Rock Essentials(100 USD OFF) by Blender Guru

General Forums Latest News
1

Edit: Thread rebuilt from the start to include more details
Note: The underlined stuff is sarcastic, the “!!!1” should have given it away but eh… yeah

“What the heck is Rock Essentials?”

https://youtu.be/Gs5nBoIxnOg The Rock Essentials is essentially( ;) ) a model pack of rocks! And guess what? It rocks! The rocks are photoscanned and retopologized so they can fit in to any blender scene with ease. ![https://s3.amazonaws.com/blenderguru.com/uploads/2016/08/comparison-scan-and-retopod-450x219.jpg](https://s3.amazonaws.com/blenderguru.com/uploads/2016/08/comparison-scan-and-retopod-450x219.jpg)

If you are a listener of the Blender Guru podcast,you’ll remember him hinting on making this in a podcast made at the time he released the grass essentials.(It’s not just me, right?) so it took him about from the time the Grass Essentials released to today so that’s about 2 years he had this idea brewing on his mind, the results? Well they speak for themselves, no?

https://s3.amazonaws.com/blenderguru.com/uploads/2016/08/cliff-house-4k.jpg

“Oh cool, another rock pack,I already have like 7, that I got for free”
Well, here’s the thing, free things are usually free because they were too low effort and poor quality to be paid, I say “usually”
because well… blender is free and great. But the thing is blender is open source and was originally made as an in house studio 3d software, it’s an exception to the norm. It costs 200+ USD for a good reason, it took 2 years worth of work.

“It’s good practice to sculpt them anyway! Photoscanning is for… feminine… people”
Funny, the people who draw instead of 3D model say the same thing about 3D art.

Well, photogrammetry is a lot of work, believe it or not but we both know that the final result is all that matters.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/blenderguru.com/uploads/2016/05/2-step-process-making-rock1-673x320.jpg

Now the above image is representative of what would happen if you just tried to make a rock with modifiers, you could sculpt it

if a pro tried to sculpt it would look like this. But it’s still not as good as this. See, the thing is, nature will always be better at making natural things than a human.

Maybe if you are an NPR guy then maybe you can sculpt better than the photo scanned version.

“Wha… What!? $397 USDs! this is a disgrace to the foundations that blender started on!!!1”

That is among the dumbest things I’ve ever heard in my life, over exaggerating… maybe…
But come on, the price is a direct relation to how much effort it took to make it. Besides, the first one is… free ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

“oh yeah it’s just rocks m8 what are you gonna do with rocks im not paying 400 usd on rocks!”
It comes with mountains too apparently, and last time I tried creating a mountain it eh… didn’t go so well.
But yeah you can clearly see how realistic they look.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/blenderguru.com/uploads/2016/08/Desert-Mateusz-673x379.jpg

“why cant i just buy vue xstream or world machine then?”

You can afford these products and you are complaining about the price?

To finish off, somethings to note,

  1. Again, like I said last time in my poliigon thread, if you are a bad artist or you are just a beginner, this won’t suddenly make you a great artist(but it can motivate you I guess)
  2. You can get 3 rocks for free and then see how you like it
  3. According to one of the comments, this may stop being blender exclusive and he’s considering expanding to other software
1 Like
2

Here already

3

Nah, the way I see it, that’s a showcase for work that was done with the product
and this is the introduction to the product.

4

I’m not sure what it is you’re trying to say. That the pack is expensive? A lot of things are expensive. I’m just not sure how it’s “disgraceful”. Do you feel it should be cheaper because it’s creative, or artistic in nature? Or because he has links with Blender?

Presumably you’d do some research and shop around before purchasing something like this. And if it fits your budget and does what you need then you buy it. Or not.

Photo-scanning is for feminine people? :confused:

5

Sorry, this thread is just dumb.
If it’s too expensive for you, fine, then don’t buy it.
Don’t mock other peoples work.

6

Maybe I’m just not very good at conveying my points and it’s easy for them to get lost under some big image

I’m not sure what it is you’re trying to say.

Not trying to say anything actually, just letting people know that there’s a cool thing that launched by blender guru

That the pack is expensive? A lot of things are expensive.

True, the product was fairly priced because the amount of effort reflected the price.
I even said this in the next line, and that’s what baffles me about your post.

I’m just not sure how it’s “disgraceful”.

