Tips & Tricks: How to use the "Transform/Copy tool"

Hello together,

I prepared a new quick video tutorial. In this tutorial you will learn the following:

• How the Transform/Copy Tool works
• What the options of this tool are used for

Free video download link for playing the video offline -> Download video (Xvid(DivX) ~50 MBytes)

3D Coat BETA Update - Version 3.5.11

Updated to 3.5.11[beta]
Changes:

• Possibility [optional] to merge mesh into voxel scene without actual voxelization. It will appear in voxel surface mode and will be voxelized when you will turn it to voxel mode. This is an important milestone for future implementation of dynamic tesselation and highpoly booleans that may change the face of digital sculpting. In it's current state it is convenient for instancing, but it's actual power is in possibilities that this new approach opens.
• Much better algorithm for adding external normalmap + painted depth in ppp. No artifacts appear there - http://bit.ly/fCaC8m
• Leaks problem discovered and improved - http://bit.ly/i8hzgC
• Primitives controls are a bit more convenient now - it will always be possible to rotate camera + arrows will never become too small.
• UV packing problem with overlapped UV islands resolved - http://bit.ly/dKI4zz
• The longstanding problem of rough normals [http://bit.ly/eJZCA2] in surafece mode finally solved.
• The smoothing issue fixed - http://bit.ly/fC9MvJ
• Export dense quads prblem fixed - http://bit.ly/icpG9K
• The spacing issue fixed - http://bit.ly/flnejA
• Fixed smoothing problem in voxel surface mode - http://bit.ly/euHNlU
• The problem related to ZB brushes importing from folder resolved - http://bit.ly/gIDUQT

Download the current beta here: Wanna have it...

Insider news: 3D Coats bug reporting system accepts new users now

Hello,

I am happy to announce, that the member system in mantis (3D Coats open bug reporting system) is working now. You are now able to sign up for a bug reporting team account.

Just click on the link "Signup for a new account" beside the Login link and follow the instructions.

An own account gives you the following advantages:
1. You will be automaticaly notified by email, when a bug is fixed or someone leaves a comment or a question.
2. You can use the optimised filter options, f.e. to filter bug reports which were posted by you only.

I hope a lot of people use the new bug reporting system and help to optimise 3D Coat in this way.

Of course beside bugs you can post feature requests too.

-> Sign up now or look for posted bugs...

Thank you
Chris

Insider news: 3D Coat Update and developer news

Hello friends,

sorry for my absense, last week. I was ill.
In the meantime there were some very interesting news about 3D Coat, that I don't want to keep back from you.

New 3D Coat update 3.5.10
Changes:

• I made support of COPY-PASTE in UV tool - http://bit.ly/e1hFqU . It is useful to perform UV mapping over repeatable or symmetric details.
• Fixed problem of incorrect scale when usung Voxels->Toggle proxy. It was the reason of all problems with proxy scale.
• 3D-Coat will paint with cavity detection a lot faster.
• I made that subdivide individual faces in retopo room will not destroy UV-coordinates - http://bit.ly/gk8Ey5 
• I fixed problem of deleting face while collapsing edge with RMB - http://bit.ly/evJiwy 
• Splines export problem fixed - http://bit.ly/hiQuKO 
• I made ALT+eye click to work correctly with instances.
• bug fixed - http://bit.ly/edFmCe 
• Compatibility with OBJ files from Rhino improved (ending slashes supported, if line is long Rhino places \ and continues on the next line).
• I updated OBJ files support. Now you wil be able to import color, specular, normal, displacement during OBJ import. There is document that describes changes - http://bit.ly/gUUi45

Download the current beta here: Wanna have it...

New developer joins 3D coat team
Raul Fernandez, a new developer has joined the 3D Coat development team. Raul is already known in the blender community for his implementation of a very nice polygon tesselation routine, which is based on the method, that is used in sculptris. Here you will find his website with more infos: Visit Rauls website...

Andrew Shpagin (pilgway founder and 3D Coat lead developer):
"I am happy to see Raul in our team. There is my short vision of future sculpting in 3DC:

• dynamic tesselation + topology independent multiresolution (that is already done) in 3DC are unbeatable pair.
• same set of booleans in surface mode as in voxel mode. It is actually not too hard, I made it once when I was in GSC Game World and making HOAE game.

With that features you will be able to get full frredom of voxels + overcam thaditional voxel problems:

• lack of sharp edges
• too uniform triangulation"

Insider news: AppLink installer script published

For AppLink developers
Pilgway has published an installer script to help to create own AppLink installers for windows users. A small help manual, which comes together with the script, explains how to do it.

More infos will be found here: Wanna see...

Tips & Tricks: Environment reflection in 3D Coat

Click on image to download video...

