Jump to content

Learning to Sculpt. Help please?


iCade
 Share

You are about to reply to a thread that has been inactive for 4138 days.

Please take a moment to consider if this thread is worth bumping.

Recommended Posts

Hi there, I'm very interested in learning to sculpt, I have googled, downloaded some free sculpt software and I'm at a loss on where to begin and advance in a comprehensible way. Maybe it's just me, but too much info too sudden and thus far I have not found a step to step guide on how to learn this. I mean, I made a little sculpty flower thingy as deco for a picture frame, but that's been more hit and miss than me actually achieving what I was going for.

Due to living in a vastly different time zone and having a RL job, I have unfortunately not been able to catch any of the BB classes =/

Thus, my questions!

1. Which software do you think is the most userfriendly? Doesn't matter if it's free or not!

2. Where to begin? Other than the basics of the programm?

3. Do you know of any guides ranking from beginners to advanced to specific things? Maybe a step to step guide? The more detailed the better, I truly don't mind reading through walls of text!

4. Are there any helpful in client places to learn to sculpt?

Any and all info you have will be appreciated!

Basically I'd like to learn but since it's the internet, there's too much information and I'd love the help to filter through this to start making my own sculpts.

If anyone would like to be my mentor than that would be amazing, I'm funny, talkactive, learn fast and I'm great with ideas.
Thank you for taking the time to read this, and thank you even more for possibly answering!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can't speak for user-friendliness because I gave up on trying to sculpt after seeing the program, but I'm just easily discourgaged like that. *laughs*

 

Builder's Brewery offers frequent sculpting classes using Blender (free). You can look them up in world and online to see their calendar and class offerings. They have other classes, too - using other programs, but I can't recall the other program names at present.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok, I figured as much, just checking:)

If money isn't an issue, you could try a trial version of 3ds max, it comes with tons and tons of tutorials. Starting out very basic and pushing you to more complicated things as they progress. I don't think you'll find it extremely userfriendly, but that's probably the case for any 3d program with a serious toolkit. Don't be discouraged by that, it just takes time. You might want to spend a good week on it to get familiar with the controls and options, so choose the trial period wisely. For 3ds max to make sculpties you'll need a plugin.

Alternatively, you could pick up the Maya trial, I did some work with that a long time ago and it's slightly more intuitive I think ( I'm just used to something else) No idea if they have professional tutorials, but it's owned by the same company, so it's very possible. I think you need a plugin to make sculpties in Maya aswell.

If you only want to build for SL, Blender might be the best choice. Not only will it save you a couple of thousand bucks, most SL builders use Blender, so there are more people to help you with any specifics.

There are some simpler programs out there, can't tell you much about those. They're likely to be more userfriendly, but will lack a bunch of editing tools.

Any of these programs will build you sculpts, but you'd be better off making mesh items instead. Not only a lot easier, also a lot better for SL (and your primcount/landimpact).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you for the response! I have heard a lot about blender, and I know BB offers classes for it, which I may be able to attend during my next vacation hopefully. As far as I can tell it's free? And you can do mesh & sculpties with it? If yes then I'm definitely sold on that one o.O

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I use Blender for both sculpties and for mesh objects.  I use the JASS plugins from Gaia Clary. The package contains all the blender add-ons that one needs to export things into the proper format for SL.  And the site has lots of really good video tutorials, check under the "documents" tab.  

http://blog.machinimatrix.org/jass/jass-2-3-6-pub/  This link if for the free version, I myself spent $L2000 for the "pro" version.  My understanding is that there is nothing in the pro packages that I could not have learned how to do myself, given a couple of weeks of hard work, so in my opinion, well worth the money.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Since you are just beginning, I suggest that you ignore scultpies completely and move directly to making mesh objects, iCade.  You can make much more complex objects with mesh than you can with sculpties and, more importantly, it is actually much easier to do once you get the hang of it.  Probably the best reason, though, is that sculpties are peculiar to SL, but mesh is everywhere.  As a result, you can find loads of excellent tutorials on line for learning to work with mesh but comparatively few for making sculpties (although Gaia Clary's sculpty tutorials are great).

Until about a year ago, Blender had a horrible user interface that only a true geek could love.  It was enough of a barrier to keep me from trying for a long time. They made a massive improvement, though, so the current version (2.64) is much friendlier.  You can learn enough of its basic commands to fly it well in a weekend, and there are good manuals and tutorials on line and in your bookstore.  And it's FREE.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you want the absolute EASIEST way to make certain types of sculpts (and just read it says and mesh maker too, but haven't looked) download Rokuro here:  Rokuro. They also have another called Tokoroten which to be perfectly honest, I find makes very "dirty" sculpts. Nothing could possibly be easier than this since u can put a picture on the background and "trace" it with the little "dots" - nodes. It makes things u wd normally make on an RL lathe tool- so think say cups, baskets, bottles.. it is not really that limited, but it is not as versatile as Blender. Also, once you get the hang of it- it might possibly help you in learnign Blender because you can import the tga file it produces and tweak and fine tune in Blender- it is a good stepping tool and unbeatable for an easy sculpt.  Good luck!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rolig is correct -- mesh is much easier than sculpts, and sculpts have limitations that mesh does not. 

I use Blender -- all 3D software is comparatively difficult*, and Blender most likely no more so than anything else, from what I hear from those who have used a variety of sofware. 

 

*Except, as Amaranthim says, Rokuro, which takes 5 min to learn and is good for a lot of different lathe-made things.  I will add also Mesh Studio which I own but have not used, and is like Sculptcrafter or Prim Oven, except for mesh, and with the same limited usefulness as those programs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Though there's a wealth of tutorials for Blender on the internet, most all are for earlier/older versions and are not useable for a completely new user dealing with the current interface. One I did find that has helped me a lot to get started is http://gryllus.net/Blender/3D.html . The menus, panels and buttons used in the videos are not only what you have in the latest version, but his free course is very well thought out and comprehensive.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I made several attempts at Blender and gave up. Then I found a free Google program called Sketchup and was able to make and import a small table into Second Life. I found out later that I wasn't supposed to be able to do that. Most opinion also is that Sketchup is not compatible with Second Life, but it gave me courage to try Blender again, and the most recent version now doesn't seem as hopeless.

Many good video tutorials on the web. I find that I learn best by actually making something, so I follow the tutorials and pause and backtrack frequently. Gaia Clary's tutorials are great, also I found tutorials by cgboorman on YouTube that I could understand (so far).

Good luck!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You are about to reply to a thread that has been inactive for 4138 days.

Please take a moment to consider if this thread is worth bumping.

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...