Is 3D Coat good for product development vs Zbrush?

[kevinpreuss]

First off Hello,

 

My name is Kevin and I know little about sculpting in Zbrush or Mudbox.  I have been aware of those softwares for a few years though.

 

I just came across 3D Coat today.  What interested me was the fact that it creats new geometry then retopologizes the mesh(voxel sculpting).  I am an Industrial designer and since this creates new volume vs stretching polys, would this be a better tool to use for product development?

 

I need hard surface development

I need to be able to subset and delete surface 

I need layers, I need to ghost engineering data to build on top of

 

Can I sculpt an entire project then come back and separate the parts?  

Can I add transparency to the parts? Chrome? 

Is Voxel sculpting solids?  This would be interesting as I could then have rapid prototypes made.

 

Thanks in advance and if these questions have already been asked and answered, sorry.  I haven't come across them yet.

 

Kevin.

[Tony Nemo]

In the Voxel room, voxels are solids and make for easy booleans. After creating basic shape, switch to Surface mode. With layers, many of your questions are, "yes". "Can I add transparency to the parts?" I dunno, (you can hide selections) but chrome, certainly.

[Javis]

First off Hello,

 

My name is Kevin and I know little about sculpting in Zbrush or Mudbox.  I have been aware of those softwares for a few years though.

 

I just came across 3D Coat today.  What interested me was the fact that it creats new geometry then retopologizes the mesh(voxel sculpting).  I am an Industrial designer and since this creates new volume vs stretching polys, would this be a better tool to use for product development?

 

1. I need hard surface development

2. I need to be able to subset and delete surface 

3. I need layers, I need to ghost engineering data to build on top of

 

4. Can I sculpt an entire project then come back and separate the parts?  

5. Can I add transparency to the parts? Chrome? 

6. Is Voxel sculpting solids?  This would be interesting as I could then have rapid prototypes made.

 

Thanks in advance and if these questions have already been asked and answered, sorry.  I haven't come across them yet.

 

Kevin.

 

Hi Kevin! Welcome aboard.

 

I have numbered your questions to make it easier for me to answer.

 

1. 3DC can do hard surfaces pretty easily in v4. Especially via booleans.

2. I would use multiple vox items/layers in the voxtree for this. If you need to have various parts, definitely don't create them on the same vox item/layer.

3. 3DC has layers/items, the voxtree is where this is done, and you can definitely also make objects transparent to see through them with shaders. FWIW if a shader isn't doing exaclty what you need, you can also create new ones or have someone create new ones for you.

4. I'm not entirely sure what you're meaning, so I'll take a poke at an assumption. If you mean to sculpt on a single solid layer, yes it's possible, but not ideal. It depends on how close you have the individual volumes in the item/layer. I would actually steer clear of this way if possible, and instead, create new a item/layer for each part in the voxtree while working. That's not to say you can't do it, but it would just be much easier to start with things detached from one another.

5. I'm assuming you mean creating something like a glass object, transparent or semi-transparent plastics? If so, yes to both. Shaders both here, by default there is a transparent shader and a couple of chrome like shaders.

6. Yes, voxels are solids and you can print/inject directly from files saved from 3DC.

 

 

Hope that helps! Cheers.

[kevinpreuss]

Thanks for the responses

 

I didn't know if I wanted to start with 3DC or Zbrush.  I am getting a Wacom Companion soon and am itching to start poly-sculpting(I travel between a lot of customers).  I think that I am going to start with 3DC.  It seems a little less intimidating to get started than zbrush.  But wont know how I personally take to it till I dive in.  

 

I am hoping that this makes my life at work a lot more fun when conceptualizing.

 

Kevin

[alvordr]

 

5. I'm assuming you mean creating something like a glass object, transparent or semi-transparent plastics? If so, yes to both. Shaders both here, by default there is a transparent shader and a couple of chrome like shaders.

 

Javis,

 

Which one is the transparent shader?  The only ones I could find that appear transparent are the anisotropic and the gel, but they don't actually seem transparent.  I know you can construct something that is transparent using the super shader, but then I'm stuck with the reflections baked in...or am I wrong?  I just tested this and managed to get most of what I wanted, but then pushed the process to the paint room and tried to adjust the specularity and it did nothing.  It looks like the spec is baked in.

Edited October 23, 2013 by alvordr

[Javis]

Hi!

 

Looks like the old default shader with transparency is no longer default? I don't have it either.

That said, attached are my shaders. It has a slightly adjusted default grey shader with transparency, no spec for baking (that's done at the shader level, it can be edited by RMB on a shader and edited it), and a nice one for sillhouette checking.

 

JJ-Shaders.3dcpack

[kevinpreuss]

More importantly, here are some videos from youtube that explains what I am trying to do.  They aren't 30 second commercials but if you scrub through them you will get the point.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq406G_yG4k

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxHnWxTIQ1A

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nWTO-7sruQ&feature=c4-overview&list=UUzptZbfpi-VciYaqyf0NSdQ

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbnyebi-PHY

 

1. I would like a software that allows me to create new geometry without Maya or Max

2. Modify the surface, like hard surface.

3. Separate the surface into parts, windows and doors and tires

4. Apply shaders like paint and glass and rubber

 

Do ya'll still think that 3DC is better for this than Zbrush?  That is the question.

 

I think I am going to try both programs.  Question is which one do I start with and put more effort into.

[BeatKitano]

Both are valid, both offer different advantages, try the two and choose which one you like the most. Go on youtube on the official 3dcoat channel to see hardsurface related tutorials.

[Carlosan]

polygons are great for organic models
but
nurbs are great for products

 

--------------------------

can be used for

 

conceptual 3D sketching:

3DC, ZB*, MUBBOX

* ZB have polygroups... this feature is great for design

 

 

retopology:

3DC

-------------------------------------------------

If Rhinoceros or Alias are the standard... 

Moi can be an option

http://moi3d.com/

 

Ayam is free -nurbs-

http://ayam.sourceforge.net/

 

Another free -parametric modeling- is

http://www.freecadweb.org/

[Carlosan]

early thread about 

Car modelling tutorials

http://3d-coat.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=14590