Forger or Nomad, which is better? This is one of the most asked questions by 3D sculptors online. Many who are torn between the two sculpture apps always want to know whether to get the Normad or Forger, since both apps are paid for, albeit, in a one-time purchase.
Time, they say, answers everything. Now, it’s just got a whole lot easier to answer the question on the superiority battle between these 3D sculpting applications.
In this comparison article, we’ll see what each app offers, their advantages and disadvantages, and we’ll compare both using similar criteria to see which edges the other.
What is Forger?
Forger is yet another new 3D sculpting app designed for use on iPad or tablet. With 9 different brushes (standard, clay, soften, pinch, etc.), it allows the import and export of 3D models in OBJ format.
Launched by Javier Edo Meseguer ten years ago in 2011, the application offers brushes, remeshing or even layers, and non-destructive workflow. It is possible to import / export data in OBJ and Alembic.
Forger is compatible with iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch, even if it is obviously on a large screen. Therefore, it’s an iPad that this kind of tool finds its full potential. Forger is a digital sculpture application for artist who wants to be able to sculpt anywhere.
Featuring an intuitive multitouch interface, various warp brushes, the ability to import / export OBJ files, and various other tools, now thanks to forger you can sketch ideas wherever you go.
Forger makes 3D navigation incredibly easy, with its intuitive multitouch gestures. Orbit, pan, and zoom have never been easier!
You can save your scenes in the internal format and use the popular OBJ file format to import and export new models or base meshes.
There are many brushes to choose from: standard, clay, flatten, move, smooth, punch, inflate, layers and masks. You will always find the one you need for each task. Each brush has an alternative mode that does even more!
Forger: Advantages and disadvantages
Like Nomad, Forger has several advantages and disadvantages. Users benefit from the fact that it’s been launched for over a decade and a lot of bugs have been fixed. But it’s not perfect, still.
Advantages
- It’s designed by artists for artists
- It’s ideal for beginners in 3D sculpture who can’t handle the complexities of desktop software
- Intuitive multi-touch interface
- Good customer support
- One-time purchase
Disadvantages
- The mask system still needs improvement
- Still lacking some basic features
Nomad Sculpt
Launched in 2020 by Stéphane Ginier, a former Sketchfab developer, Nomad is a newer digital sculpting app that is also designed for iPads including Android tablets. Nomad Sculpt is the best option to make varied sculptures as you prefer from the Smartphone with advanced tools.
Nomad Sculpt is an excellent application designed to sculpt and paint figures. It has advanced tools that allow you to make 3D works of art in a short time on your mobile. The application has a super-fast interface with an options bar around the screen with everything you need.
You just have to start your work from scratch and give it the shape you prefer. In addition, you can make the strokes with Apple Pencil or Samsung S Pen, and it also has easy touch controls to undo or redo the sculptures.
When finished, you can save them in the project management section, import or export them with ease. Therefore, Nomad Sculpt is your opportunity to demonstrate your artistic skills with the best drawing tools.
Nomad Sculpt is an application that has advanced sculpture tools to make real works of art. They are located around the screen, very well organized. In addition, the design of the application is very simple, with dark backgrounds, which identifies its functions with various nuances.
When starting a sculpture from scratch, start by making the face and features. You can add clay, smoothen, flatten and mask the figure little by little. These allow you to shape the work. In addition, you have functions to cut, remove edges or make curved lines on the sculptures.
In the sculpting process, you find several resolutions, perfect to make the drawing more flexible. You just have to go forward or backward in the App until you get the one you like the most. Apart from this, another interesting section is the primitive shape, where you get different strokes and start a new sculpture from scratch.
On the other hand, the App has the PBR representation function or correct materials that give a realistic finish to each sculpture. Also, you can save your works in OBJ, STL, and glTF formats.
Nomad: Advantages and disadvantages
Although Nomad Sculpt is a new program that offers most of the things you need to obtain spectacular results, like every new apps, it has a series of advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages
- Application with several tools to make different sculptures
- It has brushes such as Crease, Clay, Smooth, Mask, among others.
- Option to customize each stroke
- Project management section to manage your sculptures.
- Various vertex paints with different textures.
- Voxel remesh section to carry out uniform works.
