Modelling reference picture

#1

Hey everyone! After some failed attempts on finding a solution by myself here I am with my first post on the forum.
I’ve got this model reference I’d like to recreate, but can’t seem to find how to create this organic meatball like structure.

Things I tried so far:

  • starting off with 2 spheres - using metaball and then Boole - the moment I subtract a sphere from a spherelike object the edges get messed up real bad - also I read how metaball rarely the answer
  • low poly sphere, extruding face and then subdividing - this could work, but can’t really achieve this organic-looking structure
  • tried to combine 2 low poly spheres, but so many triangles were created, I decided this can’t be the way

I’m fairly new to cinema 4d, especially to modelling, but I really want to understand how something like this can be made.

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Screenshot 2020-03-29 at 12.00.10.jpg3212x1736 755 KB

Thank you in advance!
Laszlo

#2

This is possible only with >R20 volume builder tools.

#3

This is the perfect opportunity to use C4D’s volume modelling toolset… See attached file…

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Screen Shot 2020-04-05 at 8.31.48 PM.jpg2354x2266 578 KB

volume_example.c4d (112.1 KB)

#4

Thank you, I’m just checking volume modelling tutorials now!

#5

Check out Thomas Brown’s NAB talk from last year

About the 33 minute mark. I would recommend watching his whole talk as he covers several organic volume modeling techniques.

#6

okay, so I watched like 2 hours of tutorials on how to work with these volume modeling tools, but still couldn’t figure out how to get rid of these janky edges. Obv applied a smooth filter in the volume builder, and even a smoothing deformed, but it still has this ‘unevenness’.

The only reason this bothers me, is that I wanted to add a different shader to the edge of the whole (like in the reference) but even selecting the edge’s faces seems difficult now

btw, what’s your take on this volume modeling toolset? do you think it’s for beginners, or is it really a game changer?

thanks!

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Screenshot 2020-04-08 at 22.19.37.jpg2194x1464 932 KB

#7

Having a different material on the edges is something that has to do probably with the material itself (probably a AO shader to detect them). You could also do that by making the V. Mesher editable and mess with it in Bodypaint.

What do you mean “unevenness” ? It looks smooth to me … do artefacts form in rendering ?
Adding more voxels don’t always smooth surfaces. You can try subdividing the underlying primitives.
Also Smooth Filter has more than one mode that might help.

#8

https://www.deviantart.com/demisart/art/Random-Abstract-Daily-Art-2-826932963

For this image I didn’t use a sphere for the extrusion but a torus. Try that if you don’t like the rim.