Nomad Sculpt is already one of the best mobile sculpting applications, and I think it has the potential to become an even stronger tool for artists working with stylized rendering.
Stylized rendering, toon shading, anime-inspired art, and 2D-inspired 3D artwork have become increasingly popular. Many artists love the visual language of 2D illustration but prefer creating in 3D because it makes forms and perspective much easier to understand.
I’d love to see Nomad Sculpt offer more tools that support modern stylized rendering workflows.
1. Stylized / Toon Lighting
Instead of only realistic lighting and MatCaps, it would be amazing to have a dedicated stylized shader featuring:
- Adjustable lighting/shadow bands (2, 3, 4…)
- Color ramps for highlights, midtones, and shadows
- Optional sharp rim light
- Optional outline support
This would allow artists to preview anime, cartoon, hand-painted, and other stylized looks directly inside Nomad Sculpt without relying on external software.
2. Better Line Art Workflow
Currently, line art can be approximated with Tubes.
A Live Tube Drawing mode would make the workflow much more intuitive by displaying the actual Tube while drawing instead of only curve control points.
Seeing the real stroke while drawing would make it much easier to judge line weight, silhouette, spacing, and composition. Support for pressure sensitivity would also allow artists to naturally vary line thickness while drawing, just like in 2D illustration software.
Ideally, once the stroke is finished, it would remain a fully editable curve with its control points, allowing artists to refine and adjust the shape afterward. This would combine the freedom of drawing with the precision of curve editing.
Blender’s Grease Pencil is a great example of the drawing experience, while Feather 3D is an excellent reference for how a real-time 3D line drawing workflow can feel.
3. Better Low-Poly Editing
It would also be great if the Move/Grab tool could work directly with mesh components instead of only deforming the mesh.
Useful additions could include:
- Selecting and moving individual vertices
- Selecting and moving edges
- Axis-constrained movement (X, Y, or Z)
- Vertex alignment tools
These features would make it much easier to create clean low-poly and stylized models directly inside Nomad Sculpt.
Why this matters
Many artists prefer working in 3D because it makes forms and perspective easier to understand while still allowing them to achieve the visual appeal of 2D art.
Better support for stylized rendering, expressive line art, and precise low-poly editing would make Nomad Sculpt an even more versatile creative tool for artists who want the freedom of 3D without giving up the aesthetics of 2D.