Sculptmaster 3D Free review

Mark Mackay

We review Sculptmaster 3D Free for the iPhone. It's like having a digital lump of clay in your pocket

Published on Oct 30, 2009

Clearly it's just not enough to have sketching and drawing on the apps for the iPhone.

You can now fashion fully 3D models from virtual lumps of clay on your beloved device. Sculptmaster 3D Free brings you straight back your high school art lessons with a lump of digital putty.

The first thing you'll notice about the app is that the inherent problem of inaccuracy that comes with using the tip of your index finger rather than a sharp implement.

To try and combat that problem, the developer has added in a zoom function so you can get right on close on areas that require some finer detail but it's still not quite enough to get sharp edges.

The working area is a three-dimensional rectangular shape which can be moved around at will which does make it easier to work with.

There are three main tools in your sculpting arsenal. One tool is a filler tool that adds in digital modeling medium wherever you press inside the work area.

If you start with your working area facing straight towards you then the filler tool starts adding in clay from the centre. Rotating your work area to different angles will start filling in different places.

Some experimentation is needed to get your head around how this aspect works as it's not especially intuitive.

Next up you have a clay remover tool. When selected, any time you touch your masterpiece to be, clay will be removed in layers. If you add a little too much in one location for example, you can then take it off with this tool. Finally, a rotation tool lets you move your model around to work on different areas.

The 3-dimensional aspect of this app brings it's own issues. Primarily is that when you put a finger stroke across a lump of your digital clay to remove some of its virtual mass, the rendering time leaves a lot to be desired.

Starting off with a large solid lump is a particular headache and our iPhone 3G took some time to render each stroke complete. Mercifully though, starting off with an empty box and filling it piece by piece doesn't involve so much waiting around.

Sculptmaster 3D Free a pretty fun app once you get the hang of it. However this is the tricky bit.

It's not an easy one to get your head around and the lack of tools for making sharp edges and fine detail limit the creative potential a great deal.

If you're interested in 3D modeling it would worth a gander but don't expect miracles from this most basic of digital modeling applications.