That line( the line that you were referring to ) was almost like something an unreasonable 12 year old kid would say, no?
It’s almost like the underlined texts were ironic over exaggerated caricatures of say… the young blender user

Do you feel it should be cheaper because it’s creative, or artistic in nature? Or because he has links with Blender?

No

Presumably you’d do some research and shop around before purchasing something like this. And if it fits your budget and does what you need then you buy it. Or not.

I want to buy it, looks like a great product, but I can’t afford it, and I can’t complain.

Photo-scanning is for feminine people? :confused:

yeah those photoscanning people are pussies man all they do is go in windows media player and hit scan!
:slight_smile:

7

Okay the thread was extremely unclear and frankly was poorly organized to the point where it could be interpreted as something it’s not, this, I’ll admit.

If it’s too expensive for you, fine, then don’t buy it.

okay. no disagreements there, only problem is that you are implying that I said that the product was far too expensive and it should be catered to me. Which I didn’t.

Don’t mock other peoples work.

Eh okay, don’t remember doing that but hey, just thought I’d let you know that the underlined parts are sarcastic.

8

People will pay for quality, and people will pay big for a pack of the size that Andrew put together.

While I do disagree with the idea that hours of photoscanning is the only way to make realistic rocks, I have to say that everything looks really well put together and may even be considered cheap in some professional circles.

9

Maybe they read your post but you put across what you were trying to say extremely poorly. Claiming someone didn’t actually read what you said is just a way of not accepting your own limitations

10

I guess that’s another way to think about it.
I edited the thread to… sort of alleviate this problem.

11

This is your personal opinion on the matter which i consider spam. You’re staring at candies and feeling buthurt! You’re just being a big D about it.
No professional would make such claims.

12

yeah
I’m totally butthurt about… something apparently.

13

For anyone visiting this thread who’s confused about the OP:

fdfxd seems to have been trying to voice potential complaints by people about this product and make counterpoints to those complaints. The problem, however, is that this intent was communicated poorly. A big part of that is because no one here has actually voiced those complaints… those specific arguments haven’t shown in our forums for quite some time.

The unfortunate side-effect is that it reads like these are fdfxd’s thoughts and not the points that were being argued against.

14

So what is the point?

15

If you’re an environment artist this pack is pretty much a requirement. Most likely, studios will probably buy it for their artists. It’s really well put together. However, it is definitely out of the price range of most hobbyists and such. In terms of packaging, I would have definitely recommended giving away some random “grab bags” that have a random collection of 5 rocks or so, a formation, and then a couple brushes and a material. I say this because you could give those away at 50$ and people would be really happy that they’re at least getting something. Priced as it currently is, Rock Essentials is pricing out a significant chunk of users.

16

It is truly out of the price range of hobbyists, but I checked the video and it has a very fair price overall for those who need it (hobbyists don’t).

17

I’m inclined to go with Alma in this one,lvxe
It’s fairly priced.

but… I don’t necessarily think it’s a… “requirement” anymore than a modular space station kit is a requirement for a sci fi scene.

It’s more of a massive time saver

I mean, it certainly would be a requirement if you were a level designer but as an environment artists… it’s your job to make the barrels,rocks and walls that the level designer is going to use so…

Again, time saver.

Sculpting a rock is still an option.
using a rock generator(despite their low quality) is still an option.

@Fweeb
Exactly

18

It is for archviz mainly and seems to be a good pack for that.
Just as an example: 8-10 good quality scanned 3d people costs about 250-300 USD.

19

Andrew made a great work , the cost is low considering all that stuff.
267 rocks + 23 cliffs = 290 Total
$397 / 290 = $1,368
Maybe he could sell rocks individually

20

@fdfxd
There’s nothing baffling in my response if you look at the original way you worded your post. I couldn’t tell if you were trying to be witty without having some context. If you want to counter someone’s argument its better to state that’s what you’re doing. Then you have a point of reference. Without that, it could’ve read as you expressing a poorly worded opinion. Or having a personal dislike of Andrew Price.

Text is a bad form of communication. Especially for subtle things like humour or sarcasm. Even more so when you consider the range of first languages people have on forums. Not everyone will get it. And you can’t assume they will.

Many a flame war has started as a result of it. The only way to combat that, is to be as clear as you can. :slight_smile: