Making a Character in picoCAD | TMNT Metalhead

[@BJGpixel]

picoCAD: johanpeitz.itch.io/picocad Example of a picoCAD Jam: itch.io/jam/picocad-jam-13 * I've since learned the UV coordinates (mapping texture artwork to mesh) can be rotated simply by pressing 'R' (i.e., don't rotate every corner like I did 😅)

[@podthereal]

You don't get enough views for the effort and love put into your content

[@VitaMoonshadowOLD]

you should pin this comment

[@BJGpixel]

@@VitaMoonshadowOLD Oh it was pinned then unpinned on it's own after editing - thanks for the catch! ;)

[@VitaMoonshadowOLD]

@@BJGpixel kk

[@DJ4461]

My conputer is kinda dumb, so I wanted to know what you would think of a lower poly version of megaman volnutt from megaman legends? Or like a gundam or something?

[@MBProductionsAnimations]

this looks like a 3D model you would see in a DS era game, like the ones in those Phineas and Ferb DS games. Good job!

[@abzer0gaming]

Check out the models from the Mega Man Legends games.

[@bolson42]

Omg yeah that’s exactly what I thought, the really low res down scales of 3D models with a lot of vibrancy and shading lol

[@luc751]

This looks more like a gba model, from the few games that were 3D

[@kevinleite6309]

I've played this game a lot...

[@TurliTheCat]

it looks like a SNES model. no way that the DS ones were THIS low poly.

[@RoelTorfs]

You can rotate the textures just by highlighting them and pressing "R". You had me screaming at my screen when I saw you rotate every point individually. 😅

[@BJGpixel]

Haha oh wow thanks! Clearly I need to sit down and read the user manual front to back but I get so excited to jump in and just figure it out on the way 😅

[@goopizza]

WHAAAAAT?? you can do that?

[@saultoons]

This is incredible, I really appreciated the shots and nicely lit title cards of the figure too, it's so cool. I think it was a good choice to try and model that, and you did a great job. Handling those file size limits was really interesting, I would've just done one big cuboid and drawn the figure on the texture, Minecraft style :'D I think I speak for everyone in saying we want to see your entire collection now, and you have to model them ALL like this too :'D Awesome work Brandon!!!!!

[@BJGpixel]

Thanks dude, I had fun putting that presentation together and it was nice to make some art with some 'real' things! :D Hahaha _while looking back and forth between the figure and an overly simple cuboid Minecraft-style representation_ : "Nailed it." 😂

[@saultoons]

​@@BJGpixel Real things huh, not sure what that is, must be similar to this 'outside' thing people keep talking about :'D ahahah yes exactly! a full 23 second youtube video with a spinning Minecraft character made out of paper and stuck together with sellotape is as much as I can handle, thanks for watching :D

[@BJGpixel]

@@saultoons Hahaha that'd actually be so much fun to do - like a whole low budget video making your own "paperCAD" projects 😂

[@saultoons]

@@BJGpixel It's pixel art if you use a low enough resolution camera too! :D

[@BJGpixel]

@@saultoons 😆

[@ulrickai]

I've always been pretty interested in 3D modeling (I'm horrible bad at it though) so it's nice to see a more simplified use of it that works for pixel art. I do also enjoy the step by step and even telling about the mistakes here and there that you later go back to fix. I think that really helps in knowing that, One, sometimes trial and error is something that happens even when you've been at it for a while and two, seeing possible mistake that can be made when others work on it but knowing on how to avoid them or fix them. Amazing work as always~ This is a slightly long tangent but I'd like to thank you. I stumbled by your videos by chance a long while back when I was slightly getting interested in pixel art and I am so glad that I did. Find your videos I mean... Well I suppose also getting into pixel art. ANYWAY, your videos have been the most informative in my opinion. I generally find your videos more enjoyable to watch and a lot easier to understand than others like it, especially since you tend you go through the whole process even the mistakes which I find really helps in the process. I'm honestly not sure if I would have gotten into pixel art if not for your videos since it really helped me have a better appreciation of the art. You're definitely one of the artist that gave me the knowledge and inspiration to even start. I think it was a little over a month ago that I even managed to even post my first work on twitter and let me tell you, that scared the crap out of me but I'm glad I did. I still have a lot to learn but that first step was pretty important to me. I look forward to learning more from your videos and your works. Once again, thank you~!

[@BJGpixel]

Thanks so much dude, I appreciate the support and I'm glad to hear the videos have been enjoyable and helpful for exploring your own interest in pixel art 😊 Congratulations on posting your first artwork - it's a bigger step than many would realize, to put yourself out there like that! Best of luck with your pixel art journey, and thanks watching! :D

[@feature-creature]

This is great! Would love for picoCAD builds to become a regular feature on the channel. It just adds another dimension (pun intended) to the videos. Have you considered modeling one of your previous pixel art pieces into 3D with it?

