Hey gang, whats shakin...

Im trying to make a scene that uses pipes/hoses. I followed the tutorial here for making pipes, and in all honestly, didnt like the method. Too choppy and clunky, no control over the pipe as its being built, and I didnt find a way to edit the pipe (w/o great difficulty) after it was built...

I wanted to construct ribbed piping from one point in the scene to another, and the method refered to doesnt explain how to actually "incorporate" the created pipe into the scene... You make the pipe in a seperate room, w/ no regard for the other scene elements or how to "fuse" them.

Im going for a pipe style similar to what you would see in damaged spaceships, like the eberkanezer of the matrix, or the the next alien movie (not there there is one =B), something very giger-esque. I need multiple pipes, spread out, and somewhat randomized in their direction/path...

Anyone have any ideas as to how I could do this?!? Ill try to find some images that show the effect Im trying to achieve, but I think you guys follow me... I hope =B

Thanks =)

This is almost what I mean...

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1565296

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1060869

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1751937

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1436701

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=772226

Sadly, I dont think any of these are Carrara renders, but doesnt mean it CANT be done in C6pro...

Once I understand the "how" Ill be able to figure out how best to apply it for what I need...

 There are a couple of ways to do this. First, using the spline modeler, you can do this in the spline room the the pipline extrusion option and preview in the preview window what is going on in the scene (this is a good choice for draped, connecting shapes). The second way which is good for tubing on objects, is to work in the vertex room on the actual object, draw path where you want the tube to go and then sweep a circle along the path - it's super fast and easy. Then you can smooth the tube if required.

Mark

Thank you sir, your help is always greatly appreciated!!!

Will try these methods out and see what I can come up w/ =)

Mark; is there an option I'm missing here in the Vertex Room or are you prodding and pulling the vertices of the path to hug the underlying shape?  If there's a "snap to surface" option I'm missing, I Want It!

 If you're on the  Mac hold the Apple Key when you click; if you're on the PC, hold the Control key while clicking. This will snap the pen to the nearest vertex or incremental line distant: 1/2, 1/3 or 1/4 depending on what your preference settings are.

Cool.  That will come in handy especially for starting lines.   Pity it won't snap to a surface, tho....  maybe next version!

(For shapes like you demonstrated, I was taking a longer version; create new points on the existing lines of the base object, snap new edges to approximate the new spline, select and duplicate it, then extrude.)

Attached Link: my piping/wiring attempt

I need serious help using the vertex and spline rooms, Im afraid the pdf just doesnt cut it for me, any tutorials on using these things about?!?

I was going for the draped pipe/wire effect, not the elephant tubes... Would be nice to be able to have them "ribbed", if thats at all possible.

The ribs in this sample are done with a displacement map that matches the texture map. The nice thing about using the Spline modeler is that it automatically UV maps the surface along the extrusion path making something like this easy to do - no complicated mapping after the object is generated.

Ive gone through the pdf a few times, and its beginning to make sense. You really have to read it through before it begins to click, and the reading (in my own opinion) isnt the best or easiest to follow. I also dont think its in the proper order for teaching, but anyways.......

I used one of the preset tubes and played w/ that a little to better understand how the spline room works. Still somewhat awkward at this point, but thats ok...

How did you get the curves smoothed out?!? Do you go through the points converting to curves?!? And youre using the pen too to add lines to the path right?!?

In my 1st example, I actually used a vertex polyline and a closed polyline (a circle) and extruded using the piping settings, then smoothed a bit. I also moved some of the vertices around, for added realism, but not really what I expected to render... When I set a shader to it, I didnt get the mapping I expected either, but will try again and see how it goes...

Forgot to ask...

When in the spline room extruding, is it possible to change the angle of the cross section, so that youre not creating the line from left to right?!? How would you make a pipe/tube going (actually starting from) from front to back?!? Or do we just rotate the entire object when done?!?

Thanks...

 If you click and drag the pen tool, it automatically creates a bezier point to smooth the curve. The further you drag the mouse after clicking, the smoother the line. 

It doesn't have to go left to right. In pipeline mode, it will go wherever you want it.

Mark

=)

I see I made a huge mistake the 1st time, going w/ the vertex pipe extrusion method. Thats why I missed the mapping part....

Heres what I mean when going from front to back...

Thats the spline room interface when you insert a spline object...
(I know you know that =B)

Used a displacement map as well, and the mapping is as expected...

Gotta play some more, the spline room is somewhat tricky... The pulling trick you just explained will help immensly.

How come I cant use a vertex polyline and convert it to a spline path?!? Is that considered "unnecessary"?!?

Again, thanks =)

 It's best to go into a quad view. After drawing and centering your cross section, the remaining lines you draw must be on the wall and floor.

 You can go from Spline to Vertex but not the other direction. Spline uses mathmatics (a Formula) to describe the shape. Vertex uses specific vertex points in 3D space to describe the shape.