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Sculptris

72

There were several  article suggestions for this sculpting program in the BlenderNation mailbox. Its not Blender related and I'm not sure what to make of this program but since there seems to be some interest in it, I decided to pass it on to you to check it out.

Niko Kaupp  wrote:

"I think this program isn't quite as usable as Blender's sculpt tools or quite as fast as Zbrush but it certainly has something that I haven't seen anywhere else. From the page: "This is a work-in-progress sculpting tool that I've been developing since early December 2009. Its main feature is dynamic mesh tesselation that will provide additional detail where necessary, without the user needing to worry about it." Basically it means that there is no subdivisions to worry about and you can go for as wicked shape as you please without ever needing to worry about the vertices. Imagine starting with a ball, make a leg for it, make a feet, make the toes, then make one toe longer, then make a ball from it, make the ball have legs and arms... It's limitless. Makes me want to have a automatic remesh button in the sculpt modifier in Blender.  Although I haven't been able to import .obj files to it for proper testing, it's definitely worth a look."

Sculptris

Edit 05-19  Here are examples on Youtube

72 Comments

  1. Matt Heimlich on

    That's pretty incredible. Just downloaded it to mess around with it, and this is a functionality I've been waiting for in ZBrush or Blander sculpt for years. I hope to either see this program develop into something more complete, or to see its tech integrated into ZBrush or Blender in the future.

  2. ******************************************************************************************
    I've been in the Beta program for the last several months watching Sculptris evolve. DrPetter (Tomas) has an astonishing vision to make a sculpting tool that is above all else, intuitive. The current Alpha release has attracted some serious 3D artists to try it out right along side people who are using a 3D tool for the first time. The verdict has been unanimous. !!Thumbs up!! Across the board. For those that have been impressed thus far... I have one thing to say. ---You haven't seen 'nuthin yet! :)

    With a price tag exactly $595 cheaper than ZBrush, this alternative 3D Sculpting tool is simply going to redefine what people think is possible.
    ******************************************************************************************

  3. Matt Heimlich on

    If this takes off in any kind of way it most certainly will redefine the realm of 3D sculpting. I've been using ZBrush for nearly 3 years, but the 15 or 20 minutes I've been using this program have already left me considering the vast possibilities for on the fly tessellation in a sculpting program. It's really the closest to working with a physical medium that I've ever seen.

  4. Just tried it, I like it very much! Seems to use very few ressources, runs fine on my acer one netbook, perfect for a quick doodle!

  5. Matt Heimlich on

    @clecle Well, without some kind of decimator tool or the ability to export a normal or displacement map, that's going to be a problem with any sculpting program

  6. Downloadet and used. Very easy, runs without problems, fine piece of software.
    Good job - go ahead!
    Greetings

  7. Maybe Ton or someone else from Blender Foundation could ask Tomas Pettersson to join Blender development team (Sculpt tools improvement). Of course he may disaggree, but why not to try.

  8. I've always been a fan of Dr Petter's Sculptris. I'm glad you decided to post it here at Blendernation. =)

    Dr Petter is a genius IMHO. and I love his apps.

    Btw I do think Sculptris alpha 2 has slightly better viewport controls than alpha 3 because everything got reversed. =/. But he had both at his site so you get to choose yourself.

    Yes I do wish Blender had some of the features Sculptris has because Sculptris is honestly the best sculpting app I've used. Though there may be a quirk here and there as he develops it, at least you can export obj files.

    Anyone who's never heard of this should definitely give it a shot, although I think it's only for Windows currently.

    Cheers

  9. It is awesome. So intuitive to use. I love it. Pitty blender couldn't be that easy. Though blender of course has a billion features,which obviously cant all be on screen.

    I hope Tomas does keep developing.

  10. guyfromspain on

    wooow, it looks pretty cool! i've been trying for a moment and.... there's no words to describe it.... I hope i can export soon my models done here to blender!!

    Keep the good work!

  11. Saw this a while back. It's really nice. The guy who's making it wants to actually take Blender's decimate modifier and somehow incorporate it into the program, because right now, his "reduce poly" tool doesn't work well, and the only way to keep poly count from getting too high to work with is by importing into Blender, decimating, and exporting again. This is really a great tool.

