Tutorial1: Using Sculpty Material in Blender 2.5

Blender 2.5 Beta has been released with new useful features like new Sculpt Tools and a lots improvement included new user interface which has been re-designed to be more user-friendly.

Since Primstar script are still support up to Blender 2.49 (while I wrote this) so here is the way I work with Blender2.5 to create Second Life sculpty.

BEWARE! Blender 2.5 still in beta means it may have crush or error also this is just my experiment I can not guarantee it will always work on your machine….but let’s try it first shell we?

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To make it quick I’ve setup .blend file so you can download, open, and ready to go. Click link below to download:

>> Download File <<

Open file “Blender2.53-Quick-Sculpty-Material.blend” with Blender 2.5x and you will find I have setup a Sphere Mesh (32×32) and a new Sculpty Material which ready to bake texture. You only need to add new image and push the bake button. Follow all steps in this page then you should be able to do it.

For those who wondering how to make this sculpty material (see in right screenshot) I will upload tutorial in a week later if you want to create one by yourself.

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Let’s Begin!

1. Make sure you have download Blender2.53-Quick-Sculpty-Material.blend and open it with latest blender 2.5. (This tutorial using Blender 2.53beta)

Inside .blend file have a little adjustment to make it suitable for Second Life and Opensim user. What I have done is this file:

- Add Sculpt Mesh Type: Sphere; Faces: 32×32 (import from Primstar Script by Domino Marama)
- Add Sculpty Material inside Material Editor.
- Add UV/Image Editor windows on the bottom right of screen layout.
- Remove Timeline Editor form default layout. (you really don’t need this for sculpty.)

Before we go on: it would be easier if you have familiar with some of Basic Blender Command. But in case this is the first time you using Blender, don’t worry I will try to explain it clear as i could.

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2. Right Click on the Sphere Mesh inside 3d viewport to select it.

Sphere Mesh become surrounded with orange line which mean you have it selected.

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3. Look at bottom left of Blender layout Left Click on a small drop-down menu to change from Object Mode to Edit Mode.

In Edit Mode you can see through Sphere Mesh geometry.

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4. Hover cursor over 3D viewport and press key “A” on your keyboard to issue command Select All.

Now all vertices which form a sphere shape has been selected. Every vertices are highlight by orange color to indicate it’s has been selected.

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5. Look at the bottom right of Blender screen, this small windows is call UV/Image Editor.

You need to add new image before you can bake sculpty texture. To do this Left Click on bottom menu: Image > New.

DON’T MOVE CURSOR AWAY! since after clicking “Image > New” Blender will pop-up Image Properties window which allow you to set the image size and name. If you mistaken lose it just press key “F6″ to re-call image properties.

Follow next step to setup correct value in Image Properties.

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6. While Image Properties still open Left Click inside Width and Height tab and change both size to 64. You can set name to anything you want I just type in “sculpty-blender25″.

When you done then move your mouse away and Image Properties will disappear by itself. It’s OK this means its already save the value into image.

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7. After add new image to UV/Image Editor it should look similar to the right screenshot. A new image with default black color appear under UV grid.

You may want to hover your mouse over UV/Image Editor and use wheel mouse to zoom the image to fit the space. (this has nothing to do with sculpty quality but make texture much more visible)

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8. Above the UV/Image Editor windows there’s an row of small buttons showing. Left Click on Material button to activate. (identify by yellow circle in right screenshot)

In case the Material button does not appear in the tab. Just hover your mouse over buttons row and use wheel mouse to rotate it (or you can use Middle Click and drag to left side to rotate buttons). You should be able to see Material button by now.

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9. In Material Editor, Left Click on a Sculpty Material to select it (yellow circle in right screenshort).

Next, Left Click the Assign button (orange circle) under material selector. This will assign Sculpty Material into our sphere mesh.

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10. Almost Done! Just switch back from Edit Mode to Object Mode from menu under 3D viewport.

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11. Back to right panel, you need to activate Render button by Left Click on it. (camera icon – yellow circle in screenshot).

Finally! Left Click on the big Bake button (orange circle in screenshot) to start bake texture!

If nothing wrong you should see a rainbow alike sculpty texture appear inside UV/Image Editor.

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12. Save texture out by select Image > Save As under UV/Image Editor menu (bottom right of Blender screen).

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13. You can type filename here and click Save As to confirm export.

By default Blender will save file as .PNG which is supported by Second Life and Opensim.

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14. Upload texture to Second Life or Opensim to see real result in virtual world.

If not sure how to do read instruction how to upload texture.

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Conclusion: This is how I work with Sculpted Prim in Blender2.5 I hope it could help you start with 2.5-2.6 series much more easily.

Before I wrote this tutorial I have been test with many sculpt mesh type. I did this by import many different X-Y faces with different stitching type and even test by import my first sculpty armor which create since Blender2.45 in 2008.

Great news is everything seems to work fine with bake function in Blender 2.5 so I hope it work well for everyone else too.

That’s it. Thanks for reading!