#bend objects
18 messages in this thread
Systop. Question. I have made a grided object that I want to bend into several
morphable objects, like a piece of paper turning a page on a book;(Schreiber
Instruments) makes a routine called "Imagine page" that I am tring to copy by
hand. Anyway when I m make the object, tessellate the faces, and then bend the
faces, i find that the faces do not bend in a desired way. They elongate and
forshorten in un realistic ways. Is there a way to bend an object, like a
piece of paper, so that it looks real and not distorted without going to the
IPAS routine?
My second question. I would like to aquire the Special Effects Creation
Toolkit aka. 3D Studio Plug-In Toolkit. How and where do I aquire it, and How
Much? Last quetion. With this toolkit, is there help through the forum, and
also a users group?
Charles,
>> Is there a way to bend an object, like a piece of paper, so that it looks
real and not distorted without going to the IPAS routine? <<
create a mesh with mesh.pxp – it will ask you how many grids you want and what
size. You will now have an object with suitable face orientation and it should
be bendable quite nicely.
Martin There isn't a mesh.pxp but there is a grid.pxp which is what I am
refering to I made an object with grid, like a piece of paper, 11x 8-1/2 and
gave it a thickness (1/64), no problem with that part. Then I put 3 holes in
it just like the real thing. By the way I made the grid 11 x 9 x 1 to make it
simple. This is where I dispute what you say about the object looks natural. I
went into the editor, and selected some of the faces and not the object. The
reason for this is to lift one corner, for example, first, then lift more of
it, etc. until I ge enough morphs to do the job. What happens, the faces
become elongated and become longer than they should be. The holes stretch out
of porportion. It does not look as it should. What I am leading to is this.
If you where to take a piece of string with lets say 10 steps, and do a bend on
it, will it be the same length or would it stretch to something else?
Also You didn't answer my other questions on the Toolkit, on line help for it,
and a users group for these IPAS programs.
Thanks Chuck
Chuck,
>> There isn't a mesh.pxp but there is a grid.pxp <<
my mistake, sorry. That's what I meant.
This is getting a bit too complicated to analyze effectively on the forum. All
I can do (without trying it myself) is try and understand the problem and give
hints.
If the bend is not perfectly along the length or width of the paper then this
problem is a little more complex. You'd need to anticipate the direction of the
bend and then construct geometry with the edges aligned perpendicular to that.
Possibly a grid with a lot more complexity might do it. Either that or
tesselating and orienting faces manually with the modify/edge/divide and
modify/edge/turn commands.
>> If you where to take a piece of string with lets say 10 steps, and do a bend
on it, will it be the same length or would it stretch to something else? <<
It should be. There's no scaling going on.
>> Also You didn't answer my other questions on the Toolkit, on line help for
it, and a users group for these IPAS programs. <<
That's simply because I don't have answers about those questions. You might
have luck asking that again in the IPAS usage or Developers sections.
Martin
Martin Tesselating and orienting faces manually with the modify/edge/devide and
modify/edge/turn commands on a grid object. >> I did the first part (tesselate)
and then did the bend. I do understand the concept, will try.
Thanks. Chuck:)
FWIW, when I have wanted a bend without the distortion problems inherent
in the bend routine I use rotate instead. Once I have the face edges aligned to
best advantage (perpendicular to direction of bend) I create a box aligned as
in Ara's message. This allows me to easily align the user view perpendicular to
the bend line by using User View/Align/Face (this may not be necessary if the
object is already aligned to Front, Top, or right/left view). Then I select
sets of vertices, realign the Axis to the edge of the "bend" using
Axis/Align/Place, and then Modify/Vertices/Rotate the selected set. Repeat as
necessary. Slower, but it might get you what you want. Hope this helps.
JDH
here is an other way to do it:
1- make your mesh using grids.pxp
2- make a cube smaller than the grid size.
3- orient the cube over the grid at the proper angle at which you want the
paper to bend(you should endup with to concentric square shapes at relitive
rotation angle to one another as vewied from top). hope this made sence?!
