Two modelling tools that take unconventional and relatively easy approaches have been released, within a few days of each other. Both are from solo developers who are doing good work at the coal-face of digital content production.
Neobarok 2.0
It appears that Neobarok 2.0 is available. While the site’s headline banner still has this as “Coming soon!”, below the banner are now links to a “Neobarok 2.0.g for Windows” and Linux download, and “The guide and tutorials for 2.0 are online.” So, at a guess, this 2.0.g seems to be some sort of final pre-released late-beta? It’s totally free open source software, offering intuitive modelling and sculpting and paint, plus it appears to make complex boolean operations simple to do.
Curvy 3D 4.0
The second is the easy-to-use Aartform Curvy 3D 4.0, just released. Designed for artists it’s lathe-based, which means you just sketch lines on the screen, and the software auto-lathes them up into 3D shapes. You then merge and blend these shapes together to make your mesh. Also note that… “Curvy 3D objects are created with ready-made UV maps, so you can just select a brush and start painting.”
The front-page still has a link to the old 3.0 press-release, but delving into the forum shows that for the new 4.0 some of the new items are…
* Adaptive Subdivision (i.e.: as you add detail, it automatically makes the mesh finer to accommodate the added detail)
* A new range of Primitive shapes to start working on.
* Now adds a full set of digital clay tools, and a stamp tool.
* Cleaner user-interface and nicer-looking wireframes.
* Improved OBJ export.
* Save hi-resolution screenshots with alpha masks.
* SVG import.
Looks good, with a 30-day demo to try. It’s a perpetual licence and is currently discounted to £68 inc. sales tax in the UK. That’s roughly $80. If you purchased Curvy 3D way back in version 3.0, then try this 75%-off upgrade code for 4.0: CURVY-BONUS-75