I suppose there would be a certain irony in not replying, Lux! A happy new year to you Sir.

Enjoyed the first one Lux, Whats the advantage to not using particles, or reasoning.

Well, well, well. How's that going to pan out.

Good point Lux, yeah.

Nice article, and thanks for posting. Whilst I don't doubt VR will creep into gaming and other aspects of life, surely there must be still plenty of low poly models still around.

I was reasonably impressed with Shapeways. The object arrived way before they said it would (pleased the wife anyway) very well packaged and good quality. Her other thought was that the hole in the middle could be of a lesser diameter but overall she was pleased.

On a technical note Lux, Am I right in thinking that they are not solid plastic - where permissable. So if they are a tubular type construction then there are 2 un connected meshes. So my question is (if I've got this right) is how does the software know which bit to print? Does it read the normals?

LuxXeon makes the most important point in that of workflow. If you're using silo and feel comfortable with it then stay with it. The aditional tools you may/would get with Blender, max, C4d only really have the potential to make things quicker.

Just ordered the teardrop one so lets see how shapeways shape up.

True enough Lux, I tried modeling with a pen but it didn't feel right.

Yes, thats it. Iwas hoping for for a bit more discussion on the mouse/pen debate but I guess people are saving all their energy for some online jostling during Black Friday!

Looks very good Lux, What's the idea behind it all being placed on a mound?

I'd also recommend Blender to a certain extent, given that it is free and has a lot of features. However, I'd start off by learning how the basics of poly modeling. I was looking for something by Bay Raitt but this is good https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpSAG85Rsk0 The most important aspect of the software is useability. You don't really need that many tools to be any good - having them just make things easier/quicker.

I shall lookforward to the texturing on those gates.

LuxXeon posted at 6:27PM Fri, 02 October 2015 - #4231964

@ airflamesred: That's an interesting idea, Mark. I was thinking maybe a workflow video?

I think that would be very usefull to all. Back in the day, one could cut, quite the dashing artist with your bump and specular maps. Of course, theses days you need normal, displacement and all kinds of things so perhaps an overview and 'when and why' to use.

Oh yeah, I'd forgotten about this. Are we going to get some texturing vids?