Learning 3D modelling didn’t exactly come naturally to me. It was frustrating, and I wanted to give up many times, but after two years of gritting my teeth and wiping tears from my Blender tips notebook, I finally became somewhat competent at using the program. But box modelling still felt like the most counterintuitive way of creating shapes, and then I found VR sculpting.
It was a video by Yonk in which they waved their controllers, seemingly conjuring characters out of thin air, that caught my attention. It looked natural, easy, and, most of all, fun. I’ve never been interested in VR before, but I really wanted to try this.
When I abandoned all hope, I learned about Shapelab Lite, one of the best VR sculpting apps that ran standalone on Quest. That eliminated the need for a PC. I’ve also learned that my brother had that exact headset and wanted to get rid of it. That was an opportunity I couldn’t miss.
Sculpting in VR was everything I imagined it to be; no screen barrier between you and your work – you’re just there with it. It was intuitive, fast, and a joy. Yes, you look like a doofus, may get a headache after an hour, and the tech can be capricious, but it was a completely new way of creating, and I fell in love with it.
Around that time, I saw an open call for Hellavision’s Track Attack. The brief was to record a song and animate a music video, while being quick and careless about it. It was directed by none other than Yonk. I’ve teamed up with my good friend, graphic designer Bartosz Szymkiewicz, and we had a blast doing lousy art. VR sculpting was perfect for that. Our animation “Blow it up” screened at multiple Hellavision events around the world, reminding me that work can be fun.
While working in ShapeLab Lite was great, it was missing one tool that made me yearn for VR in the first place: the clay gun. Just doodle with digital toothpaste in the air to create anything you want. At this point, I knew I wanted VR sculpting to be part of my practice, so I got a used VR-ready PC and could finally try the famous Medium app.
It did not disappoint. While Joseph Melhuish called it „the MS Paint of VR sculpting”, its toy-like UX and cheesy sound effects (yes, you can actually hear digital foam spurting) stood in stark contrast to the overwhelming, serious desktop 3D software and really encouraged play.
VR sculpting really helped me override my perfectionist side and replace my usual geometric, meticulous compositions with a more chaotic approach. Even though it’s made completely in VR, the gesture-based creation paradoxically makes it feel more real. In the AI era, I think it’s especially important.
It’s not all roses, though. Medium is basically abandonware that can stop working after any MetaLink update (and the thing loves to update). It actually did a few weeks back, sending panic across its users. While it was brought back to life, it’s hard to trust it enough to build your entire workflow around it. So what are the alternatives?
Well, there’s Substance 3D Modeler, Adobe’s bigger and better version of Medium, made after they acquired it. To use it, you either have to subscribe to Adobe’s Creative Cloud or pay for a pricey standalone version on Steam. And while people sing its praises, I’m not sure how far it is from following Medium’s footsteps to Abandonville.
ShapeLab seems to be flourishing, with an active Discord and a new Max version that works on both PC VR and Quest standalone and includes the highly coveted clay gun (it’s actually a voxel brush, but I just love the name). While it doesn’t quite match the one in Medium, the rest of the software’s features make it quite powerful. It’s also pretty affordable, both in subscription and perpetual license options.
Quill, while also abandoned, is primarily a VR animation software that adds an entirely new level of possibilities to your workflow.
You may look at VR sculpting’s cemetery of apps (add gravestones for SculptrVR and Kodon) and think it’s a dead end. But Medium’s temporary unavailability inspired some creators to take matters into their own hands. I know of at least three VR sculpting apps currently being developed, so I think the art form’s future is secure.
So what about learning traditional 3D I’ve mentioned struggling with at the beginning? Do you still need all that knowledge to sculpt in VR? Well, yes. Sorry. Most current tools can help you create models, but you still need to place them in a scene with lights and textures, and render them all. Also, depending on the look you want, hard surfaces may still be made more efficiently with box modelling. So it’s not exactly a replacement for your whole workflow. But it can make a huge part of it easier, faster, and much more enjoyable to make.
If you want to give VR sculpting a go, on 9th May, I’ll be running a ShapeLab workshop during Pictoplasma in Berlin, and you’re more than welcome to attend. We’re going to start with a live demo by me, and thanks to the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, we’ll have headsets for people to try the experience for themselves.
