Hi Mike - also regarding that Network example that you posted - usually you're better off building things as larger surfaces and instead cutting pieces of the big extended surface off rather than trying to build things in little bits at a time.

That will still generally be a better way even at the time that there are continuity controls - continuity controls only adjust shapes at the very edges of a surface, and it's pretty easy for surfaces to have a kind of bunching up in form near the end even if they are technically fully curvature continuous at their edges.

When you build larger more extended surfaces, that tends to make shapes that are more naturally smooth with more evenly distributed curvature throughout themselves rather than trying to tweak a patchwork of little bits just by their edge zones to be smooth to one another.

Doing that kind of "one patch at a time" type modeling doesn't really exploit the greatest strengths of NURBS modeling which are actually more in the areas of being able to cut and slice pieces more freely than you can in polygon modeling. If you want to build things one little patch at a time, a polygon sub-d modeler is actually a better overall technology for that kind of an approach because it kind of more fully melts things together than edge continuity tweaking.

That's why those kinds of tools were not a big priority for MoI initially - they can be useful but they're kind of a workflow that isn't going along the absolute strongest area of NURBS modeling.

- Michael

> usually you're better off building things as larger surfaces and instead cutting pieces of the big extended surface off rather than trying to build things in little bits at a time.
> That will still generally be a better way even at the time that there are continuity controls - ...only adjust shapes at the very edges of a surface, and it's pretty easy for surfaces to have a kind of bunching up in form near the end even if they are technically fully curvature continuous at their edges.


I definitely get you on those points.

So what would be nice to have the NetworkSrf tool and some kind of "super point-cluster/surface/de-buncher smoother" tool... ;-)

Yes, I agree with your insight that a more 'whole'-istically designed surface is a "better" designed surface. And I'm glad you're prime directive with MoI is the KISS principle, which is why it's so attractive to artistic folks like myself in the first place.
Intuitive controls should be preferred over complex ones.

Case in point, with what you said above about the subtle control of the 1D/2D scaling handles. It's more efficient in the long run to be able to do commands with subtle mouse movements than to have to constantly check boxes and tweak settings and depress complex key combos.

With that said - your implementation of (on view) interactive spacing and distance choosing is an absolute Godsend.


Well thank you very much Michael for taking the time to explain and expound these concepts to me! I certainly appreciate the thoughtful feedback, and I think this sentiment goes for many more of us that enjoy using MoI.

Wow Michael that Flow command looks super useful! :D

I can't wait to have a play around with it :)

For the kind of work I do, I'm sure I'll get a lot of use out of it.

Ok - got sidetracked for the past couple of days tracking down an offset bug in the updated geometry library. Now that's fixed and I'm back tuning up the new Flow command. Once that is a bit more finished up it will be time for the v3 beta. Flow will need some more tuning after the first v3 beta to improve surface quality - in the first release when morphing solids with curved pieces it can tend to make kind of lumpy results. But morphing curves works well and also morphing planar surfaces work well so for text right now morphing text that is just a flat planar surface (using the "Create:Surfaces" option in the Text command) and then shelling it to thicken it into a solid once it is in place will work better than morphing solid text directly, at least for now.

- Michael

Is it wierd that I got nervous??? :o

Good luck Michael!

Will you make a special forum for V3 Betatesting or is it in the general forum?

Rudl

Hi Rudl - beta stuff will just go here in the regular forum.

- Michael

All this stuff is just great!! Groups for the scene browser is still on the list doesnt it??

Hi Ed, yup groups is still planned for v3. It won't be in this very first v3 beta but I'll probably be working on it in not too long.

- Michael

Oh good, I love groups ^^

Will be fun to play around with Flow!

Burr - no, it's not weird - MoI is a big part of our lives :D

Great!

> Burr - no, it's not weird - MoI is a big part of our lives :D

That starting to make me worry... could repeated MoI use be considered an addiction?

It may leave the Dorsal and Ventral Stream underworked, but The Lateral Occipital Complex and it's Semantic Processing while using MoI will never invoke Visual Agnosias and may actually enhance it's absence.... FYI

Still working on the new Flow command - I think I've got a good way to tweak things to get some better quality in the deformed results, they were kind of bumpy.

- Michael

Hi Michael, still working on 2D or 3D flow ?

Hi Anis - currently working on the surface-to-surface flow.

- Michael

Hi Michael...

Is that possible in the future flow command work for solid or stl ( mesh ) on to surface ?
Below for example :


Nice to see some new good stuff coming to MoI V3 :)

Thank you...

Hi Anis - MoI does not have any method to import STL files - STL files do not contain NURBS data inside of them, they only contain a bunch of little triangle facets.

You would need to use a polygon modeling program to edit that kind of data, not MoI since MoI is instead focused on editing NURBS data.

The kind of design that you're showing there is not really well suited for NURBS modeling, particularly things like the scorpion relief design on the side - the scorpion itself would be better suited to be done in a polygon modeling program, let alone applying it to a surface.

I'd recommend trying one of the brush-based deformation programs like ZBrush or 3D Coat for doing that kind of project that you're showing there. You can do the base ring design in MoI but then bring it into ZBrush or 3D coat to apply the relief designs.

I don't expect that it will be easy to fully create that particular kind of design in MoI - it's not suited for something with that kind of "high frequency" details that have a lot of little bumps and ridges in them and are not very well defined by profile curves. On the other hand the displacement systems in ZBrush or 3D coat are well suited for that kind of project so they are much better tool for that particular kind of project. They have a kind of stenciling method that will allow you to take a bitmap image and kind of stamp it into your model making raised areas.

Different kinds of 3D modeling methods can tend to be better for certain kinds of projects - that kind of project you show there is better finished in a displacement type program and not in MoI - I don't expect for that to change in V3.

- Michael

> That starting to make me worry... could repeated MoI use be considered an addiction?
For you Mike, you're already addicted (how many tutorials have you made so far? LOL) :)

Hi Michael,

Sorry if my question not clear enough.
a. Is that possible make flow command "wrap" 3D solid nurbs on to 3D nurbs surface ? Of course the 3D solid nurbs here not the scorpion one. For example a 3D solid text.

b. Regarding the scorpion, yes I know to create them we need another polygon software. The scenario is just import the scorpion mesh data in to MoI ( not create ) then use flow command to wrap on to 3D nurbs surface inside MoI.


thank you...