[HN Gopher] Blockbench - A low-poly 3D model editor
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       Blockbench - A low-poly 3D model editor
        
       Author : u2077
       Score  : 177 points
       Date   : 2022-12-03 17:36 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.blockbench.net)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.blockbench.net)
        
       | noio wrote:
       | The main thing that makes this nicer to work in than Blender (for
       | these "pixel art 3D" models) is that you don't need to UV-unwrap
       | your models. That and the fact that working with "pixel art"
       | painting in Blender is inconvenient at best..
       | 
       | I'm actually working on a plug-in for Blender to enable some of
       | this workflow where you can just straight paint on your models :)
        
         | darkteflon wrote:
         | Love to see a link to your plugin!
        
       | grepLeigh wrote:
       | This is so cool, I'd never heard of it before but can't wait to
       | try it out. I'm going to check out the PWA version on an M2 iPad,
       | which is quickly becoming my favorite 3D model editing device.
        
         | darkteflon wrote:
         | Same - personally it feels so much more intuitive than a Wacom.
         | The new pen proximity animation is really nice.
        
       | marmakoide wrote:
       | I just installed it and followed the tutorial. After an hour, I
       | was able to model things, paint them and animate them. I never
       | felt angry, to the contrary. My battery didn't take a big hit.
       | 
       | Excellent job.
        
       | EamonnMR wrote:
       | This style has been getting a lot if support lately. Sprytile is
       | big, but my favorite is Union Bytes Painter.
        
         | darkteflon wrote:
         | As someone familiar with Blender, Sprytile looks great, but it
         | also looks as though there hasn't been a release since 2020.
         | Anyone know if this project is still alive?
        
       | marktangotango wrote:
       | This project looks really cool. Maybe someone reading this can
       | answer this question. I've been wondering what the in-browser
       | options are for easy to use low poly modeling? Are there any
       | application you'd recommend?
        
         | 2III7 wrote:
         | SketchUp Free is easy and good for low-medium poly modelling.
        
         | 5mixer wrote:
         | Assuming you missed it, blockbench is available in-browser:
         | https://web.blockbench.net/
         | 
         | There's even session sharing! File > Edit Sharing...
        
       | swayvil wrote:
       | This might be a little bit too cool for me.
        
         | darkteflon wrote:
         | That's a pretty uncharitable thing to say. A tool like this
         | makes modelling approachable for people who might not have any
         | experience - including kids. Trying to reproduce in Blender,
         | for example, the workflows that this tool easily enables is
         | loads more work - potentially months of learning.
        
       | IYasha wrote:
       | Web-app? No, thanks. I'll stick to ms3d ))
        
         | rebane2001 wrote:
         | Web-app makes it better. You can still download it to run
         | offline, but you can run the browser version without trusting
         | the binaries to be safe, and you can also get it up and running
         | really fast if you switch computers or need someone else to
         | check it out.
        
         | Cyberdog wrote:
         | And unsurprisingly the downloadable version uses Electron.
        
       | arriu wrote:
       | How does something like this compare to doing low poly work
       | within Blender? I imagine this is easier but I'm not an artist
        
         | r_hoods_ghost wrote:
         | I've only played around with it for a few minutes, but if I
         | wanted to quickly produce a bunch of low poly assets in this
         | style I'd be tempted to go with this and then import them into
         | Blender. This is because it is set up for the low poly workflow
         | out of the box, whereas you'd have to do a bit of faffing
         | around with shaders etc. to get good looking results in
         | Blender. And I say that as someone who has been using Blender
         | for more than a decade. Being forced to work within the
         | constraints that a tool like this imposes is often a good thing
         | from an artist's point of view, as it reduces the decision
         | space down and allows you to focus on the outcome rather than
         | the tool.
        
           | darkteflon wrote:
           | This is such a great answer for newer artists to hear,
           | thanks. I love Blender, but have found myself doing most of
           | my voxel modelling in Voxel Max before exporting to Blender
           | for more advanced workflows. I couldn't really articulate
           | why, but "smaller decision space" feels exactly right.
        
           | washadjeffmad wrote:
           | This is why we included 3D Builder as part of our workflow.
           | It requires a lower threshold of expertise to do simple
           | actions like joining models (eg- from 3D scans), which is a
           | much more complex action in Blender and reduces the amount of
           | time our 3D techs spend cleaning up models they receive.
           | 
           | If Blockbench does the handful of things we need, we'll use
           | it instead to agnosticize platform dependency for customers,
           | who increasingly don't have access to Windows.
        
       | dxuh wrote:
       | As it might take a few clicks, this is a tutorial from their
       | YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbyCbA1c8BM
       | 
       | It gives a much better quick impression of what this tool is
       | like.
        
       | Mikeb85 wrote:
       | Wow haven't seen this before. Very cool.
        
       | yowlingcat wrote:
       | Looks very cool. I wonder if there's anything that can't be done
       | in Blender, or if it's primarily the constraints and simplified
       | workflow that would make this useful to work with. Maybe the
       | latter; there's a parallel to pixel graphic editors vs Photoshop
       | to be made here. Sure you can use Photoshop to do 8-bit art, but
       | some folks use the dedicated 8-bit painter tools regardless.
        
         | noio wrote:
         | The fact that you don't need to UV unwrap is something that
         | "can't be done" in Blender. Though I guess technically the same
         | results can definitely be reached :)
        
       | guntherhermann wrote:
       | This looks really, really cool. I especially enjoy the
       | "unfiltered textures" (not sure what it's actually called) style,
       | reminiscent of the PS1
        
         | noio wrote:
         | "Pixel art 3D" is often used as well..
        
         | whiskers wrote:
         | It's usually called "Nearest Neighbour"!
        
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       (page generated 2022-12-03 23:00 UTC)