Sculpt hatred

So... I'm getting a little annoyed at how to make sculpts.

I've obtained some .OBJ files of some armor parts that I intend to use in SL for my avatar. The problem is, past editing the actual shape (in various programmes) I have absolutely no idea on what or how to get through the next part - prepping the file for explort into SL itself.

I've read the tutorials quite a number of times now - for each programme I have - and I'm still no closer.

My loaded programmes are Wings 3D, AOI (Art of Illusion) and Blender - Blender doesn't seem to want to load the .OBJ files, Wings 3D openly HATES them, and while I can load them up in AOI, I'm clueless about what to do next.

So. My question is this: assume I have my sculpt BUILT in AOI. How am I to go about prepping my build for loading into SL as a texture?

I'll hug anyone who can tell me x_x

Unfortunately, you're trying to fit cantaloupe in a soup can by doing this.


A sculpty is a uniform mesh created out of elaborate origami.

An arbitrary mesh can (and almost always WILL) break this convention, typically by having a number of verts that don't match up or having many "pinch" points where several vertices converge or diverge.


In brief, you aren't going to get a 1:1 mapping of an arbitrary mesh to a sculpted shape.

You ARE going to have to recreate the object as a sculpt or set of sculpts, or face a potentially ***SEVERE*** hit to detail when using one of the supposed "exporters" that attempt to automate this process.


I'm curious about the problem you're having loading the OBJ files in Blender. I have never had this problem.

But, the best you're going to be able to do is find a tool that supports sculpties, load the file, and then sculpt an equivalent of the object until THAT is able to be imported.

Before we get into any technical discussion, what kind of licensing came with those models? Does the license specifically grant you the right to create derivative works from them, and copy them to a public space like SL? Most commercially available models don't allow for that sort of thing. Neither do most freebies. I'd highly recommend you contact the original artist and ask. Please respect copyright.

With that out of the way, on to your questions...

First of all, as you're discovering, there's not really any universal standard for OBJ. Different programs write OBJ files in different ways by default, and there are user options in addition. Not every OBJ will be compatible with all programs. Many will, but not all. It sounds like whatever ones you've got are fairly bizarre.

If they're working in AOI, but not anywhere else, then I'd suggest you try re-exporting them from AOI as new OBJ's. It's possible the problems will get straightened out. No guarantees, though.

It's also entirely possible that the reason they're solely readable by AOI is because that's what they were created in in the first place, and the program's implementation of OBJ is unique. I've never used AOI, so I don't know what it can or can't do, file-wise. The documentation on the website is somewhat unclear.

As for the question of making sculpties, as far as I know, AOI cannot create sculpt maps directly. You can model the geometry in it, but you'd need to export to another program to generate the sculpt maps. Because of this, it would make a lot more sense just to use another program from start to finish.

Whatever program you do end up using, I wouldn't recommend trying to convert the original models directly to sculpties. As Jeffrey pointed out, that almost never works. It's extremely unlikely that any model not specifically designed to be a sculpty from the start would ever incorporate the kind of topology and UV space that sculpties require. It's just not the way it's traditionally done. Sculpties are quite unique.

What I'd suggest instead is that you use the existing models simply as references. Put them in your scene, and then build your sculpties right on top of them, from spheres or cylinders. If you're an experienced modeler, it shouldn't be much of a challenge. If you're new, though, then it's likely going to take you a while to learn. It will require a fair amount of patience and dedication. There's no way around that.

The best thing to do is learn the basics of 3D modeling in general first, and then once you've got a solid mastery of that, apply your knowledge to sculpties. If you try to go the other way around, to focus on learning sculpties first, before you've mastered the prerequisites, you're all but guaranteed to experience nothing but frustration. As I often say when this kind of thing comes up, don't put the cart before the horse.

I realize this isn't the kind of answer you probably wanted, but it's the best one I can give for now. If you come back and say "Chosen, you misunderstood. I'm already a solidly experienced 3D modeler, but there's just something in particular about sculpties I'm missing so far," then that would be a different story. But if you are just starting out with modeling (and SL prim modeling doesn't count, by the way), then you're going to have to start at the beginning, just like everyone else. Spend a few weeks learning the fundamentals of polygonal modeling and NURBS modeling, and the path to making sculpties will become self-evident before you know it.

