Rael Delcon has created a plugin exporter for the free Albatross3D modeling software that will allow you to make sculpted prims for free. Albatross looks like  a full-featured modeler and it works on WIndows, BeOS, and Linux. It even has a pretty spiffy Sculpting mode that lets you push, pull, and smooth the vertices of your object.

For now you’ll be limited to starting with a properly formatted sphere, but Rael mentions that there will be more options for cube, cone, etc as work progresses on the plugin. You can find more info about the plugin on the SL Forums and on Rael’s blog.

Great news! Always happy to see another free sculpty tool. :) I’m downloading it now, and I’ll give it a spin tonight.

I was sloggin’ through the SL Forums a couple of days ago and came upon a question about free ways to paint textures directly onto a sculpted prim. It sort of jogged my memory and I looked up a program I remember hearing about a few months ago called Blacksmith3D. I’m glad that I looked it up again, because it turns out there is a free version of the 3D painting application that you can use to paint directly onto your sculpted prims.

This free program is a ‘lite’ version of their regular 3D painting app, but it’s is fully functional and there’s no time limit. There are no modeling functions in this version, but you could look into other free options like WIngs3D or Blender to round out your free sculpty creation workshop. Definitely worth a look if you are looking for free sculpty texturing options.

Here is my latest video tutorial about using zBrush and Sculpty Maker to create sculpted prims. This time around I show you how to create an object made up of multiple sculpties. You’ll be using the Subtools feature in zBrush, the Sculpty Maker converter (or zSculpty), and a plugin called Subtool Master. *2k has let us know that Subtool Master is no longer necessary when using the zSculpty plugin.

I got a bit carried away in this video and ended up spending more time sculpting than teaching. :)  I do tend to get a bit sidetracked when I sculpt. I’ll be creating another video on this same topic that is a bit more concise and informative. I decided to post this one anyway since there is plenty of useful info stuffed in between my digital doodlings. :D

There is a discussion on the LL forums about varible sculpty mesh sizes. Looks like this feature is already available on the Preview grid and will be included in the next Release Client viewer.

Basically instead of always haing to use a mesh of 32×32 faces, we will be able to create sculpties with different configurations like 16×64 or 8×128. Shiny. :)  This will open up a lot of possibility and make it easier to create more efficient shapes. For example if you wanted to make a long, thin shape like a piece of rope you can use an 8×128 mesh for more detail along the length and less around the circumference.

There will also be options for mirroring and inverting a sculptmap. I’ve heard mention of some sculpty bug fixes as well. Looking forward to the release, which I think is scheduled sometime this week. If you just can’t wait then you can log onto the Preview grid for a peek.

I’ve been using this awesome Image Plane plug-in for several weeks now, and thought I would demonstrate how it’s used. I also demonstrate how to use the zBrush ClonerBrush when working on the 2.5D painting canvas.

Image Plane allows you to place a texture on the background canvas, while keeping your 3D object active and editable. You can also drop your object to the canvas then lay the texture over top. It really saves time and smooths out the workflow when texturing objects in zBrush. Thanks to zBrush user marcus_civis for this awesome, free tool!

Download this video: 640×480 Quicktime or iPod