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Curvy3D Open Beta!

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#1

The developer of Curvy3D has begun work on Curvy3D v2. Today he announced that he would like to make the beta OPEN to anyone that would like to work with Curvy3D in its very early stages (almost alpha).

Curvy3D is unique in that it allows the user to sketch curves that are instantly lathed into 3D shapes. You can also apply a sort of displacement map to your models and paint details into the model to further shape and refine your model.

Curvy3D v2 is looking to allow users to create both low-poly and high-poly models. Besides the unique Curvy3D objects you create by sketching, Sub-Division surfaces are being added as well.

Curvy3D is a unique 3D modeling package, but it is in its early stages. Even though the developer is calling this v2, it is more like version 0.5. The first version of Curvy3D was a good little program, but limited. The developer started over with a better plan, better tools and an overall better concept (and, thus, v2).

If you like to beta test software and/or want to get in early on using what should become a great 3D modeling tool, then now is your chance to play with Curvy3D for free while it is in beta. Not only that, but your ideas and suggestions can help shape Curvy3D into a truly great modeling package.

Simon, the developer, is a unique person. He is one of those rare programmers that is also an artist. Even so, he is not that familiar with traditional modeling packages. Because of this, Simon is truly creating a unique package that is not the same as all the others out there. Even so, we, who are more familiar with various 3D applications, can help him see how some things should or could be done. He especially needs help (in my oppinion) with workflow and UI ideas.

So, head on over to:

Curvy3D

And please visit the Curvy3D forum .

#2

A few notes on Curvy3D:

1 - Curvy 3D is not ZBrush :slight_smile:

I have seen people look at Curvy and ask why they would need it if they already have a package like ZBrush. Well, the fact of the matter is that Curvy3D and ZBrush are two different animals. ZBrush is a 2.5D application. As you know, you have to “drop” 3D objects to the canvas and, once you have done that, you cannot pick them back up again. These objects, in a sense, cease to be true 3D objects and instead become a part of the canvas (and, thus, 2.5D).

Curvy3D is always a 3D application. Therefore you can work with multiple objects and, at any time, switch between them, etc, as you would in any traditional 3D application.

Curvy3D allows you to paint your skin/texture directly on your object. Therefore, there is no in-between program like Projection Master forcing you to pick-up and drop your object to paint it. Therefore, Curvy3D is more like a real-time 3D paint program than ZBrush.

Curvy3D allows you to displace your model’s topology by painting as ZBrush does, but it does it in a very different way. You actually are painting a form of a displacement map and the darkness or lightness of the color affects how the model is displaced. This allows for a different workflow than ZBrush. For example, as long as you do not change the brightness/darkness of a color you can paint over the same area (to paint an “X”, for example) and the painted over area (like the middle of the “X”) will not be raised higher again, but will be displaced the same as the rest of the “X”.

As stated in the first post, Curvy 3D allows you to sketch shapes … any shape. Therefore you can easily create a base shape for heads, arms, etc before adding details and painting. This makes it very easy and fast to create basic shapes.

Curvy3D exports to OBJ so you can bring your shapes into ZBrush for more detailing.

2 - Curvy3D is NOT Finished!

The developer is offering an open beta to all who want to participate. And even though he is calling it a beta, I personally feel the program is more into the late alpha stages. This means there are bugs, missing or incomplete features and other issues. The main thing that is bugging me about Curvy3D is the workflow and UI (see the first post for a bit more on that).

The paint tools are also very rudimentory. So don’t expect to compare what it does now to Photoshop, ZBrush or some package like DeepPaint3D. Just keep in mind this is an early beta.

I personally think that Curvy3D has a lot of potential and that if people that are knowledgable about 3D applications participate in this beta that our feedback, ideas and suggestions will turn it into something awesome. Simon, the developer, is very open to suggestions and, when he is in the groove, develops at lightning speed.

So, please consider heading on over to the Curvy3D forum (see link above) and getting involved with Curvy3D. Curvy3D just might turn out to be a great tool to work alongside of ZBrush. I would love to quickly create shapes in Curvy, refine them a bit, and then import them to ZBrush for adding mega-details, etc.

