Unlimited Clay Update
Farsthary presents a full rewrite of his Unlimited Clay tool. Check out the video below and note the automatic adaptive subdivision of the mesh in the second part of the video:
Farsthary (who lives in Cuba) writes:
This is a little test of unlimited clay rewritten from scratch: at the surface you see the same, but this is entirely a new engine under the hood, and it’s getting in its final form.
I’m currently facing serious communication issues as most of my channels have been squeezed out: only emails remain available but I get little answers from my email questions…I feel that I can hardly follow the open source development pace.. […] I’m feeling alone and isolated, and I don’t blame anyone from the blender community for that, it’s just the piece of reality that was assigned to me.
Let’s give him a round of applause and a hug!
Link
that is off the hook awsome and rad :D:D:D:D:D:D
really cool stuff! So it adds geometry when you add detail to your model, but does it remove geometry again when you smooth your model?
Farsthary is le awesome!! Ive tried it before and it looked good though too early to say because it was very alpha. I´ll give this version a spin and see what it goes for but it is seems close to sculptris functionality.
Wow
Hello Farsthary,
That is really awesome work that you did there it really impressed me. When is it going to be released? is it stable? where can i get it to try out?
Thanks for your work and keep it up.
Wow! Thank you very much Farsthary!
It looks nice.
I hope it willl be ready for testing soon.
Hi Farsthary. Hold on, your work is awesome. Take a big hug from Italy!
Good man Farsthary – I’m playing with plasticine again…happy days.
Very impressive!
Please do not get discouraged, as your work is fundamental: it will change the way Blender will be seen and used for the upcoming years.
Let’s all hope you won’t be completely isolated …. sad
Looking really good! Your efforts are much appreciated!
Very nice work!
How much would it cost the community to send Farsthary an airline ticket to leave Cuba?
My comment may seem OTT, but his situation appears abysmal!
And such a HUGE contribution by him demands some generous reciprocity by us.
Could we help him apply for a working visa or course of study at a university (assuming he is old enough to enter) in another country, and provide him with the airline ticket to travel there, a couch to sleep on at the homes of some Blender users… until he finds his feet in a foreign land with a little guidance from us???
By his comment I imagine he doesn’t have his own family yet, which would allow him to travel, though I imagine he would leave some wider family behind.
I can’t presume to know that he would want to leave Cuba permanently, but it appears he’s not happy there at this time.
So forgive me if I’m little upset and OTT from learning of his situation. He sounds quite grim.
Yet he’s helping all of us so much with his work in the face of much difficulty.
At the least… he’s earned a holiday!
Perhaps I’m just dreaming… but we have access to a large community, have brought artists across the world to work on Sintel, and this brother really seems in need of a ‘life transplant’.
Could we start a ‘Blender Contributor of the Year Award’ (if it doesn’t exist already?)… that does something cool for a contributor each year?
We could vote who gets the award… etc etc.
To inaugurate the award we could choose to give it to Farsthary and help him change his life through a chance to live overseas – if that’s what he wants, if it’s legally possible, and if we choose to ‘make it so’ via a few donations, a little paper work, and some communication from us.
I know I often only write here with ideas that are ‘a little ambitious’ but this is quite an achievable one!
What do you think community?
He may be feeling isolated from the blender community but I highly doubt that he has a desire to leave everyone he knows in the real world to go live in a country which speaks a different language.
Also, it takes a lot more than a plane ticket to start a new life in a different country. Work visa or not he still needs to find a job, somewhere to live and a means of socialising and making friends. Living in a new country could create a much greater fealing of isolation.
Farsthary,
This is amazing, keep it up.
I feel saddened that you are producing work of such a good standard, yet you feel so isolated.
I hope you feel better soon because this is such incredible work.
Christopher Kneller
@blenderuser
I’m in at least, if this is something Farsthary would like to try himself.
-thondal-
Really impressive work , and i hope you find your happiness man, just ask the Lord.
Farsthary, your contribution is highly appreciated in the blender community. feeling isolated?
well, take time off from coding and socialize with friends or make new friends.don’t slave your self to a point of none existence.The blender community will find ways to show their good will or email Ton.R
for creative support.
Hey Farsthary keep up the good work.
I cannot say i know much about you and your situation, so why not drop us aline about your circumstances, ie.
where you live, how old you are, living with parents? (i notice a new roof on the house), avergae income, daily life you experience, what you dont have but would like etc….. Im sure most people would contribute some money to help you out.
how much internet costs, which would seem to be one of the largest problems over there..
regards
TFS
@The Fatsnacker
good suggestion.
if he would like to share, we will try to help as much as we can.
