Ive been experimenting with these damn balls and I just am not getting it - they do the opposite of what i want them to do - just cant get a grip on the balls ( no pun intended - really!) PLEASE, if you good people of bryceland would be kind enuff to post any tips and comments that would make my metaball experience a pleasant one ;[ roch222

do you need to group them as you do with regular primitives? thanks by the way roch222

NO, if you look at the pic on the left you'll see that they are not grouped...no box...they are just placed next to each other. Once you group them they will retain their "meta" shape but they will not react to other metaballs outside their group.

i think thats exactly where i was messing up. I was grouping and they were not reacting to the other balls, thank you - this definitly helped- antything else you can think of please ...do tell roch222

Excellent use of demo Claymor.

Go back a couple posts (More metaball fun) and look at my Mickey model. The shoes are grouped as are the ears. I didn't want them reacting and changing shape with the legs or head. The eyes are grouped in individual colors so I could get clear definition between colors. The mouth/chin is it's own group to so that it wouldn't deform the head. Hope that makes enough sense to help. :) -Claymor

Do a search on the forum for metaballs. These have been discussed several times in quite some detail. I've posted on metaballs and turning off AA, volume materials with metaballs, etc. One of these days I'll have to put something on my website.

Thanks Quest. Love your work by the way...wish I could model like that.

Hey Clay thanks for the great demonstrations..

and by the way it was that nice micky mouse thing that got me started!!!! roch222

Negatives seem to have a lot of "power". It looks like your negative may be wiping out most of the other three, try shrinking it down...a lot. If your trying to create just an opening in the bottom positive try shrinking the negative a lot and elongating it in the y-plane.

The negative is a Shift-clicked metaball is it? The normal boolean negative doesn't work with meta's.

It's a shame you can't specify the strength of metaballs (you can with blobs in povray and povray is free!!)

The bounding box of the metaballs determines it's power. the more it overlaps with the other metaball bounding boxes the more it subtracts (or in the case of positive the more it "melts").

But you can't change the size of the bounding box without changing the size of the ball. You can't change the maximum strength and you can't change the strenghts fall-off or the fall-off type.

That's correct Rayraz...shit-click is the negative maker. It just takes a lot of fiddling...I almost always wind up making the negatives a LOT smaller than I thought I would.

thanks all for your response and comments - I guess these little devils are not easy to work with its not just me being a spazz.. working on a test model will post later if it looks decent.... (im a chicken) roch222

Roch, you're a chicken........are you made out of metaballs? :) Where abouts in the world are you, it's just that I haven't heard the term "spazz" for years. It was a common term throughout my childhood here in Scotland. Cat

Cat - Im From New York & In NY we have Giant Metaballs!!!! Funny, I was trying to find a clean work for "fucking idiot" and spazz just came in my head LOL roch222

Isn't Spazz the name of the brainless crazy brother of Jazz Jackrabbit?

I just think that everyone is a bit Scottish at heart...........LOL 8) Cat

Cat, we used "Spazz" as a term for a hyper type kid or "don't spazz out" meaning don't go crazy. Anyhow, I grew up in Massachusetts and have no idea where the word came from. What did it mean when you were growing up?

Spazz must be universal....we used it in California too...although, with a name like Claymor..the Scottish at heart bit aplies too. :)

My Definition of Spazz:> awkward, asstastic, socially-inept, klutz. roch222

I'm from NY also; Spazz is a slang derivative from the word spasm or to be spasmodic or spastic; Spasm; 1. involuntary muscle contraction: an involuntary sudden muscle contraction 2. sudden burst of activity: a sudden brief emotion, sensation, or action a spasm of pain spasm (n); shudder, tremor, contraction, seizure, ripple, paroxysm, twinge spasmodic; 1. affected by spasms: affected or characterized by spasms 2. resembling spasm: resembling a spasm in sudden brief intensity 3. intermittent: occurring at uneven intervals 4. excitable: prone to sudden outbursts of emotion (Encarta) So to be spazzed is to be either emotionally or physically unpredictably twitchy and jerky.

In Scotland it meant being an idiot. It's so funny the way it has a similar meaning all over the place. Cat

I think that's because a lot of languages are slowly merging with the English/American language. In my country it's really noticable. We even use english words that never existed in dutch. Like a "looping" for instance. I would not know how a looping would be called in dutch. The word "achtbaan" has now changed to "rollercoaster", "Kijk eens even" has changed to "Check this" or "Check dit" etc.

It's probably a lot to do with the fact that computer technology was basically developed in English and since everyone uses computers folk have had to become familiar with the language. Cat

Plus the fact that the dutch have always liked mimicing other languages. During certain periods in history certain languages where "in". Speaking french for instance has been very popular and was a status symbol for rich people. Even now hundred (or hundreds of, I don't know) years later (I'm not very good at history) the use of a few french words is more common for rich people than with normal average income. The average Dutch person will probable say "dank je" or "Thanks" (yes, we say that in english ourselves) and as the amount of money increases it becomes "Merci". Now the same sort of thing is starting to happen with english. Even as very young kids knowing the most english words means 'instant coolness'.

"Sorry, I don't speak freaky-deeky Dutch" -Dr. Evil

My grammar was really aweful in that last message wasn't it?

And how did the exams go Rayraz?

All grades are on a scale of 1 to 10. 1 is really bad, 10 is really good: English was a 6. Physics 2 was a 6,8. Math B2 was a 5,0. (really happy wiht that because my first exam was a 3.6 and when I redid the first exam I got a 3.3! I think this 5,0 is about the best I can do.) Literature was a 6,5 (even though I didn't make the pory assignments and I only read 4 books instead of 5 and I finished it 2 weeks after the deadline. I used a very sneaky tactical plan to get my grade this high.) Dutch not yet known. Chemics not yet known. Informatics not yet known.

Well that sounds pretty good so far and I hope you have success with the rest of your results. Do remember to let us know when you hear then we can have a party..........OK 8) Cat

Dutch and informatics will probably be no problem. Chemics was really difficult and far too much work. I didn't finish all the questions in time. These where my final school exams. The national exams will start 14-5-2003 and then I only have exams for math, physics, chemics, english and dutch. I already finished the rest.

Update: Chemisc: 7.1 for the theory 6.9 for the practise. I thought I really messed those up, but the grades actually are really good. (last year my average was somwhere around 5.8)

Well done young man.....8) Cat

Thanx. And we can already have a little party too, because there's more good news. You know I told about the girl who always said no when I asked her out? I finally made some progress. I scored her phonenumber and I'm going to give a concert with her. We are going to play a nice piece of music from Teleman for 2 viola's accompanied by the orchestra. So that means lot's of practising with her and that gives great oppertunity to socialize. In fact a bit of socializing and building a certain amount of friendship is always one of the best things when you make music together. If you have a feel for how the other person thinks, plays and reacts you'll instantly notice that the music gets lots better.

About time too Rayraz and I hope it blossoms into a wonderful friendship. Practicing together should break down any barriers that are there and let her see the real you. I wish you well. 8) Cat

digita = digital.

I've got another grade: Dutch: 6,3.

I would have been stunned if you hadn't done well in Dutch, mind you a lot of people in the UK fail their English. Thanks for the coke it was very refreshing. 8) Cat