#3

He is one of those rare programmers that is also an artist

It’s the hidden brother of pixolator :smiley:

Else Thx for the Info :slight_smile:

#4

Here are some examples of things I was able to create in the original Curvy beta (and the latest beta is more advanced). First I drew three lines to define the front, back and side profiles:

This image shows the lines drawn:

After a line is drawn it is autmatically lathed. As you add more lines the lathe is adjusted to accomodate the new line. From the three lines (shown above) the basis of a head is formed. Then I would go to a special map called a Curvy Map (this displaces the model when painted upon) and begin to paint details to shape the head. Here is the basic head with some details painted on:

Here is another example of a basic head “detailed” with a Curvy Map:

Soft details can be achieved as well as can be seen in this arm experiment:

Curvy, as stated, allows you to paint in real-time on your model. You can paint either on a flat skin (texture) or on the 3D model itself. Here is a crab that was modeled, displaced and painted in a Curvy beta:

BTW - All images are screen shots from within Curvy3D. None are rendered but are real-time.

You can also export the Curvy Map as a graphic file and use it as a guide in another paint program like Photoshop to take advantage of your paint programs advanced painting tools. You can either enhance the detail map (the Curvy Map) to get better details or paint a skin. Here is an example of an experiment painting a skin in Photoshop for a Curvy model:

BTW - The skin on the above model was never finished.

So, Curvy3D does have potential (I think). It has a long way to go, but with enough help from testers it will make a great and professional tool (IMHO).

#5

…in good hands for crazzy results :cool:
Another concepts for similar pleasure :rolleyes:
Pilou

#6

Curvy3D is always a 3D application. Therefore you can work with multiple objects and, at any time, switch between them, etc, as you would in any traditional 3D application.
:small_blue_diamond:TIP:
This is what the tool pallett is for… you can load more than 1 mesh to work on. and switch back and fourth. you can leave the other tools on the canvas for refrence if needed… but in all reality, you can only physicaly work on 1 model at a time anyway. (unless you are skilled like me, I have a mouse in both hands and I type with a pencil I hold in my teeth ,my spelling proves this)

Curvy3D allows you to paint your skin/texture directly on your object. Therefore, there is no in-between program like Projection Master forcing you to pick-up and drop your object to paint it. Therefore, Curvy3D is more like a real-time 3D paint program than ZBrush.
:large_orange_diamond:TIP:
In the tool-texture-colorize button allows you to paint directly on the 3d mesh. you can paint both colors and materials.

Curvy3D allows you to displace your model’s topology by painting as ZBrush does, but it does it in a very different way. You actually are painting a form of a displacement map and the darkness or lightness of the color affects how the model is displaced. This allows for a different workflow than ZBrush. For example, as long as you do not change the brightness/darkness of a color you can paint over the same area (to paint an “X”, for example) and the painted over area (like the middle of the “X”) will not be raised higher again, but will be displaced the same as the rest of the “X”.
:red_circle:TIP:
see the higher note on this… Apply the bumpmap to the model as a texture, and paint away. use white for bumps and black for divits… and shades of grey for the in between. use the “C” key to quickly pick colors off the model for fast color changes. use the Make alpha button in the texture pallet, and the Bumviewer material to proof your work. (yes I know it is more steps than curvy, but it is posssible in Zbrush)

You can also use the usual transform sculpting tools, to mold your model in 3d (you can even use syemerty tools to do this even !) … after you are done sculpting, return the model to the lowest subdevision level, and do the Tool-displacement- Make displacement pallett.

As stated in the first post, Curvy 3D allows you to sketch shapes … any shape. Therefore you can easily create a base shape for heads, arms, etc before adding details and painting. This makes it very easy and fast to create basic shapes.

:white_small_square:Yet another TIP:

There is a function called MAKE3d in the alpha pallett that dose this. just paint a blob on canvas and do a screenrip, you will then be able to choose double sided and your prefered mesh density and smoothness

The paint tools are also very rudimentory. So don’t expect to compare what it does now to Photoshop, ZBrush or some package like DeepPaint3D. Just keep in mind this is an early beta.
:large_orange_diamond:RANT:
it is funny, I hear people all the time saying how they dislike Zbrush because: (Dan did not say he disliked it, I am talking about people I meet in diffrent IRC chat rooms, and forums)
It is not like lightwave
it is not like photoshop
it is not like 3ds
it is not like maya.

well it is none of the above, Zbrush dose some of the functions of the above packages, and it dose some things that NOTHING in existance dose.
Zbrush is Zbrush… Curvy is curvy… photoshop is photoshop … and George W Bush is a recovering cocain addict. :D:+1:

If you crave an apple, dont buy a carrot.

I personally think that Curvy3D has a lot of potential and that if people that are knowledgable about 3D applications participate in this beta that our feedback, ideas and suggestions will turn it into something awesome. Simon, the developer, is very open to suggestions and, when he is in the groove, develops at lightning speed.

