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Monster Mash: A Sketch-Based Tool for Casual 3D Modeling and Animation

158 points by theafh 6y ago

xnx 6y ago
This looks cool, and seemed familiar. I remembered I had seen it on Two Minute Papers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ny-p-CHNyM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ny-p-CHNyM Great YouTube channel!
mrspeaker 6y ago
The help tutorial is really well done for something that is a little bit complex, and holy heck - that's fun! You can export a "template for texturing" then color it in Gimp, and re-upload it to give it colors and features. You can download the model too. Not sure what the "project" format is though - can you pull the animations straight into Blender?
monkellipse 6y ago
This is great fun! Works on the phone!
teraflop 6y ago
See also the original "Teddy" system from 1999, which this paper cites as a predecessor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjvU5PHVpcI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjvU5PHVpcI
macando 6y ago
It looks like it's time to put to bed the "how to draw an owl in 2 steps" meme. Some generated creatures are straight out of the animal uncanny valley. So amazing and fun. It's even better than "Quick, Draw!" by Google. Can't wait to see what the Internet will make out of this.
redka 6y ago
Looks very similar to dust3d[1]. I wish the simplicity of this approach would be more widespread in 3d software. [1] https://dust3d.org/ https://dust3d.org/
mettamage 6y ago
2MinutePapers covered this a while ago on YouTube. I wholeheartedly recommend that channel! (If you like this article of course)
neolog 6y ago
I tried the demo in Linux Chrome and it segfaulted when I pressed the "Inflate" button.
senectus1 6y ago
http://monstermash.zone/ http://monstermash.zone/
grawprog 6y ago
This tool seems pretty incredible. I tried playing with the demo on the site. I've got a bunch of sketches I drew in black and white with pen scanned into my computer. I was hoping I could import one of then. It seems like the only options allow you to import then redraw over. Lacking a drawing tablet or anything, this is unfeasible. A tool that allows you to import line drawings and convert them to inflatable models would be amazing. I've never been a big fan of drawing with a stylus and tablet. It's not the same as using a pen.
- samstave 6y ago
  ZbrushCoreMini is free, and may do what you are talking about: http://pixologic.com/zclassroom/workshop/snapshot3d http://pixologic.com/zclassroom/workshop/snapshot3d https://zbrushcore.com/features.php https://zbrushcore.com/features.php
  - hypertele-Xii 6y ago
    I don't see a "mini" anywhere, all listed products have a price.
    - samstave 6y ago
      Create account, flood leads to DL, create an account and it will inform you that “because it is free you wil not be died for a license. Just DL and instal it and you are all good. But you do need to make an account in Paul Graham’s name to confirm you like the software.
partlysean 6y ago
Should have named it Monster Mesh.
ravenstine 6y ago
There was a piece of similar software I used about 20 years ago called Teddy. https://www-ui.is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~takeo/teddy/teddy.htm https://www-ui.is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~takeo/teddy/teddy.htm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adfdtUn2r4U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adfdtUn2r4U Obviously, Monster Mash is way more advanced and includes animation features, but ever since Teddy I wondered why there weren't bigger 3D modeling packages embracing sketch-based sculpting.
mkl 6y ago
Previous discussion about the research paper: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24477099 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24477099
craftinator 6y ago
Looks like it's being discontinued next month.
- imagine99 6y ago
  I laughed at that in spite of myself, and I'm afraid you might be right ;-(
- endergen 6y ago
  They explicitly called that out?
  - craftinator 6y ago
    It's implied by them announcing it's release.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
stevenicr 6y ago
skimmed over this twice - and I see there is an online demo that works.. but nothing that says if the self run version is mac only, (? the github says to compile with some other library, linux?) and I get the sad-feeling when I see "a sketch-based.." - because sketch is mac only I thought? the gif-like animations are cool - better than text for showing what it - like that.

158 points by theafh 6y ago

xnx 6y ago

This looks cool, and seemed familiar. I remembered I had seen it on Two Minute Papers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ny-p-CHNyM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ny-p-CHNyM Great YouTube channel!

mrspeaker 6y ago

The help tutorial is really well done for something that is a little bit complex, and holy heck - that's fun! You can export a "template for texturing" then color it in Gimp, and re-upload it to give it colors and features. You can download the model too. Not sure what the "project" format is though - can you pull the animations straight into Blender?

monkellipse 6y ago

This is great fun! Works on the phone!

teraflop 6y ago

See also the original "Teddy" system from 1999, which this paper cites as a predecessor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjvU5PHVpcI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjvU5PHVpcI

macando 6y ago

It looks like it's time to put to bed the "how to draw an owl in 2 steps" meme. Some generated creatures are straight out of the animal uncanny valley. So amazing and fun. It's even better than "Quick, Draw!" by Google. Can't wait to see what the Internet will make out of this.

redka 6y ago

Looks very similar to dust3d[1]. I wish the simplicity of this approach would be more widespread in 3d software. [1] https://dust3d.org/ https://dust3d.org/

mettamage 6y ago

2MinutePapers covered this a while ago on YouTube. I wholeheartedly recommend that channel! (If you like this article of course)

neolog 6y ago

I tried the demo in Linux Chrome and it segfaulted when I pressed the "Inflate" button.

senectus1 6y ago

http://monstermash.zone/ http://monstermash.zone/

grawprog 6y ago

This tool seems pretty incredible. I tried playing with the demo on the site. I've got a bunch of sketches I drew in black and white with pen scanned into my computer. I was hoping I could import one of then. It seems like the only options allow you to import then redraw over. Lacking a drawing tablet or anything, this is unfeasible. A tool that allows you to import line drawings and convert them to inflatable models would be amazing. I've never been a big fan of drawing with a stylus and tablet. It's not the same as using a pen.

samstave 6y ago
ZbrushCoreMini is free, and may do what you are talking about: http://pixologic.com/zclassroom/workshop/snapshot3d http://pixologic.com/zclassroom/workshop/snapshot3d https://zbrushcore.com/features.php https://zbrushcore.com/features.php
- hypertele-Xii 6y ago
  I don't see a "mini" anywhere, all listed products have a price.
  - samstave 6y ago
    Create account, flood leads to DL, create an account and it will inform you that “because it is free you wil not be died for a license. Just DL and instal it and you are all good. But you do need to make an account in Paul Graham’s name to confirm you like the software.

partlysean 6y ago

Should have named it Monster Mesh.

ravenstine 6y ago

There was a piece of similar software I used about 20 years ago called Teddy. https://www-ui.is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~takeo/teddy/teddy.htm https://www-ui.is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~takeo/teddy/teddy.htm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adfdtUn2r4U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adfdtUn2r4U Obviously, Monster Mash is way more advanced and includes animation features, but ever since Teddy I wondered why there weren't bigger 3D modeling packages embracing sketch-based sculpting.

mkl 6y ago

Previous discussion about the research paper: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24477099 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24477099

craftinator 6y ago

Looks like it's being discontinued next month.

imagine99 6y ago
I laughed at that in spite of myself, and I'm afraid you might be right ;-(
endergen 6y ago
They explicitly called that out?
- craftinator 6y ago
  It's implied by them announcing it's release.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

stevenicr 6y ago

skimmed over this twice - and I see there is an online demo that works.. but nothing that says if the self run version is mac only, (? the github says to compile with some other library, linux?) and I get the sad-feeling when I see "a sketch-based.." - because sketch is mac only I thought? the gif-like animations are cool - better than text for showing what it - like that.