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Sculptron 1.0 - Alpha Preview Release

PostPosted: Tue Nov 26, 2019 7:12 am
by linograndiotoy
Image

Dear all,

We are excited to bring you the first alpha release of Sculptron.

As with all experimental builds, please do not use this for production purposes. We can't guarantee that scenes saved with this version will be compatible in future releases, and we anticipate there being several maintenance releases.


What is Sculptron?

Sculptron is a GPU based sculpt-animate application.
Sculptron primary target is to provide artists with a powerful sculpting tool conceived to work with 3D animation. It's not a replacement for ZBrush or any similar specialized sculpting applications you can use to edit static models. Sculptron introduces sculpting into your animation workflow.

Mesh Sculpt Animation

It's possible to import models (in OBJ format only right now) and start reshaping them. Each sculpted shape can be stored into a key-frame, and the resulting animation can be previewed in real time.
It's also possible to import an object as an animation frame, as long as it composed by the same number of polygons of the mesh already loaded in Sculptron.

Sculptron_Image.JPG


Artists can create any number of animation layers and combine them to get complex displacement animation.

The final animation can be exported in MDD format (Alembic coming soon!).

Animation Cache Sculpting

Sculptron allows to import an animated cache for editing (in MDD format for now, Alembic will follow soon).
Being able to quickly edit an animation cache can be extremely useful when tweaking and improving animated mesh deformations is needed. Cloth dynamics imperfect collisions can be solved easily and deformation effects can be added to animated characters in a very artist friendly way.
This animation has been created in Sculptron after importing some meshes in OBJ format and their relative MDD caches:

Edited MDD Cache Animation Video

Sculptron provides a very simple and intuitive set of tools.
Procedural Textures are supported, which work in conjunction with the available brushes.

Sculptron_Sculpted_Sphere_Procedurals.JPG


Mesh to Volume feature

A very peculiar feature in Sculptron is the possibility to convert any sculpted mesh/animation into an OpenVDB volume frame or sequence.
This allows artists to sculpt-animate volumes using polygons as reference, which then can be converted into SDFs or voxels in Sculptron.
Right now is only possible to use the mesh to define the domain shape, but in future releases it will be possible to edit absorption, scattering, emission and also custom volumetric channels directly in Sculptron.
The same procedural textures that can be used for mesh sculpting can also be used as SDF and Volumetric Noises to “displace” the volume and define the volume opacity.
Especially if you're a concept artist, creating clouds with the exact shape you need in no time is quite an exciting thing.


Mesh imported in Sculptron:
Cloud_Volume.JPG


Mesh Converted into Volume:
Cloud_Volume.JPG


Custom cloud volume shape created in Sculptron and imported in Octane via OpenVDB:

Sculptron_Cloud_in_Standalone_Integrated.JPG


This is a torus shaped cloud created by importing in Sculptron a simple mesh and converting it to a volume with SDF noise applied:

Toroid_Volume.JPG


The VDB rendered in Octane:

Sculptron_Toroid_Cloud_in_Standalone_03.JPG



Shortcuts list:

Navigation

    Alt+ Left Mouse button drag = Rotate View
    Alt+ Middle Mouse button drag = Pan View
    Alt+ Right Mouse button drag = Zoom View
    Alt+ Left Mouse button drag on a keyframe = duplicate keyframe
    CTRL = invert brush function when available
    SHIFT = Smooth Brush
    f = Fit World
    SHIFT+f = Fit Selected

Sculptron Features

    Sculpt-Animate any number of 3D meshes using several kind of brushes and procedural textures
    Import OBJs for Sculpt-Animation
    Import animated caches (MDD only for now, Alembic will follow) and sculpt-animate it
    Use multiple animated sculpting layers per Object
    Import Mesh as Frame
    Convert the mesh in a SDF/VDB volume with additional Procedural Noise
    Export any frame as OBJ
    Export animation as MDD cache (Alembic will be available soon) and OpenVDB

Sculptron Future Features Roadmap (not in this order!):

