Sculptura

What Sculptura is

Sculptura is a 3D sculpting app for creatives who want to work on an iPad with Apple Pencil. Its volume-based sculpting engine uses signed distance fields instead of traditional polygon meshes, with artist-curated tool presets and a Tool Factory for making custom tools. Models can have separate layers at different volume resolutions, and materials can be painted with vector strokes. Physically based materials and image-based lighting show models in real-world lighting environments. Sculptura offers interactive path-traced and ray-marched rendering for high-resolution models. Sculpting and rendering are GPU-accelerated with Metal; path-traced rendering requires an iPad with an M1 chip or later, which the maker also recommends for the app. The app automatically generates UV maps for exporting models to paint in Procreate, and supports OBJ, STL, and USDZ import and export. Sculptura 2 is listed from $14.99 as a one-time purchase, with volume sculpting, painting, materials, rendering, and file import and export. The maker is indie developer Taylor Holliday, who says he works with designers and artists. Sculptura is available for iOS; a macOS version is under consideration, and the maker says Android is not planned.

Who it suits

Sculptura suits creatives who want to sculpt on an iPad with Apple Pencil and paint exported models in Procreate. Its M1-or-later recommendation makes it a fit for users with newer iPads, especially those who want path-traced rendering.

Getting started

1. Visit https://sculptura.app/.
2. Use an iPad with Apple Pencil; the maker recommends an M1 chip or later.
3. Purchase Sculptura 2, listed from $14.99 as a one-time purchase.
4. Import OBJ, STL, or USDZ models, or begin sculpting with a tool preset or custom tool.
5. Export a model with automatically generated UV maps to paint it in Procreate.

Verdict

Choose Sculptura if you want volume-based 3D sculpting on an iPad, with painting, rendering, and Procreate export. Look elsewhere if you need an Android app or a current macOS version, or if your iPad is older than M1 for path-traced rendering.