Professional 3D modeling on tablets and smartphones is viable finally!

- Major new version of Spacedraw available, further extensive updates to follow soon and regularly

Spacedraw

• is a full-featured 3D-modeling program for all Android tablets and smartphones

• is developed from scratch to make use of multi-touch and motion-sensors throughout

• introduces novel ways of viewing, drawing & modeling

 

Features include

• CAD construction

• advanced polygon & patch modeling

• lighting & texture mapping

• 3d-painting

 

Since the release in October 2012, Spacedraw has proved suitable for creating professional artwork, see the images below, done 100% with Spacedraw on a 4" smartphone (using beta versions of the new release).

However, Spacedraw was not developed further for over a year, and serious bugs and shortcomings prevented its application in real-world projects. This will change with the release of today, that fixes over 20 serious bugs and adds more than 10 important features, e.g.

• orthographic projection

• backface culling

• freezing objects

• unselect tools

• repeated extrude

• completely redesigned reference CS management

 

The further development runs at full speed now, next updates soon will bring

• fundamental usability improvements

• interactive help and tutorials

• substantial performance increase

• stylus support

• a complete revision of the painting tools

• a multitude of new functionalities, e.g. advanced rendering capabilities, boolean operations

• full-featured animation

 

Suggestions for improvements are highly welcome and will be taken seriously!

See http://www.scalisoft.com/ for further information

Spacedraw is available as a free version without ads on https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.scalisoft.spacedraw and http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009NTK3I8 that can be used with the following limitations:

• only scenes with up to 1000 vertices can be saved or exported as .obj files

• the undo-history cannot be saved to files

A key can be purchased for currently just $2.99 (until March 8, then $11.99) to remove these limitations

I'm not sure why this is being marketed as "professional" 3D modelling.  I don't know many professionals doing production work on a smartphone.  I see this as great tool for mockups and prototyping, which could be transferred to a workstation for refinement.  Working seriously on a screen less than 17 inches is not what I'd consider professional, but professionals could use this tool as a way to flesh out designs or concepts on the go.  For this reason, I would hope that the full version supports a robust list of export formats.  Obj is ok, if the format's internal options are exposed in the export dialogue, but ideally I would like to see fbx and Collada.

Quote - I'm not sure why this is being marketed as "professional" 3D modelling.  I don't know many professionals doing production work on a smartphone.  I see this as great tool for mockups and prototyping, which could be transferred to a workstation for refinement.  Working seriously on a screen less than 17 inches is not what I'd consider professional, but professionals could use this tool as a way to flesh out designs or concepts on the go.  For this reason, I would hope that the full version supports a robust list of export formats.  Obj is ok, if the format's internal options are exposed in the export dialogue, but ideally I would like to see fbx and Collada.

 

I agree that for most professional modeling tasks, working on a big screen is of course much more efficient, and Spacedraw is thought mainly for prototyping, as you wrote.

But then there actually are passionate and highly talented people who simply do not have access to a workstation for various reasons (I know some by mail) - for them Spacedraw may be of great value since there are no other usable 3d modeling apps for Android, nor for iOS yet.

Collada export is planned, will be added when animation is implemented. Also, the internal format will be exposed, so 3rd party converters can be developed.

Hey, thanks for replying.  Usually we see advertisement posts made here by newcomers, and they never address any of the concerns or issues replied to their thread.  You seem to have a very nice product here, and the features are surprisingly impressive for such a tool.  I wish you a lot of luck and success from this app, and I'd actually recommend it to any modeller who does a lot of travelling, or has a lifestyle that keeps them from their workstation often.  This can come in handy as a tool to quickly build ideas or concepts when you're on the go, or need to knock out some models for a project while you're away from the studio.

It would be great if there was also a way to quickly upload models from the app to a cloud, or FTP them directly to a server for approval.

Quote - It would be great if there was also a way to quickly upload models from the app to a cloud, or FTP them directly to a server for approval.

I'll implement such functionality soon, if you (or anyone else here... ) have specific ideas in this regard, I'll take them into account.

