Maya Sculpties - More Detail?

Okay, so I've been getting into sculpty modeling, first with Sculptypaint and now I'm moving on to bigger better goals. I've got access to a copy of Maya 8.5 whenever I need and I've always tried toying around with it, and the complexity of sculpty models are simple enough that I can pick it up easily with previous experience. So first I try to make a head, I use the Qarl Sculpt Export Mel script and okay cool, got my image. So I try to upload it to SL, preview it, and okay odd, my head that once had more detail is now barely conceivable as a head. I lost the original model so about 5 seconds ago I made a really lame mock-up of "Jack the Pumpkin King's" head and exported the sculptey image, and I've tried both .bmp and .jpg, and neither give the correct detail to even get close to the original model. The head sockets and lips which were exaggerated in the first place come out as indentations and bumps. Now I've played around with the Isop(h?)arms and I'm not sure what option I should shift to make it exactly 16, which I hear for some reason is best? I am assuming that means 16 sections and 16 spans? It's the only option I have found to cut the sphere sections up. Also, the sculpts I upload come out rather more oblong than their originals, and I must stretch them to make similar to the original scale. Any help? I've tried so many options. And I know enough about this application to use it, just if you suggest a tool or option, point me in the right direction. Thanks. If I become successful at making some good sculpties, I will make a tutorial as I am a mentor and a veteran instructor.

Try uploading losslessly. Make sure the map is small, targa or bitmap, and use SLImagUpload (It's on wiki.secondlife.com somewhere =/) to upload the sculptmap losslessly. See if that fixes it, if not.. come back

Hi Ravenis. So you know, the isoparms are the lines that crisscross the NURBS surface, and the sections and spans are the spaces in between them. I recommend 16 sections and 15 spans for best results.

I'd also recommend setting your NURBS LOD display to level 2. To do that, select your surface, and press the number 2 on your keyboard. Level 2 corresponds very closely with how SL is going to tesselate the surface. It will enable you to get a better sense of how your sculpty will look in SL.

Take a look at all three levels though, just so you understand what the differences are. Level 1 will draw straight lines between the points, almost as if you're looking at a polygonal surface. Level 3 will make the surface appear very smooth, much smoother than sculpties actually are. Level 2 is the closest match.

As for preserving details, it's all about learning to where to pack your control vertices. Areas of higher detail should obviously get a lot of CV's. Areas with lower detail can get away with a lot less. That said, there's only so much physical detail you can get out of just 16x16 isoparms. Sculpties do have their limitations.

You can mimic the effect of VERY high detail though with good texturing. If it's at all possible for you to get your hands on the Turtle renderer, you'll be amazed at what a difference a good Turtle texture bake can make to the appearance of your sculpties. You can do a lot with Mental Ray too, but not as easily or quickly as you could with Turtle.

A lot of the apparent detail in great looking sculpties isn't really there. Well placed highlights and shadows can suggest the presence of all kinds of extra detail in extremely convincing ways. So don't feel like you have to sculpt every last detail. The physical shape of the model is only half the battle. The other half is all in the texturing.

Also, lossless uploading of maps, as Okiphia said, is a must. Qarl's uber exporter script, together with the .primscript uploader, works really well for this.

You really need to be considering 'subdivision surfaces' for detailed stuff. NURBS aren't really suitable for high detail modeling.

In theory it is possible to create a detailed head using NURBS. But it would be insane considering there's far better methods out there.


A quick guide:

With subdivision surfaces you create a low detailed model then subdivide it into a dense mesh and add your details. You then apply a texture derived from the high detailed model to your original low detailed model.

It's not complicated at all. Another way of approaching the problem is to take a photo of somebody and apply it to a low detailed model.

The detail is just an illusion.

I would like to thank you for replying to my post, and so fast. Thanks also to you Chosen for such a detailed and instructive post. I think it will be useful to many, not just me as some of these things just haven't been spelled out in "How-To". Although, I'm still having issues. I tried creating a torso, using just a sphere, no arms, just bulges for arm sockets, and a outstretch for the neck and then I cropped as many control vertices as I could towards the chest area so I could add some detail with pecs and abdominal bumps, nothing too fancy. Well again little detail again, and I tried 64X64 as before I was doing the highest resolution before, and even in the #2 rendering setting there was much more detail in the Maya version over the SL version. I would understand I would lose some but I REALLY have to exaggerate the bumps to make it look anything similar to what I want. And worse yet, I have HUGE splits going down my sculpties even after import. And yes I use lossless compression. I also tried to make something like a leg-wrapping 'shinguard' and it came out with the same huge split and was squished and just looked like a sad failed attempt at a clay pot, I assumed it was just because I took some vertices to an extreme, but on the torso I tried not to take anything to an extreme and it still squished and had the huge split. Any ideas?

Oh and any of you seen "Light Waves'" work? That kind of detail in the torsos and such of his sculpties is what I want. High hopes for an amateur but I think with trial and error I hope I can find the source/s of my troubles.