Rectro

Iv used joint rotation to drive morphs, but this is no good for shoulders. Id like for example to have say 3 morphs for each of the major shoulder positions, lateral, anterior, and posterior, and have the joints position blend between these morphs using a 2d vector. If this can be done, and you can teach me this on another thread dont want to take this one over, or privately as Im no programmer, id put this into a tutorial giving credit for help given. If not point me to where I can learn this as these things will open C4D a great deal. Thanks,Dan

Thanks for the extra info. That video is actually mine, so glad it helped out a bit. If when I learn something that I feel nobody has covered as a tutorial, If I have time I put together one to help others who may need it to get them up to speed on that subject. My main skill is in digital sculpting, 3D modeling, but have had to adapt over the years so still have some gaps in my rigging knowledge, not even started with expresso yet, so the C4D Studio Character tool is getting me by. Im looking for a way to get positional based joint driven morphs. It sounds like you may have worked out positional based correctional morphs, if so id really like to understand how this is set up, mainly for areas like shoulders, legs. Iv seen some very nice correctional morphs in some Maya figures for sale at Turbosquid, id like to get mine like this one, in 3dsMax,, there is a video demo file that shows the deformations. Dan

Thanks for sharing this, I can learn allot from this. Im not a rigger and want to eventually set my own character up with this kind of control. Can I ask, where did you learn how to set all this up, because thats a heck of a good job you done on this, must have taken ages to set up the 2d vectors? I haven't have a full look at it all yet but have been successful in setting up Joint driven correctional morphs? If you have any links to how I can learn more about this set up please post them. Thanks, Dan

Interesting to watch these comparison videos. I didnt feel Vray 3.4 got shown its potential as his IPR didnt start, and for some reason he did things the old manual way as in v1.9 and didnt show that Vray has light presets, quick render setting to make the whole thing far more simple for new users? Dan

Very impressive, and the price for the Indie version is very good, however id like to see a option for perpetual Indie, but at $199 per year thats still cheaper than most software upgrades. Id get lost if I got that, but looks to be a strong contender to the big boys toys. Not enough time, too many things to learn. Dan

Not related to your purchase experience which is solved now, but I also have to vouch how great this plugin is which is the same as the maya version. Iv had great results. Dan

Really great work, your characters are getting better every time, keep it up. From memory when I last used the sss in C4D I found the fusion shader within the SSS material helped get that soft skin look to the best that I could get from it. Dan

I use Vay, and have seen some nice stuff done with Octane, but I dont have the GPU power, plus Vray suits me because of its high quality skin materials. When I saw this short video it showed me just how nice Octane is, very inspiring. https://www.maxon.net/en/industries/animated-films/article/making-3d-films-a-one-man-show/ Dan

Yes the price its much better getting keyshot that way, but just to emphasise again, the advantage using Zbrush with Keyshot is not just because its a external renderer like Vray or arnold, its because you have a IPR at the quality of higher end renderers that let you see your model while in its concept stages, so you get to for instance see your monster sculpt with all its skin detail with all its materials and painting with SSS, spec, reflection and so on long before you get to the stage of producing the new topology, making Uvs, baking maps, making materials, setting up your scene for lighting, we can be talking about seeing your finnal results up front weeks in advance. It could be once you see it in all its glory that you change your design choices. Example : skip to 5:21 Dan

The difference here is Zbrush can send a 20 million polygon mesh or higher to Keyshot while at the concept stage, when it comes to retopology your be 100% happy with your design choices as Keyshot lets you see renders faster and better than C4D even at 20 million plus polygons, but thats more of a bonus, of extended choices. PS: Keyshot pro standalone $1,995.00 Zbrush Keyshot pro $549 Dan

