Hi southpaw,

> Saying that, I still don't understand why in MoI can build a
> non-organic shape quicker than most places and yet can't
> seem to model a human to save my life.

Well, humans are a much different kind of shape than a mechanical object.

Mechanical objects are full of cut out areas and things like exact circular holes.

If you look at a human body, you won't find anything similar to an exact circular hole on it anywhere - it's a more sculpted form that doesn't have any perfectly straight parts to it.

Because there are no perfectly straight parts on a human body form, that also means that it is not defined very well just by a profile curve - sure you can draw a profile curve like the side profile of a face with a nose etc... but that profile does not "drive" the shape of the face - for example the nose is a small feature and quickly goes away as soon as you move by a small angle away from the side profile.

That is again very different than a mechanical shape - a mechanical shape is very well defined by side profile curves.

MoI is generally focused on a method of drawing shapes where you create profile curves to generate surfaces and also to cut them - that method is a great match for mechanical shapes but not a great fit for a human body.

Something that works more like sculpting where you are manipulating a 3d point cage (like you'll find in a polygon modeler) tends to work better for human body shapes, but then does not fit mechanical shapes very well.


> I'm not sure why the tools work better for certain things, I'm really not.

Well, I'd say basically - if the object that you're working on is well defined by some profile curves (meaning a relatively small number of profile curves can generate the shape, some by creating extrusions or revolutions or things like that and others by cutting away material), then that's the kind of shape that will work really well with MoI.

If the object does not have any distinct driving profile curves to it (note just taking some random snapshot from one particular angle does not necessarily make for a profile that actually "drives" the shape) then you'll be more in sculpting and poly modeling (or voxel) territory.


Hope this helps!

- Michael