I could use some advice on thermo.
Here's my isse. I'm making a robot so I need the surfaces to be smooth and reflective. I also am really not a fan of the loose fleck looks. It looks sloppy.
Bit I'm only half done with my character and I'm already out of sculpt thermo.
I know I can reduce the detail in his neck. That started as something else and isn't essential, but I tried to use repeated shapes/objects as much as possible and used stretch instead of cut when I could (I believe that's the method Ivwss told. I hope so, at least. Being precise in tool edut is impossible).
So how do I improve thermo without increasing loosness?
Creation: Specs So Far
User: thebiv
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Haven’t had a chance to look your creation up yet, but quickly: You have stretch/cut reversed; stretch eats thermo fast, stamping with custom shapes and/or cutting are usually less costly.
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Remember that you can also copy/paste invisible objects (that you use to cut shapes) and use them over and over to make new cuts, instead of using stretch.
By "repeating objects" I assume you mean copy/pasting same objects. If so, I believe this is the only effective way to reduce memory cost as of now. You can also lower the overall size of your creation. -
Oh, and you can delete shapes that you no longer need or that got berried under newlayers of shapes, for example. By searching them on the screen with your imp and pressing triangle. Unfortunately, it's quite a painful task if you have many of those around, as you can't make them all visible at once. I'd be a useful feature though.
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buried* >_<
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Modernevil
Well that's....annoying. I'd say 60-80% was created with the stretch tool. I just haven't found another way to get exact fits. Espectially when the grid doesn't even seem to work right half the time. Made to sculpt with precision, Dreams was not.
Feddykrait
I've been trying to do that copy/paste the "cuts" thing. I wish there was a tool or option tgat made grabbing and seeing them easier. -
To clarify, reducing the overall scale of the creation will not help the thermo. If making it smaller allows you to get away with removing some sculptural detail, that can help - but the scale of the sculpt doesn’t in itself affect the thermo.
One trick that can help, is using the Spraypaint tool to paint details within a sculpt rather than using more shapes. A flat surface with Spraypaint detail seems to be better for the thermo than a surface with a lot of bumps and cuts. -
I took another look.....and it's a lost cause. I used stretch too much. Stuff that I thought were the issue....were not. It's the more simple sculpts that are killing me.
Thanks for the help folks. It's back to the drawing board for me.
It's published if someone wants to take a look at it or use/adapt parts of it. I was/am pretty proud of what I made so far. -
'@Pookachoo
Oh, my bad.
Glad you brought up the spraypaint tool here since I've been wondering if using shapes to paint things in this mode, and not in Paint mode, will kill the thermo faster in the long run. Do you have any experience with that? Any tips maybe?
@thebiv
Mybe instead of stretching things it'd be better to create a small single piece first, then activate the big grid field, clone that piece, and pess left or right on a D pad to create a hole row of them. Make them so tight that they basically become a solid object.
That's a weird thought I just got but it maybe might work? -
*the lack of the edit option on this forum will be the death of me, I swear*
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When I sculpt, I use the shape editor (shift + square) a ton. E.g. Select the primitive I want, get the scale on one axis how I want it, put it in rough position with the imp, then go into shape editor and do my detailed adjustment - then before exiting the shape editor, stamp the shape down. Then if I need, I can go back and use the partial squeeze of R2 or L2 to make the final fiddly adjustments.
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I’ve looked at this creation, and I can offer a little general advice, which is to make less complex sculpts and have more of them - this will increase the gameplay thermo a bit and free up space in the graphics.
The shoulder spikes for example are all one sculpt and taking up 4% graphics. I deleted those and replaced them with many clones of a sculpt that’s just one spike. That uses less than 1% of the graphics and gameplay thermos, but keep in mind that a lot of cloning will eventually bring up the gameplay thermo.
I don’t have a ton of experience with detailed use of the Spraypaint tool, but in looking at other people’s creations I’ve noticed the ones that utilize that tool tend to have lower graphics use, whereas a lot of cuts and bumps on a surface tend to cost more and can be harder to optimize with the sculpture detail tool :) -
Thanks guys.
@Pookachoo
That's interesting about the spikes. I'll have to keep that in mind.
I did take part of the hip area and re-sulpted a new one overtop of it without stretching, and I was able to reduce it from 6% to 2%. So that's also progress...of course, that caused its own problems with all the old stuff being part of its history.
I've also be wondering if it's "cheaper" to sculpt with color and coat or to color and coat afterward. -
Magus0Mind00
Yeah, I started doing more of that and that's been pretty effective.
I really hope the thermo's get much bigger when next gen comes. -
I’m pretty sure that it makes no difference to the thermo whether you sculpt with color or add color after :)
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It's a shame that the quickest and easiest method of creating shapes(the stretch tool) is most costly on the thermo :(
I need to redo a ton of my sculpts from scratch.
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