[@BJGpixel]

Thanks! It'd be fun trying to create a scene based on a previous piece :D

[@_mossy_8520]

@@BJGpixel hopefully you do. That would be great

[@meelo42]

@@BJGpixel if you ever decide to do that i reccomend doing sir lance'lil. i loved the design and im sure it'll look great in picoCAD!

[@legolad2103]

the fact picocad is viable modeling softward amazes me with how small everything is !

[@lucascastro8609]

I think an optimization you could have made is instead of using two pieces of geometry for each part of the ears, have one longer cylinder and rectangular prism clipping through the head. It’s also possible to extrude a single face from the side of the cylinder to make the rectangle. I’m not fully understanding of this software, so I’m not sure if clipping geometry is forbidden, but it’s a common practice from all generations of models to have clipping geometry. It’s still really impressive what you created with this software.

[@BJGpixel]

Ooh wow that's a great idea, I think that would totally work! Sometimes you see things clip depending on where it is in the rotation, but you're actually able to delete faces if you don;t need them textured, so it might work to extrude that rectangle twice (through the head) and delete the middle portion!

[@dbbgba]

I don’t know how picocad works exactly, I’m going to assume it works like old render engines so usually extruding faces is more efficient than having many individual primitives, it saves on hidden geometry that the machine still has to calculate and then determine not to render.

[@Zeldakostv]

This might be my favorite 3D modeling program ever. Literally no hassle and no hundreds of tabs and buttons you know nothing about. You just launch it and start pulling the shapes and instantly get it. No clue why no other 3D programs follow suit

[@plague_doctor0237]

This looks more complicated to me, but maybe it's because i'm really used to Blender and other 3D programs look confusing to me

[@ottogaijin2295]

Great work! I like how the limitations of this software make you (in a good way) keep the model as simple as possible. According to these limitations, you are able to find another way to perform.

[@abzer0gaming]

Here's an idea: Make a PicoCAD model out of a Final Fantasy 1 character.

[@davencio5489]

oh i wish i saw this video earlier, i saw your video about making an object and went to picoCAD inmediatly, made some models and just now i see this when i already made some models like dang

[@maximusjet5412]

i know you would make something spectacular in picocad again, it would be such a shame otherwise

[@HyperTheKappa]

Damn if that metalhead figure isn't clean, what a good toy

[@CaptainAkward]

this is very wicked, I've had a friend harping on me to just use blender when i introduced him to this program but I'm a sucker for low poly things like this. Its awesome to see what can be done in this program!

[@tanercoder1915]

I dig your mid 2012 Mac. what a piece of equipment! I have one too.

[@sm_uadib]

Have i really watched every single video on the channel? These videos are just too great, so chill, totally fine for anyone, and really inspiring good work! Thanks

[@49yoppy]

awesome work james! i couldn't use picoCAD if i tried hehe

[@p0kepanda462]

this one’s shaping up to be a classic

[@Gordypow]

Yesss, was hoping you'd do a follow up like this!! Looks incredible, fantastic work.

[@tanukichan1403]

I might have an easy solution to making round shapes etc. By using an alpha colour you can make things invisible(like a green screen?). I found this in the vehicle example file that comes with the program. Just open that file and change the alpha colour and you'll see that the cars are mainly boxes. But they made round wheels by hiding the texture around them. I hope this helps ^^''

[@BJGpixel]

That's a smart idea; I still haven't played with the alpha to pull off tricks like that but it seems fun - thanks for the tip! :D

[@clem494949]

For the ears you could use a single cylinder, the middle of it will be hidden inside the head. With this kind of optimisation you will be able reduce the number of triangles hence the size of the project.

[@shoespeak]

this is so sick!

[@d.h.k.c8113]

This is perfect for indie devs who want to go 3D but wanna ease their way in by attempting PS1/N64 style 3D first to keep things retro.

[@nbbbnbnnnb]

What's insane is that the model that you made is pretty much a 'R6' in games like Roblox, so if you made a game and rigged it you could play it with this model.

[@blinxerizer5426]

That was well done. I purchased picocad yesterday when it was on sale. Never done any modeling but it looks quite simple to use so I thought it would be cool to play around with.

[@Srcsqwrn]

I really enjoyed this! Hope to see more picoCAD at work in the future! Your pixel art is very inspiring in general!

[@elcarlitosPR]

it looks SO GOOD on CRT!

[@paranoidfoxx]

Honestly, I think you should pursue making low-poly models. They fit your art-style really well!

