I am a digital painter for long years and I recently started to create a comic book in 2D in a very classic way. However, to get velocity and speed for my character designs I have started to sculpt in 3D first and then use my model in Procreate 5.2. What a new world I discovered, a real revelation! The more I dig the more I see the fantastic potential of using 3D … but, I am struggling a lot, especially with the following process : Sculpting > Exporting to Procreate to paint the model in 2D like and then export it back in Nomad for modifications and rendering.
I have few questions for the community about what I am trying to achieve:
1 - Should I do everything in Nomad (especially painting)? When I work on my sculpting from Nomad to Procreate and Procreate to Nomad, I am loosing my UV work
2 - Would you have any workflow or tips to help me achieving what I want, which basically is sculpting characters, painting 2D like style on it and then being able to move/sculpt/modify (body or face for instance) to use it in my comic book once rendered. Of course once I capture it to embed it in my comic book (basic PNG) I need to paint over and retouch it (usually done in Procreate) but I am mostly trying to optimize my process actually (and avoiding loosing time with UV issues ).
funnily, I just came to the forum to write a somewhat similar post asking about some UV workflow and saw that you just posted yours! I guess it’s UVTuesday! I won’t hijack your thread and eagerly wait for comments on yours
I would say - switch to a desktop or tablet Computer!
Use blender for everything 3D - maybe for painting as well or use Clip Studio Ex for 2D, 3D composition and painting.
Clip Studio EX (PC version) let’s you import 3D models, even pose them. You need to check the details by yourself.
This would catapult you light years ahead instead of continuous compromises on all this IOS craziness.
But not that nice touchy touchy UI on tiny tiny devices.
That would be the sensible answer.
Or try around and live with half good results in tripple time you spend to get to. Still the situation, except for Nomad or plain 2D work.
You could sculpt in Nomad and polypaint it there. Blender is importing polypaint.
Procreate is cool but completely unnecessary at all for your task. As long as 2D and 3D are not really well combined at least.
Just my opinion. If you do it for fun, then do whatever you like.
Thanks a lot for the tips! I checked what Studiocliip was capable of and that looks a really nice product. I would love to combine it with Blender but that’s such a beast to learn! I know Blender is considered an easy product comparing the other 3D beasts out there but what I really liked with Nomad is its accessibility (as a reminder, I never touch 3D before). So I consider SC and may add it in my workflow but I feel like Blender is gonna be a nightmare for me . Overall, I think that being able to do Sculpting/Painting/posing/Rendering in nomad looks to be the most accessible. However I am so used to work with procreate that I’ll have to consider spending some time to learn painting in Nomad.
Any tips regarding painting in Nomad that would help to do this switch?
It depends on your painting skills. I have to fight for each line, but if you are a natural, painting in Procreate can be much quicker a depending on what you want to do, to be honest.
The big advantage painting in Nomad is symmetry.Time saving. Your geometry needs density for painting details though. Eating memory. Vertex painting means you can color each polygon connecting point you see, when wireframe view is switch on.
The advantage of Procreate is painting on UV. Less memory needed. But no symmetry.
If you are more the line art guy, some matcaps could give you a quick and good result :
If you want more control, this could be a trick for you:
Just in case you would like to save time in doing line art.
It depends which look you want to achieve. If you need details at certain places only, painting with dynamic topology switched on can be an option.
We have comic painter here. @CarlMcRaven I.e. is doing fantastic stuff with Nomad & Procreate.
Yes, Blender is complex. Like any 3D modelling package. There are no really easy ones, but once you are in, it’s more easy with any package. Except zBrush. ZBrush is not made on this planet. Everything is different. Needs time but once mastered it’s a real beast and pricey compared to other stuff. So yes. Nomad is pure joy and very less frustration. If you have precise question, me and others will answer, I am sure. Ah yes, check out my thread “sculpted joy” there are some matcaps and tricks regarding comic look as well.
