"round-fronted" extrusions?

[williamsburroughs]

For the shape of that swoop around the ABC i'd use a Sweep Nurbs instead of an Extrude.
a rough sample hack
http://www.policarpo.us/movies/swoop.png

[graz]

Creating the basic geometry as a bezier path, extrude it for thickness, then use a hypernurbs cage to smooth it and give it that "liquidy bubble" look would be the way I'd do it.
Jannine from 3D fluff used a similar technique in one of her free, online tutorials with a star.
Mike

[fiveshorts]

Thanks for you speedy reply.

So you think a circle/ellipse along a spline that marks the centerline of the swirl? But how would I control the 'weight' of the sweep over its length? I can sort of understand how it might work, but how would the technique translate to say, the "abc" typography in the black circle?

'scuse my ignorance.

[williamsburroughs]

For that, I'd go the SDS route as graz suggested. Always more than 1 way to skin a cat. :)

[fiveshorts]

You know, I tried using a sweep nurb + rail spline this weekend, but I found it hard to control the thickness of the sweep with the rail.... I had that issue of everything spinning round the Z axis with each path segment, and it seemed impossible to use a rail spline that had more points/segments than the original sweep spline.... I'm confused.

[fiveshorts]

I'd pay good money for a 'balloon front' plugin or script — something that allowed me to select the front face geometry of a model (like the letter 'a' of 'abc') and interactively round it forwards from its edges to make an arc profile... No idea what I'm talking about technically, but it seems like it would be no harder to write (for a genius) than some of the other incredible plugins I use?

[Carl007]

Try to boxmodel it and child it to a HyperNurb

[fiveshorts]

Thanks Carl007,

I did that for the main sweep and it worked fine (albeit a very time consuming process), but for the type as well? I was just hoping there might be some other way to make this more controllable/simple/repeatable...? like this (attached):

[jsls]

Yeah, I would love to see a "Bubble/Filet Front" type of plugin/option. That would be very handy, tried to do that a million times....never comes out the way you hope. :scream:

[fiveshorts]

So who do we call? Who do we get in touch with? like I said, I think folk would be happy to pay for such a tool...

[AdamT]

Would also be nice if we had a two-rail sweep which could be used for this (but maybe not all font types).

[fiveshorts]

Indeed. So does anyone know who the go-to guy or gal might be who could actually write such a gem? Maybe it's just not possible? there would obviously be limitations (like there are on the filleted caps of extrusions — constraining too narrow profiles etc.), but this something that would only be applicable to somewhat bolder geometry anyway. You wouldn't use it on a fine script font, for instance. To be able to select the front faces of my 'abc' typography; my outer sweep and my smaller sweeps, then simply 'puff them up' 'til they're rounded, keeping their shapes otherwise intact — what a dream!

[michaeli]

Would also be nice if we had a two-rail sweep which could be used for this (but maybe not all font types).

That would be very nice.

[Per-Anders]

what's wrong with using the scale spline in the sweepnurbs for this?

[AdamT]

what's wrong with using the scale spline in the sweepnurbs for this?
How would that work?

[GruvDOne]

what's wrong with using the scale spline in the sweepnurbs for this?

I could see that working well for the "swoosh" but what about the text?

[Per-Anders]

no you're right i was ony thinking of the swosh. It would be nice to have a constant curve cap option (or at least a proper working bevel).

[rsquires]

Path Deformer , DiSlineDeformer Pro and the new Mograph module Spline deformer are tags that can take an object and send it along a spline. You can twist it and scale it along the length of the spline and it would be the way I would go if I had to animate the sweep coming on. I would also look at box modellng it too if I just had a static element.

I too would love something that did this to extruded letters, it would be very useful. But to be honest I think when this sort of thing comes up I like to model text anyway. It's a challenge rather than a quick fix. Too often people want the easy option, when with a little bit more effort you can get want you want without fancy plugins. I was looking at the Harry Potter logo the other day and the letters are really nicely modelled, as you go very close to the logo and fly through it. I bet it took someone a good few hours finessing it, rather than just chucking it into an extrude object.

