Just a heads up… Uniform 1.0 is now available on the App Store for iPad.
https://apps.apple.com/es/app/uniform-3d-editor/id6472727759?l=en-GB
(from the makers of CozyBlanket)
I watched a livestream introducing this app but didn’t really understand what its main feature was. I was quite confused. I’ve got cozy blanket lite, which I like and find effective and intuitive, so I’m sure there will be good aspects to Uniform, but I will wait to see some proper reviews and hopefully tutorials. It doesn’t look anywhere near as user friendly as nomad, but I’ll wait and see. I think it basically requires keyboard shortcuts, which I don’t currently use. My suspicion is it will get a devoted but probably quite niche following.
It does look overly complicated, from UI to everything else. It looks like they decided to reinvent the wheel so to speak, not sure if I like the idea. One to watch tho…
I was in the public beta at the very start, and it really is a daunting UI. There was genuinely no documentation, so I gave up my spot. Now that they’ve released the documentation, I’m probably going to read through it before picking up the app. I think there’s a lot of potential, especially in things like being able to customize the logic (as far as I can tell) used by brushes.
They’re kind of reinventing the wheel for sure, but IMO it’s more like inventing a wheel that can also make your bike fly. Whether it falls out of the sky occasionally remains to be seen.
I gave it a good few hours before requesting a refund, was looking forward to this, but this was not made for artists, everything is so counter intuitive and basic functions are hidden under numerous tabs.
They shouldve made different workspaces for modelling, sculpting, uv etc with seperate buttons and ui, in this state its just a ui nightmare.
Ill check back in a year or so.
I was looking forward to it as well, especially for painting on UVs. But oh boy that UI ….
Everything is ruined by a disastrous interface which doesn’t even make you want to go further with this software…
Unfortunately, I don’t even enjoy testing uniform - I just don’t understand it.
I don’t even understand the little videos about the app or the icons - that’s a shame, because if you don’t enjoy an app, it ends up on the scrapheap.
I’ve just been glancing through the documentation/instruction section of the website, and it’s so unclear where I would even start. I’m sure there are some great features and functionality in the app somewhere but it all just seems so confusing.
Something I really don’t understand is why don’t developers of new apps just make lots of “how to” videos and put them on YouTube? They don’t need to be high production value, just screen record yourself making some things and explain what you’re doing as you do it. I think written written documentation is almost obsolete. I’m certain it’s quicker to make the videos too. Just record a 1hour video per week: it’s the best possible advertising for your app and it’s better than written documentation.
I thought the same about the Valence app - why aren’t there a dozen videos made by the developer already out there when app releases. Just make something and explain what your doing as you do it - job done!
Yeah this looks very, very complicated… One thing i did like was they have a bend feature. @stephomi do we currently have a tool that can do this? I haven’t noticed it if it’s here in nomad already. That would be so nice to have a bend modifier from with a curve. Would also help with posing in lieu of bones.
I figured some fun things and and some others i cant find for the life of me right now
i do really like how easy the polysculpting works (pretty similar to cozyblanket)
But yeah i feel like they should make the ui more comprehensible than crammed with functions and simplyfing the true/false toggles. It feels like way too much textmass.
Would you be able to list some of the things that you can do in Uniform but not in Nomad? The impression I have is that you can work directly on UVs without needing to bake. But apart from that I’m not sure what it can do that Nomad can’t? Thanks
Is there UV editing and texturing in this? Or just basic paint.
Hardsurface/lowpoly building and editing for one, texturepainting (i havent looked into painting function yet though but nomad is vertexpainting), sculpting displacement(andor normal?)maps directly onto a lowpolymodel, untethered spatial sculpting, using different viewports of the same model (imo works well if you work with a reference image), im not sure about this one but i think transfering a reference image onto a polymodel (as normal or Displacement map maybe?) and a bunch of weird functions. his demovids are kinda brief and sped up and yeah
Thanks, that’s helpful. I’ve just left a message on the uniform discord requesting a series of proper video tutorials, but I’m not super hopeful. I just don’t get it: someone spends a huge amount of time making a complex app with a novel UI but they don’t create a dozen or so half hour video tutorials explaining how to make things; all it takes is screen recording and voiceover. Make a simple character from start to finish explaining which buttons to click, which menus to open etc. If you’ve made the app you know it inside out so making videos like this is very easy, yet it gives huge benefit to new users, and it advertises your app in the best way possible! Anyway, thanks again for explaining some of the features!
I tried it and have no idea what the app does or how I’m supposed to do it. Without a lot of video tutorials this is useless.
The website has tutorials with text and some video.
Yes but UI is such a spaghetti of frustration and inconvenience. Maybe down the line when some full on tutorials start coming out it’ll make things much easier to grasp.
At least for me, it looks like ‘Jack of All Trades, Master of None’ type of situations. Time will tell… It certainly has massive potential, so I’ll keep an eye on it, but as of now, it’s a pass.
Did you understand those notes and videos on the website? I read them and I’m just as confused.
Totally agree. One of the big reasons for Nomad’s success (apart from it being great software) is that a few people started to champion it and make videos on YouTube. I think I started with glen southern vids, then some small robot studio. Now I basically just watch procreatefx because he focuses on the harder technical aspects and new capabilities. I have looked at the documentation occasionally but that is not how I learned. Think how many thousands of people have learned their first steps in Nomad from Dave reed’s vids (and have bought the app because of them). Beginners need to be guided gradually with tutorials they can follow along to. In the process they learn the interface and what different buttons are called and what they do. There’s a reason why Blender guru’s video about making a donut has millions of views: this is how people learn new software when starting out - a simple guided project you can follow along to!