Sculptris primer video and "cheat sheet"

[3dioot]

Hello everyone. I am a sculptris user from before the acquisition by pixologic. Im not new to zbrush but this is the first time im posting in the "pixosculptris" forum. ;)

I noticed quite a few (new) users running into problems while they are trying out sculptris for the first time.

For this same reason i created a sculptris primer a while ago which was posted on the original forum. Since i havent seen it linked from here i thought it might be a good idea to do so myself.

It is quite basic (perhaps too basic for the experienced users) but, among other things, it does show how the dynamic tesselation works, how to control it and a few do's and dont's which i believe will benefit everybody.

The following topics are touched:

- Navigation
- Brush controls
- Dynamic tesselation how it works (and why you care)
- Brushes

You can find it on vimeo:
Link to video (http://vimeo.com/12186535)

I also created a "cheat sheet" which shows the most important shortcuts. (with this version shortcuts cannot be reassigned yet)

Link to "Cheat Sheet" (http://home.casema.nl/jw.v.dronkelaar/sculptris_cheat_sheet.pdf)

I hope its useful to you. :)

3dioot

sculptris_cheat_sheet_thumb.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%27206270%27,%27sculptris_cheat_s heet_thumb.jpg%27,1,0%29)

[dreamz]

:tu::tu::tu::tu::tu:Thank you so much 3dioot for the primers and cheat sheet, they help a great deal. And your videos on the anatomy of the face are very useful. It would be great if you went further and did a tutorial covering the options and paint buttons. Thanks again.

[hobo]

thanks for your time, really useful :)

[Teria]

*worships you* Thank you!!!! At last I know what "pinch" is for and how (the h**l) to use a mask! Thanks!!

[3dioot]

@dreamz
Thankyou for your kind words. Im very happy to hear you enjoyed my video on the nose as well. Im a bit too shy to post a direct link to that video with all the sculpting gods on this forum but im glad you found it useful. ;)

Your not the only one requesting a primer on the painting tools. Perhaps i should give in and make it. :D

@hobo
Your very welcome :)

@Teria
worships me? :o:lol:

Your welcome too. I agree on masking being a little less intuitive then it should be at the moment (cough). But im glad i could help you figure it out.

Since were talking masks now anyway i would like to alert you about a side effect of using them. I didnt really address this in the video but in hindsight i should have. Every time you draw a mask the mesh gets tessellated as well. Even when you -havent- sculpted yet. Its important to be aware of this. For clarity i suggest you draw a few masks with wireframe enabled (W). This way you can see exactly what it does. :idea:

For this reason i personally use them minimally to not at all.

---

Thanks again for the nice comments. :)

3dioot

[Harryman84]

I really enjoyed your tut @ the nose as well. A very thorough exploration of the anatomy and process of sculpting a successful nose. The pacing was great, many tutorials move really quickly or are edited down. I'd welcome more!

[mermaidine]

this is really very helpful. Although I found out a lot by trial and error, this video made everything very clear and I learned a lot new and useful.

[Teria]

@dreamz
@Teria

Since were talking masks now anyway i would like to alert you about a side effect of using them. I didnt really address this in the video but in hindsight i should have. Every time you draw a mask the mesh gets tessellated as well. Even when you -havent- sculpted yet. Its important to be aware of this. For clarity i suggest you draw a few masks with wireframe enabled (W). This way you can see exactly what it does. :idea:

Yes, I noticed it when I enthusiastically started masking away. :D

[dreamz]

Well 3dioot, you seem like a sculpting god to me! It would be a shame if your videos were tucked away without enough publicity when so many people could benefit from them. You are patience itself when it comes to explaining things, and your tutorials are detailed and thorough. If you are willing to go to such lengths in explaining the angle of nostrils and provide such a wealth of illustrations then you are obviously a natural teacher.
And you are clearly a skilled sculptor so please share more of your knowledge....and hurry with the tutorial about the rest of Sculptris!!!!:mad::D

[Teria]

I found out you can disable the tesselating (? tesselation? tesselatization? tesselatifizifying? :D) by masks if you put the detail slider to zero. :)

[3dioot]

@Harryman84
Thankyou very much. The length seems to get mixed receptions though. Some people love it; other people feel its way too long. ;) I was (am) planning more but took a bit of a brake due to personal circumstances. Im back on the ball now though. First up is the painting primer and we'll see what comes after that.

