This might go better in a different thread, but Sculptris was acquired by Pixologic a few ago, and although it doesn't have the feature set of ZBrush, the price to date is free, and I'd think would be of interest to folks who want to get into sculpting after solid geometry and parametric surfaces has worn thin.
I'd compare this free product to both Autodesk Mudbox and 3D Coat, not as feature-filled, but Scuptris has gotten me where I want to go more than once. If you just need to move surface areas and rotate and scale them, and don't want or need stencils and other tangentially related features...
They're really not phishing; they just want to send you a link to download, and to try to send you a regular newsletter.
This image is not displacement-mapped. I sculpted the coin's face with Scultpris and this is part of an animation inside C4D with GI and all that good stuff. :)
Hi Gare, are there any limitations to using this free software? It looks very good and I like the 3d painting feature. But free usually means not very good. Why would they give it away for free?
I think Pixelogic is giving the beta away for free, because:
1.) It's been in beta for such a long time I think Pixelogic is just leaving it as is, and giving it away for free as an enticement to upgrade to ZBrush...which is dumb because although they both can sculpt, the interfaces and features are entirely different. You want t work with a Pro tool like ZBrush, as ILM and other animation houses do, you choose ZBrush. You want to sculpt in an easy, intuitive way, but with limitations that ZBrush could provide...you go with simple and free.
2.) Scultris was developed by Tomas Pettersson because he had a private need as an artist to make a "modeling clay" program, and he's made several other 3D programs (applets, actually)...and he's a good-spirited individual and originally gave all his projects away to help other ambitious artists. I believe when ZBrush discovered the programs, it scared the living kah-kah out of them to have a powerful program like theirs out there for free,so they locked it up by licensing it.
In this case, "free" means you need to register at Pixelogic so they can send you SPAM email regularly, but then the program is free to download. You'll seen my work with the dubloons above...I have no regrets or problems with the features.
In a parallel example, when Xara released the first version of the drawing program, Mike Cowpland at the time CEO of Corel Corp. soiled his britches when he saw it and offered Xara a six year contract for distribution. Corel then "buried" Xara to avoid competition, by calling it the best Web Graphics program, and severely under-advertising it.
Get the copy and then bock email from Pixelogic to avoid spam-related headaches. It's really a fun program:
This is really a cool program -- so easy!! Nice that you can use your models in ZBrush and further refine them if you want to also. I quickly modeled a fat cat head and rendered it out in Vue4.
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover."
-Mark Twain
I think Pixelogic is giving the beta away for free, because:
1.) It's been in beta for such a long time I think Pixelogic is just leaving it as is, and giving it away for free as an enticement to upgrade to ZBrush...which is dumb because although they both can sculpt, the interfaces and features are entirely different. You want t work with a Pro tool like ZBrush, as ILM and other animation houses do, you choose ZBrush. You want to sculpt in an easy, intuitive way, but with limitations that ZBrush could provide...you go with simple and free.
2.) Scultris was developed by Tomas Pettersson because he had a private need as an artist to make a "modeling clay" program, and he's made several other 3D programs (applets, actually)...and he's a good-spirited individual and originally gave all his projects away to help other ambitious artists. I believe when ZBrush discovered the programs, it scared the living kah-kah out of them to have a powerful program like theirs out there for free,so they locked it up by licensing it.
In this case, "free" means you need to register at Pixelogic so they can send you SPAM email regularly, but then the program is free to download. You'll seen my work with the dubloons above...I have no regrets or problems with the features.
In a parallel example, when Xara released the first version of the drawing program, Mike Cowpland at the time CEO of Corel Corp. soiled his britches when he saw it and offered Xara a six year contract for distribution. Corel then "buried" Xara to avoid competition, by calling it the best Web Graphics program, and severely under-advertising it.
Get the copy and then bock email from Pixelogic to avoid spam-related headaches. It's really a fun program:
My Best,
Gart
I always doubt free stuff because they always come with strings attached. I tried the free program and it's actually free. The only thing i had to put up with were the incessant emails but that's manageable. I've been working on my anumation skills and i might upgdare to the ZBrush, which is actualy their end goal.
Well, your is the first post in two years, but I started the thread, so I might as well chip in here.
Sculptris is still available for free here, and because this download is titled "Alpha 6", I think it's safe to say that Pixelogic decided to abandon parallel development with their flagship, ZBrush. Pixelogic did some UI tweaking, and added a format called GOE or something that allows Sculptris files to be worked with in ZBrush, which they hope you'll eventually buy.
Now, when you sign up for the free download (no strings except you tender an email address), you can opt out of the sales emails. I don't know what anyone else does, but for friendly but nagging email, I use a Google account as a burner account. Company emails don't make it to my door.
I also recommend one of the best free spam blockers around, been using it ever since Cloudmark got greedy and dropped their free version. Which is not only dumb for window-browsing currency, but users of any account help them define a wide spam base every time you report that letter from Nigeria thing. :)
It's called Mail WasherFree, very robust and catches 90% of my spam, and I don't see them killing off the free version. There's a prompt, not really a full-blown nag, every once in a while, not a problem.
I hope this helps anyone who wants to move up from primitives and Booleans to actual 3D sculpting in a capable, free program that can export beautifully to our coin of the realm OBJ.
This might go better in a different thread, but Sculptris was acquired by Pixologic a few ago, and although it doesn't have the feature set of ZBrush, the price to date is free, and I'd think would be of interest to folks who want to get into sculpting after solid geometry and parametric surfaces has worn thin.
I'd compare this free product to both Autodesk Mudbox and 3D Coat, not as feature-filled, but Scuptris has gotten me where I want to go more than once. If you just need to move surface areas and rotate and scale them, and don't want or need stencils and other tangentially related features...
They're really not phishing; they just want to send you a link to download, and to try to send you a regular newsletter.
This image is not displacement-mapped. I sculpted the coin's face with Scultpris and this is part of an animation inside C4D with GI and all that good stuff.
My Best,
Gary
I'm impressed I tried the prog. and still have it but NEVER could I ever do anything like that.
Larry a.k.a wizard509
Never give up. You will never fail, but you may find a lot of ways that don't work.
Hey, I started modeling in 1992, after a hip operation, so I had little to do other than use my first computer and something called Macromedia's MacroModel.
And I've kept with the art of 3D modeling and rendering for close to 30 years.
You are a very gifted artist, Larry, and you chose your media a long time ago. Give Sculptris 30 years and have a hip operation and you're all set :)
Seriously, I was originally hired as an Art Director on Madison Avenue, and physical drawing remains my love. But computers, with the right software, are so damned FUN that a film director, whose film I worked on, told me that I'm a Jack of all Trades and a Mediocre Master of All trades.
He meant it as a compliment.
You, Larry, have a particular artistic calling that no one else can match or imitate, because it's all about you.
It's self-expression, in a very directed and mature way.
Hey, download any of these modeling programs, take a tool that can draw polygons away from the surface, and do this for an hour or so and it's very therapeutic regardless of the result. Mangling things is a great stress-reliever. :) See attached,
...annnnd, this is getting a little off-topic. Let's start an O/T on "The Artist", what motivates us, and screw any specific application, huh?
No disrespect to Xara or MAGIX. It's just that I was a physical artist way before (okay, a little before) computer graphics programs.
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