4- make sure the cube also intersects the grid as viewed from side.
5- make a bullion subtraction of grid from cube.
6- get rid of all sides of the resulting object except the grid side.
7- vouala… you have a new flat grid with diagonal lines that can be bent at a
diagonal.
It is much simmpler than it sounds, try it.
Best is to buy the page roll and curl pxp from Schriber
let me know how it worked.
ara
Good trick, but how do you bend more than 180 degrees? as in rolling it up. I
used topas for this until the Schreiber IPAS.
Now i dont think that you can do without distorting the mesh.
i have never done what you need (bending more than 180), but here is an other
sugestion. i am not sure if it will work!
1-start with 2d shaper and draw a straight line with a lot of segments.
2- copy this line several times (equal to number of morphs you need)
3- edit each line by moving and rotating each segment to show differant
positions of the curling paper as you would see a pagr curl from the side.
4- outline all edited lines.
5-go to lofter and loft each outline in 2 d shaper to the same straight length.
calling each lofted shape curl1, curl2…..
6- now in key framer you have a bunch of shapes that can be morphed.
7- if it does not work buy page curl from schriber <G>.
take care
ara
Ara I like the concept of making all the lines in the shaper and then lofting
them, but when the paper turns, it should have an angle to it lets say in the
"Z" axis. Also, 3D Studio should be able to do this function with out the
extra expence, no?
Chuck
PMJI, Chalres, but part of the beauty of 3DS is that it is an open program.
There are so many important things that people think "should" be part of 3DS.
Personally, I could live without page turning for the rest of my life. I would
like to see things like IK, NURBS or other advanced spline modeling
capabilities, real-time shaded previews/views, programmable/custom shader
rendering interface, etc…
Who's to say what special little features get included in 3DS? That's what
Plug Ins are for.
John Tissavary (LUNA cie, inc)
John. Your right about that about that! The point I was making was that a
program like this should have the capabilities to bend an object without
disstortion as an integral function and not an add on, third party program.
Wouldn't you agree? Chuck <Reel Images>
I completely agree, and I think this capability should come from the modeler
and what types of objects the keyframer can manipulate. I would like to see a
good spline modeler (we'll see a patch modeler in R4) and the ability to
keyframe animate solid objects using deformation tools like skeletons and
lattices. I think stuff like this will be possible via Plug-ins coming this
fall. The real strength of 3DS is that its shortcomings can be eliminated with
add-ons.
John Tissavary (LUNA cie, inc)
Then, if you can get away with less than 180 bend, my message #117170 to you
which i sent yesterday should do the job!
Let me know what you think about that trick.
ara
Oh, that does work, I've done it but it is a real bear to do and also
coordinate with the rest of the scene. I found it easier (and faster
rendering) to do in Topas. The same project took me over 50 morph objects when
I gave up in 3DS. Page curl is today's answer to the problem. Well worth the
cost for the IPAS unless you work for free. One thing is very nice about 3DS
and that is the IPAS concept. It has enabled me to build quite a varied
collection of goodies to do just about anything. Python is another IPAS that
has many uses to save time. I'm looking forward to the IK and metaballs too.
Now if I can ever get that refraction working without having to fake it I'll
almost be completly outfitted.
refractions… give it a few more months. i am sure it will be there in form of
an ipas.
plus we will have so much more the it will make our heads spin!!!
ipas is a major "kick_ss".
ara
<<My second question. I would like to aquire the Special Effects Creation
Toolkit aka. 3D Studio Plug-In Toolkit. How and where do I aquire it, and How
Much? Last quetion. With this toolkit, is there help through the forum, and
also a users group?>>
IPAS toolkit cost $250. You will also need a compiler and Phar Lap linker. Call
800-964-6432, or talk to your Autodesk dealer. More detailed questons about
Developing applications should be posted in the Software Dev, Kits section
(10).
There are many users groups, but I don't know which ones will have people
knowledgeable in programming. However, the best user group around is this
forum.
-Brian
Brian Thanks Chuck