CompuServe Messages

Mike, The two main concepts of MetaReyes are FUSION COLORS & GROUPPING. The way to control the fusion in a model is as you point out vitally important. With other Metaballs like MetaClay for SGI or Meta Editor for SGI, you control the fusion of the spheres with two wireframe circles. One is the Metaball size and the second is its influence. That sounds great with 2 or three Metaballs , but its literally a MESH when you have 120. and you cant control ANYTHING. Now think about the image made up by spheres in our female torso. You can perfectly see small yellow parts of sphere protuding in the collarbone area. The meaning of that is just THAT!. Collarbones are protuding with yellow fusion type. Color codes are INTUITIVE and after few hours using the program , a simple sight to a model can give you an acurate idea of its behaviour. GROUPPING lets you control how different parts of a model behave among them. The hand can be a good example. You want the Metaballs of a finger to melt among them but not with those of other fingers. Moreover you want the fingers to melt with the palm. Lets supose that this letters define a hand with three fingers (you will need good imagination <g>) A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 1 the groups created for that could be something like: FINGER1: B C D E F G FINGER2: L M N O P Q FINGER3: V W X Y Z 1 PALM : A B C H I J K L M R S T U V W And finally. Jose made it in six ours. Well, for me he has always been a genius , but I am sure he would have had a hard time doing that with Softimage's MetaClay without goupping , and with an interface that is impractlical when you have more than 10 Metaballs (We work with snaphots of 600 Metaballs exactly the same). Moreover , Take a look to the Face Hugger Image of Kyle Mckisic. It is a wonderfull model also. I cant imagine what he will be able to do with release 2!