Testing my Voxel workflow, to get nice quad meshes.
Export as .vox from Magica Voxel and then import into Cubik Studio.
After that export .obj and in Shade3D merge all faces and make them
quads. Then into ZBrush and UV and bake texture from Polypaint.
With this quick workflow in can render then nice Voxel forms, with
wireframe render. Image shows little girl from Magica Voxel.
I started my first voxel works in 3ds Max, around 2006 or so I guess. There was no dedicated voxel editor that I know of back then. I used the 3ds Max grid snapping and extruded faces of a tesselated cube.
Some time later I discovered a voxel editor by an independent developer, called Paint3D for Windows. I made a lot of my early voxel works using that, but I believe it doesn't exist anymore. Its website — http://paint3d.net — seems unresponsive.
The past few years I've been using MagicaVoxel. It's rapidly evolving into the ultimate voxel editor. I really like its UI, speed, smooth workflow and versatility.
Regards,
Metin
———————
visualization • pixel art • illustration • animation • 3D design — https://metinseven.nl
I like MagicaVoxel too, after exploring it's feature set and like also it's modeling
environment. The only thing i dislike is it's mesh export (no nice quads), but
for this i found my solution. Texture support for import would be also a nice
feuture to have, but for a free app i can't complain... ;-)
Since we're talking about voxels here frequently - did anyone check out Cinema 4D's Volume modeling system (based on OpenVDB) yet?
From playing with the R20 demo version a bit and looking into a lot of intro videos, it actually seems to be an extremely powerful and versatile tool. Likely a game-changer for a lot of organic modeling tasks.
I presume this is very much like the MOP Booleans Kit for MODO, though I am not exactly sure. 3DCoat has voxels at it's core too, but afaik, they are not working in a non-destructive fashion - which is what makes it so powerful in C4D. Almost anything that generates geometry (including splines, particles, even shaders) can be used and combined (in boolean fashion) which is quite an amazing feat.
Thanks for the links. C4D's OpenVDB volume modeling looks very useful, but except for the interesting non-destructive approach I see nothing that wasn't already possible using ZBrush and/or 3D-Coat, both of which are also based on voxels.
ZBrush offers Live Booleans, which also offer you to manipulate Boolean sub-objects in realtime until you're satisfied. And you can smoothly melt everything together using Dynamesh or Boolean + Tessimate.
The C4D screwdriver creation video reminds me of the recent Project Primitive deformer addition in ZBrush 2018. A really powerful tool once you get the hang of it:
In Blender you can mimic OpenVDB's type of combining and melting together meshes using Dyntopo in Sculpt Mode.
There's also a free OpenVDB Blender add-on offering the functionality to Blender users (too bad there's no version for Blender macOS yet):
What I miss in both Blender and C4D is an advanced auto-retopology tool like Zbrush ZRemesher or 3D-Coat Autopo, following the flow of an object with clean, all-quad topology, suitable for subdivision.
Regards,
Metin
———————
visualization • pixel art • illustration • animation • 3D design — https://metinseven.nl
Thanks for chiming in. I can see that if you are more into purely organic modeling and perhaps character design and sculpting, zBrush and 3DCoat will be much better.
As for me though, I feel much more comfortable having parametric objects and complete non-destructive tools at my disposal.
I'm a (product) designer, so being able to tweak a concept easily and almost infinitely makes a lot of sense, especially since you can throw in some primitives and other elements that are more less well defined (in a numeric/technical) way. You have a lot of control in C4D, and most parameters take actual measurement values. Not to mention non-destructive falloff objects (called 'fields' in R20) for even more control.
I guess it all depends on your mindset. Although I have both zBrush and 3DCoat, I never really enjoyed working in them - I find the sheer amount of tools and panels in both apps a bit overwhelming to be honest. It's why I prefer MoI to Rhino, which I happen to own as well.
I'm going to test C4D some more. I've used it quite extensively some 15+ years ago, but never really touched much thereafter, and used Modo for (mostly) rendering instead. R20 has some compelling features though, so I'm reconsidering adding it to my toolbox again.
<<< Texture support for import would be also a nice
feuture to have, but for a free app i can't complain.
@Stefan
Hello
In Magica Voxel you can Import an Image PNG 126*126 in Edit Mode so 126*126*1 inside MagicaVoxel
(only Drag&Drop : menu Import don't yet existing)
increase after import the general matrix following that you want
Larger scene area: (-1024, +1024)
Maximum matrix is : 512x512x512, 1024x512x256 or 1024x1024x128
As you can make one Multiple Drag&Drop image(s) you can have the same than above! ;)
Just find something who trim your original image in step 126*126 pixels on some png files ;)
After import image you can of course make some landform with some extrude following matrix aceptable
The OBJ export will report all this! ;)
Here after some extrude and increased the 126*126*1 matrix
yes, very bad, IMHO, because when i used a photo and made a small
picture it had false colors and only a few of them, after importing to
MagicalVoxel. But like you said, maybe there is an option for the
correct color palette import, which i have not found yet.
i figured out how to get correct colors from my previous image, in MagicaVoxel! :-)
Simply first drag and drop the image on the color palette, so that the color palette gets the
colors from your image and then drag and drop your image again in the voxel room. Not
hundert percent correct, because of 256 colors limit, but very good result for MagicaVoxel.
One more time that is magic and so simple!
I have find that i must make a little programm in Processing for make a PNG 256*1 from a palette given by a 2D Prog!
My neurons say thank you!
