My humble attempt of a tutorial for my fablab, I hope it helps other newbies.
Feel free to give feedback or correct me, I am sure it is not perfect. What important thing did I miss or get wrong?
Summary
This is a tutorial for beginners on the Nomad Sculpt software.
It covers
- oneTutorial with the essentials that might be enough for you
- The basic movement and the most important tools,
- how to set up a model and mesh modeling,
- hard surface modeling,
- box modeling
- modeling with reference data for accurate measurements, good enough for fdm prints
- preparing files for 3D Print
The Bare Minimum in a nutshell
Here is the awesome beginners guide by Small robots studi with Érika Casab who models a book:
Nomad Sculpt: Beginner’s Guide Tutorial 2021
The essentials in a nutshell are not enough for ou? Then keep on reading.
The Basics
In order to model, you should now be familiar with the following basics of the interface.
Look each feature up in the very well written Manual of Nomad Sculpt
Pan, rotate and zoom on the workspace
The scene menu , adding primitives and structuring them into hierarchies, common center for reference , clones and instances
The gizmo tool and the control possibilities of its individual buttons
The snap cube, how to adjust its precision and a double-tap on a view jumps to it, long press on it and the current angle is fixed and only allows moving until it is tapped again.
The undo feature that can be executed by double-tapping on the free space. Tapping with three fingers activates redo.
The gestures when using the mask key also make it easier to work smoothly.
How to set up your user interface:
Nomad sculpt : Beginner tutorial-6 | DÄ°SPLAY SETTÄ°NGS /Multiresolution /Shading
It is often helpful to have access to moodboards, pre-made sketches with views and references, these can also be displayed in the background of Nomad sculpt.
Modeling procedure
1. create the approximate volume,
-In the case of geometric shapes, it is best to use primitives, these can be combined or arranged as daughters in theScene hierarchy.
Important tools in this step are the Trim tool, boolean operations are accomplished with the voxel remesh feature when one needs to subtract one shape from another that is switched to invisible during remeshing.
In order to center a component to another component, this must be arranged as a daughter and then in the Gizmo Tool you must press reset
Here, you can download a free poseable mesh of a human figure.
Nomad Sculpt: Simple Human Body Base Mesh
This video shows a great overview of all modeling stages and continues with a demo and useful tips:
Here is a third option, where you starting point is just a simple mesh
model your shape from a Primitive with Drag tool and Voxel Remesh.When you drag a geometry with the move tool and the polygons start breaking the geometry because the resolution isn’t good enough anymore, then it’s time to do voxel remesh. In the blocking phase, where volumes are built at a resolution of 100, the tool flow is alternately move tool, remesh. At a higher resolution, the geometry can no longer be edited as well with the smooth tool.
Join vs. voxel remesh vs. disconnected topology In the scene menu there is a join feature, this merges multiple objects and all objects keep their occluded surfaces, like a tooth in the gum, unlike voxel merge where the occluded surfaces are deleted.
Connected topology: in the default setting, both objects are manipulated at the same time, but you can deselect the “connected topology” checkbox in the brush menu and then they can be manipulated independently of each other With a voxel resolution of 100, geometries can be smoothed easily and effectively with the smoothing tool. if the resolution is greater than 250, performance is impacted.
35:15 how to use the trim and the split tool: Turn off perspective, fix side view, trim feature with the rectangle, smooth, voxel remesh
-In the case of amorphous shapes, the contour of the front and side views can also be extruded from a surface, which are combined in a second step. With the split feature, this body can be divided into movable extremities.
Since I lack a better place to talk about Mesh Topology and you should learn its fundamentals at some point, here it is:
Multiresolution for each step, each polygon of the part is subdivided by 4. the higher resolution gives you a better surface to sculpt on, you use it when you want to keep the low resolution geometry but need a better sculpting Surface. The checkbox “Flat subdivision” will subdivide the part without rounding off the edges.
Voxel remesh affects the whole surface by redistributing Polygons, hence detailed geometry will be destroyed by it to a certain level when you remesh with a lower resolution, also, multiresolution will be lost.
Subtracting a part from another,somilar to boolean subtraction, is also done wirh voxel merge.
Dynotopo activated gives you more polygons on your part only in the area where you sculpt. Smooth tool will reduce the polygon count again.
Decimation is being used when you want to reduce your polygon count to send it to a 3D printer, it reduces your polygon count with a triangular mesh while keeping your geometry as much intact as possible.
2. Detailing. Working out the approximate volume at low resolution, determining the proportions and position
Either pose using the mask tool and gizmo as shown here using mask–>blur the mask–> move the gizmo–> use the gizmo to bend. As a rule of thumb, the lower the resolution, the better will the posed geometry look.
Or…
[SPLITTING A CHARACTER FOR POSING (Guyver Sculpt) using the Nomad Sculpt App - YouTube]
(SPLITTING A CHARACTER FOR POSING (Guyver Sculpt) using the Nomad Sculpt App - YouTube)
split for posing, then use the scene hierarchy.
NOMAD FOR BEGINNERS – sculpting a character on the iPad – Part 4
Convenient when working on a detail of a big mesh: masking the detail, invert mask and hide it, this also frees performance on your system,so its a useful tip for users of budget devices.
