15 - [Inner] The Ward of Erahum [Mouse]

[Mouse]

Aw, it doesn't look half as good from above. But thanks all the same, Thomas

I seem to be going really slowly on this section. I think I've discovered a taste for modelling things rather than drawing them, which is proving to be horribly distracting. I'm now pretty convinced that I was a potter in one of my previous incarnations

[Falconius]

Actually modeling with meshes works very well in Blender, at least in my experience. It is also very complex though. That said wouldn't I want to use it for design work... not really. It's too loose for for that to be very easy. I think, though I've never used it, that Sketchup is much more CAD or design and planning orientated. I know the woodworker I sometimes work with plans a lot of his stuff in Sktecthup. Thanks to inspiration from Kacey I've been putzing around in zBrushcore and it's sculpting capability just blows Blender's sketchy sculpting suite right out of the water. I haven't tried editing the meshes in ZBrush though and I don't even know how. Blender has an import option for various file types, is that what you tried using?

I would point out that modeling things in 3D means adding a whole nother dimension to the work and thusly takes a bit longer to do ;P

[Mouse]

Blender meshes are easier to tweak and smooth, whereas Sketchup meshes are easier to build with. Sketchup makes the blocks, and Blender carves and smooths them.

Sketchup exports to a number of file types, as does Blender, but COLLADA seems to be about the only one where it works reasonably well. Even then, if you try to export a compound component, or a grouped one from Sketchup to Blender, Blender throws a wobbly and only imports the main part of the group or main component, so the link works better going from Blender to Sketchup, than it does from Sketchup to Blender.

Even though there's a parallel universe out there somewhere where my other self is rich and has everything she ever wanted - including zbrush, I haven't touched it in this parallel. Can't. That's a whole universe out of my financial reach, being nearly twice my monthly rent. Sketchup is as well, but at least I can carry on using the free version to finish this project

I kind of like it that way. Although negative people would say that was a huge disadvantage (not being able to afford the tools to do the job), I see it as a bit of an adventure to attempt to get similar or even better results despite the deficit

I know about the 3D modelling aspect increasing the amount of work to be done. I got really cross with myself for imagining buildings that went right up the cliff face to eek the maximum out of the city space within the walls! LOL!

[kacey]

Actually modeling with meshes works very well in Blender, at least in my experience. It is also very complex though. That said wouldn't I want to use it for design work... not really. It's too loose for for that to be very easy. I think, though I've never used it, that Sketchup is much more CAD or design and planning orientated. I know the woodworker I sometimes work with plans a lot of his stuff in Sktecthup. Thanks to inspiration from Kacey I've been putzing around in zBrushcore and it's sculpting capability just blows Blender's sketchy sculpting suite right out of the water. I haven't tried editing the meshes in ZBrush though and I don't even know how. Blender has an import option for various file types, is that what you tried using?

I would point out that modeling things in 3D means adding a whole nother dimension to the work and thusly takes a bit longer to do ;P

You can definitely open meshes from other programmes in zbrush...If you look under tool in the right hand pane theres an import button, I've only ever tried obj files but it worked perfectly. I found a video once about importing from sketchup too, but I think you have to triangulate the mesh first or else it goes into zbrush all wonky and full of holes.

I'm not sure if you're interested but there's a handy little add on for zbrush called terrain tools, you can get it on gumroad, and it's only like 3 bucks or something. I've played around with it a bit, but don't understand it all just yet and you can generate terrain really quickly and it looks pretty good... If you look it up on YouTube there's a couple of videos there of what it can do. You can even save the terrain out as a height map to use in other programmes.

[Mouse]

Kacey - what's the difference between zbrush core and zbrush 4R7? The price for the core is almost in my reach if I save for a year. I just don't know if it would be worth having just the core.

[kacey]

I've never tried the core version, but it's basically a striped down version missing the advanced features, if you scroll down this page it has a comparison list.

http://zbrushcore.com/features

They also make sculptris which is there free software version.

[Mouse]

Ooooh.... I see

I just downloaded Sculptris here

I have no idea if I can export anything from Sculptris to Blender or Sketchup, but even if it turns out I can't, this will be excellent for working out other stuff to do with the world in my head - characters and such. The best bit is there's no limitation on what you can do with the things you make - which means I could make anything for any map and even be able to sell it or use it for book promotion purposes without having to worry about copyright or royalties

Thank you so much for the info Kacey. It would have taken me several days to blindly work out what to do all by myself

[kacey]

I've never tried sculptris before either but I did a quick search...Type in "sculptris to blender" on YouTube they have a few videos there about exporting.

[Falconius]

I was referring to zBrushCore myself, and as I said I'm still just dipping my toes in the water. Looking at that comparison list I'd think that zbrush 4r7 is really more set up for a professional pipeline environment. At least looking at those features. Then again I don't know what I'm missing so how could I tell. Frankly I feel comfortable between working between zBrushCore and Blender if I need a more complete set of features. I know that I'm not planning to look towards 4r7 until I was actually able to make money doing this stuff. Let us know how Sculptris is

I'll have a look at some youtube vids on the terrain tools, Kacey. Thanks for the info.

[Mouse]

I'm going to investigate if that terrain add on will work with Sculptris, but gumroad seems to be down for maintenance right now! LOL!

Never mind. I'm sure it will take me a good long while to get to grips with the controls, without adding anything else into the mix straight off