Hi Michael,

And just to confuse things even that bit more, you've got SensAble's FreeForm & ClayTools.
http://www.sensable.com/products-freeform-systems.htm

One of the Members on 3dcadjewelry Forum has FreeForm & a couple of others have ClayTools & they've done some really great work with it .
Here's one site with some examples.
http://www.harryhamilldesigns.com/Portrait.html

It really seems like the answer for those wanting something like a NURBS type "Organic Sculpturing".
But from what I understand, unfortunately it's very expensive & the system requirements are very specific.

regards Colin

Well if not NURBS patches, how about some FiberMesh methodologies added to MOI?

http://www.cg.cs.tu-berlin.de/papers/fibermesh.pdf


Since drawing curves within MOI is such a snap, having surfaces and volumes shaped by curves seems like it would be an awesome toolset to have. ;-)

I like how the curves always stay on top of the surfaces and also how features are defined by simply adding points to the control curves and then shaping them! B-)


-Will

Hi Will,

> Well if not NURBS patches, how about some FiberMesh
> methodologies added to MOI?

That's definitely a cool system, but it looks like the final output object is a big bunch of triangles.

That makes it a really difficult fit with MoI because a big bunch of triangles would not be able to interact with MoI's existing tools which all work on NURBS objects instead of faceted objects.

MoI has a big focus on accurate type modeling, and that system is very interesting but for a very completely different style of non-accurate cartoon like modeling... It would be pretty difficult to try and fit both those worlds together in some kind of seamless way.

- Michael

Hi Colin, yup definitely that SensAble system is an interesting system providing a different style (and oriented towards easier to use) organic / detailed modeling medium through the use of specialized hardware.

But yes, very expensive...


It seems to me that brush-based software-only methods like ZBrush/Mudbox/3D coat are the ones mostly on the biggest surge right now though.

- Michael

>That's definitely a cool system, but it looks like the final output object is a big bunch of triangles.

Hi Michael, yes I saw that the resultant meshes were hella ugly but the concept of using curves to generate shapes and contours like that I felt would be something wonderful to have for a NURBS modeler.

I'm certainly not a math wizz so I don't know if the algorithms could be reworked to work with NURBS surfaces or not - it "appears" like it would be compatible since it's curves that are used as input to the system, similar to NURBS...

-Will

Hi Will,

> I'm certainly not a math wizz so I don't know if the algorithms
> could be reworked to work with NURBS surfaces or not -

As far as I can tell it is definitely on the "not" side, I'm afraid to say.

Maybe with additional research in the future they will be able to make it more adaptable in that direction.

Possibly someone with a whole bunch of specialized reverse-engineering type of NURBS experience might be able to generate NURBS output from that, but it would be a very difficult task.

To turn something naturally into NURBS it needs to have a very regular quad-like layout to it, NURBS surfaces are a rectangular net of control points. If you see something that is a whole mess of points connected in no particular apparent order, that then is not something that has a very natural automatic conversion to NURBS.


> it "appears" like it would be compatible since it's curves that are
> used as input to the system, similar to NURBS...

Yeah, but the curves get diced up (intersected with a triangle grid) at one point.

Just because something initially starts out as curves doesn't really mean that it produces similar structured objects out the other end...

- Michael

Would anyone with Carrara6Pro care to fiddle with this using the Displacement Brush in the Vertex Room?
Love to see what people come up with.
Brian

THIS IS A FAULTY FILE_____DO NOT TRY TO USE PLEASE__SORRY
BRIAN

@PAQ
yes Top Mod is a crazy prog for make easily curious forms impossible to make easily with other progs :)
http://www.topmod3d.org/

Where is the T-Spline converter?

Here some funny things TopMod---Zbrush :)

Hi Pilou,

> Where is the T-Spline converter?

It's at http://www.tsplines.com/ - it's a plugin for either Rhino or Maya.

- Michael

Ok I see :)
Is this sort of tools who is use in Rhino (as hidden tool) for the bender or deformations functions?

Hi Pilou,

> Is this sort of tools who is use in Rhino (as hidden tool) for the
> bender or deformations functions?

It adds a different kind of object to Rhino - a "T-Spline" object which behaves sort of like a cross between subdivision surfaces and NURBS.

It lets you do some work more in the style of a polygon modeling program, but also get the final output in NURBS form.

- Michael

yes. a kind of polysurface "with benefits" ;)

jonah

@Pilou

Nice topmodels !