[@MrMysterious420]

Those Neca Turtles are really nice, they do a good job at accuracy

[@goldenredstone04]

I need you to know that the shader is applied differently to the color replacement. If you want a section where shadows are stronger or lighter you can use a darker or lighter color that is not one of the preset colors.

[@andresrosales3466]

Super cool to see you playing with this. I tried my hand at PicoCAD a few jams ago and it was a bit out of my league 😅

[@CKTDanny]

Haha wow that's crazy, what a cool project! Seeing the finished model rotating on the CRT definitely gave some very retro vibes 👾🕹️ Was also very interesting seeing you hit the limitations of the software. That's something you wouldn't really think of with modern modeling software but it's cool to see how you got around it with well-placed angles and good textures! Also, the production quality in this one 😱 Those were some vvvvv clean shots ✨

[@BJGpixel]

Thanks so much dude! ✨ And yeah I actually enjoyed running into the project limitations; it's fun to problem-solve through it and a good learning experience too. I feel like there's more efficiency I need to bring into the way shapes/models are constructed, but it's a blast either way, and now I have a better idea of what to improve for next time :D

[@CKTDanny]

​@@BJGpixel Haha right on! The explanation about using extrusions over shapes totally made sense too, considering the lower vertice count. Been really enjoying this 3D adventure, can't wait to see what's next! 😁✨

[@BJGpixel]

@@CKTDanny Yeah totally! Gotta try one now that's made out of only extruding a single shape and see how far that can go haha

[@Finally_Doing_It]

This pick cad software is so cool I just wish it had a bit more resolution and a bigger file size

[@rokurokubi3273]

It's an interesting project working with all those super extreme limitations. Reminds me a little of working on Quake models in Milkshape way back in the day. I think I'm happy to stick with Maya nowadays.

[@DommoDommo]

I love these pico cad videos. You're the only one I know on youtube whose really doing them!

[@spakwi]

Please make more videos with PicoCAD, they are really fun to watch! :D

[@CrafterPrime203]

I might consider making a game character design of Pac-Man in picocad. And the reason for that is so I could try to picture what Pac-Man world 2 would look like on the Nintendo DS

[@PirataGalactico]

So cool! I was delaying my viewing of the first picocad video 'cause ironically i' m studying 3D modeling and i'm swamped with stuff. But this, Metalhead? Come on! I HAD TO CLICK. Once this semester is up, i wanna try picocad. Thank you as usual for such great content!

[@caramelzappa]

Picocad is such a neat program. I wish there was an android/ios version of it, seems like the perfect way to mess with modeling on a smaller screen.

[@Obst111]

I really like your picoCAD videos!

[@sunfishensunfishen2271]

I usually make the entire model in one go and then the entire texture, map it and then revise. Probably a bad way to go about it but I don’t mind

[@Gazing-09]

Wow. That's awesome. It's like a pixel / 3D modeling program! Love it! If you have more tutorials like those in the future, I'll be sure to watch it!

[@glorytotheaprdeathtotheufl7917]

I honestly would love to see more picoCAD videos. Started using the software myself and I really learned alot just by watching :D

[@stud1888]

That intro always gets me

[@Draaack]

I am loving the picocad

[@barbedwiredbones]

Metal head was always my favorite

[@manas6340]

Good job! It's looking amazing!

[@Moayad56]

wow this video has taught me alot on how to use PicoCAD tysm

[@scrubsandwich1050]

Great model, I have yet to use pico CAD but I was able to watch it get developed so it’s cool to see a KZbinr I watch make use of it. One thing I’d like to suggest is making a piece based on the ZX Spectrum limitations. Basically 1bit but you can define “tiles” of color from a choice of 15. It sounds like with your experience you can make a good piece with it. Take care

[@fregmack]

After your last video on PicoCad I was trying it out and found it really fun! I’m now trying to learn blender because I found this quite limiting however your work is always great!

[@Holgast]

I was really interested to see how you got around the project limit here. Turns out you didn't but the process was quite interesting to see from a new user's perspective!

[@dollynho8832]

Wow, this is so interesting! I might try that

[@FATBOI_GX]

I like how it looks like it’s from a superFX, ps1and nds game

[@nightthemadqueen5499]

Always here for a pixel treat! Thanks, you inspired me alot and I even got a job thanks to your advises on Gameboy color pallette video ^^

[@mr.preston1632]

I dare you to make Nano in picoCAD

[@mattthebanana]

It looks really good (as always).

