Voxel editor for meshing purposes

Question

I am a hobbyist game developer and if there is something I don't like is 3D modeling problem around UVs.

I found that working with voxels is way more fun because I can get the results way faster than any other method.

However, when working with something more than "voxel art", like adding materials, smoothness, etc. the pipeline gets really tedious because what I currently need to do to generate every model is the following:

1. Create my object with a voxel editor (say magica voxel)
2. Import it inside blender
3. Change each voxel color into the desired material
4. Do smoothing with either marching cubes and / or dual contouring
5. Import the model into unity 5a. Add the materials (if not already imported)

All these take away the fun into making 3D models. I have been searching online and found something that almost does what I need: Voxel Studio (part of a bundle called Voxel Farm). However, the only caveat is that it does not allow exporting of single areas (or objects for that matter), it's either the whole world or a new project for each object I need to make.

This defeats the problem of fast asset creation as I would still need to either use blender again or create a new project, add all the materials again, etc. for every single object I need.

If anybody knows of any other software solution, or least a better way to improve this pipeline, please let me know.

Answer 1

3D-Coat uses voxels for 3D modelling, and also provides comprehensive UV and painting tools. From your description, it sounds like this could be a good fit for your workflow. (Here is an example voxel workflow with 3D-Coat, MagicaVoxel & MeshLab.)

Other 3D sculpting software (which exports to voxels) that might be worth checking out include ZBrush and Sculptris. Similar to Sculptris, but browser based, is SculptGL.

Bear in mind that these are mostly aimed at high-resolution modelling - a world away from software like MagicaVoxel! However, 3D-Coat is capable of working with low-res models, suitable for Unity.