How to create a Hand Carved Texture with Aspire Vectric

Overview

This video demonstrates how to create a realistic hand-carved texture in Aspire V12/V11+ using a custom sculpting brush, rather than the single-direction textured toolpath. The workflow builds a dish-shaped component, saves it as a reusable sculpting brush, then manually applies and rotates strokes to follow the contours of a 3D model.

Steps

1. Create an oval vector and use it to create a component with a dish-shaped profile. This will become your hand-carved “gouge” brush.
2. In the component tree, right-click the dish component and choose Save As Sculpting Brush. Delete the oval vector and hide the brush component so it does not interfere.
3. Set your modeling resolution. If the brush appears too small, switch the job setup resolution to Standard — the brush size is based on pixel count, so larger pixels create a larger brush.
4. Bring in your 3D model, for example the horse head clipart, and enlarge it to fill the workspace.
5. Go to the Sculpting Tool. Choose Deposit or Remove — the sculpting brush is not available for Smooth or Smudge.
6. Select the custom sculpting brush from the brush picker.
7. Set the brush property to Merge so multiple strokes combine cleanly.
8. Adjust brush diameter and strength. Use the mouse wheel to rotate the brush so the stroke direction follows the natural curvature of the model.
9. Apply strokes around the model, thinking about how a knife or gouge would actually move across the surface. Vary brush direction for the neck, ears, and other features as needed.
10. When finished, use a bounding vector around the model to trim any texture that extends outside the model. Adjust the new component’s base height and shape height to make the texture more subtle or more pronounced.

Key Points / Warnings

• The standard textured toolpath only cuts on the material surface; projecting it onto a 3D model removes material away from the model and cannot follow curved details.
• Textured toolpaths cut in a single fixed direction, which is why hand-carved results look artificial.
• The sculpting brush is only available with the Deposit and Remove sculpting modes, not Smooth or Smudge.
• Brush size is tied to modeling resolution and pixel count: standard resolution gives a larger brush than very high resolution for the same brush component.