Hi Ezzy, your link to the .3dm file doesn't seem to work for me.

There are a couple of different possibilities - it looks like you've got quite a bit of wiggles and points in some of those curves, that may be causing Network to try and create an extremely dense surface and it is running out of memory.

The other possibility is MoI may be getting confused about the layout of the curve grid. To use network, your curves must form a kind of x/y grid sort of like latitude and longitude lines. If your curves are not quite arranged in this manner, then MoI will probably end up kind of connecting somewhat random curves together which can again result in a a super dense surface that is trying to bend all over the place.

In a case like this you should generally try to split things up into some different zones or pieces and try to surface each piece separately instead of trying to do it all at once.

You can also try using a smaller set of curves, like try using only 5 or 6 curves to start with and then add more.

Looking over your image some more, it doesn't look like you've got a latitude/longitude type layout to the curves, you would normally have them coming up to a pole point at the top and bottom similar to lat/long lines on a globe for example.

It kind of looks like you've got things criss-crossing in a grid pattern, but probably you've got many different grids in there and not just one single latitude/longitude grid. Basically MoI has to figure out how to unwrap your curves into a 2D pattern just like latitude and longitude lines on a globe can unwrap to a simple 2D pattern on a flat map.

I could try to help you some more if you can fix the link to your file, or post it as an attachment here.

- Michael

I've inserted it as an attachment, the first time I tried, i only had octants, and it geneerateed such a superdense structure, thats why I inserted the new lines.

Hi Ezzy - yeah Network can't take curves arranged in this way.

Once you have this starting arrangment:



That basically sets up the poles, those points are now similar to the north pole and south pole on a globe of the world. Now any additional curves need to be either a latitude or longitude line to make an arrangement that Network can use. A longitude line should be kind of a pivoted version of one of those, with ends at those same pole points. A latitude line should cut across all of those longitude lines, not just some of them.

So when you add these curves:



That is not either a latitude or longitude line, MoI won't be able to figure out how to unwrap those curves into a 2D grid like a map.

It's kind of like this - if you have a globe with latitude and longitude lines:



The new curve added above is like this:



That is the kind of thing that won't work for Network.

It kind of looks like you want a final shape that has a lot of little details in it, like little fins and folds in the shape - a model made up of stuff like that is generally easier to do in a polygon modeling package rather than a NURBS-based program like MoI.

If you try to directly surface profile curves that have all those little wiggles and folds in them, you will end up getting those wiggles kind of stretched across a surface, I'm not really sure that it will be able to give you a very good result.

Instead you've got to try to kind of construct an initial shape using smoother curves without all the little wiggles in them (and even with this method you will probably want to build in sections instead of all at once) then you can build some little fins as separate pieces and boolean them on.

But the little wiggles and details on your shape makes it pretty much the same kind of thing as trying to model a face, which generally works better using a polygon modeling program instead of MoI.

- Michael

Oh, I think I see what you mean, all the planes have to intersect at the poles, instead of run paralell to them, like I'm doing, correct, oh well. I guess I best get too it, since that means I have to redefine my planes now, mouse, here I come x.x;;;

I've tried the polygon approach, I suck at it. :/ I'm a pencil artist first and foremost, so I have trouble with the boxyness. x.x

Hi Ezzy,

> instead of run paralell to them, like I'm doing, correct

Correct - although you can have some running across them but they have to cross all of them more like an equator line crosses all longitude lines on a globe.

Do you possibly have a kind of drawing or sketch for how you want this to turn out?

If you can identify any kind of panels or smaller chunks that make up the shape, it might be a good idea to focus in on one of those areas at a time.

- Michael

Not really, its a generalized form I have in my head that I use for felinoids, I have prespectives I've drawn before for the primary three angles [dead on, top, and profile], but no sketch specifically for this. I do use the same shape head though each time.

It seemed like it might be something like a Knight's armored helmet. If so, imagine a blacksmith building the helmet - he wouldn't try to make the whole thing out of just one piece, it's going to be some different pieces joined together. You'll probably get better results approaching it in a similar way.

Trying to do a single big piece with a lot of details all in one single surfacing command just does not tend to work very well, the details will kind of spread out along the surface

- Michael

so, perhaps the bowl of the skull, the cheek scruffs, the face [brow ridges to the upper jaw], and the lower jaw, all as seperate peices.

Yes, I'd say give that a try, it is easier to make progress on each of those pieces.

You will end up with a different problem later on where the pieces will probably not be totally smooth where they touch each other, but I think you'll be better off.

One thing that might work fairly well for you is a kind of hybrid MoI / polygon approach - if you can draw different pieces in MoI and surface them, then you could export that to a polygon mesh modeler and then work on connecting up all the polygons and smoothing them out there.

- Michael

hrrm, I need to practice more... an eliptical sphere would work well for the bow, but I don't know how to make more of it look nice.. and I don't know the specifics about getting stuff made in this to work in SL x.x

SL = Second Life ?

yes indeed :3

It is kind of difficult to get models into Second Life.

SL does not support reading in a general polygon mesh object, instead it handles only prims that you create directly within SL, or a new "sculpt map" object.

You can get a 3dm2sculpt converter from here: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/3dm2sculpt - that will enable converting from a .3dm file that MoI saves into a .tga sculpt map texture file (also check out the discussion tab there for additional details).

But the problem is that you can't convert just any object over, only "untrimmed" surfaces will convert into a sculpt map. So that basically means you can't use trimming or booleans on your object when you construct it in MoI, just build pieces only using stuff like Loft, Sweep, or Network.

Also the resolution of the sculpt map is fairly limited, when you convert it you will just get the sort of broad shape of your surface, small details and folds will not likely make it through.

- Michael

so I cann only import a finished, seamless solid, and it will reduce the resolution of the map?

The map will be at a fixed resolution for each surface, like a grid of 64x64 sampled points.

So the broader your surface, the less individual detail it will have since those points will be spread out over a larger area.

But your object doesn't have to be a solid, it can be an open surface or just one sheet - but any trimming information on the surface (which is typically added during boolean operations for instance) will get ignored and just the underlying surface will get converted to the sculpt map.

- Michael