Lost in Sculptie Hell

I have never used a 3d program in my life. I am just crazy enough to want to give it a serious try. Where do I start. I would like to make sculptie shoes in sl and I have no clue where to start. Now i did download that SLPLOPP program (which i had more fun playing with than anything else), the sculptie that i uploaded looked like an FTD florist shoe vs the side of a shoe that I was going for.

So I come to the SL forums where the super users hang out asking for some real help. I am not a graphics designer, nor am I rich, so I need some layman terms help and an inexpensive program that allows me to scuplt my way to SL heaven.

Does anyone have any advice on which program offers decent results, ease of use, and a great tutorial on how to get that perfect sculptie map/texture into sl and onto a prim for use?

I know that some of you love to take opportunities such as mine to post useless and sarcastic comments to someone who knows less than you do, but I would appreciate only comments that are useful.

Thanks.

IMHO Maya is the way to go.

I realise that is above some peoples budget .. But cost was'nt implied in the OP.

If cost is an issue then Blender may well be worth a try .. I have never used it so I can't advise.

Thank you. Are there good tutorial included with these programs?

I cannot speak for Blender but Maya has one of the best help files/tutorials I have ever seen.

When you search these fora for the word "sculpt", you will see hundreds of posts discussing this very issue. Give the a read.

Or...

Go to wiki.secondlife.com and search for sculpt...lots of similar discussion there, too.

Or...

Search youtube.com for sculpt, and look at those tutorials, especially the ones by Daniel Abernathy.

As Maya costs about $2000 I would not recommend it for someone looking for an inexpensive program. Blender and Wings are free. They both have tutorials available.

Here is a Wings tutorial. /8/3b/210515/1.html#post1676513

Many people, including myself find Blender difficult to learn, though some love it. I reccommend Wings.

Most bang for least buck and aggravation: Tokoroten and Rokuro (but limited in outcome)
What I most want to try: Rokuro Pro (3000L I think)
Most likely to get me there if there is more complex: Blender using a sculptie template.

I would be willing to do a bit of tutelage if schedules permit. Send me an IM.

Thank you so much Renee. I downloaded Blender and after about 2 hrs of trying to figure it out I almost threw my computer out of the window. I am going to rewatch the video tutorials (again) and see if I can make any sense of this at all. Pray for me

I suggest AC3D. Not only is it easy to use and learn. It's super cheap ($75 US, with a 15 day trial period to play with it before you decide to buy). Plus the author is actively working to integrate use with Second Life and scupltie export is about the simplest of all the 3D programs.

Info and download here:
http://www.inivis.com/secondlife.html

Tutorial for exporting existing 3D models to scupltie here:
http://www.independentdeveloper.com/archive/2007/09/27/sculpted_prims_from_existing_3

Thank you Pixie I will go and look at that one now.

No problem, and don't miss the extra info on this page:

http://www.inivis.com/secondlifesculpted.html

Maya is the best 3D program i have ever used, but it also has, by far, the steepest learning curve. It is what they use in house in most production companies, so getting it just for sculpties is kinda like suggesting somebody buy a Bugatti just to learn how to drive and go to the supermarket. =)

I see a lotta people suggesting others blow a wad on Maya which, I assume, is making Autodesk quite happy, but totally useless to start with. Even for "pro" sculpties, it's still dubious as to whether or not you should just go out and buy the thing, unless you're making a ton of money with your objects in SL.

I would say, like some others, start with Wings3D. It's free, it's small, I've used the program since 1999 (back when it was Nendo and cost $100 - it was my first modeling program). It is very easy to learn and a lot of fun.

AC3D sounds really kewl and I actually might look into that for fun.

I use Maya since version 1.5 (i didn't buy a few upgrades like 2, 5-7 etc...I don't always upgrade to the latest). But even so, sometimes I still pull out Wings to play with it or to make simple and quick stuff because it's fun and it is fast.

I dont know enough about blender, but I know that it's very, very, very good as well (and you can't beat the price).

I actually know a few others but they kinda don't apply to SL stuff so i won't go into detail here. =)

Blender Underground has the best tutorials for blender newbies.
Watching these videos shows you from the very beginning, how to USE Blender using the current version too.
I watched the 4th one yesterday and I did notice the fact that in Blender there is very little menu hunting.
Learn the keystrokes, they give you the power without all those mouse clicks, adding speed and indeed, minimizing carpel tunnel. Unlike EVERY windows app.

Go see. blenderunderground.com
Don´t waste your money on windows programs.
*Asbestos shield* /ON

what about studio max??

I have trying to make sculptie shoes for several months now. This is what I use. Rokuro, PloppSL and Wings3d.
You don't need anything else, Jaynessa Jackson if you have never used 3d programs before.
Blender is has to steep a course (hense the videos). You said you used Plopp and figured it out.
Wings is a bit harder but is smooth once you get the hand of it.
However, I have yet to find a tool that will make a shoe straight out.
Rokuro can't do the shape (unless the new Pro can't, I haven't got the code yet)
Wings can but Texturing is a bitch there.
Plopp you can't do fine work on.

Good luck.
Maya is a Graphic artists tool and is expense, same with studio max
And While blender is free, I would not suggest it.

Thunderclap, I'm working very hard at the moment to make texturing a sculpty a lot easier for people. Stay tuned

And for a tutorial, you could create a pumpkin in Wings3D and then show us how to texture it with your Daniel3D texture mapper painter creator thingy

My Wings3D pumpkins um, inhale sharply and I have no idea how to create a nice pumpkin texture.

Doug

You made that as a sculptie? Whoa! Nice.
I had to make the sneaker shape in wings. That is how I found about the twistiness of Plopp. I loaded the sculptie into wings and there is was.

I am looking forward to it. Thank you for the work.

ummm...what is a cad program?

Computer Aided Design

see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-aided_design

DrDoug are you modelling that with the 64x63 or whatever it was sphere? Because half the verts on that get thrown out, you won't get the results you expect

Hi Daniel,

For the picture I included above, I used the 64x63 sphere. I had previously used the 32x31 template but that just gave me a blob sculpty so I tried the 64x63.

Now that you mention it I sorta recall reading somewhere that the 64x63 model got downsized to 32x31.

Yeah - that's it, I knew it but um, just forgot.

Really .

So, when can we see this 3-D pumpkin painting program?

Doug

Really? The pumpkin mesh in Wings? After watching Daniel's videos (about 5 times) making things in Wings is much easier once you get the hang of selecting vertices and using the Alt key in combination with the movement controls. Throw in a very liberal use of Ctrl-Z to undo your mistakes, and it's pretty easy to morph things into shape.

Now getting them into SL as a decent sculpty - that's the part I haven't figured out.

Doug

I am right there with you!