Hey all. Started this over xmas break as an experiment and just kept poking at it.. The original question was how far I could get on top of open-source libraries – there’s a good number of them out there to build on, including our beloved Godot! I’m calling it Clayform, and it’s getting close to the point where I can actually use it to make stuff..!? https://clayform.ca/
What it is: a GPU based 3D sculpting tool built in Godot. So we get real-time viewport, post processing, modern material workflow, UI toolkit for free, then I’ve workshopped the brush engine & sculpting toolset for good feel (I come from zbrush). The ui/ux is a mix of maya + zbrush with opinionated brush-hotkey defaults. (alt + q,w,e,r,a,s,d,f)
First clip is just sculpting around to show the general feel. Second is the part I’m working on now: a setup for sculpting tileable textures, where the center tile repeats in a grid around it so you can see how well it’s tiling as you go. I’m thinking I’ll approach it sort of like how 3DCoat does, at the start you choose what mode you want the program to be in, then I can customize the UI to fit that space.
In now:
- 8 core brushes with good feel (clay, trench, trim, standard, flatten, pinch, smooth, inflate)
- brush masking (zbrush-style UX: ctrl to mask, ctrl+alt to erase mask, ctrl+alt off-mesh to clear mask)(needs invert still)
- brush context panel (space) opens brush-specific settings like strength, spacing, etc.
- symmetry sculpting (x, y, z)
- transform gizmo in local + world space (w/e/r hotkeys like maya, q is sculpt mode)
- undo/redo (ctrl+z / ctrl+shift+z; works across sculpting and gizmo transforms)
- mesh import/export
- sculptmesh palette / subtools (alt+click to switch, like zbrush)
- .clay file format that stores undo history per sculptmesh (no masking or camera history yet)
- tiling texture wrap sculpting (the second clip)
- made a cute clayform logo.. may have done that very early on..
- Build process for Linux & Windows tested with obfuscators enabled, decompile tested
- Build is quite light sitting around 70mb with an install time of around 1 minute
Planned:
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posable armature sculpting – I always hated zspheres being a destructive conversion into geo
-
tiling texture previews on 3D shapes instead of a grid
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listen to the community and add stuff based on what we think is cool..
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subdivision levels
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some form of remeshing
What do you guys think of the name and logo? Any feature requests/suggestions or questions? Hope the Godot community thinks this is cool. Thanks!
Thanks, --AM
