Introduction to Sculptris

What is Sculptris? 2
What Can I Design in Sculptris? 2
Basic Controls 2
Brush Controls 2
Toolbars 2
Sculpt Brushes 2
Brush Controls 3
Brush Details 3
Other Tools 7
Quick Access Toolbar 7
Tessellation 8
Making your Model an .STL File 9
Step 1: Export as an .OBJ File 9
Step 2: Convert .OBJ File to .STL File 10
Practice Exercises 11
What is Sculptris?
Sculptris is free 3D modelling software that can be used to create “organic” models.
Conceptually, creating a model in Sculptris is similar to creating a clay model by hand.

What Can I Design in Sculptris?

Sculptris is best used for creating “organic” models, that is a model of something that is
(or based on) a living thing. Examples of an organic model is a person, plant or animal.
Conversely, a non-organic model is based on a non-living thing, like a chair or a fork.

Basic Controls
Hold Right Mouse Button: Orbits the object.
Hold ALT and Right Mouse Button: Moves object up, down, left, right.
Scroll Mouse Wheel: Zooms in and out.
Hold CTRL and Right Mouse Button: Zooms in and out.
CTRL + Z: Undo

Brush Controls
Hold Left Mouse Button: Sculpt
Hold CTRL and Left Mouse Button: Sculpt inversed.
Hold SHIFT and Left Mouse Button: Smooth
Hold Spacebar: Quick access brush controls

Toolbars
Sculpt Brushes
Rotate

Crease Scale

Draw Grab

Inflate Smooth

Flatten

Pinch
 The brush is represented by the circle on your object. The brush that you select from
the toolbar will determine how you sculpt your object. The options you have with that
brush are represented in the upper toolbar.

Brush Controls
Continuously
Brush drags
applies Change
behind cursor Increase/decrease
selected tool sculpting
tessellation while
as you brush Brush material
sculpting
strength

Brush size

Add new Switch to

Sculpt options
Brush selected brushes/brush paint mode
sets

Brush Details
Crease: The opposite of draw, this
brush cuts into the clay leaving an
indentation. Can be used to create
wrinkles or to sharply define part of the
model.
Draw: A commonly-used brush that
builds up clay in a smooth manner. For
more subtle building with a flatter
stroke that is limited in height, enable
the clay. The soft option is a variation
of clay with smoother edges. in the
brush toolbar.

Flatten: Creates a flat edge to part of

the model. Use it to polish and finesse
the shapes on model. Use the lock
plane option to use the orientation of
where you start with the brush to bring
pull the surrounding clay to that same
orientation. Enabling angle falloff
prevents the flatten tool from distorting
the surface that’s on the other side of
the corner.

Pinch: Takes an existing edge and

brings the two adjoining surfaces
together in a sharp edge incrementally.
Smooth: Is the opposite of pinch,
smooths edges and ridges to create a
softer look. The shortcut to this brush is
SHIFT + Left click.

Inflate: Inflates area by giving volume

to areas on the model. Good for
creating overhang on edges, such as
on ears, nostrils and lips.

Grab: Allows you to pull clay out from

the model and push and pull features
on the model in different directions.
Enable limit in the brush options
toolbar to prevent over-pulling the clay
or to create a thicker extrusion. Using
the global option allows you to move
an entire object, which is useful if you
have more than one sphere/object in
your model.
Rotate: Allows you to twist a feature on
the model based on a starting point of
your choosing.

Masking: A mask is an area on the

model that is immune from editing. A
mask is indicated by a dark colour on
the model. Masking allows you to
select areas you don’t want affected by
a brush. The shortcut key for masking
is pressing CTRL + Left click.

To clear a mask, press CTRL + Left

click and drag outside of the model.

To invert a mask, press CTRL + Left

click outside of the model.
Scale: Allows you to increase or
decrease the size of the features on the
model. Use the global option to scale
the entire object. Disabling XYZ means
you can scale only the x, y or z axis of
a particular feature instead of scaling
across all axes.
Other Tools

Symmetry
By default, there is a line of symmetry in the middle of the model. This means that
whatever sculpting takes place on one side of the line will take place on the other side
of the line as well, automatically. Symmetry can be turned off, but once it has been
disabled it cannot be re-enabled within a project.

