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curvy3D - anyone using it?

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#1

discovered this a few days ago: http://www.curvy3d.com/info.html

and while it looks interesting, i just don’t seem to really understand how it works (there’s not exactly much information in the docs that come with the demo, besides ‘…there’s a lot of really cool tools, but we’ll only explain them if you buy it’)

what i understood is that it works a bit like ‘skinning’ or ‘lofting’ in other apps, except that you interactively draw/edit your splines plus you can paint detail somewhat zbrush-like via a looks-like-displacement-map, which seems a bit limited (maybe 'cause the demo only offers limited bitmap support) plus texturing and painting lightmaps

it might be a nice-to have tool, just can’t tell from the demo if it’s useful or not.

does anyone have any experience/expertise with it? what kind of models does it export at which level of detail? only triangulated (aka useless) .3ds files?
or is it only zbrush’s wannabe little brother with a slightly different approach?

i’m curious :slight_smile:

#2

Zbrush is a far superior product for makeing heads :slight_smile:

Stick with Z :slight_smile:

#3

I’ve seen it, but I never used it. It looks looks like it needs to mature quite a bit. The first thing I thought when I saw it was that it could be like ZB Beta .0001.

#4

Mahwok, from what I read here it looks like it uses trangles.
Mind you, at under $90, it seems like it could be fun, although I doubt it would be worth spending that if you already own ZBrush, as I’m sure ZBrush wil be able to do everything Curvy can do, and more besides :smiley:

#5

Curvy3D has a lot of potential, but I would consider it an incomplete product at this time.

Curvy uses SPLINE lines to allow you to create basic shapes (such as the outline of a head) and then allow you to paint a grayscale displacement map to mold the shape and add details.

It also has some basic paint functions. One of the nice things is you are painting on the 3D object in real-time somewhat like using Deep Paint 3D or something similar. The paint tool set is not that advanced yet, but you can get some decent results.

My advice … wait for further updates of Curvy3D.

#6

I second what Dan has said.
I’ve spent a lot of time using Curvy3D, even though I have ZB2, and it is fun to experiment with. It has been my nursery school into learning about 3D graphics so I have rather a soft spot for it.
For the future, as Dan says, wait and see.

Alan

#7

thanks for all your responses, they kinda second what i thought when playing with curvy - looks nice, interesting toy … but a toy … zbrush does approximately the same, just a gazillion times better :slight_smile:
i thought that might be because of the demo’s restrictions and some of the examples in their gallery sure look nice - but, i’m a total looser at spline/patch based modelling anyway, gue’ss i’d better stick with my beloved polys and subD’s :slight_smile:

#8

Who said anything about spline or patch based modelling. lol. Its polys.

I wouldnt compare it to Zbrush as it doesnt do things the same at all plus as I have heard others say before its TRUE 3d with the benefits that that holds rather than multi markers etc. (I know you can get used to them. lol)

Whether I got Zbrush or not at some point I would still have Curvy as its fun to play with and who knows what the future will bring.

Cheers

Mike R