Modelling question
TangoAlpha
Posts: 4,584
In the UV maps thread, evilproducer posted the attached image.
Now, this shape has a similar profile to an object that I'm trying to build rather unsuccessfully. Essentially, it's a flattened section through a teardrop, with rounded edges and an undulating surface, shaped to a specific profile. But I'm having trouble producing something that looks anything like as elegant as this.
I can take a segmented plane an deform the surface with magnets, which gives me the correct surface shape, but not the teardrop edges.
I can draw the teardrop shape as a polyline and fill it, but when I try to subdivide that, it explodes into a mess of splinters, which doesn't deform at all well with the magnet tool.
So my question is, how do I get the rounded teardrop shape and nice bevelled off edges, yet still have the regular mesh infill?
Thanks for any suggestions :)
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
224 S 200 W, Suite #250
Salt Lake City, UT 84101
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
What I did was draw the shape with the polyline tool, then filled the polygon and used the dynamic extrude tool to extrude the shape upward. I did it a little at a time and would either expand as I extruded or go in. When the desired height is reached, the top polygon will not have a mesh. I added that myself by linking polygons and adding vertexes until I had a grid with large polys. I then went to the Model Menu and used the tesselate function. I used the mid-edge option. To quicken the tesselate process, I selected all the quads and then did the tesselate operation. From there, I smoothed the model. The model was fairly low resolution so I smoothed one level converted that to real geometry. Be careful doing that though. The effect is exponential.
I sent Silene an e-mail with a more detailed set of directions and screen shots. I'll see if I can find it in my sent mail folder.
I should point out that the model is not going to have a filled polygon on the bottom when you extrude, but you fill it by selecting the entire bottom polyline and choosing the Fill Polygon command under the Model menu.
Ah, thank you. So the internal mesh grid is essentially hand rolled. That make sense. :) Because this object is at the base of my model I'm not concerned with having an underside, but I understand the process.
My mesh doesn't have a bottom either as it's sunk into a terrain. I wasn't going to build a mesh on top, but I decided I wanted to be able to use soft select and add bumps and such to the top as it is supposed to be a terrain feature. Along the way, I found it helped stabilize the mesh and prevented unwanted distortions to the mesh when I applied smoothing.
A handy method of making this type of shape is using surfaces tools. Draw the outline using a curve or interpolated curve, make sure the curve is closed using the "close curve" command, select "Coons surfaces", then the polyline and it's done. This will give a flat mesh, which you can round using soft select and pull up.
If this discussion was in Hexagon, it would be simple to describe how to make it into a complete teardrop, but this is about how far I can go in C. :)
Thanks for the tip, Roygee, and great to see you around.
Thanks Roygee - I've been having a play with that idea this morning, and it works quite nicely. Great tip. :coolsmile:
I like modeling but I control only some tools…
Is there some tutorial(s) (pdf preferably) which explains the utility of each tool and each option?
For example, I try to build a road in a very mountainous area, and I do not arrive there, however I am sûre that by using quite specific tools, that should be easy…
I would also like to create my own characters (humans and animals), which are the various techniques?
Thanks.
MMoir's tutorial on modeling is very good, but it is not in pdf form. As you know, he has a thread in which he asks what people would like to see in his next tutorial. http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/37777/ Maybe we can still convince him to focus on the modeling tool set and character creation. Several people have expressed interest. He seems to think it would need more time than a simple tutorial.
PhilW's advanced carrara techniques tutorial from infinite skills shows how to build a road through a mountainous terrain, but again, it is not a pdf.
Blondi9999 has some tutorials that are in pdf format. Some are on original character modeling and advanced rigging. They are not Carrara focused, but so many of the tools among modelers are similar, that I am finding it a good resource.
Thank you Diomede!
PhilW has on its site some free good tutos to begin, in modeling this one is already very interesting: http://www.infiniteskills.com/training/learning-carrara-85/edge-tools.html
The full version at 100 dollards is a little expensive for something which is only part of a hobby but I am conscious that requires some work to carry out tutos of this quality!
I do not find nowhere Blondi9999, except for other things that the 3D…
Don't forget Mark Bremmer over at Carrara dark arts, he has a tutorial where he creates a roadway on a mountain terrain, by exporting the terrain map / editing that in Photoshop (other 2D image editors can be used too), then importing that back into the terrain editor.
www.markbremmer.com/3Bpages/darkarts.html
I was just thinking of that one when I read DUDU's post! I'm glad you had the link!
… very interesting too!
One could listen to him during hours…
Thanks !
I have not picked it up yet but I've heard many people rave about it.
One of the writers, Jack Whitney, also has "Essential Carrara 5 Training" at Lynda.com, which does a beautiful job of lookingat each of the modelers one by one, and all of the different functions of each - albeit somewhat brief. PhilW's also goes into the modeling tools pretty well too. I love Phil's training.
Mark Bremmer rocks. His latest is next on my list of video purchases.
My pleasure - glad it helped :)
The surface tools seem to be much neglected and are such a great modeling method.
Here is a link to a free app that you can use to make roads on a height-map http://www.shapemagic.com/roadmaker/
Unfortunately, free in-depth tutorials on any Carrara subject are very scarce and Amazon does not do business in Africa
Geekatplay has many free really good project-based video modelling tuts for Hexagon - these are just as applicable to Carrara's VM, as they use many of the same tools, although in Carrara they are not always that simple to find and use as they are in Hex.
As I mentioned in another thread, I'm pretty much a novice when it comes to the VM, so any tips to simplify the process are great!
Yes, Mark Bremmer is great. He did the most recent VTC tutorial for Carrara. Also, if you go through VTC as a subscription on the IPad, you can also get the tutorials for earlier versions of Carrara.
I realize that to build a road in the mountain, it is terrain edition rather than of modeling, I made "false route" since the departure…
I passed a good part of my Sunday to try to follow the tuto of Mark Bremmer, but I must open for the first time “illustrator”…
I jumped this step but I all the same managed to create a way in the mountain, which makes it possible to envisage new scenes that I could never have carried out before.
Roygee, I downloaded “Road Maker”, did you already test it?
Can one export the result in .obj file?
From the description of the product, it sounds as if it generates a height map, which would be imported into the terrain editor.
I just downloaded road mapper as well. I'm experimenting and getting frustrated, but I am making some headway. It appears to load a grayscale map (select and copy a grayscale map before opening a file in road mapper). You then use a menu of choices on the left side to enable the making of a road and control its width, the width of the shoulder, and similar. You then mouse-click along the route that you want your road. The program then blurs the grayscale map along the route that you chose for the road. It has 2 or three versions of the map open. I am not sure if you can export as an obj, but I was able to export as a grayscale heightmap and load it into Carrara's terrain modeler.
Like I said, I am still frustrated, but if I get it working better I'll post an update.
Thank you, I let you make the tests…;-)