I’m glad that this great thing soon will be the one of all Blender’s parts!
Maybe some of us can visit Cuba to see Raul and to talk with him. By the way – it is a very good country even in this time. I hate problems with the corruption in my country but I’m not hurrying to leave it…
I don’t understand why the Blender Institute doesn’t (if they already tried it) hire farsthary. With regards of manpower I always read that the problem isn’t the money, but finding developers. And farsthary seems to be a brilliant blender developer.
When I read this on his blog
“I want a place to render my creativity and learn in the process experiences and knowledge that otherwise would be impossible to get and also because of all the people that have trusted and helped me.”
I can’t think of a better place then the blender institute imho. Then again life is more complex then that (family, personal reasons, etc) and I also understand that it is not a simple matter.
That is totally amazing, What can we do to make him feel less isolated?
Hahahaha, very nice work Fasthary! Can’t wait to play with this.
So…. am I guessing that he can’t even access blendernation from Cuba? Maybe just his own site? What’s the best way to communicate with him?
I have a suggestion let group a blender army force and invade Cuba? And bring those talented developers to free communities.
Amazing! Wonderful tool for a character modelling.
Hola Farsthary, como podemos ayudarte desde México?
Hi all :)
WOW! I didn’t expected such a warm response! I guess the community will never let me down :)
forgive my bad moods, sometimes I just get down when I try to update my site and I have to wait
hours, or I have a dev question that needs a quick answer in order to keep moving but, again , I’m offline…
anyway, my intentions was not to burden you all with my problems, we all have similarly sized problems in our life, what matters to me are all your answers that bring me again joy.
@blenderuser : about your point, please contact me at [email protected] ;)
@The Fatsnacker :”where you live, how old you are, living with parents? (i notice a new roof on the house), avergae income, daily life you experience, what you dont have but would like etc”
well, those question may require a long answers but I would sum up ;)
I live in the western province of Cuba, land of hurricanes ;)
I’m 26 years old ,is incredible how fast time flies after you reach 20 O.o!
I live with my parents, my sister , her husband and his 4 years son, my lovely nephew.
Income? around 16 euro/month (don’t ask ;) )
I’m a simple person, my main ambitions are on the knowledge side…
my daily life? limitations everywhere and good moments with friends , family and my PC + Blender :P
what I don’t have but would like? tons of small things that drain my brain cycles, lots of cubans live in a survival mode, just a tip, for an avergae people in the world, food represent only up to 20-30% of the salary, for us food represent 80-90% of the salary and is not enough …. the rest? plain magic ;)
for those personal questions is better/safer to contact me at my email: [email protected]
I want to thank everyone for taking me account.
Cheers to all
If you didn’t expect such a response, try to be less amazing next time – no, forget that!
Perseverance rocks. Keep it up, and I don’t just mean toys for us.
:( >income 16 euro/month.
This is wrong for someone with his ability. Come on Blender community. Surely we could manage to find some donations for farsthary’s work even in our tight arse community? Even only 1 euro a day would help and we have thousands of users…
At least we could pay for internet connection for a year, pay for his furniture and clothes or something :) Ideally I think he needs a job that pays properly for his talents and knowledge but maybe it is not possible in Cuba. Perhaps the Blender Instiute can hire him on a remote basis. I think Ideasman works from home in Australia. Possibly Ton can find 500 euro somewhere?…
Absolutely fantastic piece of work.
Not running out of detail while sculpting is a feature I really missed and actually expected/hoped it was already in there when I first tried out blender some years ago. I’ve learned to do without it, but it’s definitely something I’ve been wishing for since I first began. I’m sure it also allows Blender to open up to a lot more beginners like I was back in the day.
I like the idea of setting up a donation rally for him, there must be a lot of people here that would have some dollars left to spare just as a “Thank you” and to keep him motivated right? I bet most of us can do with ordering 1 pizza less in our lives or whatever, lol. Heck, you’d tip the pizza guy if he doesn’t screw up right? And all he does is bring you a pizza while being on a payroll! Show some love for the guy that brings you a new Blender feature in his free time, I could replace the pizza guy anyday and it would only talk a few minutes, though chances are high I would never be able to replace someone like Farsthary (because it’s way too complex and my ambitions lie elsewhere, but my ambitions would not be possible without people with his ambitions).
