#Metaball upgrade
9 messages in this thread
I haven't been keeping up with the threads on the metaballs software before I
purchased it, so I don't know if this issue has been brought up or even
possible.. but is there, or will there be, a way to view Metaballs in real time
the same way you can with Metaclay in SoftImage?
For example, if you take a ball and move it closer to the next ball while
watching it merge in real time? This may be asking too much, but it SURE would
be nice, a GREAT time saver 🙂 I know you are not the one who designed
Metaballs, just asking if you know anything about something like that. Thanks.
-James Franssen
James,
<<For example, if you take a ball and move it closer to the next ball while
watching it merge in real time? This may be asking too much, but it SURE would
be nice, a GREAT time saver 🙂 I know you are not the one who designed
Metaballs, just asking if you know anything about something like that.>>
The closest you're going to get is viewing the created meshed in optimize, or
the geometry viewer posted here in the forum.
As for the real-time blobby stuff, I would suggest re-posting this message as a
wishlist item to the Metaballs programmer, Javier Reyes 100421,1611.
-Kyle
Hello James,
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 8 or 10 Metaballs , but its literally a MESS
when you have 1000. Then 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. And you dont need to issue a render to see that. The
integrated FAST-RENDER preview shows a color render of the spheres in
their fussion types.
Real time Generation: The same Thing. I can assure you that managing
real time fussion of more than 10 Metaballs with MetaClay is almost
impossible. and with 50 is TOTALLY IMPOSIBLE. Do you know any Softimage
metaball model of the same degree of complexity or control as T-REX ?
MetaReyes approach is simply better (and of course much cheaper).
Thanx for your interest.
-Javi
I'm not sure if you got my other message?
How are you going to animate it?
Will you keep it as a metaball system, or will you convert it to
polygons?
If you keep it as a metaball system, How will you keep the textures
locked to it, when it is deforming. Any info would be greatly appreciated.
Thanx,
Fred Nilsson
That's what I wondered. How do you make the mapping work when a new mesh is
generated each frame?
Evan Yares, Design Automation Systems
the hierarchies of the spheres are up to the user, so that
you can link lines or groups of spheres to articulated 3DS segments
without restriction. With AXP MetaReyes generation you would have a
different mesh per frame. Or you could Generate the mesh once with the
PXP generator and use BONES animation with it. In the AXP case you will
have a way to attach textures to Metaballs in motion in about 2 months.
I have the technical solution to that but it is not implemented yet.
-Javi
Hola Javier, hemos podido usar tu programa para generar algunas animaciones
para esta pelicula de Paramount (Virtuosity). Desafortunadamente el no poder
usar mapas animados nos limito bastante pero esperamos que esto se solucione en
el futuro. Estamos con unos deadlines espantosos, por eso no me he comunicado
con mas frecuencia pero si tienes cualquier nueva version o adicion al programa
nos encantaria poder aprovecharla. Todavia nos quedan dos a tres meses de
trabajo en esta pelicula.
Saludos,
Arturo Sinclair
p.s Prefiero si te quires comunicar conmigo lo hagas a traves de Internet pues
lo uso mas que CIS.
cynart@netcom.com
>> Real time Generation: The same Thing. I can assure you that managing real
time fussion of more than 10 Metaballs with MetaClay is almost impossible. and
with 50 is TOTALLY IMPOSIBLE. <<
Javi Hi.
Thanks for your input on this issue! I respect the fact that viewing
multiple metaballs in real time fusion can be asking for too much, yet as an
artist this would be VERY beneficial. Maybe there could be a way to specify
specific regions to activate real time fusion, thereby narrowing down the
amount of metaball involvement, I don't know, just a suggestion. By the way, I
am very pleased so far with Metaballs! I already enjoy working with real clay,
and this is a wonderful addition to an already powerful software. I am not
knocking the price, I've never had a problem with that, I just mentioned
MetaClay because that is the only other similar software I have had experience
with. So that is all I have for now for a wish list item, to have the ability
to view specified metaballs for real time fusion. Thanks.
-James Franssen
>> Real time generation …
Of course that will be possible some time. (By the way , Jose Maria is always
demanding me that). PC's are 2 or 3 times faster every year. So
that something that takes 1 hour now will take 3-4 seconds in 7 years.
Of course we will have real time generation some time , the only thing
I wanted to point out is that in-between we need intuitive interfaces that
allow the creation of complex models without it.
-Javi