3D coat hardsurface modelling
3D coat (V4) can be used for hardsurface modelling very well, especially with the Cutoff-, the Extrude- and the VoxLayer-tool which we will discuss and explain in this tutorial. At first we start 3D coat with a simple sphere:
Start 3D coat, select 2nd sphere
As in the 3d coat tutorial before we use orthographic mode and change to Left-side camera. The next step is to increase the resolution for the active layer to have more material to model with (press Space-Key and select the Res+ button):
Increased resolution for the layer (4x)
Now we use the CutOff-tool to cut some parts of the sphere away using the polygon-selection:
Cutoff tool for the sphere in 3D coat
The same thing we do with camera-views like Front-view and active x-axis symmetry:
Cutoff with symmetry x-axis in 3D coat
Also make use of circle-selection or rectangle and you can form shapes like this:
Extrude tool to create a panel in 3D coat
In the image above I used the polygon selection to create a panel which is mapped onto the object. For creating this panel the Extrude-tool can be used. The result looks like this:
Panel created with Extrude
If you want to receive sharper-looking edges, you can use the VoxLayer– instead of the Extrude-tool to create the panel for our object. When using the VoxLayer-tool – as the name implies – a new layer for the selection you made (e.g. a polygon selection) is generated:
Created Ppnel with the VoxLayer tool
The advantage of creating a new layer in my opinion is, that the panel you just created can be edited after it’s creation with tool like the CutOff-tool:
Cuttoff for the new VoxLayer panel
Another benefit of separate layers is that you can assign shaders or materials for the distinct objects:
Hardsurface editing with 3D coat
Just play around a little bit with the CutOff– and VoxLayer-tool, different selections and parameters and you soon will find great possibilities to design hardsurface-objects with a lot of details and forms. Also try the VoxExtrude-tool which works quite similar to the Extrude-tool but creates sharpers edges and bevels.
