Monday, August 1st, 2016 Posted by Jim Thacker

Download cool new free 3D sculpting tool PolyBrush

Originally posted on 29 February 2016. Scroll down for news of the official release.

Animator and tools developer Arseniy Korablev has released PolyBrush: an intriguing new sculpting and concept design tool, currently available as a free public beta.

The application, which Korablev describes as “a three-dimensional version of Photoshop”, is designed to enable artists to sketch out 3D forms quickly and intuitively, and export the result as an OBJ file.

Sketch forms quickly in 3D, sculpt surface details, and export OBJs
In the demo above, PolyBrush comes across as a cross between ZBrush or Sculptris and Braid Art Labs’ organic modelling software GroBoto, with a few unique features of its own.

Users begin by sketching out a form by making strokes in 3D space. The software includes preset brushes designed to mimic organic forms, machine parts, hair, bones and teeth, or users can create their own.

The parameters of each brush can be edited via a modifier stack, which opens up options to do things like linking the colour or surface deformation of each 3D stroke to the pen pressure on a graphics tablet.

Once created, strokes can be revolved to form new forms using a standard Lathe tool, or converted into arrays of objects using a Symmetry setting.

You can even scribble ‘2D’ sketches (actually unshaded 3D meshes) over the top of a sculpt on a new layer.

There is also a set of sculpting brushes for making more ZBrush-like modifications to an object, and a remeshing toolset – although the FAQ page of the website doesn’t really go into detail about the latter.

Once complete, models can be exported in OBJ format for use in other DCC software.

Updated 1 August 2016: PolyBrush 1.0 has just been officially released. The software is Windows-only.

PolyBrush comes in a free Lite edition, limited to one object layer, eight Undo actions, and which doesn’t save custom brushes. A commercial licence costs $20/year, and you can try the full version free for 30 days.

Read more about PolyBrush’s feature set on the FAQ page of the product website

Download the free Lite edition of PolyBrush