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Sculptris is insanely cool, free 3D modeling software
Sculptris is, without question, the coolest thing I have seen all day. What was supposed to be a short spin became an hour of prodding and playing around with every tool of this incredible creation.
In simple terms, it's sculpting software. It's free, and it's accessible. I once downloaded Blender and spent an hour trying to figure it out to no avail. With Sculptris, I got it, started playing around, and in less than an hour I created the rudimentary pig-man that you see in the image. And I have no previous experience with any sort of 3D graphics (except for a bit of SketchUp).
Yes, the ears are on purpose -- it's a tribute to Sebastian's furry friends.
When you fire up the program, you get a round sphere of clay-like substance. You can change the material; what you see above isn't rendered, it's just a different material -- and this is what it looks like mid-sculpting. An array of tools are provided with you sculpt your clay. You can pull, push, pinch, twist, and do just about anything that you could do with a regular piece of modeling clay. There is one important distinction with Sculptris, though, and that's symmetry.
By default, a line crosses the sphere in the middle. Every operation that you perform on one half of the sphere is exactly mirrored on the other half. So, you only have to sculpt one ear, one eye, etc.
It's not limited to faces, of course. Hit Ctrl+N and it adds another pair of blobs (or just one, if you hold Shift). You can then make it into a body or anything else you can think of.
The program is obviously geared for character sculpting and "organic" models. This isn't SketchUp; it's something completely different and far more artistically-oriented.
Once you finish sculpting your character, you can export it or paint it. Painting renders the image, and then you get a completely different set of tools for painting over the surfaces, as though you have baked your sculpture and now you're decorating it. You are no longer able to change its shape, but you get a wide, sophisticated array of brushes and painting options and all tools are aware of the 3D nature of your sculpture. It's not like painting a 2D bitmap.
This tool is a real tour de force in UI design and user friendliness; it is responsive, powerful, and fast. I can't believe it isn't better known. You simply have to download and try it! Be prepared to lose an hour or two, though.
Be sure to check out the video below -- it shows you what can be accomplished with Sculptris when you actually know what you're doing!
Comments
12
Subscribe to commentsiggieJun 9th 2010 1:42PM
Sculptris is a great sculptor program. For a bit more flexibility try Curvy 3D too http://www.curvy3d.com
blasztaJun 9th 2010 12:48PM
Interesting.. One of my friend is a sculptor, unfortunately he doesn't get along with computer very well.. let's see if this change his mind :D
Dave JohnsonJun 9th 2010 1:14PM
Thanks for the link and more importantly, for maintaining and sharing your enthusiasm. It's a breath of fresh air among other, more bloodless columns.
IscinJun 10th 2010 2:57PM
I would really like something of this nature but for Mac OS. I am still waiting on Blender's 2.5 release for now :c
ragtagJun 9th 2010 6:18PM
For Mac you can use both ZBrush and 3D Coat. They both cost a bit of money, but do more or less the same.
2late2dieJun 10th 2010 6:16AM
This looks very cool, I'll definitely check it out. I like how fast you can start creating stuff, I've used to do some 3d but lately there's just no time, with this, who knows, I might get back on the horse.
darwinsurvivorJun 10th 2010 4:33PM
Missing a "windows only" tag much?
SeanJun 10th 2010 7:50PM
There's no guarantee, but perhaps it works under Wine?
BekaJun 11th 2010 1:56AM
It looks pretty interesting alhough i know z brush is pretty amazing. It does the same Stuff as this but with more capabilities
CristiJun 15th 2010 1:03AM
Could not get it to work on Windows 7 64-bit
Erez ZukermanJun 15th 2010 3:15AM
Interesting. My system is Win7 x64 and default Sculptris worked without a hitch.
EmelieJun 15th 2010 4:12PM
http://drpetter.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=sculptris&action=display&thread=661
for us Mac users. Seems to work brilliantly!