Keep up the great job, Farsthary! It’s looking amazing so far!
Farsthary,
Is there anything that we can help with sending you apart from money (that as well)?
it being on the run up to xmas and all that.
hey Ton, you got any spare cash from the foundation lying around?
regards
TFS
@ Farsthary:
Well it sounds like money/material goods are hard to get, even if I come down there with them (I’m Canadian, we’re allowed).
Is there any kind of knowledge-based stuff you want e-mailed to you? Ie papers, PDFs etc?
Fatsnacker, probably Ton doesnt read here. Try sending an email. If you dont want to I will.
I am keen to know from farsthary first how we can best assist him with his living costs, internet connection etc.
Fantastic work!
Though I’m not a real programmer, I have to do it from time to time. And I just can’t imagine myself being able to do something like this. I mean even in theory. Even If I knew all the possible math solutions.
Considering this is not Your only project to say the least, it is beyond my understanding how such things are possible.
Hope to be able to support blender community as it actually deserves one day.
This looks awseome :D
Farsthary, your work is amazing!
Really psyched up about how excited everyone is about helping out, but I think there’s a bit of a logistical problem in terms of who is going to manage all of these funds or donations, how is he going to get access to them, etc.
An idea off the top of my head – What about creating an unlimited clay project on kickstarter.com, etc. That way, all of the donations could funnel to one account which he could access. There’d be a reputable organization keeping track of the account (i.e. kickstarter) and the money could be accessed through paypal. And the donations would be for the purpose of providing overhead for him while he’s working on this development project. Thoughts?
I second kickstarter – if it isn’t blocked in cuba.
I’d be willing to donate several dollars via paypal or a similar service.
In the meantime, does anyone have a build with the toolset in the top left corner? The one I nabbed from graphicall doesn’t seem to have that.
@Kris
Maybe I’m wrong, but after my cuba trip i would say even if you have the money it’s pretty hard to get some specific goods because these are simply not available there.
@Goofos
Oh, I agree, I’m not trying to say that’s not an issue. But you can’t just say “ok, we’re all going to send money now” without figuring out how you’re going to do it and how you’re going to make sure it gets where it’s intended to go. So just addressing the organization of the whole endeavor. Access to supplies and goods would certainly have to be addressed. Someone would have to come up with an action plan for how to utilize the funds to get the goods to him.
Well yeah obviously there is hardship there not only in terms of income but obtaining things. If farsthary can tell the community what he needs most at the moment to help him then maybe we can find a way to help out. Physical items, money, info…whatever.
With his ability he could be earning very good money though. Maybe we can find him a programming job somewhere else in the world through community contacts and he can send money home to his family. This would far exceed even the money the Blender community could put together. So maybe the community could pay for his travel or something.
Maybe the community sponsors farsthary to go to Belgium on a ‘Blender Development Scholarship’ or something we start…..any ideas speak up ;)
sorry that should have been Amsterdam ;) (Bart why cant I edit my post?)
@Big Fan, this is exactly what I was suggesting.
I’ve just written to Farsthary in reply to his invite to email him, and asked him to think about what he wants and write back to us with that, so that we can help him in his choices/dreams/plans.
If he wants (and can) travel overseas – we certainly have the resources as a community to help him set up a new life somewhere, close to the center of the Blender community if easiest, that could include work, study, etc.
There are complexities involved as some has written, but with communications, planning, etc, we could give him the right framework and support to adjust to living in a new country and becoming a happy resident of it, while giving him more opportunities to him to work on his Blender projects.
The simple questions to ask are:
1. What are work/study Visa requirements in the Netherlands etc?
2. Which is easiest type of Visa to get entry with from Cuba, financial assistance, etc?
3. Could the Blender Institute sponsor his Visa, give him at least a part-time job coding there, and help him apply to a local university? Ton must have plenty of university connections.
4. Could community members sponsor him to live with them for 1-4 or more months at a time?
5. Could someone send him a second hand mobile phone with some credit on it so he has simple phone/net communications?
6. What other basic resources (eg clothes, textbooks if needed, etc) could we donate to him to ‘land on his feet’ properly?
7. Does anyone know of a Dutch/European Cuban migrant organization or any social service organizations that can help him adjust here and send stuff back to his family?
5. Etc etc etc.
This stuff isn’t difficult stuffy to plan.
It’s a little complex, sure – but only because of the unknowns – and most of these are actually known or imaginable – we can make a list that covers Visa paperwork, accommodation, social support (friends), study, job, etc.
