Inspired by JoeQuick, I'm starting my own sketchbook - revealing what I'm thinking about or interested in, that maybe you would be, too.

I was going to do a blog but it doesn't let me upload pictures. Bah - what a stupid idea - blogging about Poser without pictures.

So - here we go.

Been doing a few bracelets, which involves wrapping some shape or shapes in a circle, for the purpose of showing some materials on something interesting.

I was interested in doing a procedural or parametric braid and went looking all over for the math.

Couldn't find it. Then I stumbled on an excellent thread by pjz99.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2751275

I wrote some scripts. I made some objects. I applied some shaders.

This is the result.

What kind of blog you use BB? I have Wordpress, there is no problem to insert pics.

Great Idea. :)

I was going to blog here - Rendo has blogging.

You guys can't use this script because it requires geometry libraries I have never shared. But I thought some might find it interesting to see how it's done.

def splineTransform(fx, fy, fz, t):
        dt = .001
        tp = t + dt/2
        tn = t - dt / 2
        x,y,z = fx(t), fy(t), fz(t)
        dx = (fx(tp) - fx(tn)) / dt
        dy = (fy(tp) - fy(tn)) / dt
        dz = (fz(tp) - fz(tn)) / dt
        tx = MatrixFromVector(Vector(dx, dy, dz))
        tx.w = Vector(x, y, z)
        return tx

r = 3 * inch
p = 8 * r
R = 12 * r

def tube(i, dr, ys, tw):
        a = i / 3.0
        k = 8
        def fx(t):
                return r * sin(2 * pi * (t + a))
        def fy(t):
                return r/2 * sin(4 * pi * (t + a))
        def fz(t):
                return -p * t

        pl = PolyList()
        p0 = ucircleSOUTH(dr, 36) >> Scale(tw, 1, 1)
        pa = None
        for t in lerps(0, k, k * 40):
                tx = splineTransform(fx, fy, fz, t)
                tx = tx * Scale(1, ys, 1) * Trans(0, R, -fz(t)) * XRot(-t * 360.0 / k)
                pb = p0 >> tx
                if pa:
                        pl << pb.bridge(pa)
                pa = pb
        return pl
def braid(morph=None):
        if morph == '?':
                return [
                        ('Tube Size', 0),
                        ('Tube Width', 0),
                        ('Flatten', 0),
                ]
        dr = .666 * r
        if morph == 'Tube Size':
                dr = r
        if morph == 'Tube Width':
                tw = 1.5
        else:
                tw = 1
        if morph == 'Flatten':
                ys = .5
        else:
                ys = 1
        pl = PolyList()
        for i in xrange(3):
                pl << tube(i, dr, ys, tw).weld()
        return pl

Morphing(braid, 'Braid')

It's useful, but not ideal - I'd rather see the tubes stay just touching. The math for that seems like it would complicate things a bit.

Here is my material pawn duplicated and wrapped around a circle.

Suppose we bulge it and clone it 12 times. Niiiice.

hmm. can you follow any path set by a string of co-ordinates? say to make cabling, piping etc.. and maybe string along a 2nd OBJ to make flanges and coupling?

*an example http://images.wikia.com/stargate/images/9/9e/ControlInterfaceRoom02.jpg the central column there. (this is from Stargate Universe)

Quote - hmm. can you follow any path set by a string of co-ordinates? say to make cabling, piping etc.. and maybe string along a 2nd OBJ to make flanges and coupling?

*an example http://images.wikia.com/stargate/images/9/9e/ControlInterfaceRoom02.jpg the central column there. (this is from Stargate Universe)

Yes I think I can. I don't know how to make spline curves yet though, but once I have one I can follow it cloning any unit piece. I could make chain this way.

Great thread

Better a thread than a blog, I think, for this sketchbook idea...

Would it be possible to script these to wrap around another figure body part or prop, e.g. to form a spiral band of braids up the length of V4's arm? If that makes sense...?

Quote - Would it be possible to script these to wrap around another figure body part or prop, e.g. to form a spiral band of braids up the length of V4's arm? If that makes sense...?

the new zb4r4 insert brush will do that. just create the shape you need repeated and draw where you want it to go. you can even cap it with different shapes on both ends if thats what you want. No need to write a script.

~Shane

I got the idea by watching a video about zb4r4. I'm not going to buy anything to do this - it's a hobby - solving puzzles - doing what other people pay for, using only my brain, not my money. grin

This is not a problem I need to solve for some job. This is what I do to avoid doing my actual job, which at the moment is fixing bugs in a product I designed that is in beta testing.

Cage published a Poser script that will do chains and ropes around figure/body/prop things.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2798819&page=15#message_3775040

[EDIT = had wrong script link]

http://www.the.cage.page.phantom3d.net/looper/loopy.html

Yes... zb4r4... that'll be where I got the idea for my suggestion too I expect, as I've just been going through the new features pdf.

The idea that this sort of stuff can be done, procedurally, within Poser is intriguing though...

EDIT: Yes... and I was probably thinking of that Cage script too... I have seen it before.

 Me loves the shaders!

Quote - Render.

Right. I was mainly talking to monkey tho, since i know he has zb.

numbers make my brain hurt. I failed pre-algebra 4 times before i finally said screw it. if it's anything more complicated than simple division i have no use for it. lol. pencils are for drawing, not calculating. (I got through algebra in college tho... barely)

Nice shaders Bill. 