:white_small_square:Constructive tip:
I hope you gain more knowlage of Zbrush soon. seems like you have mastered the other packages. I hope you spend some quality Z doodleing time :D:+1:, you are a very talented artist ,and I bet if you spend a little time developeing a new workflow around Zbrush, you will be much more happy with your purchace. I know it has realy changed my artwork, and alot of other peoples artwork on this forum too. there are some very BIG shops that use Zbrush. (an there are thousands of Pee-ons like me)

So, please consider heading on over to the Curvy3D forum (see link above) and getting involved with Curvy3D. Curvy3D just might turn out to be a great tool to work alongside of ZBrush. I would love to quickly create shapes in Curvy, refine them a bit, and then import them to ZBrush for adding mega-details, etc.

Thanks for the Tips!
I love Beta testing stuff… I have been watching the developement of Curvy for some time now. it dose look like a verry nice package indeed.
The demo I saw months ago was quite impressive. I can definately see this package haveing some realy good things happening with it. after this post I am going to go and make a download thanks Dan :sunglasses:small_orange_diamond:+1:

I usualy only help out Open source GNU projects, because they wont charge me in the fututre for products I helped develope. (most of the time, X-chat just went shareware :evil:small_orange_diamond:-1: )

I think I will make an exception this time, Curvy is definately a cool package, and a worthy download. In the future I would purchace it if it turns out to be something useful to me. therefore I dont have any problem donateing FREE feedback for something I might (will more than likely) pay for in the future.

Thankyou for the “Heads Up” and the Tips Dan :smiley:
I give this post an excellent rateing curvy is definately a cool product.
and a “Must see” for any CG artist. .
:sunglasses:small_orange_diamond:+1:small_orange_diamond:+1:small_orange_diamond:+1:small_orange_diamond:+1:small_orange_diamond:+1:+

#7

Looks cool! :+1:

Unfortunately, they don’t have a MAC version.

#8

Hi! ZB artist…

you might be able to do this in LINUX useing your MAC

here is the FREE linux distro you can use, you can probabably do this with OS X if you have the BDS version of wine:
http://www.yellowdoglinux.com/ydl_home.shtml

all you have to do is :

:b4:get the curvy-beta zip file from the curvy forum. download it into your /home folder (or where ever you want)

:b2: Open a terminal window in the same place as you downloaded the file, and at a command prompt type:
$ gunzip curvyBeta.1.56.zip

repeat the gunzip with the other zip files you have while you are here…

then:
$ cd CurvyBeta.1.56

then

$ wine CurvyBeta2.0.exe

This will start WINE for the first time… follow thru the menus for the setup (totaly painless)
you now should be in curvy asking you for your serial number.

I was updateing a clients website in my linux partition this morning when I downloaded the beta… and just figured “What the hell” why not try it out in WINE so I dont have to reboot.

it works OK, but is much better in windows :smiley:

#9

Polaris :+1:
Pilou

#10

This is what the tool pallett is for… you can load more than 1 mesh to work on. and switch back and fourth. you can leave the other tools on the canvas for refrence if needed… but in all reality, you can only physicaly work on 1 model at a time anyway.

Correct. But I was stressing the fact that ZBrush promotes itself as a 2.5D product and there are advantages to this (one of them being SPEED). Curvy3D is more in line with a traditional 3D application in that all objects remain 3D at all times. For me, this provides a faster workflow as all I need to do is select my object in my view and get to work.

There is a function called MAKE3d in the alpha pallett that dose this. just paint a blob on canvas and do a screenrip, you will then be able to choose double sided and your prefered mesh density and smoothness

While this is a good tip (and all of your tips are good!) this is quite a bit different then what I was talking about or what Curvy3D does. You can literally sketch dozens of lines and the lathe in Curvy will adjust itself. This allows you to create, for example, a head with different front, back and side profiles. Using this method, you can rough out a shape by sketching as if you were drawing. It is really cool (IMO). :wink:

I hope you gain more knowlage of Zbrush soon. seems like you have mastered the other packages.

First of all, thank you :slight_smile: . Secondly, I don’t believe I have mastered any package.

hope you spend some quality Z doodleing time :D:+1:, you are a very talented artist ,and I bet if you spend a little time developeing a new workflow around Zbrush, you will be much more happy with your purchace.

Again, thank you for your compliment!

