sculpting with curves instead of the cursor

Support Technical Support
#1

I can’t seem to find any reference to this, nor can my friend figure it out, but I know it’s possible…

what I’m looking to do is use a curve in 3D space wrapped around the model at specific areas.
the curve would be set as a sort of editable sculpting brush path where the curve only has influence on the model modifed by prior curves.
this is similar to paint curves in sculpt mode,
but is defined in 3D space so you can get a better look at your edits.

is there anything in blender that achieves this, or is there an extension I could download that does what I want??

#2

Hi.
No, it is not possible. There was an addon with some limitations, but it does not work any more anyway.

#3

I figured out how to get that addon working again. Meta-Androcto also updated it under his list of addons. Here’s the update https://github.com/meta-androcto/blenderpython279/blob/master/scripts/addons_extern/sculpt_stroke_on_grease_pencil.py

#4

Cool! Thank you very much guys!

I hope that some developer who wants to work on it find free time to continue maintaining that addon, and maybe add some features. This has a lot of potential.

#5

It does not work on 2.75, i.e. it does nothing.
Anyway, I can’t get why its UI is on the Properties panel while, as a tool, it should stay on the Tools panel, imo.

paolo

#6

yeah, I have no idea why the creator put it there. Change its location like I did.

#7

I agree, I noticed a few issues ,but it’s pretty cool addon. One thing I noticed, it works off of points, so if you draw a straight line with grease pencil it will just have two points on the ends and that’s where your sculpt stroke will be. The more points it has the better it seems to work.

#8

Yes, I could do it, if only it worked.

paolo

#9

See if the old version works. I don’t know what version of blender the old version quit working. https://github.com/meta-androcto/blenderpython/blob/master/scripts/addons_extern/sculpt_stroke_on_grease_pencil.py

#10

With grease pencil you first need to set data source to object instead of scene before drawing for it to work:


#11

Well, Grease Pencil settings are in N panel (In Blender 2.69, GP settings only in N panel). Perhaps this has been the reason to put there the addon configurations.

Original version worked from Blender 2.69 to Blender 2.71. In Blender 2.72 stopped working.
@sourvinos, why are you stuck in Blender 2.75? What makes you not able to use new version?

Edit:
Yes, I am using on object - surface with GP and it works fine. You remember to use the addon in Orthographic view. And also remember that we have curve stroke on surface draw mode in Blender too. As I said, a lot of potential in this addon to continue adding features.

#12

thanks guys :slight_smile:

now maybe I can get somewhere and not have to position individual vertices with the subsurf modifier.
as much as I love it, it’s quite a hassle to visualize proper crease-points, particularly for rodent legs.

so yeah, my friend showed me how well sculpting works when rigging, but I make too many mistakes and am too much of a 3D perfectionist to deal with drawing-pad-level operation.
(I NEEEEEEED major dynamics)

also @sourvinos
upgrade for sure
I’ve written stuff for 2.75, and trust me, there’s too much broken s*** for anything to work.

as for why it’s a properties UI instead of a tools-based UI…
that probably has to do with hassles as to what devs are able to do.
(properties UIs are easier to write and are more well documented, and are even directly provided with related data)
^ I tried to work on an easy importer/exporter for CustomSteve .pmd/pmx models, the relations are very strict, and bones must be named accordingly, which my exporter tries to warn of anything that might cause undesirable behavior like crashing Minecraft.

I don’t have my signature for nothing. :wink:

#13

@AFWS,
thank you for the link, I’ll test it asap.

@YAFU and @Tcll,
I’m forced to use mostly 2.75 by the B-Maxwell addon and by Maxwell Render itself, the addon lets you work at most on blender 2.76 but it relates to MR 3.2x which is worst than previous versions.

Of course I have blender 2.79 and I make use of it sometimes, but switch up and forth between versions is often only a waste of time.

Thank you,
paolo

#14

@AFWS,
the link you posted is to the same version that I tested (1.0), it seems quite dated indeed, but at the same time it is on the meta-androcto’s Updates repository, I’m missing something.

paolo

#15

The addon version number or blender version number didn’t get changed , just the code to make it work. The first link is the fixed version to work with latest version of blender. YAFU just said it works, so you must be doing something different.

You never gave us anything other than it doesn’t work. We don’t know what steps you are doing or not doing.

#16

Yes, it just happens that the “version” information have not been modified/edited in the new version. If you install the following addon in 2.79 it should work:
https://github.com/meta-androcto/blenderpython279/blob/master/scripts/addons_extern/sculpt_stroke_on_grease_pencil.py

It is the same link that AFWS shared above.

#17

Thanks for your answer AFWS, I will try that version than.

As for what I did, I added a curve following the surface to be sculpted (I’m personally not interested to make use of GreasePencil, since I can sculpt directly with the same precision as I can draw manually), then I entered sculpt mode and on the Properties panel I selected the curve an pressed the button; the spin wheel was turning for quite long time but at the end nothing happened.
Then I tried and added a multires modifier to the object and I did it again, but at tis time I did not even have to wait, it simply did nothing.

paolo

EDIT: thanks YAFU!

#18

I’ve tried the previous version on 2.75 but it raises error:

 File "/Users/paolo/Library/Application Support/Blender/2.75/scripts/addons/sculpt_stroke_on_grease_pencil.py", line 112, in execute    brush_stroke(stroke=stroke)
  File "/Applications/Blender 2.75a release/blender.app/Contents/MacOS/../Resources/2.75/scripts/modules/bpy/ops.py", line 189, in __call__
    ret = op_call(self.idname_py(), None, kw)
TypeError: Converting py args to operator properties:  SCULPT_OT_brush_stroke.stroke error converting a member of a collection from a dicts into an RNA collection, failed with: TypeError: Converting a python list to an RNA collection: keyword "size" missing

paolo

EDIT: btw, for the first time posting this reply brought me to a ‘chapka’ page… wtf?

#19

You can not always draw “exactly” on the same stroke/path multiple times by hand… :slight_smile: There are many situations where even with Grease Pencil this has many possibilities of use.

Here I prepared a file for you experienced in 2.79. You notice the differences when it is applied in ortho or prespective view:
http://pasteall.org/blend/index.php?id=47888

#20

Join the thread, lol https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?436812-Redirecting-Issues-(CAPTCHA)

I haven’t tested with curves much, so I can’t give you any info on that right now without testing in blender. Curves do work though, cause I did convert grease pencil stroke to curve and it worked with no problem.