Hi neo,

> But what is super cool is the way the can generate
> curve network from a 2d sketch...

Definitely the videos look very cool!

Have you had a chance to actually use the software though?

Or are you basing that statement just only from watching videos and not actually using the software?

I would say try not to make a big assumption on how things work based only off of watching a video.

For instance, do you know if the curves generated are guaranteed to touch one another and can actually be literally used to create a surface network?

Or does it tend to generate a whole bunch of curves that are disconnected from one another?

Even if that is the case, it certainly could still be very useful, but if you have not used the software you might not want to get too overly excited - don't just assume that it magically does everything you might imagine...

My main concern would be that you may probably get a bunch of curves that are only rough approximations and may not be suitable for direct use for surfacing, like pieces may not actually fit together, etc...

- Michael

http://www.dgp.toronto.edu/~shbae/ilovesketch.htm

this looks like something that can change the way we model forever, I have been thinking for a long time how to make something like that possible. I think this people are on the right pass, if only the can figure out how to allow user to control it in all 3Ds at the same time, I guess this is what we need 3D holograms for.

Hi Val -

> if only the can figure out how to allow user to control
> it in all 3Ds at the same time,

Unfortunately it looks like there is a whole lot more stuff to figure out than just that...

One of the biggest is that drawing a kind of loose approximate curve framework generates curve data and not necessarily solids or surfaces.

But it certainly looks like it could be cool for doing some initial sketching / visualization / concept type work.

- Michael

Mmm, but if you have any group of curves that are joined together, you can make a surface out of it - and any group or surfaces that are joined together, you can make a solid out of it :)

Not talking NURBS here, but even with basic tesselation, etc.

(ie. give me some joined edges and I can tesselate a surface between them)

Hi NightCabbage,

> Mmm, but if you have any group of curves that are
> joined together, you can make a surface out of it

Well, no not necessarily - at least not a NURBS surface anyway.

A NURBS surface generally requires a 3 or 4 sided layout to the curve structure in order to generate a surface from it.

Part of that is because the fundamental definition of a NURBS surface is given by a regular M x N grid of points, not just a big heap of unordered points.

The other part is you are also assuming that the sketched curves are joined together and touching one another. From what I saw from some of the results in some of the videos, that does not seem to be guaranteed.

There is a general problem with these kinds of things that if you allow more freedom to just make things generally follow the mouse around, it becomes difficult to also make things touch and join with one another at the same time.

EDIT: oops, I see that you were not talking necessarily about NURBS, but even if you are trying to make a mesh if you don't have a curve structure that all fits together it can easily have kind of contradictory forces being applied to it...

- Michael

Yeah - maybe the idea should be to draw the rough shape of the object, and then go and join the curve together at their corners, etc.

Hard concept, to draw a 3d curve on a 2d screen...

Hi NightCabbage,

> Yeah - maybe the idea should be to draw the rough
> shape of the object, and then go and join the curve
> together at their corners, etc.

Possibly... But that's not a particularly easy thing to make work really well - it's pretty easy to introduce things like wiggles in curves when you try to apply too many forces to them at different points.

- Michael

OMG! This is very impressive. Coincidentally I am a helmet designer (www.soap-design) and this blows me away. Moto, skate, snow helmets can be made for sure. A bike helmet is another story. The surfaces are more complex, both external and internal. Currently I sculpt everything out of clay but this direction is a new ball of wax!...er, ball of clay ;-)

-Dooki

Very nice site and designs!

Hi dooki,

It will interesting to see your design use MoI.
BTW, I cant access your site.

Good Luck !

EDIT : I forgot to add .com :)

Thanks guys.

I've only made a helmet for fun, and using sub-D modeling. For production it's good old fashion clay. Not sure why you can't access my site. It's a plain html site.


-Dooki

Hello dooki,

It is simply because the link in your message is incomplete.
It is stated as http://www.soap-design/

I should be http://www.soap-design.com

Very nice helmets by the way.
Do they comply to security norms or are purely aesthetics ?

Thank you sir!
Every helmet must meet the testing norm. It's a safety product first and foremost. Anything beyond the test norms is the fun stuff I get to do! :-)

-Dooki