Plus smart PBR shaders can help hide surface defects of topology modelers. The same is not true for ZBrush with regard to KeyShot- as they have a special KeyShot plugin so there can convert the high density models with PBR maps intact. It has 8 million polys and no UV mapper I know of can auto map it- including 3D Coat's own auto mapping routines.
That means you can't use the great PBR shaders and UV map tools unless you RETOPO the voxel model- which for a model like the one above is quite a problem. I'm pretty sure those interested in creating cartoon figures, dinosaurs or other character modeling may wish to use ZBrush as I believe it can create even finer resolution maps (normal and distortion) but I think it's more of a Rhino solution than a MoI3D Solution. You know the difference between voxels and pure topology, and I'm told 3D Coats voxels are superior for quickly sketching with geometry. I suspect his and Jama's will provide for more insight as I continue making progress. At first I was quite disappointed, but then I did find some interesting techniques. They have no sound or captions, so aren't of great value other than watching and taking notes. Also good value.Ī 3D buddy of mine on the west coast turned me on to Fuad's tutes.
While not as exciting as Jama's, he did spend more time going over the tools and how to use them. Scott Turners tutorials are great for the basics. Overall, I was quite satisfied with his tutorials, even though they were the most expensive. Sadly, Jama's 'basic teaching' of 3D Coat wasn't very good. Jama's tutes showed using scale and complexity to fight 'doughy.' Plus he had some interesting KeyShot hacks as well. In fact, I saw some Zbrush KeyShot renders and thought they were a bit 'doughy' and wondered if tight models can be had in topology modelers. He also focused on just enough detail where you don't need things perfect- which is really hard for a NURBS person to grok. Jama pointed me to the potential of using 3D Coat as a sketch tool, like Photoshop.
I would download them to my iPad and watch them on trips (I got a lot done on a trip to China!). I pretty much viewed them all in that order. I spent a good amount of time researching workflows and purchased several tutorial video series, among my favorite ones include: Just as going from the poly world of SketchUp and Lightwave to the NURBS world of MoI3D, switching over to voxels is a bit mind bending. Fortunate for me, Marco and others here on the forums pressed me to give 3D Coat a try for modeling. I had actually tried hard surface modeling in 3D Coat years ago and concluded it just wasn't up to the task. It's like getting a great UV mapper with very basic PBR capabilities of Substance Painter (and Designer).Įven if you do nothing else but UV map MoI3D objects and texture them (a good tute for that), 3D Coat is definitely worth the price. But frankly, I originally started to look again at 3D Coat (via help at these forums) as the fastest and best way overall to quickly create UV maps for MoI3D, while also providing a decent PBR mapping solution. So, in looking at both products, and my requirements for hard surface concept modeling and speed, 3D Coat eventually was the correct choice. Sorry for the long winded soliloquy, but IMO it's important to understand the reasons I use for choosing one product over the other.
For instance certainly MoI3D's major selling point is the acceptable trade-off of a great intuitive interface vs the ultimate power of other harder to use products, like Rhino (which I also have a license for but choose not to ever use). So, if I learn a program, like MoI3D, it may be months before I use it again and I need to be able to jump back in without much help.** In order for this to work for me, the programs I choose to work with may in fact allow for trade-offs. I use lots of other programs, (Pshop, Illustrator, AE, Muse, Videoscribe, etc.) and even spend time programming from time to time- plus I am a business strategy design consultant and while sometimes this requires me to use 3D, it also requires lots of other skills as well. The purpose for this is I don't spend all my time in the 3D world. The single most important point issue for me w/regard to modeling (and rendering) is simple: It must have an easy to learn, easy to use, and fast to develop with UI. I like KeyShot as a main renderer, though Octane is fun, but not finished enough for me. FWIW, I'm also now starting to play around with Unity and UE4.
( I also use Lightwave* as a SubD modeling tool- but for different reasons. In fact, I'm not a 3D modeler expert- and I say that so that you understand my purpose for using programs like MoI3D, SketchUp and now 3D Coat. First of, to be sure, I'm not a topology modeler expert.