complex cross sections made easy in curvy beta

[sculptor]

The following images illustrate the method rather than the complexity.

It took a bit of lateral thinking but after a time i realized one could build the most complex of shapes very quickly in beta 2.07 .

1- simply inflate a cross section of our model
2- then copy that object around in 3d space
3- do merges on those objects as required

complex sections can be made in minutes using this method



image from paint program







cross section of a building made using this method(from a different image)

[ironman13]

Could you share more details on how to do this?
I am not sure what the purpose of the image is.
Is it like importing an Adobe file for a curve?
But you are using an image?

[sculptor]

sure thing

in curvy we can use images with different levels of grey to represent different depths(image must be a 24bit rgb bmp) to produce a relief mesh or we can use a white image on black to auto create.(these choices are in the inflate dialogue)

we use inflate to create a mesh from the image
these meshes can be resized , stretched, copied,rotated etc
so in this example we are building up a kind of complex extrusion that can be made from one image or several images.
we do a merge whenever we wish.
quick merge will act on all the meshes (with no going back)
so probably best to use merge group.(so that you can try different settings in the merge properties)

you can see a image i inflated here
viewtopic.php?t=2110
(if you use that image you will need to convert it back to a 24bit rgb bmp using a paint program)

is this any help ?

[ironman13]

Thanks so much for the reply. I have been playing around with the relief option. If you get the setting right its really amazing. Do you know, will there be a reptology tool in the future?

Also I was wondering if there were a way to paint with textures instead of just paint. I absolutely love this program.

[sculptor]

future development is simon's domain



right click on the base map and you can load textures.(not a texture paintbrush)


there is also an interface to dogwaffle in curvy 2.

the r key is useful to reload textures while making changes in a paint program.

[Simon]

At the moment you need to export obj to another app for retopology (eg: MeshLab).

Painting with textures is on the wishlist for Curvy, would love to get it in for v3 perhaps! Got to finish v2 first

[sculptor]

a few things to keep in mind with curvy


when working with lathes - the resolution slider



the merge properties(governs size of resulting mesh from a merge)

the scale tool - in some circumstances you can scale the model down and re merge it to dramatically reduce number of polygons, worth trying it at different sizes. To see effect.

keep an eye on system memory
the k key will often reclaim a lot of memory (don't know why)