Sculptris

Sculptris seeks out to do one seemingly simple thing and do it well. it allows you to create functional and detailed three dimensional models, add layers and complexity, and paint them to your specific demands. This is hardly a new idea. Three dimensional modeling software has been available for years, and programs like Mudbox have long offered the specific kind of features you'll find in Sculptris. But Sculptris stands apart from its competitors by being completely free. This makes it a great choice for amateurs curious about the sort of creative expression 3D modeling offers and professional sculptors working on a razor thing budget. Its interface and features are specifically designed with accessibility in mind. Every project in Sculptris starts out as a simple ball of clay. From here, users have a wide variety of options in how they choose to manipulate it. The interface is a stripped down affair that makes use of visually simple but communicative buttons rather than complex menus. Whether you're looking to crease, pinch, or smooth out the surface of your virtual clay, you can easily tell just from a glance at the button. More complex options like drawing and inflation are also available. Sculptris makes use of triangular meshes that adapt as you manipulate the virtual clay. Complexity scales with your needs, with new meshes added to accommodate complicated painting. More advanced users can also determine the density of the polygons themselves. As a result, Sculptris runs more efficiently than a lot of comparable and more advanced alternatives on the market. Sketching up a prototype in Sculptris and then porting it over to another piece of software for detailed editing is an exceedingly viable option for professionals. If you're looking to do more detailed work with the painting of your sculptures, you can even paint the textures in Photoshop, export them to Sculptris, and then skin them over your model directly through the 3D modeling software. Users have access to a variety of resources right out of the box to help them create detailed models that mimic the look and texture of real world sculptures. These include preloaded patterns as well as materials. In many ways, Sculptris feels like a demo for users just diving into the principle of three dimensional modeling. While the interface is robust, it doesn't match the deep feature sets of paid alternatives. In fact, Sculptris is owned by Pixologic, the creators of the popular 3D sculpting platform known as ZBrush. You can see ZBrush's DNA on everything from the user interface to the core values of the product. While Sculptris is robust enough to meet the demands of many hobbyists, it can also serve as a meaningful gateway product to more advanced software. You can even export your Sculptris meshes directly over to ZBrush if you're in need of more advanced functions.