Ahh if you want to stay on iPad only. PoseIt is a blast to get your poses done. You can even export and import into Nomad, Can make sense, but not always.
Thanks a lot @knacki for the time you spent to respond, so much great tips! I have started to evaluate Poseit, really nice app indeed. I think importing Poseit caracters to Nomad may help as it may avoid to use the Nomad split tool to separate body parts in Nomad. However, in my primary tests, 3D export from Poseit to Nomad does not work
I have seen what @CarlMcRaven is doing, so inspiring ! So that looks possible to create everything from the iPad with Nomad/Procreate combination. It’s really encouraging. Here below few painting from scratch done on Procreate, so if I coud use Nomad as a base and then getting similar render with a bit of Procreate to finish the job, it would be reaching the holy graal LOL
It’s quiet hard to find any step by step methodology to achieve it (especially for beginners) but thanks to your advises it helps
Thanks for the shoutout @knacki , and thanks for the nice words @gokubaka. You have some very cool work yourself.
I use Nomad to sculpt, kitbash, light, frame my shots with cameras, post production and render with transparent background. In Procreate I paint over it. There is a lot of 2D work after I leave Nomad, but it makes my workflow a lot faster and easier. The way I work most of the time I don’t paint in Nomad and I don’t use UVs. Pose it is going to be great. I will surely add it to my pipeline.
As a freelancer i do everything on my IPad. These days I’m not posting much because most of my work is on NDA. Hope to get back soon.
The OP asked for tips on using Nomad and Procreate as a pipeline, not a teardown of of their choices.
Nomad and Procreate as excellent mobile choices. I’m new to Nomad, but I’ve used Procreate for paid illustration work for years.
During Procreate beta, I was a bit disappointed that they missed to use 3D in a painting app, like it would be most helpful. Mixed like in Clipstudio Paint.
UV Painting is nice in Procreate, but there is
no symmetry = time consuming.
There is no transparency = missing one of biggest plus for using UVs like painting hair strands on low poly planes.
No UV unfolding, editing.
No 3D sculpting.
Weak rendering compared to Nomad.
That said, Procreate’s 3D features are cool, lots of people use them, but essentials are missing to make it as attractive as it could be.
For me personally, I am not using Procreate as much in 3D workflow, as I would love to, due to this limitations.
Never said Procreate is a bad painting app. I am using it quite successfully for 2D illustrations, since my iPad 2 (where it was not a super cool app but fun) Profile but also wish there would be some of the much more nice features of Infinite Painter combined.
OT was happy and grateful about the tips.
Guess it was useful for him.
And still, a real talent will draw things much quicker than 3D creation can be. But a combination could be a real boost and even if you are a not that good illustrator, you can achieve a lot in combination, but it can be time more time consuming.
No matter which tools you are using.
For cartoon stuff, I am fiddling for a better render look in Nomad.
I would like to use just one or two apps for making a 3d model on the iPad. But I don’t see that happening soon. It seems like in the next years we’ll end up with a bunch of apps for each part of the process: Nomad for sculpting, Cozy Blanket for retopo, maybe another app just for unwrapping, texture painting in procreate (but yes, it needs to get better), Nomad again for the final renders …. Or maybe another new app just for the final render…
Procreate is amazing for 2d but the 3d painting needs to get a lot better. Not sure if it’s something planned, who knows…
@knacki How do you get such a render please ? This is exactly what I am trying to achieve. I played with all post-processing options possible but cannot get that render. Would you mind share your process ?
It’s so nice to hear another freelancer who uses their iPad for everything. A friend at ILM who uses Nomad turned me on to Octane X. iPad is getting super powerful and unless you’re in a staffed position or pipeline which requires more powerful deliveries, iPad is the way to go for me. Way more intuitive.
).
I won’t hijack your thread and eagerly wait for comments on yours 
. Overall, I think that being able to do Sculpting/Painting/posing/Rendering in nomad looks to be the most accessible. However I am so used to work with procreate that I’ll have to consider spending some time to learn painting in Nomad.