- The application is frequently updated to erase errors, import images, and resolutions.
Disadvantages
- Newly launched and still needs improvement
Forger vs Nomad: A Side-by-Side Comparison
Next, we’ll see a side-by-side comparison of how the two apps fare in the aspect of development, features, cost, availability, and their functionalities.
Software development
Forger has been around for quite some years now. So, the development has been strong all the way along. Many 3D sculptors would tell you they’ve once used Forger before and that goes a long way in instilling trust in new artists.
It has a full range of sculpting brushes. Materials and even background images can be dropped in. So, already Forger is a fully-featured sculpting app and has been around for quite some time. It’s quite stable on all of the devices it works on.
However, last summer, Nomad Sculpt came along with a bang! Its launch announced the fact that there are now two major players in the field. But it looks like a rookie to the game. It got a whole lot easier for Forger when Maxon who owns Cinema 4D acquired Forger earlier this year. That’s experience plus expertise for Forger.
Cost and availability
Forger is an app that is currently available on the Apple App Store. Like Nomad, you don’t have to pay every month or annually to use it.
However, following Maxon’s acquisition of Forger, some people have a negative opinion on that. Their instant fear and the questions that came straight away on social media are does that now mean a subscription model?
Does that mean they have to pay every month? Or does it mean Maxon will fundamentally change the program or does it mean it’ll become part of a suite? But the good news is, more than 6 months following the acquisition, Forger remains an app you can make a one-time payment for.
Forger is currently available for iPod touch, iPhone, and iPad devices running iOS 13.4+ for $9.99. Nomad Sculpt comes at a higher price of $14.99 for iPod touch, iPhone, and iPad devices. However, Nomad Sculpt is also available for free on Android. But the full features can be accessed with in-app purchases.
So, if you’re thinking one is going to be a subscription model soon or if you know Forger is going to be absorbed into a suite, then just buy it now and you can have it for free forever as they can’t take that off you.
Functionality
There aren’t a humongous amount of differences in terms of what the actual app does. However, currently Nomad, surprisingly, has the edge because the developers added things like post-processing. It has features that make a difference.
An example is the trim tool that lets you trim off your models. You can split, you can push holes through with voxel remeshing, and more. That makes it a very different product and it makes it much more functional across more sectors.
So if you want to get into jewelry you need split tools. If you want to get into sculpting with an idea of 3d print, then you’re going to want to put pegs to make them fit together. And if you don’t have voxel remesh and split, then you’re going to be limited a little bit.
But we do think the coming in of Maxon will put some effort behind the development of Forger and it will get a lot of those tools that are being so well received by the Nomad community.
Forger vs Nomad Comparison Table
Finally, we’ll see a side by side comparison of how the two apps compare:
| Forger | Nomad | |
| Availability | For iPod touch, iPhone, and iPad devices | for Android, iPod touch, iPhone, and iPad devices |
| Cost | $9.99 (one-time payment) | $14.99 for iOS (one-time payment), free for Android |
| Operating system | iOS | iOS and Android |
| Key features | Intuitive multitouch interface, comprehensive collection of brushes, Powerful remeshing, | Multiresolution sculpting, Voxel Uniform Remeshing, Vertex painting, Matcap rendering |
| Developer | Javier Edo (now with Maxon [Cinema 4D]) | Stéphane Ginier (former Sketchfab developer) |
| Learning curve | Designed for artists | For complete beginners to advanced artists |
Final Verdict
Forger looks to be playing catch up with Nomad despite having a decade of experience on the market. But what we liked about these apps is that both offer almost the same functions to 3D artists who want to start sculpting on mobiles. We also liked that you don’t have to make monthly subscriptions with both.
But Nomad seems more expensive for iOS users despite having an Android version. However, what they put into the development of the new software justifies the price. Maxon already has a sculpting part of Cinema 4D. But you have to say that it’s not as successful as Blender Sculpting or the granddaddy, Zbrush.
Maxon’s Cinema 4D has not been adopted by the industry in the way that the others have. But maybe there could be something along the lines of them wanting to get a sculpting solution that works better than their in-house one. Nobody knows! But for now, Nomad is more feature-rich and it’s only been around for a year!
