Help editing geodesic sphere

BruceND75

I have imported a geodesic sphere OBJ (downloaded from 3D warehouse as an SKP, and saved as an OBJ) into my Bryce 7. I want to render the object two different ways:

1) With the polygons transparent, and a material applied to the vertices.

2) With a material applied to the polygons, and the vertices transparent (so that the outside shows through the vertices).

My goal is to situate the camera inside the sphere, looking out.

Would REALLY appreciate someone helping me figure out how to accomplish

Oroboros

Which sphere did you get? Different models have different possibilities.

Post a link, or a render of what it looks like. If the object comes in distinct sections, please render each section in a different color. Just make the materials opaque, but change the diffuse color in the materials lab.

GussNemo

For you apply different materials to different parts those parts will have to be separate when the model was created. That is, the polygons would have to be separate, and the vertices would have to be separate.

If they are separate, hover the mouse pointer over an area and while holding down the control key, left click and you'll get a menu of parts. It's then a matter of selecting from the list, clicking on the 'M' from the icons next to that part, and chose the material you want to apply from the material library.

BruceND75

Oroboros & GussNemo,
Thanks for the quick reply, and sorry for the slow one of mine to yours.

After reading GussNemo's post, I determined that the models I was trying to work with were not made of individual polygons or vertices.

This is one of the two models I had downloaded from the 3D Warehouse and converted into an OBJ file with Sketchup.

Geodesic Catalog • Class I • High Frequency

I also used the Class II sphere.

This is the image that was the inspiration for what I am trying to create. I am trying to make a background image for my site. This image shows the sphere from the outside. My goal is to position the camera in the center of the sphere looking out, with the vertices looking very much like the vertices in this image against a black background.

http://element05.deviantart.com/art/Apple-Partikal-12671172

It appears as though I need to find a different model.

Open to suggestions.

Oroboros

Yeah, sorry mate, fighting an uphill battle shading edges differently from the faces in that one.

...But gimme two minutes...

EDIT: OK, give this a whirl.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/13900881/geodesicWithWireframe.obj.zip

This is a geodesic sphere with a wireframe as a separate object. Expand it, import it into Bryce, Ungroup it. You should have independent control of the edges and the faces now.

You've explicitly asked for control over the vertexes. I'm afraid you'll have to handle that yourself. I could do that, but there are myriad ways of tailoring meshes, corners and other things, and I'm only here for Q&D stuff :)

GussNemo

Bruce you could also take that first object and rework it in Sketchup so you end up with separate pieces. Or just use Oroboros's very nice object.

Dave Savage

Well that was an interesting morning.

I wondered if it would be possible to do it using materials instead of an actual geodesic sphere.
My idea was to just create a regular sphere and using transparency, create a sort of cage of triangles.
Short story... I could figure it out, but thinking about it, even if I had, I don't think it would map onto the sphere properly anyway.

So the top one is a render I made from object Oroboros linked to.
The bottom one was the result of my DTE tinkering, which I think still looks cool but certainly not the desired effect.

Now I'm just rendering a geodesic sphere I knocked together in Wings (that only took a few minutes).
And finally, I'm going to try and make one in Bryce out of toruses (tori?) Because it is just geometry and that's what Bryce is really really good at... I just hope I can do the maths.

Dave Savage

Here's the one I made in Wings3D... It's not exactly how you wanted, but with some precision input instead of quick pulling, it can be done.

I also used materials to show that the two parts are able to be handled differently.

GussNemo

@Dave: Really like the look of the Wings made geodesic sphere. Good choice of material.