I do know how to make smooth and curved sculpties from nurbs, with quite good results too, so I am familiar with the very basics of sculpty making.
But I have been somewhat puzzled by the "complex" shapes - such as bookshelves, repeating posts on railings, window frames etc. That I have seen made from just a single sculpt prim, but can have shapes resembling several normal prims.
And also I have seen from very close examination, that these shapes can be geometrically perfect, having straight angles, straight edges and planes - and none of the "lumpiness" that some of the sculpties show. And I have also seen non-nurb-like geometrical shapes like 1-prim furniture and plants etc.
So my guess has been that these shapes are perhaps made from polygons instead of nurbs .. but yet I have no clue how to start approach the problem.
My question is...
1. Are there good tutorials how to create this kind of "complex" geometrical sculpts - I have spent ages for looking for such, but seems that either the information is buried somewhere .. or then just a well kept secret?
2. I assume also the choice of 3d-modeling program is important.. I have had a feeling that maybe it is Blender that people make this kind of complex sculpts with? .. Any other options? .. I have some knowledge with 3ds Max and Maya? .. What about Wings 3D?
3. What about texture baking options for such prims.. I guess at least Blender and 3DS Max and Maya have options to bake textures too, and perhaps the new Photoshop CS4 might help also with painting textures on the models (though I don't know if it works for sculpties such as these?) ... I would like to have some kind of better workflow for texturing than the usual trial and error.
But mostly I would just be very thankful for at least some kind of starting point how to start modeling shapes like this, for example like a bookshelf or windowframe (and I know sculptypaint can do stairs, but I'd rather wish to learn how to model these things myself in a 3D-software than let an automated program do it for me - although Sculptypaint really is an amazing program for what it does, all kudos to that!)
