i’m looking for a way do digitalize my 3D sketches into rhino, so that i modifier, render, 3d print or what ever my sculptures. i know a lot about modeling, but my skills are limited with nurbs, when i want to rebuild my sketches, because the geometry is very complex.
Normaly i would put a screenshot into rhino->
then step 1: draw curves 2d,
step 2: creating surfaces
step 3: make it solid
step 4: don’t like it, restart from step 1
So this workflow is a timekiller.
Are there other ways? Something Soldid/poly-modeling based tecniques? Or does exist a rigging technique in rhino?
for example, i have a box, put 4 bones in it, move one bone knot, and the box bend? or i put a hook at the box and the box stay bended without repeating the whole process? Maybe some sculpting moves??
Well as for the bones, you would need Bongo. But I’m not sure how that truly affects the objects as I have never used it. But there is a command called “cage”, and “cage edit”. You select cage, select your object, tell it how many points in the X,Y,Z you want and it creates an editable box around your object. You then type / select “cageedit” and you can manipulate it. It works well for many things, not so well for others.
Another option in rhino is to make a box, then draw your arc in 3 dimensions as you want it to follow one of those shapes you have in the picture above. Draw another line flat from the corner of the box to the length of the box, and use a command called “flow”. You select the object, then the line next to the object, then the line you want to shape the object to. This command works really well, there is also “flowalongsrf” which works for putting objects on complex surfaces.
There are still other ways to do this in rhino I am sure, but not enough time to explain them all. Start with the commands above, and look at the help file on these commands. They will hopefully explain what I butchered.
Lastly a plug-in which I use a lot and is quite amazing but is not free. Is T-splines, now owned by Autodesk. It is a poly-modeling plug-in that you can then turn the quad meshes into surfaces. It works quite well. I use it for taking 3D meshes from clients and turning them into solids for 5-Axis CNC work.
Keep practicing, you’ll get the results you’re looking for. Great piece of art! Can’t wait to see the 3D Model!
In my optinion Nurbs (in general not just in Rhino) don’t lend themselfes much for the playful interaction you have in mind.Whenever one twists and tapers and noodles existing geometry with any sort of driving elements (Rhino doesn’t have bones but one can use curves or cages) the resulting geometry will get a lot more complex in its structure. Effects of this complexity are that one might not be able to join volumes together or can no more create a smooth transition between elements. A lot of rebuilding was required to get a technically clean result – yet the next round of massaging the model will again ruin the topology.
I would suggest to stick to polygon modelling techniques which you already know, as one doesn’t run into comparable problems here.Modo’s Meshfusion might come in particularly handy here - one could create all volumes one by one and keep them as individual objects and still assemble them to a solid volume and play around with the transition-zones.
Cage editing does not necessarily make geometry more complex - use the PreserveStructure=Yes option to prevent adding control points to a surface when cage editing. The shape will not strictly follow the cage shape, but for freeform modelling that shouldn’t matter.
You are right in this very case, but even then one needs to think of the topology (seams, singularities, degree) of underlying surfaces, so that one doesn’t produce undesired kinks and folds.
I was giving this answer to someone who obviously comes from polygon modelling and who’s output goal (3D printing) does not require Nurbs precision. There’s typically way more deformation options for freely playing around in mesh applications (there’s of course also cage editing) and the geometry principle is a lot simpler. And what this Mesh Fusion thing does has no equivalent in Nurbs. What the OP asked sure can be done in Nurbs but I don’t see an advantage – in particular if he needed to learn Surfacing first.
i’m with @pascal on this one. Distorting flat surfaces/meshes is super easy,no cages even needed, just moving points. (showpts, or solidpton) then extruding/offsetting solid later could be cool.
I had understood the OP from the description in his initial posting that he really wanted to keep everything Life from Start to End – but more linear approaches seem to work for him as well…
i know 197 day’s left. but here’s the result of my graffiti. i know it’s a architectural, edgy one, next time i bring more swing in it… What’s going on with vray 3.0? Are they developing something? Or should i thing about another render solution? It is too old school (Rhino V5, vray 2.0, Photoshop)