[@ugorkius]

you're so talented bro

[@BHDBdingo]

I’m sure you already had the plan to do this video before I asked for it, but thank you :)

[@BJGpixel]

Haha well the additional push of support always helps, thanks dude! :D

[@jaimegraca2628]

You should make 16x16 pokemon style characters with only 3 colours like in the gameboy

[@Draaack]

OH BABY GET A LOAD OF THAT CRT TIME

[@rafakegamestutoriais5455]

That's so cool, pls do more (maybe even other TMNT characters)

[@cryojesterREDUX]

another fantastic upload

[@angrypotato_fz]

The torso looks like a huge face :D

[@Nabooru956]

CRT time is my favorite time. I miss that aesthetic

[@Alverndbl]

I understand that the limitations of PicoCad has it's appeal... but now I'm curious what you are able to do in Blender or MagicaVoxel. Maybe limit yourself with a number of triangles, also I'm pretty sure you can achieve the same render as PicoCad in blender. (Also maybe you should check Sprytile and Crocotile 3D)

[@Insane_Kane]

Im confused as to why a couple vertices would take up several kilobytes

[@hebertdesouza1129]

very satisfying video!

[@_end3rguy_]

This is really cool and a really interesting way to 3D model but is there a similar software but renders higher res, and has a greater color palette? Maybe even saveable as an obj and allow larger texture file I reallly like the low poly style with pixel textures like Mario 64 but this is a bit too limited in palette and screen resolution to make something like that I guess I could possibly do something like this in blender but blender gives me mass headaches and I’m too lazy

[@svenhegenmusic]

8:00 now that's a cute face :D

[@iliyastefanov312]

Looks great!

[@spaceskull7743]

how do you fully export it as shown in 14:14? I'm new to picocad :D

[@Moayad56]

highlight the window and press space

[@lautarosalascismondi384]

9:07 AMOGUS

[@Mat-pu7sk]

I love this

[@abzer0gaming]

Do you think it'd be possible to recreate Mega Man Legends models, or would they be too big for this?

[@DadVader]

WoW! This is Awesome!

[@BJGpixel]

Thanks! I love the sort of PS1/N64 era look you can get with this software, especially seeing it on the CRT after 😁

[@DadVader]

@@BJGpixel Yeah. My favourite game, one of the first is "3D" was Pandemonium on PS1 😁

[@EricNightStorm]

Nice!

[@soldelangel1818]

Nice uwu Gran trabajo 👏

[@nithen8179]

wtf

[@SamiTheAnxiousBean]

Oh cool! looks nice

[@KidNamedDenji]

Even though the file's large, can i import the obj to blender at least after making in picoCAD? Someone please tell

[@malteasermidnight7200]

yyeeeasss SO COOL!!

[@sanstheelumbu]

Will help creating 1990s 3d dos game looks

[@maewilkes8883]

Looks great! 😁 Will you be entering the next PicoJam?

[@BJGpixel]

Thanks! Gonna keep an eye one them; would be neat to make the art and video during the weekend of a jam

[@NaveenKumar-rz4ck]

great work!!!!

[@Mee119]

in a different ninja turtles show metal head was made by donnie to help him do science stuff i think

[@ritorapid]

Hi Brandon! can u make an Analysis of the pixel art used in Ragnarok Online? thanks!

[@BlakaD]

Sorry to ask such a simple question but, Is it possible to make a model on picoCAD and then export as an .obj or .stl file? Im asking this cuz would be a very nice way to make simple and cool papercraft models

[@bryceapsey5931]

How do you open PICOCAD in a separe window it keeps opening full screen

[@Boooo]

So what does it mean if some of the faces pop in and out of existence?

[@mohamadk7083]

Nice job bro

[@prjktz]

are you using a mac??? coz few actions I cant do... like right mouse button, delete object and access the submenu

[@El_Verdulero_98]

You should make a Sprite Analysis of Marvel Super Heroes War of the Gems, great game of the SNES

[@blu3ntv]

im using picocad for a school project, i want to make a gif of the model, how do i make it fullscreen?

[@mr2meows]

i wish i could import blender fbx files to picocad

[@BumbleBaum]

is it important that 2 separate meshes don't overlap? I was doing that the other day and encountered some weird looking interaction

[@faithfearless4656]

James can i ask what is the spec of your PC/Laptop? Because whenever i added the 6th mold the PicoCAD would be really slowed down and laggy.

[@jeffreyredding9229]

Can you animate in Pico cad?

[@RadLazerBoi]

Is it possible take the models and export them to vr chat?

[@lefanadesbriques]

Hey Brandon, I tried using picoCAD the other day but couldn't import the textures into the program. Do you know what could have went wrong

[@MrMeowzahs]

Can this program export meshes? Can you make a game with picocad?

[@named4957]

There is a separate program which you can use to export ( look up gamefromscratch and picocad and he explains it in his video). Game engines are then able to import the exported program so yes u can make programs with the models but there is no built in coding in picocad