A free (and awesome) 3D tool : Sculptris

[RecklessEnthusiasm]

For all the mapmakers out there who work in the third-D, Pixologic, the makers of Zbrush, have just released a free alpha version of a really intuitive 3D model sculpting program. I'd really recommend it!

Here is a sample of someone doing terrain in the program:

http://www.sculptris.com/

[tilt]

very nice... looked very "drawish", which I like - but there was also no doubt about the guy knowing exactly what he was doing ... could be fun trying it, I like the idea of working with 3D like with clay

[RecklessEnthusiasm]

Yep, it is very similar to Zbrush (one of the big, industry-leading 3D sculpting tools) in that it feels like working with a solid hunk of material (clay), but Zbrush has a disconcerting number of options, bells whistles, doohickeys... This one just has a small number of tools that are pretty flexible. I downloaded it and whipped something up really quick--it is pretty much as easy as it looks, and intuitive (which is really important for someone as thick as me.)

[tilt]

hmmmm... they don't mention requirements for the program ... and being on a mac - I'd love to see a version for that

[tilt]

i'm with you on that one ... although i do love many options, I prefer if I'm able to start out with only a few - an preferably without reading a manual

[Djekspek]

very interesting, i have Sculptris installed for some time, but never thought about making terrain models with it (my mind-set was it being usefull only a character-design).. must give that a try. cheers!

[ravells]

I love the ease of texturing....it's pretty wow!

[su_liam]

I think I was underwhelmed by a much earlier version of this, but I'll have a look next time I boot Windows.

I love virtual clay, but I haven't had much luck finding free apps that work for me. This may be for the same reason that I can't get anything useful done with real clay either. For some reason, these programs require artistry.

[Redrobes]

We have had two threads about this app before. It was pretty cool when I tried it out last time. I cant really understand why its being bought by zbrush other than to eventually deprecate it out of the way... any other ideas about that ?

[Midgardsormr]

We have had two threads about this app before. It was pretty cool when I tried it out last time. I cant really understand why its being bought by zbrush other than to eventually deprecate it out of the way... any other ideas about that ?

Well, if they were simply nervous about a free application competing with ZBrush, they'd have simply shut it down after the purchase, but given that the people who use ZBrush are more than willing to pay for technical support, that seems unlikely to me.

Instead, they're developing it. So my guess is that it has some technology in it that they wanted to obtain. It looks like they might be planning to use it as a test bed for features that they're planning to eventually add to ZBrush. I just discovered Autodesk's Mudbox, which is essentially the same thing, a few months ago. If I'd known about that at the beginning of art school, I might have been more than an indifferent modeler. I'm planning to see what I can do with it over the next few months.