And even if you have access to a workstation I'd suggest to quickly give Spacedraw a try since multi-touch and motion-sensors actually open up new possibilities:

E.g., to move the selection simultaneously in all 3 directions with two touches, where the average motion determines the movement parallel to the screen-plane, and pinching moves back and forth.

Or changing the view simultaneously to transforming with two more fingers, or by tilting the device.

Low or mid poly modeling of characters-environments-units for games is definitely a possibility.  The obj export offers already a nice opportunity to model from anywhere and integrate later in another soft. Examples of some of the numerous models I did with Spacedraw only thereafter :

That tank looks great.  What kind of device did you use with SpaceDraw to make those?  A tablet or smartphone?  If you say a smartphone, I'll fall off my chair.  Go ahead, say it.

Quote - That tank looks great.  What kind of device did you use with SpaceDraw to make those?  A tablet or smartphone?  If you say a smartphone, I'll fall off my chair.  Go ahead, say it.

Well prepare a pillow ^^. I'm in a mission in Cambodia for a few months already (nearly 5) and all the images that I made (17 tests for the moment,  working on two more) are made with a Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini. The tank and all my scenes up to nb.7 (the tank) were made with the old version of Spacedraw. I then had the chance to be a beta tester and received from Scalisoft more than 30 updates of the apk that helped me to produce the rest of my tests up to 17, the Death Star Corridor.

Only problem for me was the poor dual core of my S3. Over 2500 polys : it slows down big time (the last version on the store handles big scenes way better). To build the tank, I work the pieces in different files and merged them all for the screenshots and little adjustments.

But sincerely,  for having used Spacedraw only on a tiny screen I can say : It's far enough. Spacedraw is really well thought for touch screens. Those guys at Scalisoft have some serious coders. You should have seen how fast they managed to modify some things from my bug reports ! I would have liked to try on a tablet for sure. But from where I am... no way. Back home in a few months sure I'll model on an octacore with big screen :D

I posted all my scenes there if you wanna have a look :

http://forum.lowpolyworkshop.com/topic/10033811/1/#new

It's MUCH more a pain in the ass to post on forums with my S3 Mini than to model with Spacedraw ^^. Html5 recognition is so poor. Even with Chrome or Firefox (the one I use right now.

Try Spacedraw. Take an hour to understand the tools you need. And after a few weeks you'll be amazed (I mean it) how fast you can model with it. 

improved version 1.1.2 online

scene files of the 12 elaborate scenes shown in the gallery on the website are now freely available there

Key on sale 1 more day (until March 10, 23:59 PST) for $2.99 instead of $11.99

Quote - Well prepare a pillow ^^. I'm in a mission in Cambodia for a few months already (nearly 5) and all the images that I made (17 tests for the moment,  working on two more) are made with a Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini. The tank and all my scenes up to nb.7 (the tank) were made with the old version of Spacedraw. I then had the chance to be a beta tester and received from Scalisoft more than 30 updates of the apk that helped me to produce the rest of my tests up to 17, the Death Star Corridor.

Only problem for me was the poor dual core of my S3. Over 2500 polys : it slows down big time (the last version on the store handles big scenes way better). To build the tank, I work the pieces in different files and merged them all for the screenshots and little adjustments.

But sincerely,  for having used Spacedraw only on a tiny screen I can say : It's far enough. Spacedraw is really well thought for touch screens. Those guys at Scalisoft have some serious coders. You should have seen how fast they managed to modify some things from my bug reports ! I would have liked to try on a tablet for sure. But from where I am... no way. Back home in a few months sure I'll model on an octacore with big screen :D

I posted all my scenes there if you wanna have a look :

http://forum.lowpolyworkshop.com/topic/10033811/1/#new

It's MUCH more a pain in the ass to post on forums with my S3 Mini than to model with Spacedraw ^^. Html5 recognition is so poor. Even with Chrome or Firefox (the one I use right now.

Try Spacedraw. Take an hour to understand the tools you need. And after a few weeks you'll be amazed (I mean it) how fast you can model with it.