Another short tutorial video by me: "Environment reflection in 3D Coat".
In this video I explain, how you can use images as environment reflections and see them directly on your model, in 3D Coats viewport.

You will learn:
1. ...how to move to the reflection mode.
2. ...how to change the reflection image.
3. ...how the reflection intensity is controlled.

Free video download link -> Download video (zipped Xvid(DivX) ~15 MBytes)

Insider news: AppLink for Maya updated to version 1.04

The 3D Coat AppLink for Maya has been updated to version 1.04 : Wanna check it...

Insider news: Voxel SDK

Pilgway have published a first voxel SDK for their software 3D Coat. A 3B file format specification is also included.

Current information:
This is simple Voxels IO SDK allows to load, save and perform simple operations over 3B files that contain voxels.
The SDK may be used to make conversion between 3B files and other formats or for batching operations over 3B files.
Multiple objects in scene are supported, too.

Pilgway: "There are no restrictions for the SDK files usage. It will be good if you will extend it by other useful examples." 

Link to the forum thread: Wanna have it...

Featured artist: Tyson Murphy

Hello,

This month I am proud to present you a new featured artist, Tyson Murphy.

First time I saw Tysons works in the 3D Coat forum galleries. I liked his arts immediately. His current style remembered me directly to the art of Blizzard Entertainment and the old cg classics.

This time I've prepared special questions for featured artists and Tyson is the first one who answered my question list. I hope this meets your interests and would be happy if you support me with your feedback. Maybe you have other interesting questions to artists - if so, please drop me a comment and will implement your suggestions in my upcoming interviews.

Enjoy the interview!
Your Chris

The artist
How old are you?
I just turned 25 last week!

Where are you currently living?
I'm currently living in Provo, Utah (USA).  I'm in my last year of the animation program at Brigham Young University.

What are you doing, when you switch your PC off? Do you have other hobbies?
I stay pretty busy with school and freelance work right now, not to mention that I'm married and have a child.  So right now my schedule is pretty full with all that.  But when I get time, I like doing normal things like going to movies, hanging out with friends, etc.

About the work
How did you get the idea to be an digital artist, why digital?
Well about 4 years ago, I was starting college and trying to figure out what I wanted to do.  I was looking into everything from architecture to business.  BYU has a very successful animation program, and it immediately caught my eye.  I doodled since I was really young, but I started thinking it could actually be a career.  Film and Games have both been huge passions for me throughout my entire life, and if I could get the chance to work in that industry, it would be a dream come true.  As far as digital is concerned, I still sketch with pencils and watercolor, but in my opinion it's far easier to learn things like painting and sculpture with a digital medium.

Do you have a special education in arts?
Almost! :)  I should be graduating around April of this year, and then I'll have my Bachelors in Animation from BYU.  BYU's program allows for the students to more or less pick their own career path.  Whether it be technical artists for Pixar, Storyboarding for Dreamworks, or whatever they choose, the school's program is built to accommodate and offer a really well-rounded education.  In my case, my path has been 2d and 3d art for games, for the most part.

I should mention the incredible teachers that we have, here's just a few of them: Ryan Woodward, Sam Nielson, Joe Olson, Dave McClellan and more.

Are you employed or do you work freelance?
I currently am working freelance while I graduate, but am searching for a full-time job!

I recently finished an internship with Blizzard Entertainment on the character team for Diablo 3.  I learned more from my mentors and friends there than I ever thought I could.

Which recent projects were the most important for you?
Well I just recently finished my pre-dominance war entry, so I guess that's probably my most important recent project.  The vast majority of texturing work was done in 3D coat,  which made life really easy :)

Which project was a particular challenge for you?
My most challenging project right now is our senior group film at school.  BYU does very large-format group films, with as many as 40 or 50 people working on a film.  I started concept work on our film, which was a breeze, but it's a whole new ballgame when you need to translate all that art into a good film.  Making an animated film is relatively easy, youtube is packed full of them.  But making a GOOD animated film is extremely difficult, especially with such a large group.

Where do you get your ideas from?
Other artists are my biggest inspiration for ideas.  Whether it's game art, film art, comics, illustration, or whatever.  It's my opinion that if you're trying to be an artist and you're not constantly looking at what others are making, your progress will suffer severely.

Are you working with references or is all your work from imagination?
Usually I'll find reference to work from, however big or small.  I do stuff from my head when I'm messing around, but when I need to buckle down and create a nice finished product, I'll collect a good amount of reference.  Usually it's relevant photos, other artist's work, etc.

What are your plans as an artist for the future?
Well my life plan is to always be learning and pushing myself.  It's really easy to get complacent and stagnate, and I don't want to fall into that trap.