    ***Controversial discussion warning***
    However, I think we should not try to merge it with Blender. I agree with GREENie, Blender can't have everything. We don't want Blender to become a massive program that does everything from audio editing to picking your toenails, and this program works fine on it's own. I think instead we could work on integrating the two to work more seamlessly. Maybe an auto-export/import feature so that you could move between the two programs, tweaking as you go. Or getting even better Retopo tools in Blender (someone please tell me how the 2.5 reptopo is better than the 2.49) so that we can retopo the mesh after sculpting (Thanks for the surface sketching, BTW).
    *********************************

    Really great tool!

  12. I've used this tool and I realy dig it. My model started out as a low rez poly model in Blender to get the general shape down. Then brought it into Sculptris and went to town. I think I had to triangulate the polys before exporting from Blender to get it to work properly.
    Anyway... it's pretty cool for such a little program.
    M

  13. 3dementia (reformed n00bie) on

    I think anyone working on Blender's Sculpt system, should be watching this very closely. I must say I like this program so much better than any other sculpting app on the market.

  14. According to DrPetters forums, there's another version right on the horizon that supports bump map painting directly on the model, and I know he's also working on projection painting for Sculptris (like the external projection texture painting in Blender 2.5).

  15. @aws357
    Retopologize your mesh.
    But actually, for rendering, the triangle model does a nice job of looking good. Animating might be a pain, however.

  16. GreenSnake750 on

    at first i was skeptical, but i decided to download and try it and after 5 minutes, i have one thing to say about this program... EXCEPTIONAL

  17. Pretty interesting application. It also seems that people are receiving and reviewing it pretty nicely.

    My only warning to others would be to use the app with caution. I checked the site and could not find any mention by the author that they intended to release the application as Libre Software.

    I mention this only because I remember while working at a local Video Gaming company, all the artists were using Crazy Bump:

    http://crazybump.com/buy.html

    We had all become very accustomed to it's workflow. Then one day the author decided to begin charging. Many of us were surprised but since the Studio was paying for it we weren't too concerned. We paid about $300 per license for each artist, (about 8 of us), so $2400 total. It was an awesome product and so we were glad to see the studio pay for it.

    Just an issue of concern for people expecting projects to always remain as they are.

    Anyway, nice find. It seems like many are making use of it already.

  18. Its a great program as it is. Used it a while ago (under Wine) and it worked really well. Integration / mimicking in blender would be a tricky thing though since it deals with vertecies dynamically. Not impossible but difficult.

    If it were useable in blender it would have to preserve the original mesh some how as a single sculpting stroke with this could destroy the base mesh.

  19. Any purpose features into blender Ton see it as a impurity to the blender.blend foundation archbishop of the Inquisition. I think it's time for civil war!

  20. Here's a preview of the soon-to-come Beta version: I would keep your eyes peeled. It looks good.

    http://vimeo.com/11836702

    http://vimeo.com/11837373

    @ronbravo
    Well, the guy actually is thinking about making it commercial eventually (from what I read on the forums). He's thinking either a donation-ware or lite/pro version. He says he doesn't want to restrict anyone, but without donations, development is hard.

  21. I don't think anyone's posted about this yet, but I've found Sculptris's flatten tool to be the most versatile... When you use it's right-click function.

    It exaggerates existing geometry, and allows... For weird-looking extrusion modeling. Very fun to play with :)

  22. GothicCyborg64 on

    The possibilities are delisiously magnificent!
    It's a great program for detailed work, but can get a bit large if you let yourself go.

    still a great program, keep up the good work! :)

  23. I've always thought adaptive mesh geometry is an obvious thing to have in a sculpt tool. I'm surprised this is a feature that makes sculptris stand out!

    We've had this sort of stuff in fluid sim for years, and I think it's theoretically possible to do it for sculpting too pretty easily. (it's not related internally - but the idea is related)

    Just wait until BMesh in Blender is complete. Things like this will be easy to code! :)

    What would be nice is to do this, but then provide hooks (i.e. fake faces) at a lower level of geometry. The level of geometry required for the hooks would be specified, and any transformations performed on them as higher resolution details was added would also transform the textures, etc.