I'm impressed!  For low poly modeling, it looks like it has the tools to do great models, but if you don't have a capable smartphone, or if your fingers are too big, I can see it being a struggle.  I have thick fingers, and using on-screen keypads are a pain in the ass to me, let alone modelling details.  Great technology, but it would take a lot of getting used to.  I'd like to see someone working on it live.

Quote -
I'm impressed!  For low poly modeling, it looks like it has the tools to do great models, but if you don't have a capable smartphone, or if your fingers are too big, I can see it being a struggle.  I have thick fingers, and using on-screen keypads are a pain in the ass to me, let alone modelling details.  Great technology, but it would take a lot of getting used to.  I'd like to see someone working on it live.

So have you tried it? - In Spacedraw, the sceen essentially works as a "trackpad" to move the picker to select, or the tripod to transform - you don't have to tap elements to select them (although you can) - simply release the touch when the desirerd element is highlighted.

Also I'll soon add stylus support that will make some things even more convenient.

hansolocambo has uploaded nice videos - I highly recommend watching them, especially the cupcake tutorial, - to see how you can work with Spacedraw when you've mastered it, on 4" Smartphone!

• learning from them may require much attention since they are quite fast and without explanation.
  Get them here

Quote - So have you tried it? - In Spacedraw, the sceen essentially works as a "trackpad" to move the picker to select, or the tripod to transform - you don't have to tap elements to select them (although you can) - simply release the touch when the desirerd element is highlighted. Also I'll soon add stylus support that will make some things even more convenient.

Yes, stylus support would be best for me.  I didn't get it yet, because I just didn't have time, but I'd rather wait for stylus support, if that's coming.

Quote - Yes, stylus support would be best for me.  I didn't get it yet, because I just didn't have time, but I'd rather wait for stylus support, if that's coming.

A stylus will only be helpful for certain tasks, e.g. selecting and most important painting.

For navigating and most transforming, using finger-multitouch will always be the easiest and most efficient way in Spacedraw.

Version 1.2 out with many new view-navigation features!

• undo/redo view: analogous to normal undo; there's also a view-history-list
• view-panel: lets you save and load custom views (with previews)
• frame selected / frame all: tap the view-zone with 2 / 3 fingers
• the "perspective distortion" can be adjusted
  Further, many fixes and improvements for selection and undo.

g[/IMG]

You are welcome to discuss the program and to post work done with Spacedraw here!

update with crucial fixes for transformations and view change out!

A new scene in progress. Model is probably finished. I might add some parts. Next I'll link all that and build a hierarchy with gizmos to rotate all that and put it in a pose. Spacedraw's latest version is sooooo much better.

Great little robot.  I think he needs ball joints on the shoulders and hips.  Seems improbable that he could walk or reach forward.

well I think the focus is on the subconscious sensation here - the whole design is not very sensitive, but just looking at him, I think If I would meet him I'd sure get the goosebumps...

Quote - Seems improbable that he could walk or reach forward.[/img] Sure, articulations are not realistic at all, but hey,  he'll walk anyway. I am his Master and he'll do as I command !

Just a test thereafter. Working on the rest of scene now.

[img]http://mcassar.free.fr/spacedraw/PoseTest.jpg [/img]

Quote - Seems improbable that he could walk or reach forward.[/img] Sure, articulations are not realistic at all, but hey,  he'll walk anyway. I am his Master and he'll do as I command !

Just a test thereafter. Working on the rest of scene now.

[img]http://mcassar.free.fr/spacedraw/PoseTest.jpg [/img]

Quote - Seems improbable that he could walk or reach forward.[/img] Sure, articulations are not realistic at all, but hey,  he'll walk anyway. I am his Master and he'll do as I command !

Just a test thereafter. Working on the rest of scene now.

[img]http://mcassar.free.fr/spacedraw/PoseTest.jpg [/img]

Sorry about the triple post and the link to the image that doesn't work (space between .jpg and the first [  ) I sent a mail to renderosity. I hope they'll find some time to clean the thread. 15 min to edit or delete a post is not really convenient. Some modifications on the robot scene. Still have a lot to do but it's taking shape.

