Any newcomer to the 3D modelling marketplace has to offer something unique to its audience and peeking its head out of the crowd is Leopoly. Leopoly is a cloud-based modelling software platform that offers a lot of advantages to novice users (like me) and, potentially, to pros (like other people), as well.
If you’ve ever used the Zbrush spin-off, Sculptrix, you’ll see that Leopoly looks a little familiar. You begin with a simple sphere, which you can, then, extrude and shape like a ball of clay. Though the results are simplistic, the online tool is almost as easy to use as molding play-doh, which should make it extremely accessible.
Leopoly is also really social! I’m not just referring to the fact that Leopoly allows users to share their models via social networking sites. That’s a simple requirement for all websites these days. It’s social because the models on the site have parent/child relationships! Users can expand upon the designs of others to spawn children. Here’s my example that modifies and, in my opinion, improves upon one user’s Bruce Will sculpture:
Here it is with a new material and, also, as an anaglyph:
Like the RepRap community’s familial network of child and parent machines, this model shows the linkages and vast differences that occur in design in a way that really highlights the evolutionary nature of creation. All things are mutations and variations of other things!
In beta, the program lacks any printing ability, but, by the full release at the SIGGRAPH graphics exhibition in Los Angeles at the end of July, 3D printing should be integrated into Leopoly. Aside from the free, online version of the software, there is a free, desktop version for download. At the moment, Leopoly Next is just for Macs, so I haven’t gotten a chance to make a Bruce Willis wall with it, yet. The company assures me that it will be available for Mac, hopefully by the end of the year. With Leopoly Next, users will, by SIGGRAPH, be able to import 3D files for editing and export them for printing. They also offer a full hardware kit called Leonar3Do that includes immersive head-tracking goggles and a 3D mouse, called the Bird, so that you can fully detach yourself from reality. Leonar3Do will retail for about $500, with a full 3 year warranty and hardware upgrade for $750.
Check out the video introduction to Leonar3Do below and imagine yourself looking really ridiculous and creating cool 3D stuff:
Hat tip to Joris
Source: VoxelFab Blog