    Local Space Deformations
    Alembic Import Export with Camera support
    Available Brushes are going to be expanded in both number and functionalities
    Support for mesh sequence with different number of points/polygons (replacement animation)
    Sculpting and Playback speed improvements
    Multiple meshes merge for export as OpenVDB
    Wrinkle Tool
    Alpha Brushes
    Polygon Masking
    Interpolation Mode for Keyframes (Linear, Stepped, Bezier, Hermite)
    Presets for Procedural Textures
    Statistics (Number of Polygons)
    Topological Grab
    3D Perspective Reference
    OpenSubdivision
    Displacement Maps
    Dynamic Meshes Sculpting
    Item Transformations (Position/Rotation/Scale)
    Animated Deformers with Animated Falloffs
    Heat Maps
    Compress/Stress calculation
    Weight Map Painting
    Bone Deformation
    Graph Editor
    Orthogonal Views
    Volume Channels Painting

Known Issues

    Undo is limited to local keyframe sculpting editing right now
    Symmetry can cause issue when Grab is used
    Volumetric Noise shows a slice effect that is also exported in OpenVDB (SDF Noise works fine)
    Some Windows need to be activated from the Preferences in order to show up
    It's alpha software, expect some crashes!

Watch the Sculptron 1.0 Alpha Presentation Video:

Sculptron 1.0 Alpha Video

Download the free, limited time Alpha version of Sculptron:

Sculptron 1.0 Alpha Download
(Installer updated 2020-03-30)

Re: Sculptron 1.0 - Alpha Preview Release

PostPosted: Thu Nov 28, 2019 3:21 pm
by roinigo
Hi! Very excited by this new toy...! ;)
Unfortunatly, i can't use it right now : my Wacom pen is veeeery slow in Scultron (very hard to sculpt with a mouse...) Bug ?

Re: Sculptron 1.0 - Alpha Preview Release

PostPosted: Thu Nov 28, 2019 3:49 pm
by andrey.krivulya
wow! Just wow!

Re: Sculptron 1.0 - Alpha Preview Release

PostPosted: Thu Nov 28, 2019 4:05 pm
by Tugpsx
Awesome have to give this a go

Re: Sculptron 1.0 - Alpha Preview Release

PostPosted: Thu Nov 28, 2019 4:09 pm
by Lewis
Looks like Chronosculpt+Metamorphic combined.

Good work guys :).

Re: Sculptron 1.0 - Alpha Preview Release

PostPosted: Thu Nov 28, 2019 5:07 pm
by lucagiarrettino
Awesome !

It is obviously the first step, but the premises for something unique and useful in the field of animation are all there :)

Re: Sculptron 1.0 - Alpha Preview Release

PostPosted: Fri Nov 29, 2019 7:27 am
by NemesisCGI
Awesome tool. And yeah I agree with Lewis there feels like NT's Chrona Sculpt.

Okay the first problem, when you load a mesh it breaks the mesh up by surface name so when you load an MDD cache it only adds it to the current surface and not the full mesh.

Re: Sculptron 1.0 - Alpha Preview Release

PostPosted: Fri Nov 29, 2019 8:04 am
by linograndiotoy
NemesisCGI wrote:Awesome tool. And yeah I agree with Lewis there feels like NT's Chrona Sculpt.

Okay the first problem, when you load a mesh it breaks the mesh up by surface name so when you load an MDD cache it only adds it to the current surface and not the full mesh.


You can load a mesh in OBJ format, and you'll get it imported as a single object, with the same name assigned to the item in the original software. Don't use multiple layers OBJs right now (that's going to mess up the point IDs), but save and load the OBJs individually.

Re: Sculptron 1.0 - Alpha Preview Release

PostPosted: Fri Nov 29, 2019 11:13 am
by valters
:arrow: ! OTOYAWESOMABLE ! :mrgreen:

Re: Sculptron 1.0 - Alpha Preview Release

PostPosted: Fri Nov 29, 2019 1:03 pm
by drmaddogs2
Okay, I'll bite... what this going to cost me when it is Beta?