I saw it first in Monster Mash. A very quick way of generating a base mesh by only drawing the outline. Monster Mash is inflating the outline. It’s fun to animate as well.
Monster Mash
There is a demo as well. Best tried on desktop, but somehow works in Safari as well.
Demo
Today, I saw the announcement of zBrush 2021.6.
With Balloon mesh. (47:00)
ZBrush 2021.6
Some other interesting features like one click shell.
Yeah I know about the paper.
I suppose the ZBrush version is a bit different though.
Pretty sure that ZBrush relies on the dynamesh, it’s a natural fit for voxels.
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I actually thought about doing something similar.
You can get a (cheap) idea by using triplanar → visibility to “back” → then using lasso sel mask to do things.
My main concern was about resolving the whole “depth” thing.
Typically what’s happening at 49:05 in the ZBrush video, I don’t think he planned 2 heads 
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Maybe there’s a shortcut to simply ignore the picking and start the new mesh at the symmetry plane (or middle point between the two intersections, a bit like the “edit-pivot” single tap thing).
I think way 3dCoat does this is the better way when you can actually define the plane where you can draw the shape. In zbrush implementation you can only seem to draw it on origin plane or have some mesh to draw on top of. Here´s similar tool in 3dcoat (https://youtu.be/7FTC2oy61KA)
Haha, definitely not!
Well, the demo of monster mash let you define single or double objects by double tap on outline. Without knowing, zBrush has something similar in shortcuts.
I really can recommend to play with monster mash. It’s a complete different feel but fun. Creating the mesh works in demo also on safari.
I wouldn’t say this is a holy grail, but could be an easy step for beginners.
Something different when it’s done like in 3D coat…
For me this is an option that is not really necessary in nomad. it is very approximate and it would be better to concentrate on other points
Jepp, something after splines etc etc.
But it is a very easy first step for every beginner.
Teddy, the first version from 22 years ago! had some additional festures like extrude even
it’s maybe even too easy for beginner, could set some wrong ecpectations but maybe I’m overthinking
Hehe, I enjoyed that.
Can’t believe I hadn’t seen that before. That bend deformation was slick!
_
For me balloon mesh is more of speed and UX thing. It cuts out the few extra steps of adding, placing, and altering primitives to get to a base mesh to start working from. And you don’t have to spend time interacting with menus. It’s about quick ideation and allowing artist to more closely work at the speed of thought.
imo it’s not all that groundbreaking(but still hella cool!)…but you have to appreciate how pixologic always offers artists new ways to generate meshes easier, faster, more intuitively etc… Zbrush does this in spades.
Honestly Teddy is a real game changer compared to balloon operation.
Thanks for this! Didn’t know it.
“Even a child can enjoy Teddy”
Hmm, that’s an advertise. All this included in a nowadays pro app with all options available today.
The bend function is cool as well. The extrusions are awesome.
This is impressive, 22 years!
This is exactly the reason why it would fit well in Nomad.
From your demo, it looks like the proposed lathe tool will be almost the same functionality as the balloon tool. I look forward to being able to mass out an object prior to sculpting. Your development of Nomad continues to push the boundaries in the right direction.
Oh yeah, completely agree.
I wasn’t trying to make an argument against it, but rather for it 