00:00greetings Hobbies this is our sons of
00:02all and in this video we're going to be
00:04having a look at why I don't use
00:05plasticity so this has come up a few
00:07times in recent videos where I've had
00:09people in the comments section saying
00:10well why didn't you just do this in
00:12plasticity you could do this in
00:13plasticine it would be quicker which in
00:15some instances has been true and
00:17actually more often not it's been not
00:19true but either way I thought it'd be
00:20good to cover why I'm not using
00:22plasticity even though I'm more than
00:24happy to use things outside of blender
00:25and then bring them into blender if it
00:27improves my workflow now before we get
00:29into this this is not going to be a
00:30video of me slagging off plastic C I
00:33think it's a really good bit of software
00:34so if that's what you've come for or
00:36you've come to heroically defend
00:38plasticity then feel free to do so but
00:40that's not what this video is going to
00:41be and hopefully this will lead to some
00:43interesting discussions in the comments
00:45section so if you think I've got
00:46anything wrong please do watch the video
00:48and say in the comments section I'm more
00:50than happy to take things on board and
00:51I'm definitely not an expert in this bit
00:53of software so plasticity is a nurse
00:56modeling piece of CAD software which
00:58means that effectively it uses map
01:00mathematical equations to calculate the
01:02shapes and the interactions between the
01:04different shapes that you can see on
01:05screen it also means that it's got the
01:07massive benefit that you can fill it
01:09objects really easily which effectively
01:11means to Bevel them or to Bevel between
01:13different objects and what's so good
01:15about it being mathematically generated
01:17is that you can change things really
01:19easily in a way that you just never will
01:21be able to do in something like blender
01:24which works off mesh and you can see how
01:26powerful this is with how the fillets
01:27transition between the different objects
01:29and the things that you can do with
01:31those objects As you move them around
01:32and it automatically calculates
01:34everything you need the other thing
01:36that's probably worth mentioning at this
01:37point as well is that when you actually
01:39set up plastic stiff you also can choose
01:41the controls that you use for it and it
01:43has settings for things like blender so
01:45it'll emulate the standard blender
01:47settings that you might be used to if
01:49you've used blender before a really nice
01:51feature there that really shows they've
01:53thought about what they're doing here
01:54and making this as user friendly as
01:56possible and it also means you can
01:57transition between softwares really
01:59easily if you want to do something on
02:01one program and then move over the other
02:03by exporting it to the other one finally
02:05and while this is not available yet the
02:07creators put in place some bridging
02:09software or is going to be putting in
02:10place in bridging software that's going
02:12to allow this to work between plasticity
02:14and blend it in real time so that you
02:17can change things in plasticity and then
02:19it will change it and blender as well so
02:21you can do things like your texturing in
02:23blender if you're interested in this for
02:24CG work but it will automatically apply
02:26those changes in blender with the
02:28texturing that you've got applied so
02:30something potentially really powerful if
02:32you want to use those both together for
02:34CG work soul and all a fantastic tool
02:37set an easy to use interface and a lot
02:39of power in the things that you're able
02:41to do especially in terms of that
02:43mathematical modeling fillets and also
02:45being able to Boolean or extrude quite
02:47effectively and you can see the sort of
02:49objects you can create in this video
02:50from Pixel fondue and how quickly you
02:52can go about doing it now that's just
02:55some of the features but the question
02:56kind of remains then why am I not using
02:59this because it seems like the sort of
03:01thing that I would really enjoy and to
03:04be fair I've watched a lot of videos on
03:05this at this point especially those by
03:07pixel fondue and I really enjoy the way
03:09this program works so what's my issue
03:12well let's go through these in order and
03:14these are in importance order to me but
03:16they might be totally different to you
03:18and these might be things that might not
03:19matter to you in the slightest now the
03:21first one and this is for me the biggest
03:23is that you model it in a destructive
