CGTalk - cell structure

Lander

08-27-2009, 04:34 PM

Hi

I'm currently frying my brain trying to figure out how to create a geometry that resembles that of a spunge (the synthetic kind you might find around your house, scotch brite)
I need to make it a model since I'm supposed to get really close. But I'm having a hart time figuring out hot to make it.

The structure is more or less that of the bubbles you get if you blow air through a straw in a glass of milk.

Todays idéa is to pack a few hundred soft bodied geospheres in a box, mesh the content and trim the sides with a boolean operation.

But that doesn't work to well.

And so I figured that it could be done with PF or maybe even as a scripted object without PF. It doesn't have to have a thickness but it should be hires enough to look smooth.

PsychoSilence

08-27-2009, 06:32 PM

well, there's a VRay ISO surface that does exactly that:

http://www.dimo3d.info/OH/isomat10.jpg

http://dimo3d.blogspot.com/2007/01/bring-on-images.html

using particles might work just fine too if u have the pwrapper from 3daliens. i guess the blobmesh compound would be dying with high denisty particles...

here's a quick try using a pcloud and the blob (use displacement on this too!):

kind regards,
Anselm

Lander

08-30-2009, 10:04 AM

Thanks I read your post days ago but I'm so loaded with work that I havn't had the peace to answer. I'll probably go for the P-cloud solution- Tried it on my laptop but it's old and slow so I ran out of memory. I'll run it on my new stationary and I should be fine. There usually are multiple ways of solving things.

I'll report back when I'm done.

noouch

08-30-2009, 09:32 PM

Boolean operations probably aren't a very good choice for heavy geometry. If it's just a blocky object, you could try stacking a few Slice modifiers for the same effect.

The cellular map is a pretty accurate representation of the 3D structure of a sponge (or any foam), the problem is visualizing the 3D texture as a surface. VRayISO is great if you have V-Ray. Krakatoa together with KCMs could work well too. There are not many ways of getting a good looking (in closeup) sponge with out-of-the box 3ds max tools I think.

Bobo

08-30-2009, 09:50 PM

Krakatoa together with KCMs could work well too.

Krakatoa with just a cellular opacity map should already work pretty well.

Lander

08-30-2009, 11:04 PM

noouch: I rarely use Boolean since it almost never works and yes slice is a godsend :)
I have Vray but was under the impression that VRayISO was R9 and I don't have it installed anymore.

Sorry to say that Krakatoa is not an option today. Tho I'd sure like to get it sadly it's been pushed down on the list of must have plugins.

I think I'll do alright with the P-cloud+blob+mesher+slice+vray2sided solution for now.

Those spunges do come in a variety of shapes and structures.

Thanks for the help. I'll upload some pics when I'm done.

3DMadness

08-31-2009, 12:29 AM

Since you got vray you can try berconmetaball for the inner structures:
http://www.ylilammi.com/BerconMetaball/

There are some info about it at chaosgroup forum:
http://www.chaosgroup.com/forums/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=45704

Too bad the vrayiso haven't been recompiled for vray 1.5sp3... if you want to try mental ray you can use the solid volume:
http://www.maxplugins.de/mentalray.php?search=&sort=Author

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