish brush, multiple symmetry points around an axis are probably two of it's biggest hard surface features

[taron]

sloppy quick test after that incredible zbrush video. I know it's perfectly suited for that stuff, but Sculptris is really not at this point, haha!

Anyway...there you have it... a dumb sloppy spaceship. If I were to go into paint with it, I could probably polish the turd a little, but well...why bother.

Certainly would make an ugly challenge to do solid models here, hehe.

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[magweb]

May 30, 2010 20:22:35 GMT 1 link3000 said:

doesn't justify why Sculptris shouldn't have them.

Do you think your expectations are justified? I wouldn´t try to model real furniture from clay too.
Every job has its tools and materials. Are you looking for a software Letherman?

[fragme]

i think first of all we have to discover where DrPetter is trying to take sculptris.
if he truly is trying over time to make a ZBrush or mudbox beater then the requests for more "modeling" brushes is a perfectly reasonable one, however if all he is trying to do is stretch his programming muscles and make a "fun" sculpting app then i wouldnt expect it to go much further than it is now save for some bug fixes.
so all in all asking if someones expectations are justified really does depend on where this program is going.

nick