When an artist creates a sculpture from a log, many people think the figure was always there—the artist simply uncovered it. That's why we present Dilay, a platform for creating 3D sculpture designs with a set of modeling tools that are very easy to understand. The interface is divided into three sections: 3D View, Infobar, and Toolbar. From these options you can start sculpting.
3D View
This section shows a wireframe 3D mesh on which you'll work. With 3D View, you can easily move between different planes by moving the mesh with the middle mouse button.
Infobar
From Infobar, you'll find all the contextual information about the tool you're currently using. The section has two subsections: Keys and Scene. In Keys you'll find the keyboard shortcuts for the tool you're using. In Scene you'll see the number of vertices and faces in your design.
Sculpting Tools
In Sculpting Tools, you'll access all the 3D sculpting tools that Dilay offers. The tools are categorized into Sculpting Tools and Sketching Tools:
- Sculpting Tools
Here you'll find more than 12 sculpting tools that you can use individually or combine according to their functions:
Set A: New Mesh – Delete Mesh – Transform Mesh. Set B: Draw – Crease – Pinch. Set C: Smooth – Flatten – Reduce. Set D: Remesh – Trim.
Depending on the tool you select, you can customize the following parameters: adjust the width, type, radius, and mirror effect.
- Sketching Tools
From Sketching Tools, you can create the first draft of the sculpture you want to design. You'll find the following tools: Edit Sketch, Delete Sketch, Sketch Spheres, and Convert Sketch.
When you finish the design, you can save it on your computer as an OBJ file. Dilay is available for free for Windows and Linux operating systems. You can also access its source code on GitHub. However, for modeling to run on your computer, you'll need a graphics card that supports OpenGL 2.1.