Short term, I'd like to get a full time job!  My current portfolio is tailored towards concept and 3d character art for games.

Which software are you using for your work, and which hardware?
I have a Dell XPS with two monitors, and my trusty intuos 3.  The software I use is photoshop, maya, 3d coat, and zbrush.

Which tool do you like the most and never want to miss?
Well they're all pretty important, but over the last couple of months, 3d coat has increased my hand-painted texturing workflow by 2 or 3 times.  It would be really depressing to go back to painting textures in photoshop alone.

The portfolio
If you are more interested in Tysons work, his blog is located on www.gardenturtle.blogspot.com

Insider news: 3D Coats bug reporting system has opened to the community

From today all 3D Coat users and interested people have the possibility to post bugs or feature requests into the internal 3D Coat bug tracking system. For 3D Coat the open source bug tracking software mantis is used. 3D Coats beta team has tested the system already since some months. A lot of bugs were already posted and solved. Now it is time to publish the system for everyone to expand the support.

In the history bugs and feature requests were posted into the official 3D Coat forums, like regular threads. Fans of this way have not to be afraid, the forums will be not changed and we keep this feature for you. But there are not only advantages, when using a forum for bug posts.

The biggest problems:

• Ambitioned bug posters and the beta team looses the overview, because bugs are posted often at different places.
• Bugs and feature requests are posted sometimes twice or more.
• There are no bug categories for 3D Coats work areas, like voxels, the paint room or the retopo area to help to keep the overview.
• It is not easy to find fixed bugs or already implemented features, before form a new post and be shure to be the first poster. The forums doesn't offer a good post filtering system.

The solution:
All this and many more problems will be history, when you help us and support the bug tracking system. Mantis is very easy to understand and it works similar to a regular forum. Additionally the bug tracker cames up with some important features for software development, that helps Andrew and others to keep the control over all bugs.

We hope this will help to push the development of 3D Coat. If you have any questions or comments about the bug tracking system visit this forum thread: Questions and Comments about 3D Coats bug tracker...

The bug posting website will be found here: Wanna see it...

Insider news: Liberty3D published their own 3D Coat AppLink for Lightwave

Liberty3D published their own 3D Coat AppLink for Lightwave. This AppLink is not an official 3D Coat AppLink, but worth taking a look at.

Here is the 3D Coat forums link with download links: Wanna see it...

Tips & Tricks: Free "3D Coat From Scratch" video tutorials by Greg Smith

Greg Smith has published some really nice short video tutorial series for beginners, called "3D Coat From Scratch". All tutorials are for free download. The videos are very good to understand, in first case because of Gregs very professional sounding voice. :-)

Here you can check the tutorials: Wanna see them...

Insider news: AppLink for Maya updated and Lighwave AppLink in progress

The AppLink for Maya was updated.

• Fixed bug with using "default" project dir for export geometry from Maya.

To the download thread: Wanna have it...

News for Lightwave users:
The AppLink for Lightwave is in development. The release date is not yet published.

3D Coat BETA Update - Version 3.5.09

Changes for version 3.5.09 [beta]

• Wrap tool essentialy updated - look several examples - http://bit.ly/fRHtIv http://bit.ly/hOgkon http://bit.ly/gY92cM
• I made much much better preview of cube-mapped material in paint room. It will be easy to place cube-mapped material over the model. Bugs related to loosing control panel in cube mapping mode fixed too.
• Fixed problem in retopo strokes tool that happened because of instancing introduction.
• possibility to upload turnables to YouTube (as always,95% is done by webmaster in this area)
• Fixed crash while baking subdivided mesh from retopo room - http://bit.ly/ha2nKx
• Resample + undo/redo bug fixed - http://bit.ly/h3S6Hl
• 2D snapping ploblem fixed - http://bit.ly/gvcVBt
• I corrected painting strips in voxel room, it was too messy.
• Fixed problem with big sphere drawing/primitive in non CUDA mode (especially important for Mac)
• Full support of selecting invisible objects. You may select and operate over them, but can't change them.
• I fixed problem with proxy scaling. Additional advantage is possibility to transfrom object in proxy mode that will be applied to the object
• 3DC will respect negative volumes in Merge tool, instancing mode

 Download the current beta here: Wanna have it...

Insider news: Greg Smith is rewriting the 3D Coat manual

Hello to all,

Greg Smith is rewriting the current 3D Coat manual and has posted his work into the 3D Coat forums. The manual rework was really overdue and I am happy, that a native speaker is doing it.
Everyone who is interested into the new manual version, can take a look into the current status. Greg is updating his files frequently.

Some nice ideas will be found in the new version, like direct links to online video tutorials.

Take a look into the manual thread: Wanna see it...