I would love to spend more time with ZBrush, but my work does not allow for it. Let’s be honest, as nice as ZBrush is it is not built for real-time 3D content creation. Oh, you can use it that way, but it is faster to create low-poly models in something like Silo, to UV map it elsewhere (in order to take advantage of all the UV space) and to paint the skin in Photoshop than to do it ZBrush. I plan to use ZBrush when I have a project that requires displacement maps and/or high-poly models.

BTW - I am very happy with my purchase of ZBrush. I don’t recall complaining about it.

Thankyou for the “Heads Up” and the Tips Dan

You are welcome! I think that ZBrush and Curvy can work well together. I can imagine myself roughing out shapes in Curvy quickly (sketching them into reality), importing them into ZBrush and adding mega-detail there.

Well, let’s see what we can do to influence the future of Curvy!

#11

i ll fast get the beta and i impressed…its a cool way to get fast a rough object
which you can rework in other progs (like zbrush)

#12

I just put in My order!

the demo is great!

This is the funnest I have had in a long time!

as a wings user, I dont have a lofter or a lathe tool… This is my a great, cheap solution… Plus I can paint and bump the stuff I make before porting it over to Zbrush…

It plays nicely with WINE in linux Too! so I have something to do when I am waiting for uploads to complete!

Now I have a way to paint in 3d in Linux :smiley:
very cool stuff!

Thanks for the tip Dan. :sunglasses:small_orange_diamond:+1:

#13

WOW!!! I got so excited about all the wonderful vitues this software promotes, and broke my main cardinal rule of CG. Never install software you do not know. Im’ running win XP, unzipped the file with all it’s folders intact, executed the .exe saw the two splash screens clicked OK, and then nothing. My whole computer froze! I got a serious critical error and curvy crashed my machine… twice. Forget this app I want nothing to do with it. :td: :td: :td: :td: :td:

#14

sirquadalot,

There are only a few things I would say to this:

1 - This is BETA software. So if you are not accustomed to running and installing beta software then you should not have broken your “rule”.

2 - If the installation proceedures are followed and if your system meets the applications requirements then the software will install properly and also run properly. So, despite the fact that Curvy3D is beta software, I would bet this is a user error and not an application error.

#15

Where Wings 3d and Silo fail, both the products crash and burn in winXP for 64 bit!

Curvy prevails!!!

Curvy is compatible, and RUNS GREAT on windows XP for 64 bit extended systems…(it is a 32 bit application)

well, Now I am very happy!!!

Zbrush, Paintshop pro, Truespace and now CURVY all work great in your 64 bit enviornment.

the resolution slider is much more fluid here :D:+1:

#16

Are you sure about this?

I can get my stuff into Zbrush but I have to go Via Wings 3d first to import the .3ds file and Quadrangulate it. then i have to do a port useing the wings 3d OBJ export options. sometimes I am sloppy and make holes in the top and bottom of mesh (I am still a NOOBie, it is me not the software makeing the holes LOL!)… wings automaticaly skins over any holes on import, and assigns them a “hole” material, wich is easy to select all of, and make into normal polys by assigning a “non-hole” material…

This is no big deal, because i use wings to chop the model in half before importing to zbrush to make painting easyer anyway when I want to just mirror a model for to make the texture map half the size… then I just export the bitmap, and open the uncut model in wings and apply the texture to the whole model.

Is there a plugin for Exporting OBJ files??.. most stuff I am just going to RE-UV map in Zbrush anyways so I get all the parts textured useing only 1 bitmap (makes run faster in real time if whole charictor is on 1 bitmap, the fewer cuts in the UV map the better, use GUV tiles for this, or manualy UV map in wings 3d)…

I would normaly post stuff like this in the curvy forum, but this is somewhat on topic…

it would really help me out, and would be of intrest of other Zbrush-Curvy users…

Thanks again Dan… I am haveing alot of fun with this software!!!

#17

BAH!

I think I got the wrong version!

LOL!

I am going to go and look on the forums, the forum screenshots look much diffrent than mine.

#18

Nope I got the right version…

Going to go and look for the OBJ exporter…

This is great software… I am investigateing it, but every time I open it I end up doodleing something :D:+1:

this makes trouble shooting very time consumeing LOL!

lots of fun playing with new toys :smiley:

#19

Dan, Here is the error. “D3D8 Application” “Could not reset the direct3D device. This sample will now exit” The “app” opens, it just freezes.

#20

BTW…Dan, the only application requirements I saw were for a graphics card that supports direct X 8.0. My card complies. For the hell of it I reinstalled the app double checking everything, and blamo same issue. Got any ideas?