Yeah yeah, I know that it’s only allowed to be posted in the News section if it’s a Project Durian report hand signed by Ton, and otherwise Blender users shan’t be exposed to “news” from the rest of the graphics industry, god forbid.
Now that that’s out of the way, watch this video. Yes it’s Mudbox, yes it’s Renderman, yes it’s Maya. However, it’s also the best description of PTEX and the best description of vector displacement I’ve seen yet. I think it shows off an ambitious future for Blender, especially with open source PTEX integration right around the corner.
Here’s what I think is funny.
3DCoat–their focus is on unlimited clay meshing and autoretopology tools for a reversed high-to-low workflow.
ZBrush–their focus is on the most extensive in-app sculpting suite. The ZBrush 4 demo makes it seem like a viable CAD replacement, and they’ve solidly addressed one of sculpting’s biggest flaws, hard surfaces.
Mudbox–their focus is on map-based technologies, especially with vector displacement and stuff. However, even though this vid is all about showing off their PTEX integration, they definitely song-and-dance around the PTEX integration actually being a proprietary tool as of yet that isn’t even included.
Mari–??? Arguably winning the PTEX war. Otherwise, too new/never-used for me to evaluate objectively.
Blender–Heart’s in the right place. Currently the focus IMHO is getting it to a usability/output state that can compete, which we’re succeeding on. Also catching up in the race, getting tools like unlimited clay, that ZSphere-esque thingy and PTEX integration soon after if not earlier than commercial packages. Biggest strength is that it’s in a native 3D package that you use for rendering and animating too. Good job devs!
Thoughts