I’m working on this project where I have a reference photo and I’m trying to match my model to it. In order to match the inner details I made the model partially transparent from the object draw settings. My problem is that I lose the ability to sculpt on my model. If I disable transparency, I can sculpt fine. If I turn it back on, only the first brush stroke works and then I can’t sculpt anymore. Is there a fix or a workaround for this problem?
This works but it is very buggy and view dependent … 1) set the Draw Type in the 3D view to Shaded, which will make the alpha transparency not visable … so … 2) Go to the Draw panel for the mesh and change the Drawtype to “Solid” so that the transparency happens again … Like I said this is very buggy and the only way to convince the Sculpt tool to work with the transparency is to toggle between the shaded/solid draw types from the Draw panel every time you change views … So the work flow (if you can all it that) would be to toggle to Shaded draw type/get your sculpt brush to work in that draw type/then toggle to the soild draw type every time you change your view … And you are right, with some brush types you only get the one stroke …
Do you really need to use sculpt mode to model your mesh ? Regular mesh modeling would seem better suited for stuff that has interior features in the first place …
What I do is to use the grease pencil tool to draw indicators from the photo where things are that you can see when the object is fully opaque. Combined with looking at the photo, this has been sufficient for me. In the 3D header, go to View>Grease Pencil to open the Grease Pencil control panel.
If you’re interested, there’s actually a whole chapter in the book in my sig, Mastering Blender, devoted to sculpting, retopo, and normal map baking, and this method of working with Grease Pencil is a big part of the sculpting.
Vertex Pusher: I gather from your post that this is a known bug. If so, has it been reported? And if yes, why hasn’t it been fixed in the latest release?!
I know regular mesh modeling might be better suited for my purpose. But I feel that sculpting is a bit more intuitive, especially when you consider the fact that the reference photo that I have is not perfectly aligned with any of the orthogonal views. It is already hard enough having to figure out an entire 3d model from one single view! I’m hoping sculpting can make it easier
bugman_2000: Grease pencil might actually do the trick, thank you! I haven’t really toyed with it that much as I thought it didn’t support pressure sensitivity (couldn’t get it to draw smooth lines). Going through the wiki though I think I might have been wrong >> goes off to dig in the preferences panel.
I would hardly call this a bug … it’s more like a feature request in your part . I doubt that there is a sculpt program out there that supports transparency … I didn’t even know you could display the alpha value of the material applied to a mesh in the solid draw type in the 3D view until your post … I don’t know how hard this would be to implement, but most likely pretty difficult, as I imagine having some areas be semi-visible while manipulating them with various brushes would be an exception handling nightmare for the programmer … I personally always occlude back faces when I model though …
I know regular mesh modeling might be better suited for my purpose. But I feel that sculpting is a bit more intuitive, especially when you consider the fact that the reference photo that I have is not perfectly aligned with any of the orthogonal views. It is already hard enough having to figure out an entire 3d model from one single view! I’m hoping sculpting can make it easier
Try using the proportional editing tool with regular mesh modeling . But really, if you are actually using sculpt to base model, then you are missing an important skill in CG . I know for some people the “clay” like responses you get from sculpt seems more “intuitive”, but if you exclusively do that from the beginning to end you will miss important aspects like topology and edgeflow etc., and this is a skill/art you gain with practice - not with references . And another eventual benefit you will get from learning the latter topic(s) is to get rid of the “tracing” workflow you are engaging in now . So you can get rid of the reference photo in the background … eventually . And no they will never be “perfectly aligned with any of the orthogonal views” since photographs are taken from a single perspective …
I apologize if that came off as unreasonably demanding, but I know for sure that this feature is supported in zbrush, see the screenshots here for example. I wouldn’t know about how hard this would be to implement, if it is indeed an independent feature, since my programming background is quite shallow :o
I’m not doing this exclusively from the beginning. I’ve already made my base mesh using regular mesh modeling, but I still couldn’t get that perfect match. I admit that toplogy/edge flow issues have never been a priority for me, mainly because I haven’t gotten into animation yet, but also because smoothing/shading problems in still images can always be dealt with in post-production, if they ever do arise. And quite honestly I fail to see how making a 3d model out of a photo can apply as tracing. Tracing as I understand it is a process that lacks creativity. Drawing on top of an image is tracing. Laser scanning is tracing. Heck! even retopologizing can sometimes be considered a form of tracing. Making a 3d model out of an image, on the other hand, always involves some imagination to deal with the lack of information in the third dimension. Or at least that’s how I see it
Well I’ll be a monkey’s uncle ! … I guess reason #3 why to invest in Zbrush for sculpting … You’ll have to ask Nicolas Bishop if he intends on implementing this or not, but I think he has quite a full plate trying to optimize Sculpt Mode … I’m guessing setting the view to wire and increasing/decreasing the number of edges in mulires isn’t cutting it ?
I apologize also if I came off as sounding too dismissive about the tracing thing . I understand that everybody does things differently . But as you your self pointed out you rarely get reference images that are “matching” from a orthographic point of view .
I come from a more traditional art perspective, and despite the fact that you “fill in” the missing surfaces, tracing in almost any form is not a good way to get a feel for form whether it is done in CG or not IMHO . It also tends to be more confusing visually for me then just opening up a UV window and placing the reference there while working in 3D, if I am trying to make a portrait for example … But to each his own I guess .
I’ll try to contact him and see if he can implement this feature, though I do agree that sculpt mode optimization is much more important at the moment. But if my request makes it into sculpt mode wish-list then that will make my day
I see your point in that I need to adapt to different workflows if I want to make it as an artist. And indeed learning new techniques and harnessing your skills in various areas can be helpful so that when the time comes a small hiccup won’t bring your entire creative process to a halt!
Anyway, thanks for all the help. The community here never seizes to amaze me at the speed at which it stretches a hand to a fellow in need!