Forum Moderators: Lobo3433 Forum Coordinators: LuxXeon
Blender F.A.Q (Last Updated: 2025 Jan 05 8:38 am)
I'm not familiar with the MB-Lab, but do have archimesh, just haven't played with it much . . . yet.
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If you want an easy but very nice tree addon, Modular Tree is great. I've been playing with it for days ;). Much easier than Sapling too.
Other addons I really like (I'm a beginner too with Blender - not modeling but with Blender):
LoopTools - Included with Blender now - just enable it.
Import Images as Planes - same as Loop Tools - included in Blender.
Node Wrangler - Also included in Blender. Makes making shader node setups just slightly less painful.
Easy HDRI - Preview and switch between HDRI files in your collection easily.
Edge Flow - control your edges and edge loops a little more.
Oh, as for the Zbrush brushes....you can make your own brushes using alphas like Zbrush, but you probably already knew that. Whether or not Blender's sculpting brushes match Zbrush's I couldn't tell you. I don't have Zbrush, only 3D Coat. Comparing those tho, while there are differences, the sculpting tools in Blender seem pretty good for general sculpting compared to 3DC. Also, there is a big push right now to drastically improve the sculpting tools inside Blender, so keep your eyes open for that :).
Laurie
You may be able to find the final, most recent build of MB-Lab on Github, but the development of that addon has stopped and the website has been taken down. Eventually, the addon will not work with Blender in the future unless Manuel Bastioni decides to resume support again. Here's the article from last year:
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LuxXeon posted at 6:01AM Thu, 15 August 2019 - #4359438
You may be able to find the final, most recent build of MB-Lab on Github, but the development of that addon has stopped and the website has been taken down. Eventually, the addon will not work with Blender in the future unless Manuel Bastioni decides to resume support again. Here's the article from last year:
Correction... it looks as if some people have picked up the source code and decided to update it for Blender 2.8 themselves. So it may have some life after all. I'm not sure how much it will get updated now that the creator has abandoned it, but it is open source, so anyone can add to it.
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My Store
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My Video Tutorials
My CG Animations
Instagram: @luxxeon3d
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/luxxeon
The MB add-on was dropped suddenly by its creator but since it was open source based on the MakeHuman add-on some new poeple have picked it up and started to improve on it might be worth reading this article on some of the new improvements at Blender nation.
MB-Lab 1.7.5 Character Editor adds new GUI, Shaders and Face Rig
The4 ArchiMesh and Archi-pack add-ons are wonderful add-ons for building rooms homes and such when activating the add-on in 2.8 FYI you will see another ArchicPack Upgrade for 2.8 this is for a sort of paid pro pack that is not free and is not needed to use the basic ArchiMesh or ArchiPack add-ons so do not feel you need it to run the main add-ons.
There is a free pack of Zbrush Orb Stylized Brushes pack for Blender 3D By Stylized Station the are a nice set of beginner brushes instructions included on how to install them in to your Blender Brush pallet
Hope this helps some
Lobo3433
Blender Maya & 3D Forum Moderator
Renderosity Blender 3D Facebook Page
OK, I checked, and I have Archimesh, but I don't have Archipack, so where would I find it?
Nevermind, I spoke out of turn. I just checked again, and I do have it.
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The ArchiPack website:
blender-archipack.org
And Youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCecdw78pgsch0FWaNhdwbgg/videos
Yarp - author of P3DO Organizer for Poser
Thanks for the links Yarp. They'll come in handy.
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Whoosh. I managed to install the MB-Lab add-on, finally: it seems that somehow I had accidentally unzipped the zip file and Blender was only showing me that in the Add On menu. When I deleted the unzipped file, everything worked as advertised. I also installed the archimesh add on. That looks wonderful, too. Perhaps we can use this thread to discuss the use of these packages?
This MB-Lab thingie is overwhelming! There's so much there! I'd be interested to know what people who have used La Femme in Poser11 think about the comparison. MB Lab seems vastly more powerful- and very easy to use. What's the downside, comparatively? From what I see so far, the MB system seems capable of doing everything that all the base models and tools in Poser can do, and much more, in a single, coherent system. I'm in love!
I haven't had much time to really play with it, but one thing I noticed is, there's no option to make UV Maps of the character's skin. Now that may be because the default skin the character comes with isn't available for UV mapping, but I thought it a little weird that there were no options to select the character and run a UV Unwrap..
Another thing I noticed, which I can't understand is, there's an option to change the default A-Pose to a T-Pose, which is what I'm more used to working with, but it's only available in Object mode. When I switch to Edit mode, it goes back to the A-Pose. Now I'm working with Blender 2.79, so it's possible this has been addressed with the 2.80 version of MB-Lab. I just find it very curious, but then the creator was basing it on MakeHuman, which isn't the same as working with characters in Poser or DAZ Studio, or similar software.
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I don't really know much about it at this point, but can't you unwrap anything in Blender to make a UV map? I think it might be redundant to include in MB Lab.z
As for the A-pose/T-pose thing, it does seem odd it auto-reverts in one window but not another. I think, however, that the A pose might be better for setting up clothing that's not t-shirt-like in its behavior, like a suit jacket, for instance, because the deformation of non-stretchy clothing is compression when moving the arms up, not stretching when you move the arms down. However, I'm not that far along yet, and could be talking out of my *.
I'm using the version for 2.79 because I haven't been able to update to 2.8 as yet, and I didn't see any clothing, unless I don't know where to look in my version.
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Well, after messing with MB-Lab for awhile, I'm less thrilled than I was. There are a few hair items and clothing items with it, but only one for each basic type of figure. They do seem to work well- better than clothes in Poser, in my experience, but there must be more clothes floating around somewhere. I haven't been able to find them, though. Aside from the lack of assets, the thing I don't like is that the types seem to be too much an exercise in some Theory of Body Types and the only tool for overriding that is the measurement controls, which are awkward, to say the least. Of course, one can do anything one has the skills for to the finalized figure in Blender, but I don't have those skills yet. So I'm sad- I can't get on with my project until I can either learn to model/sculpt well or find a way to utilize assets from Poser efficiently. I understand that dealing with Daz figures is much easier, but that would involve spending the bucks on base figures and accessories... not in the budget.
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I lost a lot of add-ons from 2.79 when my pc my crashed a while back. I would like to recoup as much as possible with 2.8. There are several I would like to find.
A human add on, had several ethnic and fantasy figures as well as gender choice. It was a cool one.
There were 2 architectural ones. To build houses and other structures .... Also trees ... Landscaping and such.
Last are general utilities that smooths out the workflow. Any advice on these?
Just a bonus question ... Are the new brushes the same as with ZBrush and are they interchangable?
Boni
"Be Hero to Yourself" -- Peter Tork