Thanks for your response. OK, I am trying to post some .3dm files with this message so you can understand what I am trying to do. For one, I think moi has the potential to fill a niche where organic structures can be conceptually modelled easily and I'm really for you to push this. I'm trying to work on an organic structure that is something like a huge rock (that will eventually be a structure in a built landscape). So I had a really easy time getting the main structure by creating an oval, copying it, moving it up the z plane. Then using the 'show points' command I manipulated the copied oval to give it an organic contour. I based my manipulations by looking at the oval just underneath the copied one, so that I would get an idea of the shape that would appear once I use the loft command. I would then repeat this over and over again, by copying the oval and moving it up the z plane, then manipulating in relation to the manipulated oval just underneath it. If you can see my attached images, I have a side view perspective of the manipulated ovals. And I have a top view as well. Then I have a nurb form of it to give you an idea of the form I am going for after I loft it. SOrry I don;t know how to make these images appear i n the body of this response.
The tricky (and crazy part) comes next. So I have this basic rock shape that is formed by me making its contours out of ovals. At the top I want to continue this process, but to start gradually rotating the manipulated ovals so at the top of the structure there is neck formed that doesn't just go straight up but bends and curves off to the side much like a stem with a heavy flower on the end of it. So you can see at the very top of my structure I copied the last manipulated oval and rotated the copy. I want to manipulate this new oval so that the organic nature continues to change in relation to the manipulated oval preceding it, but now I want the ovals to rotate through space. I want this to continue until I get a 'flowering' form of the top of the rock.
So with these ovals that I am rotating, ideally i would like to be able to scale them on the same plane. But more importantly, in terms of creative freedom, I want to be able to use the "show points" command and manipulate the scale and form of each skewed oval point by point. That way, I have much more power over how my final form will look, point by point. At the moment, if I try to manipulate each point in the new rotated oval, the manipulate points have trouble staying in the same plane and the idea of creating this form out of its own contours is lost. (I know I could keep each new contour level in the construction plane, manipulate it and then move it into position and then rotate it, but that is painstaking and that inhibits the growth of the form. And as Moi to be an artistic tool, it would be nice to remove any process that inhibits natural growth from the form itself.
Right a way, when I started using this program the abilty to draw free form and then manipulate each point I feel is the heart and soul of Moi. It's like having Illustrator's Pen tool in 3D and best of all you can sculpt with it. And even more so, by being able to add manipulating points to shapes like ellipses and squares has so much potential to really get sculpting in 3d. But your creative freedom only goes so far as long as you stay within the construction plane. Once an object is rotated into space your ability to manipulate points within the newly created plane of the object is hard to control.
S with the rotated manipulated oval at the top of my form. Ideally, I would like to look at the contour that precedes it and then by using the points on it, manipulate it to continue the growth of the form, but I feel like I kinda hit a limitation of the program now. If you understand what I am trying to do, I'd very much appreciate your suggestions.
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