3D Coat- New version

[jayr]

theres been a new release of 3D-Brush, now known as 3D Coat. The potential of this program in conjunction with trueSpace is immense, please check it out.
It now has 2 licence versions a student one and a comercial one and a 15 day try out version.
i'm working on a head model now (after many, many trys of different techniques) that i'm going to run thought it. I'll post the unholy mess i make soon

edit: whoops forgot to add a link. If this is new to you it's here:
http://www.3d-coat.com/

[Steinie]

Thanks Jayr for the heads up. Do you own this program yet and if so can you offer an opinion.
3DFrog I think bought this one a while ago, I wonder what he thinks of it too.
I see that it works with obj. files but does that mean moving back and forth between Model and WorkSpace ?

[jayr]

I just updated to this version, free if you have the last one.
Only played with it a bit, works well with a wacom tablet, very well infact. Lots of ways to configure how your stoke affects the model.
You can sculpt the model or just paint it and export the maps into TS.
it intergrates with photohop too but i haven't tested that yet.
i'm hoping to give it a going over properly when i finish the rough work on the head i'm doing now, so sometine tomorrow or friday.

[RAYMAN]

I own it Steinie !
Its not bad but its not Zbrush !
While I call 3d Coat a displacment and paint tool.....
I call Zbrush a sculpting and modeling tool !
I have it and love it (its almost as nice as Moi3d-which is something else butmy no1 3d app.)
The only tool that rivals Z Brush at the moment is Mud box which
I have read about but dont have and havent tried !
If you want to spend money and you can afford it get Zbrush !
Its a lot of learning though !
HTH !
Peter

[jayr]

i wouldn't expect 3D coat to rival zBrush really, it's about 1/5 of the price

If i had the money and i thought i'd get the use out of it i'd get ZBrush it's and amazing piece of software.

[RAYMAN]

Plus ! you have to load model side !
Zbrush just does some heavy meshes that 3d coat
just cant load and save.... !
Zbrush can be very poly heavy if you export as a mesh.
But you can export low poly and with displacements !
Peter

[RAYMAN]

Originally Posted by jayr

i wouldn't expect 3D coat to rival zBrush really

If i had the money and i thought i'd get the use out of it i'd get ZBrush it's and amazing piece of software.

Its like comparing a motorbike with a car !
Just not the same thing !
Peter

[Délé]

I've had 3d brush...errr...3d coat for a while now. I haven't had time to play with it a whole lot, but I definitely think it's worth the price. From the little testing I've done it seems to integrate very well with Photoshop. You can even create an ambient occlusion map which is placed on a separate layer in PS. I really like how you can paint things layer by layer (color, specular, etc.).

I still have a lot of testing yet to do, but so far I think it is a good program for the price.

Originally Posted by Steinie

I see that it works with obj. files but does that mean moving back and forth between Model and WorkSpace ?

Yes. It would definitely be best if we had an .obj import on the WS side. It's not so bad though. You just load the .obj from the model side, turn the bridge on, then turn it back off. Not the ideal work-flow of course, but not really all that bad. I do that a lot when I import Silo models as well.

[Steinie]

I wrote them a letter trying to convince them to License their Product to the User and not the Computer. I've been stuck before where the Company folds and if your Computer is replaced/updated you lose the Software.
I've been playing with the Demo and the UV mapping alone would be worth it.
A plug in from TS7.6 to this program would be awesome! Seems like they support everybody except Caligari. We need to change that.

[transient]

Plus ! you have to load model side !
Zbrush just does some heavy meshes that 3d coat
just cant load and save.... !
Zbrush can be very poly heavy if you export as a mesh.
But you can export low poly and with displacements !
Peter

You can export low-poly meshes with displacement since the first beta. The beta could also handle millions of polygons, which is all you need for sculpting.

Z-brush is for artists that want to take a sphere and turn it into an dinosaur. This app is aimed at users that already have a sub-d mesh modeled in another app. Z-brush users probably don't need 3dcoat, but that's not really saying much as it's the current king of sculpting.

Their was talk of having 3dcoat attached to a lightwave dongle to avoid the license issue steinie mentioned, although that obviously doesn't help users here.

I honestly can't see an app that's this well made and supported, at this price, not going well. The creator is really bringing it at them moment imo.

Also, there's nothing stopping trueSpace users using 3dcoat in their creations now, but the dribble renderer would be advised because of it's micro-displacement feature (I'm buying it as soon as I get the cash for this reason).