03:25way in plasticity whereas here you can
03:28see me working in blender and I'm
03:30applying a difference Boolean and this
03:32has been done in a non-destructive way
03:33meaning we have a modifier panel and if
03:36I come over to that I can still change
03:37things around and I can do this at any
03:40point I could go and work on a range of
03:42different things and then come back to
03:43this and still change it scale it up
03:46make it smaller move it around whatever
03:48I want to do whereas in plasticity you'd
03:51effectively have to delete the object
03:52out and start again or undo all the way
03:55back to this and this works in other
03:56areas as well for example you can array
03:59in plastic T and do things like radial
04:02arrays and to be fair the radial Rays
04:04especially are a little bit easier to do
04:06in standard plasticity than it is in
04:08plain blender without any add-ons and
04:10while that's great if you want something
04:12that's relatively easy to follow if you
04:14want to have more control and come back
04:16and edit things later this becomes quite
04:18tricky the other thing that you can
04:20start to see when you go into the
04:22program is that it is a relatively new
04:24program for example if we look at Ray in
04:27plasticity then you have one way of
04:29doing this radial array and by that I
04:31mean it's got one set of units you can
04:33transform it in terms of a set distance
04:37whereas if we take blender and an array
04:39here we can do this by a distance for
04:42example in millimeters which is the same
04:44in plasticity but we also have a
04:46relative component as well where we
04:48could set this to be a relative to
04:50offset which is going to mean that it's
04:52two widths away from the original
04:53leaving a perfect gap of one width in
04:56between and to do that I don't need to
04:58know or have remembered or go and
05:00measure again the width of this Cube and
05:03this slight lack of fine control and
05:04ability to come back and edit later
05:06extends to things like radial arrays
05:08where again it's very nice and easy to
05:11set up in plasticity but once you've
05:12done it you've done it and you don't
05:14have as much control over things whereas
05:16in blender you can still fiddle around
05:17with things like the iterations and how
05:19far away it is from your Center Point
05:21even after you've done it and you're
05:23coming back to it later which for
05:25someone that does sort of sketching in
05:27blender and then modifies after I've
05:29tried things out a little bit for me
05:31this is a really really big deal so this
05:34destructive workflow that plasticity has
05:36is a bit of a deal breaker for me but my
05:39next thought was this isn't necessarily
05:40the end of the world if I can create
05:42some objects in plasticity and then
05:45import them into blender then I can
05:46solve this problem that way I can use
05:48plasticity for the bits like filleting
05:50the blender's not going to be as good at
05:51and then luckily there's an export
05:53option which means you can bring it in
05:55as an obj and what's really cool about
05:57this is you can change it to tries quads
05:59are and you can fiddle around with the
06:02density of this which means you can make
06:04it more or less detail heavy now this
06:07seems like a great thing but I was a
06:10little bit surprised to find out when I
06:11looked at this that actually the density
06:14of this even at its highest amount isn't
06:16actually as high as I'd normally go if I
06:19was creating something in blender for 3D
06:22printing now don't get me wrong this is
06:24perfectly fine for if you're doing CG
06:26work but it is just is not enough for
06:29giving a smooth 3D print so again a bit
06:32of an issue and hopefully at some point
06:34they'll change this so you can actually
06:36make this more dense because bear in
06:38mind this is being generated
06:39mathematically you should be able to go
06:41way denser than you can in blender then
06:44this issue gets a little compounded
06:45further when you start realizing that
06:48some of the other settings that you
06:49might want to use when bringing this
06:50into blender especially the ngon setting
06:53has issues of its own for example
06:55plasticity seems to be able to deal with
06:57the fact that you've got engons where
06:59they don't necessarily line up when
07:02you've got curves but if we have a bit
07:04of a closer look at this object we can
07:06see that these faces are more
07:07specifically the edges that make up
07:09these faces on some of these cylinders
07:11don't line up perfectly and that's going