Monsters heavily inspired from Laufman's great designs.

Spacedraw 3D Modeling on Android test 21 :

Spacedraw Test 22 Crystals Room is finished ;) No unwrapping like for the precedent scene. I wait to have a phone with a proper pen to paint on that. It's 100% pure Spacedraw for the moment.

I uploaded the .spa scene here for those who work on Spacedraw and want to have a look at it in the viewport ;)

[URL]http://mcassar.free.fr/spacedraw/22-Room.7z[/URL]

Wolkswagen Beetle 1965. Since Scalisoft added an orthographic view, those kind of modelings done by following designs and blueprints are now feasible ;) WIP.

Spacedraw-23-SWCorridor02

Geometry is really simple. Interesting thing is the false effect that slowly drown the scene into a bright light. This is the very first scene that I unwrap manually from Spacedraw's viewport. Textures are made in PSTouch.

Spacedraw-24-Graveyard

I have a quiet precise idea of what this scene'll look like at the end. Problem is that I wanted a lot of grass, bushes, vegetation. But Scalisoft explained me by mail that the few issues I had with alphas were due to the fact that Spacedraw runs in OpenGL 1. Major issue being when I cross two faces with transparency. I will finish it for sure. But I'm focusing more for the moment on scenes that I know Spacedraw can handle fine.

I abandoned PSTouch for the textures, the stylus sensitivity sucks and the brushes are too limited. I now use Artflow, really amazing drawing app. I still use PSTouch though : to clean and organise the unwrapped elements.

Spacedraw-25-BlueStorm

Another test of character. I paused it for the moment. I just begin to fully comprehend the logic behind PC unwrappers, but manually unwrapping a face (visage) or any soft bodies without pelt and relax and avoiding stretches is really tricky. I might come back on this one later.

Spacedraw-26-TowerDefense

Cute little tower more than inspired from Mark Henriksen designs. This kind of mesh is easy to unwrap manually. I learned a lot doing it nevertheless. Spacedraw can definitely help a graphist on the move to model ready-to-use 3D meshes. Great Android app :) Probably the one and only professional tool on this still young Operating System.

Spacedraw-27-ChairTutorial

Some people asked me, quote : "how the fuck do you manually unwrap Oo ? ". Well this simple chair will be the answer. I'll publish here and probably on Scalisoft's website a .doc tutorial explaining the logic and process. I also have 2.6Gb of raw video recording that I'll compile and publish on Youtube as soon as I can access a computer (probably not before march 2015, end of my staying in this heavily jammed area).

Scene available for Download here :

http://mcassar.free.fr/spacedraw/LowJpg/27-Chair%20Tutorial.zip

Spacedraw-28-Shadogun.

Modeling / Unwrapping / UVs editing : Spacedraw for Android.

Painting, cleaning,  organising : Artflow / PSTouch

As always, those are just screenshots from Spacedraw's viewport.

My Note3 GPU is dead... Screenshots here of the Robot I did a while ago. But painted this time. Only head and shield are quiet advanced, the rest ... well whenever I'll be able to work again :/

And a new racing track scene that I just had time to begin...

Manual unwrapping sure works fine and definitely gives an idea of how professional unwrapping tools work. This method is pure "artisanal" unwrapping and can be done in any 3D soft with wire editing tools and planar mapping.

Just to give you an idea :

Spacedraw test30 : AntiairGun

Turntable of the Anti-Air Gun. Made with :

• 5° rotations screenshots from Spacedraw's viewport.

• Bulk Renamer to organize screenshots.

• Gif Creator to compile them.

Uploaded using Solid Explorer, THE solution to FTP uploads issues on Android. This file manager is better than any FTP client and by far the best file manager, as far as I'm concerned.

Hello, how can I make an extruded 'combined edge selection' solid in Spacedraw. I can not find it in The manual. I can extrude a filled rectangle or Circle but not a sketched section. Basically I want to create a filled/[Place display text here](Place link URL here)solid box with hole in the middle.```

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I am asking about solid/filled objects because I need to 3D print the object.