"Questions about learning 3D sculpting" Topic

Hey folks

So, I would like to start sculpting my own miniatures, in 3D. But, I'm an almost total noob, and I have tons of questions.

I've used 3D programs in the distant past, I've done some 3D logos like 15 years ago on 3DS Max and some other similar things here and there since then. But I get the idea that sculpting a miniature is going to be a lot different than importing an eps file and hitting the extrude button.

So, to begin with, what software should I be using, on a Mac? Seems a lot of folks are using zBrush, but I'm afraid it's out of my price range right now. I found a free program called Blender, and I messed around with that. The price is right, but is that any good? It has a zBrushy sculpting mode, in addition to the old fashioned way of clicking on a vertex or face and moving it around. But Blender seems to be something more for creating 3D animation and movies. I could care less about particle effects or textures or how many lights and cameras I need in my "scene". What I'm looking to do right now is get 3D prints made and use them to make metal figures. But, I also heard that for plastic models you need to use CAD software. Is this true? And if so, should I just start out off the bat using CAD instead of even bothering with other programs? I doubt I'll be making plastic models anytime soon, but just wondering if I should plan ahead… Would CAD be better for just strictly modeling since that's all I really want to do? If that's the case, what program should I be looking for instead of Blender or zBrush?

Also, I believe I read a post somewhere sometime ago where someone was saying that for 3D prints to work right, you need your 3D model to be one big mesh, not multiple pieces grouped together. Like I can't sculpt a guy with a fist, then make a sword separately and stick the handle inside the fist or the 3D printer will self destruct or something. Is this true? Or can I use as many pieces as I want to make a model?

Any other tips any of you pros might have for learning to sculpt with 3D?

Blender is what I use. It has a game engine and movie production functions that I will want down the road. However, the learning curve is steep and it isn't as intuitive as other software.

I'd take a look at Silo or Sculptris if you want to streamline your experience. Sculptris does good organic modeling. Silo handles non-organics well. Both are quite easy to use. Sculptris has a free version and is generally though of as a stepping stone to Z-Brush if you want something more powerful later. Silo has a free trial period and is only around $150 USD for a license after that.

Sculptris pixologic.com/sculptris

Silo nevercenter.com/silo

You're right, modeling for printing is a bit more involved than importing an eps file and extruding.

It's not necessary to model the object as one object. Breaking it into parts and combining them in different ways works. You just export all of the parts as a complete .obj or .stl file when you're done.

You do need to make sure all of the parts are manifold. Imagine it as a container that has liquid in it. There shouldn't be any leaks. You also need to watch reversed normals and duplicate vertices which can cause problems in the mesh. Blender has a plug in that will check for things that would cause printing errors. I use MiniMagics, a free .stl viewer, to check my meshes for errors.

MiniMagics link

One of the best things you can do is talk at length with your printer to see what the limitations are of his machine. Specific questions are: What is the minimum wall thickness that will print? What is the print volume? What is the minimum surface detail? How does the printer build supports and handle undercuts?

Knowing the casting and injection limitations of the material you want for the final project is also important. Some models look great in printed form, but won't cast well because the parts are too fine. Talk with your mold maker about this stuff.

Please feel free to contact me if you have specific questions. I'm still learning a lot of this myself but I'm happy to help with whatever information I can.

Cool thanks for all the info :)

Actually Silo looks like the kind of thing I think I need so I'll give the demo a whirl. I tried Sculptris, but had some issues with it crashing on my system a lot, then I found Blender and started messing with that. I guess it would be good if I ever want to make 3D demo movies for my game some day, but right now I'd rather focus on learning how to sculpt and make models that look good, and then take it from there :)

Popular programs in the industry are 3D Studio Max, Maya and zBrush, with the latter being extremely popular for organic modelling, less so for traditional vertex manipulation. Blender is probably the most popular free program, and with some changes to the user interface to make it work more like the above, is pretty powerful in it's own right.

Human models are pretty hard to get right and take a lot of practice, there is no easy way, you just have to watch tutorials or take courses, and use lots of reference materials. What is peculiar to modelling for 3D printing is that the models has to be actually made into a real object that might be used as a master for a mold, so you have to be careful how to pose it etc, so that the resulting casts are stable and have no obvious problems like undercuts etc.

Yeah I'm not expecting to do people or monsters or anything organic anytime soon. Got a lot of learning to do. But, I'm developing a mech combat game so I figured I could tackle inanimate objects like that a lot easier and move on to living things later on after I get a lot of practice. Definitely not in any rush.

