Tuesday 14 May 2013

Amazing texturing software!


Recently I've come across a bunch of software outside my small circle of software I use to make 3D stuff, and the potabilities they introduce blows my mind! the fact I'm late to learn of their existence shows how far out of the loop I am, first up is...

Pilgway 3D Coat is a 3D painting program, you might say, yeah I can do that in Zbrush all the same, but fact of the matter is, it's not like Zbrush painting for 2 simple reasons: 1 - Layers just like in photoshop! 2 - you can paint on the mesh you import and the pixel density is not determined by your vertex proximity! the fact you can paint with out having to account for a well distributed edgeflow is great! especially on low poly models, but saying that, is probably has no problems handling the same level of polygons that Zbrush can handle.




Another awesome software is Quixel Ndo2, it's a program that works in conjunction with photoshop, but it's soo amazing that you can literally make an environment texture without ever needed to model of sculpt any part of it, yet it can produce quality that rivals a fully modelled/sculpted one, if you're questioning my madness, then have a read of this PDF, sure it might not make the diffuse texture with the same level on control as the normals, but that is where the next product comes in.




Quixel Ddo is an amazing software made by the same people as Ndo2, where it focuses on the diffuse and specular texture side of thing, this this software, you can texture something from scratch and make it look accurate to the material you are trying to replicate, it is impressive! have a watch how they used it for this character.






I'm planning/hoping to learn these programs so I can streamline my workflow and be able to produce more products at a higher frequency. while I do think traditional art skill is important in this industry, there is no denying with programs such as the Quixel ones, it might render old discipline unnecessary (but those old skills still needed for photoshop and 3D Coat). Currently the only thing stopping me from learning is the cost, even for a non profit personal use, it's a tiny tiny bit out of my wallet range...for now at least. I can always use the trial version and hope I learn it fast enough, but if I don't have money by the end of the trial and I leave it too long, I might forget it all TT_TT

So here to me hoping to be successful at learning them and owning them!