There are quite a few directions for this, and to be honest it all comes down to a desired usage and workflow. In all cases if you dont have a reasonable Tablet pen then stay inside C4D for sculpting as its not half bad. Lets say your making a monster and have no set concept, then the last thing you want to be doing is making a base mesh in the traditional way as the base mesh dictates your design choices too much. This is where another sculpting app comes in as there is no way at this time C4D gives you the freedom to explore your design choices fast. Now I dont know if 3Dcoat has some kind of way to develop a fast base mesh that starts the process off for conceptual work, but Zbrush does with Zsphears, shadow Box, and Dynamesh. Here im talking about getting down ideas from your head into 3d as fast as you can think of them by removing all technical restraints. What if your concept is great, and you wish to take this to the next level specifically for animation? Your have 3 choices, use your concept as a background guide to build a 3d model from using traditional methods as a background image set, model around it in 3d space, or re-topologize it. The first two choices any sculpting app can do, but re-topology would be directing at 3Dcoat, as Zbrush re-topology tools are not as good. If you need to get an additional re-topology app then this bumps the cost up for the process, unless your happy to do this in C4D. I use MODO for re-topology in this scenario. There is also the case that your concept sculpting may need a fast render preview to help direct your concept choices. 3Dcoat has PBR Zbrush has BPR, but Zbrush has the option to expand its renderer to Keyshot 6 Pro limited to Zbrush which cost a fraction of the price as the open version but all the features are the same. This gives you a very, very high end render engine in which is linked directly to ZBrush at a click of a button millions of polygons are sent to Keyshot in hardly any time. If your a concept artist you can make your mesh, concept, paint your design and render it in Keyshot for a final image in which your never have to even open C4D. In production for animated meshes things change a bit, as you may come from the direction of already having made your base mesh in C4D, in this case I cant see why 3DCoat will fulfil your needs from that point onward, however your need to look into how good, and easy the process is to produce displacement, and normal maps? The digital sculptor whos artistry is in producing clay like sculptures, and who wants to feel they are in contact with clay, then Zbrush all the way, nothing feels like Zbrush in the response you get from the brushes, this alone for me would direct me to Zbrush as thats a area thats very important to me coming from a traditional sculpting direction. If I was in your position id have a good think on what your direction and work flow is, and your budget. I think for general sculpting C4D is brilliant. Dan

For the fact that your thinking more on the organic size of 3d sculpting, what is it do you think your be doing the most, characters, monsters, for concept, game ready assets, traditional clay sculptures. painting, high detail map creation? Where in your workflow do you think a sculpting app would fit? Dan

I my sculpting is into two main categories. 1: Design, and concepting When sculpting in this way all I care about is freedom. I normally make a base mesh in Zbrush for its basic volume, same I assume within 3DCoat. This is where I do not want to worry about pols, edge loops, and poly count. I need to beable to design fast, and get whats in my head into 3d form. My concept may at times get taken down the route for re-topology to produce the actual production model. 2: Complimentary sculpting For this type of sculpting iv already got my design, and made a clean topological mesh in C4D, Modo using traditional box, patch, modelling principles. For this type of sculpting it can be for aiding in the process during the modeling process (C4D sculpting is good for this) in which I work on the base mesh without sub dividing, or work on high detail sculpting to add surface details that are to be baked into maps (Zbrush is where I do this). This depends on what you mean by normal. If you mean sub deviding a mesh without changing its topology (Mesh based), then I think it depends on the technology used. In this regard Zbrush uses its own pixol technology which lets you subdivide a mesh without changing its topology into multiple millions of polygons while allowing you to move up and down its sub division levels at will much like in C4D but much better, on my system I can get 36mil polys without any slow down what so ever. On the other hand Zbrush has another method which is called Dynamesh, this does alter the topology and evens out the distribution of the polygons which makes for sculpting smooth in which the resolution can be taken higher and higher as you go without any stretching of the polygons. P:S, maybe these questions should be on the blog, these are good questions? Dan

Ok Lgor, il remember that. If you need help with anything just PM me. Dan

Good point, it would get lost in a day or two. Nice banner, I think this blog will be very helpfull for thoes not knowing neither app, or like me knowing only one of them. At the cost of 3dcoat if I like other areas of it enough that show off that are weaker tools of my other apps I may even add it some point. I hold hope that C4D or Zbrush will get better painting, and Topology tools. On the audio side when I record vocals for singing in the studio I aim for -15db at its highest peek, then process the vocals compressing them peeks and bringing the final track music with singing as loud as possible without clipping, with video recording I dont mess with all that processing, maybe a little compression, and noise reduction within Camtasia Studio. I use a Samson C01U mic with pop shield which helps. Dan

