I love my iPad as an alternative to a Wacom being connected via Sidecar using blender. However since I travel a lot I feel like sculpting on the go.
I was using forger a few times and it wasn’t very satisfying. Today I looked up the App Store and found Nomad, which is a very professional Sculpting app for both Android and iOS:
This was a love at first sight pay for me, and it might be a bit expensive for an app it’s super worth it. Tried it for like an hour and it’s powerful and userfriendly.
Since it got released in august or july I wonder if people here know about it?
I might buy it.
I have the Forger app, so I’m just a bit hasitant as to buy another sculpting app.
How does it compare, if you or anyone else here has tried both?
Yeah, I have Forger installed too, but I actually never used it a lot, since it’s hard to handle – clicking through many confusing menus for change simple things, for example a brush texture.
I’m pretty sure the engine is based on the developer’s web version: https://stephaneginier.com/sculptgl/
However, for me the performance feels way better than Forger’s one.
Also has stuff like environment maps and matcaps (you can even import your own), and a x-ray like mode, which is handy when you’re editing intersecting objects. The interface is to some point customizable, too. You can change the color, toggle the brush menu to be a list or a grid, or hied the UI to a minimum.
One small difference to Forger I really like is that you can toggle the smooth/invert option instead of holding it down. In Forger it can be anoying when you don’t hold your finger preceisly down.
I miss some brushes I’m used to in Blender, but tbh you get enough to make good sculpts. It feels quite Blender-like.
Also I haven’t found a way yet to join meshes or boolean them together.
There’s already a lot of content on youtube about it.
This guy made a direct comparison of Forger vs. Nomad btw:
I initially checked it out to just get examples for how a proper 3D Cursor/Gizmo should work in Blender, but I wasn’t prepared for how good it was.
It has sculpting features that Blender will not have for years:
fully implemented vertex painting that works in multires and dyntopo
simultaneous painting and sculpting, again in both multires and dyntopo
a multires that isn’t laggy and buggy
a proper sculpting gizmo that is better designed than the overall Blender gizmo
sculpting layers, again for both mesh and paint
dynamic primitives that scale their resolution based on their size and shape
insert mesh brush
fast trim brushes
curve sculpting
It just blows Blender’s sculpting completely out of the water, and it doesn’t feel like a crusty dinosaur the way Zbrush does. I’m used to sculpting in Blender and won’t be dumping it, but if anyone asks me for the best program to start sculpting in - I’m going to 100% say Nomad.
PS: is this the only thread about Nomad here, or did I miss it? You’d think it would be a bigger deal.
Nomad gets its occasional mentions in the sculpting threads. @Metin_Seven wrote a couple times about it.
The webpreview exists since a long(er) time and is meant as just a preview of the current functionality for its Tablet releases.
Not a demo for a PC version.
stephomi(Stéphane Ginier) wrote in 03 April 2024 that Nomad will be released on desktop later this year. (question is which OS will it be released on?)
Finally bought Nomad Sculpt, using it on my wife’s old first-gen iPad Pro. It still works quite nicely for such an old iPad. I’m loving Nomad more with every minute.
For people who have just started working with it, like I have, I can recommend these beginner tutorials:
And I’m thinking of buying a Sketchboard Pro, unless someone knows a cheaper alternative.
Wow, $129 for a flat piece of plastic feels… excessive it wouldn’t be as pretty, but you could very easily make exactly the same thing with a sheet of wood and a hand saw, and a couple hinges, for about $10
Yeah, the Sketchboard Pro price is indeed uhm… Apple-like.
I’ll first have a look if there’s a cheaper alternative.
Further exploring Nomad Sculpt, I just tried its dynamic topology, and it’s once again impressive! Suddenly I can see myself working a lot with Nomad on an iPad. Never thought it would be able to replace the Desktop experience. But as @Musashidan made clear, VR is also a desktop alternative, so I’ll be happy to try this intermediate step between desktop and VR first.
Haha. It’s the feeling of actually “touching the surface” of your model with the pen that makes the experience more direct, more palpable, more like traditional sculpting. But the Nomad app is the biggest attraction. It’s like ZBrush with a better renderer for just a one-time $ 22. And for a little more you’ve got the one and only Quad Remesher right inside Nomad as well.
Of course, ZBrush is the king of brush feel, particularly the Clay brush, but Nomad feels quite allright, and definitely sufficient for a really enjoyable sculpting experience.
Yes, I was tempted by it myself, but it would have been just a novelty. There’s no doubt Nomad is a fantastic program, but sculpting on a tiny screen when I have a 4K monitor just makes no sense at all to me. Nomad desktop is pending so if I were going to use Nomad I’d use the desktop. I used to have a Cintiq years ago, hated it, went back to the Intuos.
As an evolution of the bread board concept, if you didn’t want to make one yourself, something like this is a great, cheap alternative to the ridiculous Apple thing, and who doesn’t prefer wood over plastic?
Of course, it’s a very subjective thing. And the last thing I want to do is seem like I’m denting your enthusiasm and excitement, because once Metin gets to this level of excitement at the prospect of learning a new 3D program…
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and a review after you’ve been using it for a while. It’s good to get the thoughts from a 3D artist who has used so many other 3D programs. Most of the Nomad users seem to be users with no background in other 3D programs for comparison.
Working with Nomad Sculpt on the 2017 12.9 inch 2nd-gen iPad Pro of a friend now, and that feels much better than the older and smaller 1st-gen iPad Pro my wife gave me. Sculpting is smoother, more screen estate feels much nicer, and more buttons fit on-screen at once, which is very convenient.
Too bad this old iPad model is not suitable for the Plastic SDF app. But Nomad provides enough creation tools and fun.
it wouldn’t be as pretty, but you could very easily make exactly the same thing with a sheet of wood and a hand saw, and a couple hinges, for about $10
But Nomad provides enough creation tools and fun.