Another question. So.. I'm going through some tutorials for Blender, making a generic person and a basic shapes for the body, then it tells me to make a new sphere for the head. Makes sense. But, is that how you would do it for sculpting minis? Or would I have to do something like start with that body shape and then use the sculpting tools to grow the head out of the shoulders and keep sculpting it up till it looks head shaped? And then if I wanted to give him a hat, I grow a hat out of his head with sculpting, or do I make the hat separately and just move the piece on top of the head?

I guess what I mean is, can objects be overlapping each other? Or do I have to try and stick with one solid object? If it's the latter, then is there a way to sculpt using those different objects, but then tell it to merge everything into one big object? Not make group of several objects, but turn everything into one big mesh?

One thing I would really like to do is have a standard set of weapon shapes so they will all be the same for all miniatures. So like, if I wanted to have a guy aiming his rifle, I may need to have his rifle, arm and shoulders all 1 piece on the final mini, but I don't want to have to sculpt that same rifle every time. Hope that makes sense.. can I do that, just copy and paste the rifle into the guy's arm and call it a day, or would I have to sculpt the rifle into it from scratch? I could have sworn I read that you can't do that for 3D prints or the printer will mess up, but it seems to be the way to go for 3D movies and stuff…

First of all, your model has to be one solid model with EVERY vertex leading to AT LEAST three others, and no polygon edges that have no neighbor.

As for adding a head, it's easier to add a new sphere, sculpt it into a head shape, and then to connect the vertexes to the neck, instead of "growing" the head out of the neck, mostly because you need a lot more geometry to work with for faces and ears, so in the end you'd be doing a lot of vertex splitting.

Oh .. so, everything has to be like quad shapes? I thought models were made up of triangles, or is that the old fashioned way?

I think I get it now.. so you slice off the bottom of the head sphere then join the bottom vertices with the top of the neck? I was thinking you would just use the sculpting tools and just keep stretching and pulling things till it looked right.

Oh and, just thinking, with all that cutting and joining, I guess it can be easy to end up with open spaces if I'm not careful. Is there any good tools out there that can help me find any that I might have missed so I can find them easily? Or would Blender be able to do that?

I decided I'd like to just stick with Blender for now, since it's free. Even though there's a lot of stuff in it I don't need. Later on when I get the cash maybe I'll move over to Zbrush after I know what I'm doing.

If a vertex leads only to two other vertices, that means that it is like a spike polygon, creating a hole in the model that can't be there.

Quads are not necessary and sometimes unavoidable, but generally it's best to try to have the model's surface to be made out of as many quads as possible, this is important for texture mapping.

Most programs should have an option to automatically fill any holes of a model ("Cap Holes" in 3D Studio Max).

For organic shapes, there two basic ways to do them: by poly editing (extruding, chamfering, splitting, and so on) and the approach that has made zBrush popular, namely modifiyng the model as you would a real clay armature, with different-sized "brushes" or tools manipulating the model like a piece of soft clay, where the user doesn't have to care as much about the polygon flow.

Cool thanks.. still lots of learning to do but making good progress with Blender. Found this site with some great tutorial videos, most of the beginner stuff is free too :)

cgcookie.com/blender

But it seems like blender's sculpting tools are always turning everything into triangles, even if I started with all quads. But it still seems like a solid shape unless I start going crazy with it. I think I might want to just stick with extruding and beveling and stuff for now, I think I'd mostly just use sculpting for people or monsters, but for the time being I'm just gonna be starting with big robots that will be mostly flat shapes.

So I started sculpting/modeling today. Went through a lot of tutorials and course videos on blendercookie.com and now I think I kind of have an idea what I'm doing.. I think.

So I'm starting with one of the martian mechs for the game I'm working on. I have other sculptors working on other teams and this one was going to be released later on so I thought this would be a good one to start with. Here's the concept art

I decided the scythe looking feet won't connect to a base very well, so I decided to leave that off. I added some extra armor plates to the leg pieces so it wouldn't look so flat and boring. Right now these are about 25mm tall, but I want the whole mini to be 35mm tops so I will probably have to shrink them down a bit. Here's as far as I got yesterday.. took me like 10 hours but now I think I'm getting the hang of it. The legs and "hips" will be separate pieces, then the top body will be separate also, and the side guns will be separate since those will be swappable, there will be a bunch of different guns to choose from in the end.