Done, links added. I put your video into my DAW, and your audio is -22 db, -4db or closer to 0db would be nice. Some of your other videos on your channel are much louder. I at times let my recordings for voice over get quite hot, but I dont need any head room for audio processing so im much closer to 0db peeks. Dan

Sorry didnt quite understand that, could you rephrase that please, id be happy to add a link just not sure what link your referring to? Dan

Nice start @slgor, look forward to learning a bit more on 3DCoat. The audio level is very low, maybe the audio needs normalising or something? Dan

All Videos are up now, hope that helps making the decision easier along with Slgor,s videos to come to compare along side the sculpting methods, and workflows. Dan

No worries, I think if we can get a basic side by side comparison feature for feature between us the job is done. Im only covering sculpting topics, and am not comparing to 3Dcoat until im looking at brushes. Dan

Here is the playlist. You can choose chapters from top left of video. I will add more videos as they upload.

Ok im done. just got to do some video editing, add titles e.c.t, render the videos and upload them. I done the videos in the same order as shown above. After watching your video it will also help me understand 3D coat more if you follow the same 11 step video method, look forward to it. Dan

Iv had a look at 3D Coat briefly, watched a few videos from their site, and from this I know there is no way I can do a comparison between Zbrush and 3DCoat other than sculpt steps 10 (below) with only a few hours of 3D Coat usage because the workflow are totaly different. I think if you can show these other steps as I am going to do but in 3D coat then it will help the viewer make a A-B comparison? It seems that 3d coats approach is that you must go through a few more processes, and visit different rooms to get the job done, this could well be why Zbrush UI seems cluttered as everything in Zbrush is done in one room which actually appears to be much more simple in practice while not so appealing on the eye as in the UI. @Slgor I think the best case if we are doing a video which is a perfect idea is we both show the workflow getting through a process. Here is process of the video im going to cover in Zbrush. 1: Introduction to the UI (core basics) 2: Using a pre built mesh importing and using included mesh assets 3: Mesh preparation: Sub dividing up/down levels Working with layers. 4:Making base meshes within sculpting application 5: Masking/ hide, show mesh parts 6: Introduction to basic often used brushes: Standard,Inflate, clay, polish,pinch,move, and how to set size, intensity, and fall off. 7: Introduction to what makes up a brush, how you can modify its basics including alphas and stroke types. 8: Sculpting mesh options such as Dynamesh 9: Auto retopology 10: Comparison between Zbrush and 3dcoat for brush feel, speed, fluid, pressure 11: Workflow to produce displacement, and normal maps. Dan

Yea sure, but I need to also try both so I can get a feel for sculpting feedback jumping from A-B with the same mesh loaded in both apps. I never use Zbrush for anything other than sculpting, the only modelling I do in zbrush if you can call it modelling is Zbsphears to block out a base mesh for sculpting on. Things im looking for after base mesh creation methods are.... 1: Brush stroke feedback in terms of fluid response, speed, and how it adapts to pressure of the pen (This could be a personal taste thing as well as practical) 2: Speed to adjusting draw size, and fall off 3: Brush presets to build up clay like volume, cut creases, smooth overall, and smooth just surface detail. Topological move brush, Move standard. general options for custom brushes including alphas, custom alphas. 4: Isolating areas of a mesh using masks, hiding, showing. 5: Mesh density, how high can you go before there is lag (A-B comparison required in same pc) 6: 32 bit displacment, Normal map quality and speed 4k, 6k, 8k maps tested in Native C4D renderer. 7:Pose tool (simplicity, ease of use, and results) If you can think of anything else add to this. I want to concentrate on areas of sculpting as I wont be able to do many of Zbrush other features justice as I dont use them much. Dan

This is something I found when I tried it a few months back, but I will get the demo again today and record a live sculpting session in both. Any tips you can give me to getting things set up bring in the model, any buttons I need to press to get it into sculpting mode to speed up my tests? I post the video later on with my findings. Im only going to test sculpting, brushes, layers, and normal, displacement map quality, purely sculpting and map production. Thanks, Dan