New Sphere
Create a new scene (start afresh) or add another sphere to an existing project by
clicking on New Sphere. You will be prompted to either create a new scene or add
another sphere.

New Plane
Similar to new sphere, new plane allows you to start a new scene but instead of the
scene starting with a sphere it starts with a flat plane. You can also add a plane to an
existing scene, similar to adding a sphere.

Quick Access Toolbar

Press the Spacebar to bring up a small control wheel that has quick-access sliders for
size, strength and detail as well as a toggle for turning the brush alpha off and on.

Click and drag any of the circles to adjust the brush option.
Tessellation
By definition, tessellation is created when a geometric shape is repeated and covers a
plane without any gaps or overlaps. In Sculptris, your object is tessellated with polygons
(triangles), and as you sculpt Sculptris uses dynamic tessellation to ensure that your
brushstroke leaves a smooth finish. In other words, Sculptris automatically increases
the number of polygons in your object to ensure that your object does not look bumpy
when you brushstroke.

Figure 1 The grab tool showing low tessellation on the right and high tessellation on the left.

You can manually increase or decrease the amount of tessellation permitted when
sculpting using the detail slider in the upper toolbar. Slide the button to the left to
decrease tessellation and to the right to increase tessellation.

More tessellation will occur with your brushstrokes the more zoomed-in to your model
you are.

You can see the level of tessellation in your model by enabling the wireframe view.

However, while a higher level of tessellation will result in smoother brushstrokes, too
much tessellation results in a model with a very high level of resolution, which some 3D
printers cannot handle. A very highly tessellated model also results in a large file size,
which can slow down computer performance.
There are two tools you can use to decrease the number of polygons in your model.
Reduce Selected will decrease the polygon count of the entire model, but it is smart
enough to leave a higher level of tessellation in places with more surface detail.

The other tool you can use is the Reduce Brush, which works similar to other brushes,
and allows you to manually choose the area in which you’d like to reduce tessellation.

Reduce Reduce
Brush Selected

To increase the polygon count of the entire model, use the Subdivide All tool.

Subdivide
All

Making your Model an .STL File

Unfortunately, Sculptris does not allow you to save your model as a .STL file directly
from the software. To make a Sculptris model a .STL file is a two-step process.

Step 1: Export as an .OBJ File

Sculptris does allow you to export your model as an .OBJ file, which can then be
converted into a .STL file. To export your model in .OBJ format, click on the OBJ button
with the down arrow.

The export dialogue box will pop up, in which you save your object file like you would
any other file.
Step 2: Convert .OBJ File to .STL File
One of the easiest ways to convert your .OBJ file to an .STL file is to use the free
Makerbot Desktop software. Download the software for free at
www.makerbot.com/desktop, and then open your file in the software. Within the
Makerbot Desktop program you can scale your object larger or smaller and rotate it to
minimize the number of supports required to print your object.

To convert the .OBJ file to an .STL file, simply save the file in the Makerbot Desktop
software. When the Save Dialogue box opens, it will by default give you the option to
save your file with the .THING extension. Make sure you choose one of the .STL
options (either one will do). This will convert your object to an .STL.
Practice Exercises
Practicing your modelling skills in Sculptris is integral to becoming more comfortable
with the software. If you need some inspiration on what to create as a model, just look
around you! There are lots of things on your desk, kitchen table and around the house
that you can use as an object to replicate in Sculptris.

Some other ideas:

• Search Google images for “soapstone carvings.” These models don’t have a lot
of detail and are great as reference images for modelling beginners.
• Search Google images for “cartoon plush toys.” These models have more detail
than a soapstone figure, but are still fairly simple and there’s lots of room for
error.
• Use simple vegetables and fruits as model references such as a:
o Pumpkin
o Apple
o Banana
o Strawberry
o Green pepper