pokrad
A Fixture
Gordy suggested that I make list of digital sculpting resources, so I'm concentrating on the free software in this post:
DAZ Studio 4 (Free for a limited time)
http://www.daz3d.com/i/products/studio?_m=d
Not going to write too much about it as I did not tried it, but if I understand well, only this version is free to download and use for a limited time.
Never installed it, so I do not have any personal impressions about it.
Sculptris (Free to download and use - Current version alpha 6):
Homepage and download:http://www.pixologic.com/sculptris/
Official forum: http://www.zbrushcentral.com/forumdisplay.php?110-Sculptris-Main-Forum
Personal impressions:
Great software for "organic" sculpting, simple and intuitive interface, sculpting process similar to sculpting in clay - therefore
easy to get started but powerful enough to pull pretty complicated sculpts. Not usable for modeling non-organic objects.
Does not have any other functionality, except for texture painting which is pretty irrelevant for miniature sculptors.
So it does only "organic" sculpting, but it does it so good !
Blender (open source - current version 2.6):
Main page: http://www.blender.org/
Download: http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/
Current (2.6) Manual: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.6/Manual
Various Blender resources: http://www.blender.org/community/user-community/
Fantastic tutorials, very professionally done (except the fact that English is a bit "distorted") : http://www.blendtuts.com/
Tons of tutorials on YouTube (keep in mind that UI changed radically since version 2.4, so tutorials for the 2.4 do not help too much).
Personal impressions:
The complete studio for digital modeling. It has so many functionalities, very complex piece of software. Hard to get started, as you have to remember whole bunch of
keyboard shortcuts. At first I was frustrated with that interface, but with time I began to understand why it works that way - once you know the "critical mass" of the keyboard shortcuts,
you can work very fast ! I only used certain functionalities from the Blender (and believe me, it has many more): "bones and posing", "object modeling" and "sculpting".
Bone (skeleton creation) is simple, but connecting the bones to your sculpt is a bit more complicated. Sure, there is "automatic" way that computer does for you, but very often (almost every time),
computer does it wrong in certain places (for example if I pose the head to the right, and whole head leans right - but nose stays in the place, same thing often happens with fingers etc...).
There is a way to correct it, but You have to be prepared to learn.
Object creation is simple and powerful (once you know the shortcuts).
Sculpting mode is simpler than the rest of the interface, but somehow it misses that simplicity and workflow of Sculptris. Still, if someone "steal" Sculptris from me, I would use it with no major problems
Wings 3D (Open source current version 1.4.1)
Main page: http://www.wings3d.com/
Download: http://wings3d.com/wiki.php?title=Downloads
Personal impression:
Object modeling tool, a bit simpler than the Blender, but also with less functionality - did not work with it too much as I concluded that Blender is more suitable for my needs.
Meshmixer:
Homepage and download: http://www.meshmixer.com/
Simple tool for combining different meshes. Sure it can be done in real 3D modeling software, but this is "simple and fast" way to do it.
Feel free to fill the list with the resources you know about...
DAZ Studio 4 (Free for a limited time)
http://www.daz3d.com/i/products/studio?_m=d
Not going to write too much about it as I did not tried it, but if I understand well, only this version is free to download and use for a limited time.
Never installed it, so I do not have any personal impressions about it.
Sculptris (Free to download and use - Current version alpha 6):
Homepage and download:http://www.pixologic.com/sculptris/
Official forum: http://www.zbrushcentral.com/forumdisplay.php?110-Sculptris-Main-Forum
Personal impressions:
Great software for "organic" sculpting, simple and intuitive interface, sculpting process similar to sculpting in clay - therefore
easy to get started but powerful enough to pull pretty complicated sculpts. Not usable for modeling non-organic objects.
Does not have any other functionality, except for texture painting which is pretty irrelevant for miniature sculptors.
So it does only "organic" sculpting, but it does it so good !
Blender (open source - current version 2.6):
Main page: http://www.blender.org/
Download: http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/
Current (2.6) Manual: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.6/Manual
Various Blender resources: http://www.blender.org/community/user-community/
Fantastic tutorials, very professionally done (except the fact that English is a bit "distorted") : http://www.blendtuts.com/
Tons of tutorials on YouTube (keep in mind that UI changed radically since version 2.4, so tutorials for the 2.4 do not help too much).
Personal impressions:
The complete studio for digital modeling. It has so many functionalities, very complex piece of software. Hard to get started, as you have to remember whole bunch of
keyboard shortcuts. At first I was frustrated with that interface, but with time I began to understand why it works that way - once you know the "critical mass" of the keyboard shortcuts,
you can work very fast ! I only used certain functionalities from the Blender (and believe me, it has many more): "bones and posing", "object modeling" and "sculpting".
Bone (skeleton creation) is simple, but connecting the bones to your sculpt is a bit more complicated. Sure, there is "automatic" way that computer does for you, but very often (almost every time),
computer does it wrong in certain places (for example if I pose the head to the right, and whole head leans right - but nose stays in the place, same thing often happens with fingers etc...).
There is a way to correct it, but You have to be prepared to learn.
Object creation is simple and powerful (once you know the shortcuts).
Sculpting mode is simpler than the rest of the interface, but somehow it misses that simplicity and workflow of Sculptris. Still, if someone "steal" Sculptris from me, I would use it with no major problems
Wings 3D (Open source current version 1.4.1)
Main page: http://www.wings3d.com/
Download: http://wings3d.com/wiki.php?title=Downloads
Personal impression:
Object modeling tool, a bit simpler than the Blender, but also with less functionality - did not work with it too much as I concluded that Blender is more suitable for my needs.
Meshmixer:
Homepage and download: http://www.meshmixer.com/
Simple tool for combining different meshes. Sure it can be done in real 3D modeling software, but this is "simple and fast" way to do it.
Feel free to fill the list with the resources you know about...
