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Canine forelimb musculature


arumiat
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Hi 3DCer's

 

Today was a great day for me as I've finally managed to start getting my head around 3DC, specifically

- the different uses of voxel and surface mode, including the brushes used in both. I'm now not so nervous as to use surface mode!

- the function of the voxtree in terms of working on multiple objects in a scene, I never really got what merging an object was previously, and how the voxtree functioned

- the move tool, - this tool is really something else. Tasks that would have been painfully fiddly in a modelling program (Blender) can be completed in 3DC in no time!

 

I'm currently modelling, sculpting and then planning to display within Unity the  major musculature of the canine. I started with the forelimb today. 

Initial modelling was done with subdivided cubes with a lattice modifier. I then exported via fbx into 3DC, merging all the objects to separate instances in surface mode. Once in 3DC using the voxtree I could select each object, hide the others around it and start playing. It's my first real project 'sculpting'. My main gripe is that I struggle to make the muscles look under any tension, they look too free floating.

Normally I'd then go back into Blender to UV unwrap and texture, however I'm enjoying using 3DC so much, and having spoken to some gurus around here (L'Ancien) I'm going to give the UV & texturing tools in 3DC a go, - I may even export directly to Unity rather than via Blender when that's done.

Anyway, just wanted to share and celebrate a personal victory!

 

post-38412-0-52619400-1419879263_thumb.j

post-38412-0-52806600-1419879270_thumb.j

 

A

Edited by arumiat
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Thanks all! :)

 

I started on the tendons yesterday, creating them initially in Blender and then bringing them into 3DC.

post-38412-0-47419800-1420239984_thumb.j

Today though I have run into problems bringing my tendon meshes from Blender to 3DC. Despite all the export settings in Blender being the same (fbx), when I export new tendon meshes from Blender to 3DC they are coming in with their orientation all wrong. I have tried exporting the entire mesh from Blender and the entire mesh still fits together well, but with the incorrect rotation, like so 

post-38412-0-54024100-1420240222_thumb.j

 

So it looks like I've changed an import setting within 3DC that's producing this effect. Any ideas?

 

It's frustrating as yesterday the tendon meshes were coming in pretty much perfectly aligned to the 3DC mesh, and they've extremely slow and fiddly to line up manually using the transform tool.

Thanks,

T

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Nice work Arumiat. I am working on a similar project having just started using 3DCoat. In my case I will be making a number of canine anatomy primitives to be assembled for custom illustrations. I was previously working in Blender and am hoping to work more efficiently with 3DC. Attached is an example from Blender.

 

Good luck with your project.

 

Ben

post-38932-0-84595000-1420299971_thumb.p

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  • 4 weeks later...
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So with some great help from Digman I'm starting to UV unwrap the various layers (models) in the above piece.

 

I'd ultimately like to end up with an effect like in this example, for my muscle bellies.

 

post-38412-0-37818500-1422476130_thumb.p

 

 

 

I was wondering if any of you had any tips as to how to achieve this? And what i'm referring to is A).  the ridges over the muscle bellies themselves, & B. the blending of colour between the muscle and tendinous regions (eg circled blue).

 

Would any of yours approaches be to take each muscle (layer), go into surface mode, increase the resolution and then use a tool like scratches to create the striated effect of the muscles seen above? It looks almost as though the artist has applied a subtle noise effect to the surface & then created striations through this..

 

To achieve B, I take it I have to do all of my sculpting for A first, and then UV unwrap. I will end up painting onto my unwrapped UV texture set and then baking the fine sculpted detail into a normal map right?

 

Lastly, a lot of my muscles just look like floppy bits of clay (in a 3D sense they are!).

 

post-38412-0-26339800-1422476274_thumb.p

 

 

Is there a way to even out the surface so that it is more globloid and looks under some tension? It seems when you do this by hand with the fill tool or smooth tool you end up constantly back and forth whereby you're creating new troughs and mounds on the surface without realising it..

 

 

 

Thanks,

T

Edited by arumiat
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So with a bit of experimentation I found that in surface mode, with the draw brush set to a depth of 4% and a sharp alpha, I could get the sort of effect that I was looking for. Cool  :)

post-38412-0-04118000-1422486767_thumb.p

Edited by arumiat
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Very good progress... :drinks:

A possible reason for the axis being off between Blender and 3DC. You would have to test if swapping Y and Z axis in 3DC will help as in Blender the Z is up...

You might have changed the Blender export settings in Blender itself causing the problem...

There are a few things left to tell you about the retopo room and some tips in the sculpting room... Pm me if you want a Skype session...

Preference setting shown in picture.

post-518-0-00048400-1422487482_thumb.png

Edited by digman
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  • 2 weeks later...
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So I decided to have a go at vertex painting the model. I used the standard brush at 100% opacity to paint on the muscle red, and then a combination of the paintbrush & airbrush to add white for the fascia and tendons.

 

post-38412-0-17618600-1423491440_thumb.p

 

 

Overall not too happy with my efforts and I'm going to give it another go from scratch when I've figured out how to approach it better.

 

Looking at an example 3D muscle project that I like the look of....

 

post-38412-0-78781500-1423491854_thumb.p

 

I think that things I could focus on would be to increase the surface detail on the muscle meshes, - anyone have a good idea of the sort of tool that could be used to produce those sharp indentations for the muscle fibres? If I did this well I could use the height limiter to paint black into the crevices & white to the peaks of the fibres..

 

Also is it possible to run the 3DC beta with PBR alongside the current stable 3DC, it would be cool to check out whether the PBR helps produce a nicer effect..

 

 

 

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Hi Tony,

 

I downloaded the package from here http://3d-coat.com/download/resources/file-details/?tx_neofileshare_pi5%5Buid%5D=19&tx_neofileshare_pi5%5Bcat%5D=1

I installed the package via File -> install extension -> install 3DCpack

I restarted 3DC but the alphas aren't showing up, - what am I missing?

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I had a good play around with that pack but I ran into 2 problems

1. the meshes had to have a very high resolution (millions of tris) to get a smooth effect which would've made my overall scene huge

2. the brushes gave 2 uniform an effect

 

I decided to stick with my previous method.

post-38412-0-87747300-1423836342_thumb.j

 

I will now retopologise, paint, bake & try get a nice final render at some point

Edited by arumiat
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Hi.

 

Are you working in Voxel mode ?

 

Voxels are used for block or rough shape sculpt, without topological constraints.

Usually is used to create low and middle resolution sculpting stages.

The equivalent is ZB dynamesh.

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you dont need to work at very high resolution to add fine details, Live Clay "dynamic tessellation" is more suited for that.

 

With Live Clay you won't bother anymore about resolution of your entire object, as now you'll have desired level of details only where you need it.

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