Archive republication: This article was originally published on 9 December 2020. It has been translated into English and lightly updated for clarity while preserving the original reporting and context.
This article originally appeared in Digital Production 05/2019.
Gravity Sketch is software for sketching in VR rather than necessarily producing finished models, but it is a remarkably capable sketching tool. It has been used professionally for automotive design. At the time of the original review, a reduced edition was available on Steam for €28, while the Pro version cost €28 per month. NURBS export was restricted to Pro, whereas both editions supported FBX and OBJ; Pro also included features such as drawing layers.
Many VR tools were then focused on reviewing or experiencing existing models. Gravity Sketch was different: it enabled professional content creation in virtual reality and opened new perspectives and workflows for designers.
Gravity Sketch shared a stand with Wacom at FMX, directly opposite Digital Production. Wacom was an investor and the project had also received EU support. I was initially sceptical and expected another VR doodling application. After watching students and other visitors create impressive work in a very short time, I tried it myself.
Working environment
Gravity Sketch supported Oculus, Vive and Windows Mixed Reality headsets and controllers. I later tested it more extensively with a WMR headset. Serious work required practice, both with the drawing tools and with navigation through virtual space.
Navigation relied on physical, two-handed interaction. Bringing the controllers together or moving them apart scaled the world; another control let users pull the space towards them or push it away. There were many controls to learn, but practice made them manageable. For me, manipulating a 3D environment with tracked controllers was more significant than the novelty of VR itself.
Beyond drawing lines, users could create surfaces with both hands, build and edit revolved forms, and produce volumes by drawing and extruding a profile. Basic primitives included boxes, pyramids, spheres and cylinders. Precision construction was difficult, but that was not the principal aim: Gravity Sketch was intended to be easier to learn than conventional 3D or CAD software.
Primitives and colours
Creating a primitive, positioning it freely, selecting it, moving it and scaling it all felt intuitive and fast. The same operations were less fluid in a traditional 3D viewport, although working at a desktop was also much less physically demanding. After some practice, planning a simple landscape with boxes and pyramids became straightforward.
Objects could be coloured and assigned simple materials, grouped and duplicated. Selection used a scalable transparent sphere attached to the left hand. Users could import geometry and had access to a virtual camera, surface screenshots and other tools. The documentation and tutorial videos were professionally produced.
Conclusion
Gravity Sketch was not essential for everyone, but anyone who already owned a VR setup should have considered trying it. Buying VR specifically for the application could also make sense for suitable design tasks. The different perspective and intuitive manipulation could be extremely valuable.
Users could build an environment around themselves while keeping every element within arm’s reach, or create a design from above, scale themselves down and inspect it at a larger apparent size while adding detail. VR conveyed scale in a way a flat viewport could not. Working simultaneously with both hands in 3D was compelling, and the experience involved the arms, body and head as well as the hands. It could be physically tiring, but also uniquely engaging.
Links
Gravity Sketch on Steam
Gravity Sketch on Steam
Tutorials, contact and more:
http://www.gravitysketch.com/learn/