Important tools in this step are the crease tool, the mask tool, the drag tool, and the brush and voxel remesh
3. Fine work: complementing the model with details at high resolution
Nomad Sculpt: Move, Drag, Brush, Clay and Smooth
To fine tune brushes to your needs, get familiar with these settings:
4. texturing
Important tools in this step are Alpha Brushes
A good free source for alpha brushes:
Using Alphas in Nomad Sculpt - Free chapter
how to create Alpha Brushes
Alphas are best created in a separate layer.
Example for texture and painting in layers
Use lighting for quality control:
How to make textures by Genko3D
Detailed info about the workflow here
You can find good textures here:
- paint and render, alternatively export as an STL file to slice and print the part. However, if the part is to be painted, the powerful render engine from Nomad Sculpt is ideal for testing different color variants. Renderings are also helpful for marketing the object in an appealing way.
Basic principle of vertex painting the nodes get colour information.
Hi poly vertex demo
Texture painting can not be done withinNomad Sculpt, but with zBrush or Blender.
Materials and Shading in nomad Sculpt
Lighting in nomad Sculpt
Post processing in Nomad Sculpt
Final touches that are Next level
For 3d print, use the decimation feature to lower resolution while keeping all the details before you export your file. See here
Focus on modeling geometric structures, e.g. for 3D printing
Hard surface modeling, not box modeling. Good enough to 3D print and easy.
Hard surface modeling for beginners in Nomad Sculpt
Alienate and reassemble primitives using trim and split
Nomad App – 5 Hard surface sculpting tips
Building a spaceship from primitives trimmed with the trim tool and then deformed.
Nomad Sculpt - A little hard Surface - LowPoly (V1.71 -17.1.2023)
low Poly hard surface modeling
For sharp edges, use voxel remesh with a resolution of 2-300.
Recessed surfaces can be modeled by shrinking selected areas with the gizmo tool.
You can place parts or primitives flush to surfaces by using the clone feature of the insert tool, by the way, this is great for kitbashing.
11:22 You can scale parts in only one direction by either moving the gitmo to one end of the part or by masking the end.
11:53 make a regular pattern of breakthrouhgs to a surface by inserting an array of geometry, make it invisible and do a voxel merge.
13:28 For low polycount, use the decimation feature. Clone the finished object and give the new copy a distinctive colour. Repeat decimation multiple times, turn smooth shading off in the display settings and check the quality of your geometry.
Press UV Auto unwrap and texture bake from the hi-res box and activate smooth shading again. By doing so you end up with the same object with good detail but low poly.
Nomad Sculpt - Adjust the Flatten Brush 2 - Bevel the corners, SHARPER - Hard Surface
create chamfers
Nomad Sculpt - Round Corners & Edges Brush Tool
Corners provided with radii
carve thin straight lines
with the lathe tool you can create angular profiles by reducing the subdivision of the circle to 4.
An example:
Kitbashing
Box modeling: even more control over the geometry
If you want to construct flawless transitions between surfaces, you can do that too, but for something like that another program, eg Blender (box modeling) or Fusion 360 (parametric dimensionally accurate construction) is the better choice.
low poly surface modeling also known as polygonal modeling strategies, also known as box modeling is possible with this program with limitations.
Work with a small move brush to manipulate single nodes by tapping directly on them.
To manipulate a row of nodes along an axis, use radial symmetry and punch in exactly the number of nodes of your part. Then, use the small move brush as before.
Another way to select multiple nodes: mask the complete part and unmask the nodes you want to edit simultaneously. Using SelMask selects also nodes that you cannot see directy (on the underside of the part). Manipulate with a big move brush or the gizmo.
The nodes in an object can be moved, albeit awkwardly.
Construction of dimensionally accurate parts
The easiest way is to download existing dimensionally accurate parts from sites such as Grabcad and import them into the assembly, then work with Boolean operations and visual judgment.
If a sense of proportion is not enough, it is certainly better to model all dimensionally accurate elements, such as a technical package, in external software such as Tinkercad or Onshape.
Both programs run on the tablet, both programs require an internet connection because they actually run in the cloud. The use of a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse makes it easier to use both programs. However, the easiest way is to sit down at a real computer with a large screen.
Construct a spiral with tinkercad and export it to Nomad sculpt
In Nomad Sculpt, you can do 2,5D CAD with accurate Measurements
Dimensional construction within Nomad Sculpt can be realized either by importing alpha brushes (use the silouette as an alpha brush wihtin the masking tool and then subtract it ftom a cube in a boolean operation) That way, you can do it offline on yourdevice) or by numerical input tap on the circles in the Gizmo Tool,
I haven’t found dimensionally accurate construction in Android yet, if necessary GNAcad works and then the .dwg file is provided with a height using a converter on the Internet and exported as an STL file.Or if you happen to have a Drawing, use an SVG to STL converter called anyconv.com , here are the details:
filigree elements and lettering can also be applied to surfaces.
This way, you can export a dimensionally accurate 2D sketch into nomad Sculpt and then add an accurate depth to it by tapping on the spheres in the gizmo tool and typing in accurate values, but this is more of a workaround than a solution. But it is good enough to pull off something as impressive as this:
Importing 3D scanned files
The infrared camera on the iPhone or iPad pro can also be used to create 3D scans, e.g. of complex geometries such as a bicycle frame or a head or other extremity, which can then be imported as a dimensionally accurate reference. The iPhone App EM3D lets you import .stl files for 8€, .obj. Files for 25€.
