Well after following some tutorials, playing with voxel scultping a lot, with retopology, normal map baking, and texture painting (diffuse,normal or specular) ,
I see the big power of the tool


- You can paint diffuse, normal , and specular at same time,
(i use a pressure tablet), so you can draw by pressure less or more depth on the normal map for example : This way you can add little details directly in the low poly model, without having to scultp them in 3D in the hight poly version

- you can draw in the 3D view on the low poly model directly in the normal map , this way you can add details incredibly faster than scultping them [/b]

- When painting in 3D View on the low poly model or on texture editor, you can put normal map to 0% , and specular to 0% if you want, this way you wont paint normal map, but only on diffuse.

- another way is to do all on the High 3D model, sculpt, paint diffuse and specular and bake all on the low poly model. But Adding details by painting on the low poly model , is a more faster workflow personnaly i find.

- Another workflow :
I imported a Low poly model, without having done any hight poly model, i drawn on normal map and diffuse directly on the 3D view, and i got a low poly normal mapped character as good
as if i had done it by using a hight poly model


- Retopology of 3D Coat is the more easy and pwoerfull i've nerver seen
You can make very very easily and incredibly fast make your low poly model[/b].

Well, i'm amazed by this tool.
3D Coat for only 150 or 160$, has Voxel Painting and have all painting/sculpting habilities on the low or high model. I'll have to make some tutorials, to show how easy powerfull it is.
With it , you can make NExt Gen things easily , fast, and have impressive results




Well i htink it's THE NEXT GEN tool for indie or low budget or hobbist people

A complete first model with 3DCoat V3.1 :
Not very detailled, for real time game using detailled environment and 512*512 texture for characters its enought.

In fact i can do models lot more faster than doing traditionnal modeling, sculpintg is lot more natural ane easier. To make the low poly , the retopolgy tools are the most easy , advanced i've used

This looks great Ratchet (except the shoes).

What base mesh did you use? Can we see a low poly mesh via retopology? How looks the normal and displacement mesh? Can we see the uv-map? Is it usable for a lowpoly character?

If you want me to make some test renders then just send me a PM.

@Frank_G :
In fact for the shoes, i did it that way cau i wanted originality and venician style, and i did all that without any concept, juts by drwaing ideas, a concept work could have done better things.
The model is lot smoothed in lot fo parts caus i increased voxle resolution in last steps: something to avoid !

Some responese :
No base mesh : i started from the sphere : in voxel you add volume totally different from traditionnal push and pull.
In fact the model is composed of different object models to have some clean cuts between them.

For the low poly character that's to you to make the retopolgy like you want , it's so so easy and powerfull retopology in Coat3D : the best i think !

For UV Map: 3D Coat, have all tools to mark easily UV Seams , unfold and retouch them if really needed, and have a preview UV window.

The normal map was great, deleted retopo, caus i done it false in some parts, but i can redo it for the torso,head, just arms to show you how it turns ?

Just from a workflow point :
1 ) Just strat from Voxels , from the sphere, because that's voxels you can add or substract volumes , and make very good hard surface (new hide tool and delete hidden voxels) !
Want a leg , just add a cylinder or two (it's like boolean add and substract you can do anything that way) than work on them
With symmetry , your characters creation goes fast.
2) increase resolution and add details as you want
3) retopology to make your low poly character : it's really a fun and easy part i like a lot (the retopo tools are so great)
4) Just tell COat3D to bake normal map
5) go in painting mode : paint diffuse directly on your 3D model or texture, you can paint the specular, and normal map if you need to add details by painting on normal texture (sometimes fro little details it can be best) !

With a pressure tablet : it's like drawing naturally , only pleasure on making a character compared to traditionnal quads modeling (extrude , cut etc ..)

The high poly model looks fine to me, but i can also do that in zBrush. But i'm really interested in the automatic retopology/low poly model, textures and uv map.

Screenshots of those would be nice

@BoH_Havoc :
I know that for very detailled scultping on very very high model Z Brush is lot more powerfull.
But for putting the model basics fast : Voxel are a faster way.
PErhaps i'll buy Zbrush with Z Spheres 2 , but it's really expensive like Hell

And personnaly , 3D Coat is sufficient for me , i don't target crazy detailled models !

For retopology , it's not automatic !
But retopology tools are so usefull and easy to use, that you make retopology very fast : the best retopo i ever seen :
Just take a look at the video to understand retopo of 3D Coat :
3D Coat retopo
(it's the old version of the tool in the video) !
UVMApping and unwrap

Some videos of voxel power :

curves

cut and clone

Or go directly to voxel tutorials : video tutorials

For painting it's like you want directly on model or texture , the best things is that you can download the tool and try it , follow the tutorials you want with the trial version to see what it really can do
But in fact you need a good month on it to really understand lot of things (type of brushes, voxel tools) and use a lot of power it can offer.

Retopology works the same in Modo and I have heard it also works that way in Silo. You simply click here and there and the system creates polygons for you, trying to align them as good as possible to the mesh in the background. This can be whatever you put into the background layer.

I also like the idea to use voxels. It has more power than sculpting texture maps or polygons because it can create new geometry wherever you want. And you dont have to care for mesh loops, edges, vertices whatever unless you start your retopology session.

But all this makes only sense for creating organic models. Architectural design works better with good old extruding, shifting, boolean, and so on.

And you can draw directly the polygons lines over your model if you prefer instead of points, odn't know if you have looke at the entire video ?

Yeah with voxel, you cand add ,substract voulmes !
You could make a weapon for example , just using primitives and using Add or Substract.
If a part have a special form ,just draw it, it will be filled with voxels !
But the other tool is indeed the table pressure, you go lot more faster on menus and lot more precise in sculpting.
The exception , is that model was made during my holidays , and i had only the mouse where i was.
It took lot more time and patience.

Well i'll try to make retopo tonigh , not entire, just main parts to show how normal map turns.
It's a character, not planned for a game or anything,if i finish all retopo, i'll give it to community

This is a great idea. If you need any help for texturing or exporting to other formats then I am happy to help.

In fact i'll do really basic texturing and specular, so if you want to make great textures i'll give it to you in obj format with textures (diff,spec ,normal) in tga format.
What tool will you use to paint ? and will you paint specular also ?

The only problem is that Coat 3D seems to invert the normal map. Instead of volumes it renders holes in XnormalMap for example !

Another great thing is that 3D Coat have an option to make a seamless texture at opening, you can, paint normal , specular and color, really fast to make a floor with rocks !
For your game packs you could make floors also like in Oblivion or Follout 3 , good ones with normal maps !
Even Ogre 3D will support normal maps on terrain system , it's already working !