Bacteria division - how to do it?

[pjz99]

Might be too simplistic for the bigbrain techniques often shown around here, but imo Metaball does this simply and pretty well.

[zook10]

Thanks for the reply and file. I thought about metaballs, but the bacteria are rod-shaped (they look like the default capsule object but are a bit longer). When I use metaballs with these they become huge and unwieldy and also each one of these needs to subdivide so this method doesn't seem practical . . . unless I'm missing something. :shrug:

[pjz99]

Yeah that is a bit of a downside to Cinema's Metaball generator, it doesn't have a whole lot of finesse. I'm sure the more experienced folks around here will have a better solution.

[NWoolridge]

Yeah that is a bit of a downside to Cinema's Metaball generator, it doesn't have a whole lot of finesse. I'm sure the more experienced folks around here will have a better solution.

C4D's metaballs work with splines as well, so rod shapes should not be a problem...

Several years ago, someone (Srek?) posted an ingenious cell division TP setup on this forum, which could probably be adapted to your needs...

Nick

[Rantin Al]

Nick, do you mean the 'Mitosis' TP file, and the MetaBall cell divide by Srek?

Both Srek files in the zip.

Cheers, Alan.

[deepshade]

I'd be intereseted in seeing someone do this as I pondered it myself a while ago.

Trouble with metaballs is - they are cumulative
make a spline - under a metaball object - OK so far
now make two - and your metaball grows in one pop - no good

Try creating a growing spline, and you can see the sphere points popping into life as the spline gets longer - no good

What would be much better is something that acts more like shrinkwrap - with falloff

you can get close to this if you get two objects under the connect object (with large enough tolerance) and put that in a HN - but it still jumps and pops and the objects move (yes - it wasn't designer for that - but it illustrates the process)

a generator that took the outer perimeter of objects under it - and faded in a metaball way over a falloff distance would be a usefull addition to the toolset. ie metaball look - with objects

unless - of course anyone knows of a better way

atb

Paul

[zook10]

Thanks for the files - the mitosis one is bang on what I want to do but the shape is different (as it's a sphere not a rod). Time for a bit of tweaking.

This gives me hope . . .

[NWoolridge]

Thanks for the files - the mitosis one is bang on what I want to do but the shape is different (as it's a sphere not a rod). Time for a bit of tweaking.

This gives me hope . . .

Here's a file that adds the rods (as two point splines), does it in a metaball, and expands in one plane...

Looks like this:

http://www.bmc.med.utoronto.ca/wiki/TP_Mitosis_Flat-rods.mov

Nick

[celke]

Great, exactly what I needed for my present work. Thank you so much.

greetings

celke

[zook10]

Excellent stuff - much appreciated!

[NWoolridge]

I should mention that I have just adapted Srek's original TP_mitosis file...

Thanks, Srek!

Nick

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