opinion?...do i need a 3D app to take things further?

Hi, I just discovered ridiculously lower prices if one has a Student ID card (at least in the USA), and since ive gone back for some UNIX & math classes, i apparently qualify.

I just read the lastest thread on apps used to render shadow and light onto a texture and Ive been chewing on which 3D app to use myself, and its not just the price, but the complexity that makes me curious as to what the heck it is that i'd need to create sculpties and render some textures with mild shadows & light. But now i'm wondering if i need one at all?

if im good at photoshop (professional of 12 years), and understand that trying to get *too* realistic with shadows and light can backfire when the camera angle changes, am i better off honing my hand-brushing skills for shadow and light in with photoshop that i already own?

with so many free or low-priced sculptie-generating apps becoming available, can those solve 99% of my sculptie issues? I play with Sculptypaint, Sloft (in-world), blender's NURBS objects...

Now, I dont need to make the next episode of BSG, or the sequel to 300. I just want to make perfect sculpties and add a *subtle* depth to textures.

So, price aside, wchich apps can allow one to just "jump in" to the sections that would be used for SL only...again i dont need to make a movie and i dont work in video games, i dont intend to render any 3D scenes elsewhere other than SL.

I'm a fast learner, but my retention has proven to be a failure with Blender (all respect to open source however). Rhinocerous seemed to specialized for the price (am i missing something?). Lightwave and Maya look great but offer much much more than I'd ever touch, and i fear having to sift thru mountains of info to find what i need (is that the case?). How bout Bryce? it looks cool, can it do the trick? Sketchup? i see theres a free and a pro version.

Thanks for any opinions. I know this is a commonly posted question, but the software seems to change every 3 months. I hope to have settled with a 3D package (if i need one) by the end of this century.

The short answer is no, you don't need a 3D app if you're skilled with Photoshop, have a good eye for painting light and shadow, and are satisified with the sculpty tools you're already using. What a 3d app can do for you is make all of it easier (once you get past some steep learning curves, and I do mean steep), and more accurate.

Rhino is a specialized modeling app that's really aimed at product design and engineering where models need to be accurate enough that they can be used for stereo lithography and actual fabrication of parts. It's a great tool but not at all the one you want for visual art, game design, or animation.

If you don't plan to do anything but stuff for SL then I don't recommend investing in Maya or Max, even with a student discount. 90% of the features would be things you don't need. You'd be better off with more specialized apps. If you have trouble learning Blender, learning Max or Maya isn't going to be any easier. A combination of a good inexpensive modeler and a good inexpensive 3d paint app or a hybrid of the two would likely do you more good and be easier to get into initially.

You might want to take a look at Daz's Hexagon 2.5 which is a modeler that has tools for creating SL sculpties and 3d paint tools built in. http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/software/hexagon/-/new?&_m=d

Or you could use a combination like Wings3D as a modeler and sculpty tool (free), and 3d-Coat as a 3d paint app. http://www.3d-coat.com/

Or you could go for something like Zbrush, but if you had trouble with Blender Zbrush might make you tear all your hair out. It has the interface from hell.

thanks for those references, ill check them out.

actually that brings up one other question-- when i do make sculpties (im not that advanced yet) the shadows are not in the right place, almost as if theyre all consolidated to one edge, etc. is this a result of my technique--something i am overlooking, or is it a result of the apps I am using?

if its my technique, i'll note that and seek answers on threads already posted. thanks.

Hello Court. Chip's advice was excellent, so I won't add anything to it.

In regard to your second question, I'll be happy to help if I can. I'm not quite sure I'm understanding your description of the problem, though. Could you post a screenshot or two to demonstrate?

Hi! i appreciate the help. My work is on my home system which i wont be at for a few more hours, but i will be more than happy to post these examples --ill post as a seprate thread. Perhaps ill recreate a couple to verify that it wasnt my fault thanks!

this looks very, very cool. thank you

You're welcome. I just discovered it today myself so I haven't tried it, but it seems to have a nice combo of features for SL sculpties. I only gave a quick glance over the feature list though so I can't vouch for how well it works.

I think I remember Chosen Few saying that they (Daz) had been in contact with him and some other developers regarding creating tools for SL. Chosen, my memory isn't that great, did this happen, or should I go get that Alzheimer's test pronto?

Yes, it was about a year, maybe a year and a half ago. I spoke a few times with a guy at DAZ, who had approached the development company I was working for at the time. He was looking for insight, feedback, and suggestions from pro content creators on various ways in which DAZ software could be useful to us. Sculpties didn't exist yet back then, so we never talked about that specifically, but there were some pretty cool ideas tossed around.

I really like DAZ as a company. They've done much to put 3D in the hands of the masses. Plus, I've got a huge crush on Victoria.

I used Bryce about 1000 years ago when it was "KPT Bryce" and loved it and just bought Hexagon. I have only used it about an hour at this point, but it is very-well documented, and includes a multi-page PDF for creating sculptys, as well as a huge wiki. I am going to run thru the docs and tutorials today. Looking forward to it. Great price too. Thanks for the tips. Chosen, I'm going to start over with my sculpty knowledge and see if i can kill that shadow issue i had . thanks again

I was just going to ask about this sort of thing myself and here the question is already. I would like to know not just about sculpties but about baking textures into clothes made on templates. Can you bake textures with blender or some other free software? And also is it really needed to give clothes that finishing touch or does painting shading and light in photoshop work just as well ? When you use a software like lightwave to bake textures after creating clothes in photoshop do you already have some painted on shading and light from photoshop or do you let the baking software do it all ? I love that sort of smooth shiny look and natural shading and light on some clothes and wondered if a plug in from photoshop and painted on shading will work just as well to get it or is it done mostly from baking a texture ?

Painting it can work just as well, and in many cases, better. The reason is that when you bake lighting using the avatar model you get shadows based on very simple anatomy that will ignore fabric wrinkles, hemlines, and other bumpiness in your fabric unless you go to the extra step to create bump or displacement maps. Baking can be great as a starting point or for very subtle shadowing since you'll get shading in all the right places, but you might want to bake the shadows as a seperate element (if Blender supports baking out seperate elements like that) which you can then drop on a layer in photoshop and refine to add in shadows for your folds, wrinkles and whatnot. Baking isn't the end all be all. It's just another tool that can help you achieve certain looks (like shiny fabrics, or rough fabrics like weaves) easier than painting them by hand.

I'm thinking about buying hexagon. I saw a video that shows doing radial symetry. Does it do bi-lateral symmetry too?

I had a different experience going from Blender to Zbrush. I hated Blender. Zbrush took some time to learn, I think particularly as it was my first time doing 3d modelling. But I took to Zbrush readily because you can just push the shape around with the mouse like clay. You don't have to think like an engineer, you can think like an artisit.

I think Blender would be a lot easier to learn for someone who isn't already used to a more traditional interface and workflow. I just really dislike its interface and didn't find it in any way intuitive.