Whew!
I didn't fall out of love with MoI, I've spent nearly two months working on a masterpiece that all started with a cool vision.
One day I pictured in my head a strange port-like shape made from Blends, and it would have a hexagonal aspect to it like a honey-comb.
I pictured a grill inside and it would probably be made with the help of the Flow tool.
Okay, I created it and it looked pretty good after some consternation with the inner grill that became too complex for the Array tool in MoI to handle.
So! What in the world should I do with it? I thought of many objects including the top of a custom PC case for a fan vent, but a boom-box kept coming to mind.
The "Bee" look did not come to mind at first, the object was just going to make a cool stereo model.
I used Networks made from profile rings and curves to make the general lobe shapes for the speaker ports and a big one to make a bee-like head, which was more of an accident.
Everything came together in a piecemeal fashion. Cutting, Trimming and so forth...
And after a while I started to form and idea on what features were needed to make this model look more like a bee-shaped radio.
The "Bee" shape of the thing seemed crazy and strange to me at first, but I fell in love with it's eccentric novelty through the design process.
There were a couple of tools in MoI that I became better acquainted with designing this model, and they became vital:
1) The C-Plane and Orient tools which allowed me to work at any angle needed to build right off of the different strange features of this model.
2) The new Iso-Curve/Trim tool really helped shore up those hard to manage Blend surfaces.
3) Liberal use of the "Isolate" script feature.
Many of the small connectors came from 3DContentCentral.
And Fillets were rarely used so lots of Blends were made.
One strange method I used for creating a surface involved Projecting line segments, draping them over a Networked surface.
In-turn, I Lofted the draped curves to create a new "interpreted" surface...
why? There was the large seam made by the Network, and since you CAN'T tell MoI to put the Network seam where you really want it, I had to get rid of it somehow.
There were many parts of this model that were purely over-kill, but were more for my satisfaction.
My design style, as far as the render phase is concerned is to focus on minute details for close-in shots.
The rendering process was awful display of frustration!
Since the time and money for me to invest in a better rendering program is not on the horizon, I'm using the free Kerkythea.
The plus side is that it has that really nice Metropolis Light Transfer (Bi-Path Tracing) mode which is a savior with tiny detail and all the crazy lighting,
caustics and reflections I so love, but the wait time for cleaner images goes into DAYS, not minutes.
I paid close attention to exporting meshes through .obj's that were not too intense, but with so many surfaces and objects,
Kerky couldn't render the model in other modes. MLT seemed to work fine.
Fine, that is, until the PC at work had to shut down now and again due to power outages! Kerky does not save mid-renders... that sucks!
I'll figure out that part sooner or later with a new modeler, but it was fun inventing new materials.
I've got LED's and illuminated surfaces down pat.
I was going to post the model, but storing a 300 meg 3DM file on the "cloud" is still too daunting for this "cloud" thing everyone is gawking about.
The pics are in the gallery and I hope they inspire many of you!
Here is the "Deluxe" Bee Box model (in charcoal color) with its cool LED's turned on:
Many portable BlueTooth type amplified speaker systems have been popping up recently, (especially after I though of it first ;-) )
but a system like this is really for the eccentric high-end user. This MoI3D modeling project took me the entire month of August 2012 to design
with a final file size of just under 300 megs. The month of September was used to render different aspects of the "Bee Box" for different views.
MoI is unique from an industrial parametric modeler as where you are allowed to free-design an idea rather than have to come up with all the parameters first.
The final renders and results are actually right on the money from what was envisioned at the start.
My only regret was the amount of time it took from start to finish - Not that MoI was slow, but as all the work could only be done in my scant spare time.
I enjoyed this project and I have MoI to thank!