I believe this is a tipping point for the community – where we should be able to show our appreciation for amazing contribution to Blender, and in Farsthary’s case, in such difficult and trying circumstance.
Perhaps we can start by just hypothetically answering the basic questions 1-8 I have noted above?
Please adjust these if needed – and add to them – they are just to get us started.
I live almost on the opposite side of the planet, so I can’t suggest answers to the questions, but many here could.
When I first posted the idea of helping Farsthary out of Cuba it was just to try to get more than sympathy for him and to provoke us to think how we can really make a difference in his life. If Farsthary writes back that he wants to move, then we should be prepared… and working through a simple checklist shouldn’t be hard. After all, most of this stuff has been done for Sintel ‘staff’ who moved to live in the Netherlands temporarily.
Whatever Farsthary decides, we should help him.
hmmm I had a very quick look at airfares. Havana to Amsterdam is about 1500 euro return I think…not impossible considering the Blender community…
failing that 500 euro is surely possible to help with his stay at home costs for a year.
@Big Fan – awesome stuff!
That wasn’t hard, eh?! :-)
If everyone here could chip in with a little research like you did – we would have quite a realistic overview of the costs etc involved in helping Farsthary relocate if that’s what he decides he wants.
And if he doesn’t want to move, at least we’ll have an idea of how much the community is wiling to help him out financially and in other ways.
So, please everyone – keep the ideas/research/etc coming…
Farsthary has given a lot to the community and really appears to be at a crossroads in his life where a little help from us could help him shine, really reach his potential, and change the rest of his life for the better!
I may seem a bit pre-mature in asking these questions before Farsthary has replied to my email – but sometimes when contemplating the big decisions in life it is easier if we know others have our back. Let’s show Farsthary that we have his by considering alternatives and giving him realistic options.
So perhaps lets start with just 3 simple questions (not 7-8 as I wrote earlier):
* 1 *
Does anyone have a spare room he could rent cheaply or live in for free if he were to move to the Netherlands – for at least a month of more???
* 2 *
Does anyone know of any close universities that he could study at cheapy – if it would help him apply for residency or extend his stay in the Netherlands, and of course help him get work if he can’t work at the Blender Institute?
* 3 *
Has anyone in the community had experience similar to Farsthary’s and could advise him on whether it would be a good idea to move or not, and if you think it would be, what advice could you give him and/or us in making his journey easier?
That is GREAT!!!
Haven’t you tried to move away to a new place?
PS. We have a lots of Cubans here in Poland and earning real money…
They usually live from teaching Salsa but not only.
Man! Give it a try :)
Ideally I think he needs a 2 year work permit and a guaranteed position to go to. In this way he could support himself for living costs which would be beyond the community to sponsor I think. I am not sure the BF could come up with that money extra to usual activities. Also it might be an imposition on BF to organise. It would have to be co-ordinated with Ton and his plans etc. I know there has been a sponsor for some part time Blender coding lately… Maybe a combination of working part time as a coder for Blender + part time ‘real paying’ coding job elsewhere. Perhaps he could return home with some savings too or after least after that time he has some new options.
I guess if we could come up with 2000 euro as a wider community it would at least cover travel and paperwork costs. Then again that is like 4-8 years assistance in Cuba.
I am not sure we could do this all the time but we might find deserving cases every so often.
Still we shouldnt get too far ahead of ourselves in our dreaming…first we hear back from farsthary
Perhaps this discussion should be moved to BlenderArtists then which would have more ongoing visibility. Already this post disappears off BlenderNation front page.
Blender People!
At least we can help him (and his family) to move to Havana – if he wants to. I don’t know all his wishes (that we can implement).
If it’s possible through giving money – then it’s not impossible for us. Almost everybody here can give him at least 30$. I don’t know all cuban realities but there can be a way to move to some quiter place (I’m telling about hurricanes in his province).
I personally can give about 50$ per month – just no expensive cheese for me and some other excess foods or restaraunt visits.
I’m not proud of it b’coz it is really deserved – I did send him 100$ through PayPal and he will get it after some time.
Cuba is not a hell or something like that but their survival life is very sad of course.
I see unlimited clay is a modifier.
Does that mean I can start sculpting with UC modifier No.1, then add a new UC modifier at a certain stage and try out sculpting certain details and if I don’t like the result I can delete the second modifier and get the base sculpt back?
very nice
you can contact zbrush website
i think they help you
Great stuff, and full quad!
Would like to try that, it seems cool :D