@mermaidine
Your very welcome. Are you mermaid from the sculptris forum by any chance? :D

@Teria
Yes you can indeed! :D The shortcut zero is very useful for that. It swaps between the current value and zero (i.e. dynamic tessellation turned off).

The only "problem" i have with that is that sculptris's power feature (dynamic tesselation) kinda works against you when you disable it and try and use masks. You will have a mesh with varying mesh density thereby creating quite unpredictable or rough masks. Its a tough challenge to solve for drPetter. I wonder what his plans are of dealing with this. :)

@dreamz
Your too kind man. :lol: Do note though the illustrations are from the site www.theartofanatomy.com (http://www.theartofanatomy.com) (i credit the site specifically in the video) I merely took the effort to place them all together in photoshop and refer to them while sculpting. Its a great site and well worth visiting if you want to learn more about anatomy.

I spend some time today working through the paint options of sculptris and i think i know what everything does again (been a while since i used it; i like to sculpt more then texture). If all goes well i should have some free time tomorrow to at least start with the vid and who knows.. perhaps even finish it. No promises though! :p

I also put a reply in your thread on the issues your having with the paint mode. I hope they help you.

3dioot

[sculptrisnewb]

What a great site link thanks 3dioot!! Quick question while i have your attention in the video links ive seen theres a gizmo that pops up for detail, size and strength ive worked out from the cheet sheet it looks like you press (space) to access it but no matter how i try i cannot is there something im missing?

[mermaidine]

lol...yes I am the mermaid from sculptris forum, had to add a bit to my name here, as this nick was taken...lol;)

[Mr.T]

Thank you very much 3dioot this is really helpful :tu:

[3dioot]

@sculptrisnewb
Your welcome. :)

I think the reason you are not getting the brush menu by pressing space is because you have enabled "tablet navigation" in the options menu. If you have buttons in the lower left corner of the viewport for editing, rotating, panning and zooming then that means you have tablet navigation turned on.

Regretfully the tablet navigation option has a bug where the brush menu (for lack of a better word) becomes broken. The easy fix is to disable the tablet navigation. The only thing you will lose are the buttons in the lower left corner and they are very unintuitive to use anyway. Try to use the navigation with the alt key instead. You will love it when you get used to it and you will get to use the brush menu as reward. :lol:

@mermaidine
I knew it! From now on im going to refer to you as mermaid. ;)

@Mr. T
Your very welcome. :)

[sculptrisnewb]

Thank you 3dioot problem solved

[3dioot]

@sculptrisnewb

Glad it solved your problem. :tu:

--

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Hmm why would the bunny be so excited? Perhaps he knows something you dont. It has something to do with him being painted for a very specific purpose. ;)

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(http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/faq.php?faq=vb_read_and_post#faq_zbc_display_image s)

[dreamz]

Though there is a danger of this becoming a thread about rabbits, you know how quickly they breed. :D

[dreamz]

Hi 3dioot,
I was wondering if it would be possible to put a prominent link to your videos and cheat sheet somewhere outside of the forum but on the main page so that they don't keep moving around with the threads? That way, newbies would know where to look for info on Sculptris, and duplicate questions could be avoided. It would be a shame if people were scratching their heads about an issue, unaware of your excellent tutorials. Just a thought.

[3dioot]

Hi dreamz,

Yeah bunny would probably befriend rabbit boy in no time. The environment is idyllic enough for both of them, thats for sure! ;)

I agree on your idea. I think the best solution would be a thread called "introduction tutorials" (or something like that) with links to the movies which then would be stickied at the top of the forum.

But thats something for the the moderators of this forum. Perhaps ill send DrPetter a PM about it to see if he thinks its a good idea.

Thanks for the suggestion. :tu:

3dioot

[RAMWolff]

This should be stickied for sure.... Fantastic cheat sheet, you didn't leave anything out and easy to read... the vids are just fabulous... I like your voice too, easy on the ears! :D

Thanks so much

Richard

[JimB0]

Any chance of a printer friendly Cheat Sheet?

Thanks

[JimB0]

Nevermind does'nt matter. :)

[willettfx]

Thank You SO MUCH!!!