The SOLE requirement for sculpted prim compatibility is a SQUARE MESH, 32×32 quads. You can arrange them spherically, cylindrically, toroidally, or even out as an unstitched plane, as long as you keep in mind that the polygons are one-sided.

If you manage that, there are only a few, simpler issues to watch out for in getting the right form: vertex order, so the object doesn't render inside-out (but if it does, you can just flip it in any image editor); precision limitations, as you only get 8 bits of data in each dimension (but flat/narrow objects can be flattened/narrowed in-world to hold good detail in those 8 bits); and uploading losslessly (just click the checkbox during the final, L$10 upload).

another workaround I have found useful occasionally when running into issues loading files, is to find other filetypes the programs share such as say 3ds and export them to that aswell, usually at least one of the models will come out close enough to work on

I.... understood completely none of that o.o

OK, OK. So... general ideas are:

Q: You're sure the models are 'full perm'?
A: Yes. I saw him create them, and as far as I know he didn't add any protection to them.

Q: Blender screws up?
A: Oh, hell yes. It'll let me TRY to import the file, but never shows it when I hit 'open'.

S: YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG! D=
A: Quite possibly.

S: You're gonna have to learn how to build sculpties yourself
A: Sure, and watch my brain explode like a melon.

*sighs*

I'll get on that. You guys should go get a coffee and some earmuffs - I'll be a long time at this, and there shall be cursing. begone, this is not for your ears.

But thanks for the input anyways. Expect another topic like this in half a year or so.

Copyright protections are automatic. You don't have to "add" anything to your work in order for it to be your property; it just is. In the absence of a license that says otherwise, you cannot make derivative works from someone else's material.

If the creator of those models is a friend of yours, then it shouldn't be a big deal to ask to make sure it's OK for you to do what you're doing. Chance are he'll say yes, since he's your friend.


Hmm. It could just be an issue of scaling. The model might so small that it's not visible unless you zoom way in, or it could be so big that its parts are so spread out they're beyond the farclip range of your camera.

Scaling issues like this are not uncommon when moving models from program to program, or even from user to user within the same program. If the unit size in one is radically different from the other, the model can end up seemingly resized as well.

I would assume Blender has some sort of "focus on all" command, to bring all geometry in the scene into view. To do this in Maya, you'd simply press A. I have no idea what the Blender equivalent of that might be, but I'd be surprised if one didn't exist. Perhaps one of our Blender experts can offer some advice.

You can also open up the OBJ file in any text editor to get a general idea. You probably won't understand what you're looking at without knowing a little more about 3D and about the syntax of the format itself, but you can easily get a sense of the scale. If all the numbers are very small, like 0.000324 or something, then you know the model is tiny, compared with the unit size. If they're more like 4656.432314, then the model is gigantic in comparison with the units.



Nah, you'll be OK. If you have specific questions along the way, ask.

It's the Home key or View - View All from menus. The dot key on numeric keypad is View Selected, so this can be handy if the import script selects the items it brings in.

Best advice I can give is to follow everyone else's suggestions about starting simple. Converting existing meshes is probably the hardest thing to do with sculpties. I'd create a few of your own from scratch first (using my scripts of course ). This will help you to understand the sculptie making process so that you have a background of knowledge to tackle the conversions. Pages 5 to 7 of my scripts thread have a lot of information about unwrapping meshes and issues that come up. The general advice is don't do it as remodelling using a sculptie compatible mesh is nearly always quicker.

I have one question that no one seemed to ask. What Program was he using when you saw him make it? Sculpties are hard. And excluding Maya and Blender, there are few plug in for them. I want to note that those as well as the wings 3d plugin were built by the people who frequent here. So far I have only seen 5 independant sculpty programs. I have all of them. I even have archipelis which is an awesome workflow program with exports to several formats. They recently released an independant sculptie generator for their models. It only does theres and I use it so I don't spend 5 hours on the textures. It cost me $60 and was the second best money on software yet.
I have personally yet to see a successful upload of an obj.
Beyond that, Everyone has said it all. Good luck, think organically and have patience.