    Then you could use the hooks if you wanted to do a bit of mesh editing or texturing, but not lose the details on top.

    Think of it like a sort of automatic mutiresolution mesh, but without having to worry about the mesh at all, or the number of levels. (different parts of the mesh would have a different number of levels anyway)

  24. @ saurus1:

    very cool video links! thanks for posting!

    a function for quadrification or retopo/ decimation would be really cool.

  25. Congratulations..it´s absolutely amazing...very friendly and useful...I sure I will use sculptris for my short film and your name will be on my credits...

    Tanks from Spain..

  26. I wonder if this dynamic tesselation is the same feature as in Jason Wilkins idea for GSOC 2010:

    Quote from:

    http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/User:Jwilkins/GSoC2010/Proposal

    "Another idea that I have come up with, and not seen in any existing program, would be a mesh density brush that has the ability to push or pull vertexes so that there are more or less vertexes in an area but the shape of the mesh is not effected too much."

    Perhaps Jason should be mailed that this is a highly desired feature and get into contact with the sculptris developer.

    Furthermore,
    I think the retopologizing of a sculptris mesh imported to Blender will get easier when this GSOC project will be finished:

    http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/User:Rohith291991/Gsoc2010/Proposal

    Or try the surface sketching script for retopo:
    http://vimeo.com/10695820

  27. trinitrotolulene on

    The site is down at the moment.
    It looks like we Crashed Dr. Petter's server! lol. Sculptris is great. Ive been playing around with it, great to get the main shapes quickly and then for the small details bring it into blender for the fine control. Thanks for posting.

  28. downloaded, installed, cute blobby head in five minutes. Great for making a high res sculpt that you can then retopo to something with edge loops at a lower res. Love it!

  29. Stops with error, new graphics driver may help. None to be had.
    Tosh laptop.

    Any help to run on this machine?
    Thanks

    Video General Information :
    Model : Mobility Radeon 9100 IGP (RS300M AGP)
    Manufacturer : Toshiba America Information Systems
    Bus Type : AGP
    Manufacturer : ATI Technologies Inc.
    Total Memory : 128 MB
    Texture Memory : 141 MB
    Processor : MOBILITY RADEON 9100 IGP AGP (0x5835)
    Converter : Internal DAC(400MHz)
    Refresh Rate (min/max) : 60/100 Hz

    General Information :
    Internal Specification : Mobile Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.06GHz
    Model Number : 532J (estimated)
    Codename : Prescott
    Revision : E0
    Technology : 0.09µ
    CPU ID : F.4.1
    Microcode : MU0F4109
    Number of Logical Processors : 2
    Mobile : Yes

    Features :
    VME - Virtual Mode Ext. : Yes
    DE - Debugging Extension : Yes
    PSE - Page Size Extension : Yes
    TSC - Time Stamp Counter : Yes
    MSR - Model Specific Registers : Yes
    PAE - Physical Address Extension : Yes
    MCE - Machine Check Exception : Yes
    APIC - Local APIC Built-in : Yes
    SEP - Fast System Call : Yes
    MTRR - Memory Type Range Reg. : Yes
    PGE - Page Global Enable : Yes
    MCA - Machine Check Architecture : Yes
    PAT - Page Attribute Table : Yes
    PSE36 - 36-bit Page Size Extension : Yes
    PSN - Unique Serial Number : No
    DS - Debug Trace & EMON Store : Yes
    ACPI - Software Clock Control : Yes
    SS - Self Snoop : Yes
    TM - Thermal Monitor : Yes
    HTT - Hyper-Threading : Yes
    SBF - Signal Break on FERR : Yes
    MON - Monitor/Mwait : Yes
    DSCPL - CPL qualified Debug Store : Yes
    TM2 - Thermal Monitor 2 : Yes
    CID - Context ID : Yes
    EST - Enhanced SpeedStep Tec... Yes
    XD Bit - No-execute Page Protec... No
    VMX - Vanderpool Technology : No

