The VDM brush lays a whole sculpted shape in one stroke. Press on the model, drag out, and an ear, a horn or a bolt head stands on the surface at the size you dragged. VDM stands for vector displacement map: where a grey alpha can only push the surface straight out or in, a VDM stamp moves every point in any direction, so the shape can lean, curl and overhang.

A sphere with the five built-in stamps dragged out of it: a curved horn, a spike, an ear, a slotted bolt head and a scale
The built-in set, one drag each: Horn, Spike, Ear, Bolt and Scale.

Lay a stamp

  1. Pick VDM in the brush picker. It sits beside Snake Hook and Morph.
  2. The Brush panel shows the VDM stamp rows in place of the Alpha rows. Click a stamp's tile to pick it. The built-in set is Ear, Horn, Bolt, Scale and Spike.
  3. Press on the model and drag out. The stamp is centred on the point you pressed, the length of the drag sets its size, and it faces the way you drag: drag up the screen and the stamp stands upright, drag sideways and it lies on its side. A ring shows the size while you drag, and the stamp is laid when you let go.
The VDM stamp rows of the Brush panel: the Ear, Horn, Bolt, Scale and Spike tiles, then the New sheet, Capture stamp, Import and Export buttons
The stamp rows: the built-in set, then New sheet and Capture stamp.
  • Strength scales the stamp. At 0.50 it comes out exactly as it was sculpted; at 1.00 it stands twice as far out, and lower values flatten it.
  • Hold Ctrl to press the stamp into the surface instead: a bolt head becomes a bolt hole.
  • Symmetry applies as it does to a stroke: with Symmetry X on, one drag lays an ear on both sides of a head, each the mirror image of the other.
  • One stamp is one step: a single Ctrl+Z takes it back, and it is one step on the History slider.

A stamp can only be as crisp as the mesh under it. If a stamp comes out soft or blocky, Subdivide first, or drag it out larger: the shape needs enough points to hold its detail.

Make your own stamp

A stamp is captured from a shape you sculpt on a VDM sheet, a flat square layer made for the purpose.

  1. With VDM picked, press New sheet. A new layer called VDM sheet is added, facing the front view, and becomes the active layer. Switch on View ▸ Focus active layer to see it alone.
  2. Sculpt the shape on the sheet, with any brushes you like. Draw and Inflate raise it; Snake Hook and Grab pull it sideways and over itself, and that overhang is kept. Turn the view as much as you need.
  3. Press Capture stamp, and name it. The stamp appears in the panel, picked and ready, and you can switch back to your model's layer and use it straight away.
A flat square sheet with a bump sculpted in its middle and pulled sideways into a hook that hangs over the sheet
A VDM sheet with a bump pulled over into a hook. The border is left flat.

A few things make a good stamp:

  • Leave the border flat. The shape should sit in the middle of the sheet and fade to nothing before the edge, so the stamp blends into the surface it lands on. Anything sculpted right at the edge is faded out by the capture.
  • Keep the sheet as it is. Sculpt it, but do not subdivide, remesh, clip or move the sheet: Capture reads the sheet's own grid of points, and says so when the layer is no longer one.
  • The sheet stays. Capturing does not change the sheet, so you can keep sculpting and capture again, or delete the layer when you are done.
  • The top of the sheet, as the front view shows it, is the stamp's up: it is what points along your drag when you lay the stamp.

Keep, share and tidy your stamps

Right-click a stamp's tile for its menu:

  • Rename ▸ and Delete for your own stamps.
  • Duplicate makes a copy that is yours. The built-in stamps cannot be renamed or deleted, but a duplicate of one can.
  • Export .vdm file saves the stamp as one file of about half a megabyte Pro. Import ▸ brings a .vdm file in, on every plan.

Your stamps are kept in this browser, like your saved brushes, and are there the next time you open Re:Form on the same device. To move them to another device, export them and import them there.

Good to know

  • With no stamp picked, the VDM brush does nothing and says so. Pick a tile first.
  • The grey Alpha rows are hidden while VDM is picked, because the stamp takes their place. Pick any other brush and they come back, with the alpha that brush had.
  • Stamps laid on your model are part of the sculpt like any stroke: they are saved with the project, and the sculpt's history replays them even if the stamp itself has since been deleted.
  • A stamp or a stroke macro? A macro is a recorded run of strokes, re-aimed at each click; a stamp is one finished shape. Use a macro for things made of strokes (a stitch, a scar) and a stamp for things with a form of their own (an ear, a horn). A macro can record a stamp too: record one drag of the Horn, and after that a single click lays it.