Just my 2 pence worth

regards

rich

[Carl007]

Well, I try to box-model as much as possible, even simple text, tedious(sp?) but so much easier to deform and shade etc.

I usually do the "text work" in Illustrator then vectorize it and import it to C4D as a guide for box-modeling, with some additional work in Illustrator with the splines, adding points etc I then extrude the text without caps and make it editable deleting everything except the front points, now I have a nice laid out base to build polygons from.

[fiveshorts]

Yes, that's fine for the big outside 'swirl' (though I, for one, was having some trouble with it), but now I'm thinking about how I'd solve the problem for typography and smaller elements that also need their front faces rounding out...

A practical example: If I wanted the word "International" to be extruded in the Z; stay excatly true to it's corporate definition of font, weight etc., but have a curved front, how would I do that? If I bring in a clean adaptive spline and set a low angle to make it perfect, once it has been extruded, there are too may polys in the Z faces to hypernurb it. If, however, I crudely box model each individual letter, I'm spending hours tweaking each individual vertex to get back to the original letter profile — then making the round faces by eye. Hardly scientific or repeatable.

UNLESS I'M COMPLETELY MISSING THE POINT. Which is entirely possible, and which I'd be happy to acknowledge.

I'm attaching a C4D file with the word "international" imported and set at 0,0,0. If anyone wants to take a stab at it (or just a single letter), I'd be fascinated to see how you'd approach it. (and btw, I just made this up, I'm not trying to get some modeling done for free... :-) I REALLY want to know how to do this, OR I really want to commission someone to write a plugin that'll do it.

[fiveshorts]

I bet it took someone a good few hours finessing it, rather than just chucking it into an extrude object.
rich


No, I'm not trying to be cheap or sloppy, I'm as much an advocate of refined modeling as the next guy — please don't misunderstand — but when the s hits the fan and I've got six network ID's to deliver, each the same but with different text content and the client has fallen in love with some storyboard artist's one-off rendition of rounded type, I don't have time or patience to box model and tweak 50+ letters of secondary text. If I was doing the Harry Potter main titles, I'd be thinking and working VERY differently :-)

That's all.

[fiveshorts]

It would be nice to have a constant curve cap option.

THAT'S what I'm talking about! You've given it a name. Thanks :-)

[acmepixel]

Soft selection weight maps on the caps. Use Weight Lifter Pro.
8.5 users could use Mesh Surgery.

http://www.vreel-3d.de/plugins/WeightLifter/links.html

works for me.

;-)

[basilisk]

Not very elegant I am afraid, but you could try using SPD - create a blurred bitmap version of your text and use it to displace the front of your type.
I did a quick test here - my displacement map could probably be higher res, and you will need to ramp up your SPD subdivisions and turn on rounding. A font such as VAG rounded with round caps would probably work best.
I think it would probably be better to trace the centre of the strokes of your type in Illustrator, and then sweepNurbs a circle along it - to get something like the "abc" logo in the first example.

[fiveshorts]

Soft selection weight maps on the caps. Use Weight Lifter Pro.


Interesting. just downloaded Weightlifter Free version to have a look. Do you literally paint the selections onto the caps? Do you use a very fine regular grid for your extrude caps? I'm trying to understand how you'd get a nice even selection around an "o", for instance...

[tcastudios]

Using Alien Skin Impact "top" bevel in PhotoShop and then Mograph or DiCloner for displacement in Cinema should go pretty quick once the settings are done.
I rather quick test here.

Cheers
Lennart

[fiveshorts]

Using Alien Skin Impact "top" bevel in PhotoShop and then Mograph or DiCloner for displacement in Cinema should go pretty quick once the settings are done.
I rather quick test here.

Cheers
Lennart

OK now THAT looks like a good working solution — not as refined as a "constant curve caps" option in a bevel tool, but something I can turn into a practical workflow :-) I don't own any of those tools, but I'm going to get them. thanks for the quick test :-)

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