In nuce: “What can CAD do that artists can’t?”, ask many concept designers who get a stomach ache when they hear the word CAD. But wait! Nick Kallen has an antidote to CAD-related discomfort! In February of this year, Nick went into open beta with Plasticity – version 0.3 at the time.
What is Plasticity? Plasticity is a tool for modelling NURBS and is aimed at users who are involved in concept design. The tool is a cost-effective and user-friendly software solution for concept artists and is available for Windows and Mac operating systems. In February, Nick also announced a Linux version that will soon follow. According to Kallen, the final release of the tool will be priced at 25 US dollars for a perpetual licence. At the time of writing, 0.6.6 was the latest version of Plasticity.
What can Plasticity do? The tool comes with a Blender-like user interface, equipped with context-sensitive widgets and pop-up control panels. With Plasticity, it should be possible to quickly create hard-surface assets. How? By users combining 2D curves with 3D primitives using Boolean operations. Completed models are exported in the file formats C3D, OBJ, STEP, IGES or SAT for further processing in DCC or CAD tools.
Click further: All further information about Plasticity on Github. In the following videos, Nick demonstrates the functional scope of version 0.3 and shows interested parties how to use the tool using various case studies. In the last video, Nick explains the Reference Images function that was added with version 0.6.6.
Intro to Plasticity 0.3 in 13 minutes
What is Plasticity?: CAD for Artists
Modelling a sci-fi coffee cup in Plasticity
Plasticity: New feature: Reference Images
