sayd
MoI is a Nerbs modeller not a poly modeller. Quite a different approach and MoI is better suited to the items it's sounds you want to make I suggest..
Have a look at the Gallery. Click on an image and the attached images of the workings show up..
And, importantly, read this stuff and look at the Tutes.
http://moi3d.com/resources

Hi sayd, the modeling paradigm in MoI is a lot different than polymodeling.

In MoI there isn't as much focus on building a rough 3d shape and then pushing the points of that around to squish it into a different changed shape.

Instead the focus is more on drawing curves that define key profiles of your object, then create your model based off of those curves, sometimes surfacing them using stuff like sweep, loft, etc..., and sometimes cutting and removing material using the profiles.

Instead of squishing your surface (which is still actually possible in some ways just not a primary focus), in MoI you will generally put your effort into manipulating that curve framework instead, before surfaces are created.

I usually compare it to more like drawing or illustrating, where your stuff is more constructed in place, rather than pushing points of surfaces around which tends to be not much like drawing but rather more like sculpting instead.


> What is Moi more suited for? Organic modeling more technical things?

I'd recommend looking at the gallery here: http://moi3d.com/gallery/ to get a good idea about this.

Also check out the video tutorials here: http://moi3d.com/1.0/docs/tutorials.htm , those show how to construct some fairly typical style objects.

It is more focused on kind of industrial / technical type stuff. There is a certain kind of "organic" element available since you can use curved forms, but it is not really for more highly detailed organic forms such as faces or creatures or stuff that has little teeny-tiny bumpy or lumpy organic details. MoI's kind of organic is more like broadly sweeping curvy stuff like you would see in consumer products and stuff like that.

- Michael

Thanks for your reply.

Offtopic:
I am working now on the lamp tutorial, which is great. But how can i set the blueprints for the lamp effectivly. Cause some parts are bigger than others and just placing the references in the top, right and side viewport is not enough. I already watched the blueprint setup tutorial, but in case of the lamp i guess it does not help me very much, as there are now allegations of the size.

Edit: Is there any option so that i can turn the mesh slighlty transparent, rather the hide the whole thing? I read about the moi.ini. Other ways?

Hi sayd,

> Cause some parts are bigger than others and just placing
> the references in the top, right and side viewport is not enough.

One way that can help to place a bitmap of a very specific size or alignment is to first draw rectangle curves (using the Draw curve tools) into the scene and then snap on to those when you want to place the background images.

When you are drawing a rectangle, you can control an exact width or height of the rectangle by typing in numbers for those values in the Width: and Height: options that show up in the upper-right options area of the screen.

If you continue to have problems aligning the bitmaps, maybe you could post a .3dm model file that has your current setup in it, then that would make it easier for me to show you some steps on how to fix it up.


> Is there any option so that i can turn the mesh slighlty transparent,
> rather the hide the whole thing?

Sorry no, there is not any way to do this in the current version of MoI.

However, make sure you have the option for "Display hidden-line curves" and "Display hidden-line edges" turned on, these are in the Options dialog in the View section. This gives you some similarity to a transparent view because it allows you to see and also work with edges that would normally be hidden from view.

- Michael

Hi Michael,

>>>but it is not really for more highly detailed organic forms such as faces or creatures....

Sounds like a bit of a challenge (where is Brian) .

I will agree that organics can be much easier in a poly program with SDS (smoothing), as just box modeling can be made with the smoothing at the end.

I think some "creatures" need to be built in MoI (sounds like a new (interesting) thread needed)

- Steve

The recent watering can tute shows pretty well how flexible the MoI Nurbs programme is.
I am using the watercan approach more often now myself.
There are so many programmes now with displacement painting that I feel one should do basic work in MoI and finness in one of those.
Good programmes are Carrara6Pro, 3D Coat and Hexagon.

The image attached shows an example where I aged a MoI item
in the Carrara vertex room with the displacement brush and gave it appropriate shaders. (I think!)

Hi Brian, that's definitely a good idea to combine sort of basic shaping in MoI and then fine detail added by displacement painting.

- Michael

This is a very rough and quick example of displacement painting on a sphere.
(In Carrara6Pro)
Displacement Painting with 3D painting, as in 3D Coat, are examples of "horses for courses"