    Miscellaneous :
    FPU - Co-processor Built-in : Yes
    CX8 - CMPXCHG8B : Yes
    CX16 - CMPXCHG16B : No
    CMOV - Conditionnal Move Inst. : Yes
    CLF - Cache Line Flush : Yes
    FXSR - Fast Float Save & Restore : Yes
    DAZ - Denormals Are Zero : Yes
    MMX Technology : Yes
    SSE Technology : Yes
    SSE2 Technology : Yes
    SSE3 Technology : Yes
    EM64T Technology : No
    IA-64 Technology : No
    PBE - Pend. Brk. EN. : Yes
    LAHF - LAHF/SAHF Instructions : No

  30. Great little program...it's lite on resources, runs fast, does what zbrush does to an extent, is much better than Blender Sculpting. Should be integrated into Blender. Great tool.

  31. pzzs7f

    This program is not YET open source, so no integration for now. Note that the author, Dr Pepper, will release the code in the future ^^

  32. WiKKiDWidgets on

    @Jean_R

    Ummm.... whoa.... hehe
    K... first off, His nickname is DrPetter, Not Dr Pepper. LOL

    Second off. There has been much speculation about the future of Sculptris and Open Source has been mentioned as a possible path. However. I am an admin over in the Sculptris world and I can assure you that DrPetter has NOT stated that he intends to release the code as open source. So please don't go spreading that around as a rumor. If he does decide to do that one day, it will be a grand little brother to Blender. :) For now, suffice to say he is enjoying developing it and has visions for it that are known only to him. :)

  33. My apologies to DrPetter, the respect he inspires me makes my mistake even more embarrassing,

    @ WiKKiDWidgets
    As for you, LOLMAN, unnecessary to be so mean and hurtful, DrPetter itself has already raised this possibility in his own forum.

    http://drpetter.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=sculptris&thread=207&page=2

    "MAKING SCULPTRIS OPEN SOURCE
    Yes! Even I don't know. It's fairly safe to say that Sculptris won't spiral into a huge complex beast of an application though. There are a bunch of those around already. It wouldn't be sensible. My hope is that most people will be thrilled by version 1.0 and able to use it for a lot of great things without constantly bumping into fundamental limitations and flaws.

    There's always more that can be added, but it's important to look at the baseline capability and see what you can do with that. Most of the productivity tools I use are versions from 10 years ago or more. They're good enough that I can do what I need in them, and I proceed to do those things rather than looking for new tools that might have more/different stuff in them. If time spent training on new features becomes comparable to time spent doing real work with tools that you're confident in using, well... that's not ideal.

    Anyway, I was bored with Sculptris two months ago, but I kept going. Now it has turned around and I'm very excited, but I don't have a lot of significant stuff left on my list. A few days from now I should have a good version ready, and then I'll probably do a very short patch run a month later, fixing some problems that will no doubt come up and nag people. It's developing towards a point of completion, and won't endlessly evolve beyond that. It would make more sense to do a complete sequel from scratch if more/different things were desired, but that will almost certainly not happen by my hands."

  34. WiKKiDWidgets on

    Mean and hateful?? Shall I put in 50 smiley faces for you next time? :) :) :) :) :)

    hehe

    Yes, the thread in question was locked by me a while ago. As I stated (So mean and hateful like) *smile smile smile* DrPetter simply hasn't come to the point where such a decision needs to be made. There has been speculation going both ways, Open Source, and going commercial. Talking with him personally though, I think he is just having fun. The rest of us are along for the ride.

    *now someone go give Jean a hug for me*

    :) :) :)

  35. @ WiKKiDWidgets >

    I said "hurtful" for "offensive" and you read "hateful", unfortunately the Google translator is not as efficient as we would like. wow.

    Since you seem invested with a mission, you can post a message to clarify the truth here >
    http://forums.polyloop.net/showthread.php?t=19086&page=2

    @Wasa and Taron, Free hugs are not prohibited by my religion, but you can still make a better use.

  36. I'd say the likelihood of this going open source isn't very high. I'm not even sure there will be any future development. He was just hired by Pixologic to work on ZBrush.

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