In this page I want to use time explain a bit about Primstar Sculpt Mesh Option. Since everytime you start modeling sculpty you need to setup sculpt mesh first so it’s good to understand the basic of these option.
Before read on make sure:
1. You already Installed Primstar 1.0 in to Blender.
2. You should be able to Add simple Sculpt Mesh from Primstar.
On the right is the screenshot of Sculpt Mesh Option which is our main subject to learn here.
Geometry & Subdivision Level
When you first add sculpt mesh with command: (On top Blender menu) Add > Mesh > Sculpt Mesh there will be lots of options to setup but the most important is how you set Geometry: Faces Number and Subdivision Level because if you set it wrong it may not working at all when you export sculpty texture and that’s mean you’ll lose all your work!
So what number should you use?
Domino Marama already put a useful info inside Primstar’s readme.txt so I just post it over here.
4 x 16 x 0, 4 x 16 x 1, 4 x 16 x 2
4 x 32 x 0, 4 x 32 x 1
4 x 64 x 0, 4 x 64 x 1
4 x 128 x 0
4 x 256 x 0
8 x 8 x 0, 8 x 8 x 1, 8 x 8 x 2
8 x 16 x 0, 8 x 16 x 1
8 x 32 x 0, 8 x 32 x 1
8 x 64 x 0
8 x 128 x 0
16 x 16 x 0, 16 x 16 x 1
16 x 32 x 0
16 x 64 x 0
32 x 32 x 0
To be more clarify for beginner each set has 3 number in formation: A x B x C
A = X Faces
B = Y Faces
C = Subdivision
In case you want to setup sculpt mesh with 8 x 32 x 1 put number in Primstar setup as you seen in the screenshot. But remember you can swap number of X & Y faces so 8 x 32 x1 and 32 x 8 x 1 are working fine too.
Those number set are compatible with Second Life and Opensim system. You may try something different from these numbers but the export result can not be guarantee.
Shape Options
What about Shape? Shape Option is display on top of sculpt mesh menu click on it to select different shape. Primstar 1.0 has offer 6 major Shape to setup which are:
- Sphere
- Hemi
- Plane
- Cylinder
- Torus X
- Torus Z
(there’re also Block and Cube shape which is a modified from major shape)
All of these shape are working fine you can use any type you want. To decide what shape you should use is up to what are you plan to create.
- Sphere is good if you want to create a head or body of avatar.
- Cylinder are perfect for modeling a vase or column.
- Plane are good for create belt or ribbon.
So there is no exactly a rule for this. You can modeling anything you want with any shape but a good choice always make modeling process faster. Before add sculpt mesh try to figure which shape do you want to start with. which one is the easiest setup to be working with target model.
Stitching Type (SL Build Menu)
Even There’s no restriction in setup Primstar’s Shape but remember when you upload sculpty to Second Life you must adjust the Stitching Type option (in Second Life Build Menu) to match you shape setup!
The Stitching Type option display below sculpty texture container (see screenshot)
You could see there’s no Hemi, Block and Cube stitching type but it still work. You need to test it with other Stitching Type change to another one if it’s look wired but in most case they are all working. (Hemi shape usually work well with Sphere Stitching Type)
Multires/Subsurf Modeling
Multires and Subsurf are modeling technique which Primstar provided and let you choose between one of them. What is the different between these two?
Subsurf – Blender will add a “control point” around sculpt mesh and by moving any control point you moving those vertices around mesh surface to form new shape.
Multires – Blender enable “Multi-Resolution” Versions of the same mesh and let you work back and forth between all of them from lowest to highest resolution. Learn more from here
What should you use? This is up to you. Just try both feature and see what suite your work. For me I prefer Multires Option since Subsurf won’t let me working on real vertex surface.
In case you don’t want to use both feature, you can disable it by enter “0″ into Subdivition Level. This will force Primstar to create just simple sculpt mesh (and yes it’s still working fine with Second Life/Opensim)
Catmull / Simple Option
Just stick with Catmull Option which is more smooth & beautiful. Catmull is an algorithm for Blender to calculate surface of sculpt mesh. You can try Simple Option which look more blocky if you need in some special work.