07:14to cause not only issues in blender and
07:16a lot of cleanup that's going to take a
07:18lot of time which is sort of taking away
07:20the point of using plasticity if it's
07:21going to take longer to use in the long
07:23run but also if you were to bring this
07:25into a 3D printing program it is not
07:27going to like this and it's going to
07:29note this down as errors and potentially
07:31give you a mesh that's not going to
07:33print or it's going to try and clean it
07:34up itself which is going to potentially
07:36cause problems in the way that this is
07:38going to align these points the last
07:40thing that needs mentioning is the price
07:42and let's start with the fact that you
07:43get a 30 day free trial to give plastic
07:46to your go and if you are interested in
07:48it do as I say check out some of the
07:49videos that are linked into the
07:51description and do try that Thursday
07:52free trial because let's face it blender
07:55can be a bit of a pain to learn it's
07:56great because it's so powerful but
07:58there's just a lot to it I appreciate
08:00that that can be quite intimidating
08:02whereas this is definitely going to be a
08:03level up over certain things that people
08:05use when they start out such as 3D
08:08Builder or other shape based tools so
08:11definitely worth trying but if you do
08:12want to carry on using this you are
08:14going to be paying for it and it does
08:16have a minimum payment of 99 now that is
08:18a bargain compared to certain other 3D
08:20modeling tools like Fusion 360 which
08:23I've got the price up for here and
08:24there's no denying there is a lot of
08:26work that has gone into this product
08:28it's got a lot of potential for the
08:30future and I think it's going to be
08:31really really good I can see a lot of
08:33people using it and I know a lot of
08:35people already are and there's good
08:36reason for that but and this is very
08:39personal as a teacher I do see a lot of
08:42people that aren't going to be able to
08:43afford this straight away and I have a
08:45lot of students whose families just
08:46aren't in the financial situation where
08:48they could put down a hundred dollars on
08:50something like this whereas something
08:51like blender that is free does have paid
08:54for add-ons but you don't need them
08:55straight away you might not need them at
08:57all and it can be made up of lots of
08:59smaller purchases and when I look at the
09:01price of 99 and think about the amount
09:03of add-ons I could purchase for blender
09:04with 99 it starts making me think that
09:07my money maybe could go on something
09:09that's going to be a little bit more
09:10helpful and specific to my needs but
09:12again that's my needs the other thing
09:14that concerns me slightly about this and
09:16they are very clear about this here is
09:19that this 99 is only paying for you to
09:22be able to have access to version one
09:24and all of the updates to version one
09:27and with me wanting more tools than it's
09:29currently got and I don't doubt that a
09:31lot of them will come in time I'm just
09:33not sure how much I'm going to be
09:34getting only having access to version
09:37one and not version two for that 99 for
09:41example at the time of filming this
09:42plasticity has been out for about two
09:44and a half three months and it's already
09:46on version 1.2 meaning this 99 might not
09:50last that long if you want to have the
09:52most up-to-date version of the piece of
09:54software now I can't say what's going to
09:56happen with plasticity in the future and
09:58what they're going to do with this
09:59charge or maybe when it gets to the
10:01point where they're about to release
10:02version two and onwards they might
10:04change their mind and give it to that
10:06Indie license as well but it's just
10:08something to be aware of when you
10:10purchase into this so hopefully despite
10:12my obvious bias that's been a relatively
10:15informative and hopefully not too
10:17one-sided look at plasticity as I say
10:20it's my personal use especially for 3D
10:22printing that means this is not a piece
10:24of software that at the moment meets my
10:26needs but if you've used plasticity and
10:28you find it really helpful do say so in
10:30the comments and put some more positive
10:31things up about it I love reading what
10:33people say and I'm sure people that are
10:35watching this video would find it useful
10:36to have some comments from people that
10:38have used it for a bit longer if you
10:40found the video useful please do hit
10:42that like button and if you're
10:43interested in more great 3D content hit
10:46the Subscribe button and I hope you have