~Shane

Quote - Right. I was mainly talking to monkey tho, since i know he has zb.

numbers make my brain hurt. I failed pre-algebra 4 times before i finally said screw it. if it's anything more complicated than simple division i have no use for it. lol. pencils are for drawing, not calculating. (I got through algebra in college tho... barely)

Nice shaders Bill. 

 

~Shane

I was an English Major, I've got some idea how you feel.

Lovely shapes and renders BB.

I've been thinking along similar lines (and have ZB where part of the idea formed).  I've done some chain animations (poorly rendered by most peoples standards here) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFKZblRPFpM&feature=player_embedded.

That got me thinking about hair - you could use a script to build flat poly lengths (say 1 poly wide by 10 polys long), UV mapped to a transmapped hair type bump/texture, and anchor them to the figures scalp, all pointing out in some sort of ordered way (which I suspect is the sort of thing BB's script could do).  Then use the cloth room to apply gravity to the polys to settle the hair into a nature pose.  Anyway, was a hair-brained idea (excuse the pun).

I so want to do some hairstyling scripts. That sounds interesting, Paul.

I love generic UV mapping - a mapping where you don't have to go draw in some UV template. Being able to just use any procedural or image without any fuss makes sense to me.

Bill, I think modern jets have more of a matte or eggshell finish, could be wrong though.  I guess it depends on my reference I'm comparing yours to.

i love this thread

Love this thread too! Would also love to have that Emitter object. Is that going to be part of some package sometime, BB?

Quote - Bill, I think modern jets have more of a matte or eggshell finish, could be wrong though.  I guess it depends on my reference I'm comparing yours to.

I didn't even look. I'm gonna say I was shooting for a plastic model of an A4, not an actual A4. grin It is, after all, the size of a sneaker here.

Quote - Love this thread too! Would also love to have that Emitter object. Is that going to be part of some package sometime, BB?

It could be. I find that although it looks cool, it doesn't really perform better than a scaled sphere. The big advantage is it only shines where you want it to, because of the collar, and it only glows on one side.

With the collar, you're limiting the spread of the light... does that also make the light more intense where it is "pointing"?

Only if I make it 100% white. Otherwise it's not contributing much compared to the central lit disk.

And if you change it to black, it absorbs all the light that hits it, so it makes things darker - more constrasty - than if you had the glowing disk alone.

Cool. Sounds like could have some interesting effects.

Yes, more contrast might be interesting. I agree.

Hair styling has been my pet/side project for a long time now, but yet to make a break-thru.  I think poly-based transmapped hair is the way forward (rather than stand hair) since it more closely imitates the natural collectiveness of hair strands, and your ability to construct polys in a patterned way could be a way of achieving that.  It's a matter of growing poly/transmapped hair from a dynamic hair skullcap, then somehow applying gravity and collisions to it.  I tried using the cloth room to drape hair strands, and it seems theoretically doable, but would take a lot of work.

Well... maybe it will be better, but I'm not convinced that strand based hair isn't the answer. We do need a more robust Hair room and hair tools, but even with what we've got... have you seen the results Carodan gets with the Hair room?

The promo stage set is very interesting. The model I'm making at the moment... a set, kind of inspired by the interior of the classic series Doctor Who TARDIS... I've been thinking primarily about how it will work as a big emitter, or assembly of emitters, to illuminate, and shade, the scenes I set up within it...

those procedural geoms look very good IMVHO.  this time I'm not gonna say "maybe SM will buy them" as the last time I said it, they didn't buy bill's items.  I hate being a deal killer :crying:

monkey, I recall bill did a set like that using one of the sci-fi corridors.  alot of light-emitting panels along the walls, ceiling, floor IIRC.

if the jet takes off, it will need math magic flaming exhaust

There is a square path with rounded corners, expressed as a parametric function.

This path is then stretched in the vertical axis to form a square-spiral.

Following that path, I extrude an oscillating and evolving cross section.

This particular shape is pointless, but it assembles and demonstrates a number of important techniques that I will need later.

It contains 86400 polygons.

I know that the ZBrush guys have all this worked out already, but I'm enjoying figuring it out from first principles.

The code.

def pfRoundRect(xs, zs, r):
        hxs = xs * .5
        hzs = zs * .5
        def f(t):
                qt = t % 1.25
                if qt <= 1:
                        v = Vector(hxs+r, 0, hzs - zs * qt)
                else:
                        v = Vector(r, 0, 0) >> YRot(360 * (qt - 1)) >> Trans(hxs, 0, -hzs)
                q = floor(t / 1.25)
                v << YRot(90 * q)
                return v
        return f

def splineTransform1(f, t):
        dt = .001
        tp = t + dt / 2
        tn = t - dt / 2
        p = f(t)
        dp = (f(tp) - f(tn)) * (1.0 / dt)
        tx = MatrixFromVector(dp)
        tx.w = p
        return tx

f = pfRoundRect(3 * feet, 3 * feet, 3 * inch)

pl = PolyList()
shape = ucircleSOUTH(3 * inch, 36) >> Scale(.5, 1, 1) 
pa = None
for t in lerps(0, 25, 300 * 8):
        tx = splineTransform1(f, t) * Trans(0, t * feet / 5, 0)
        tx = Scale((30 - t) / 30) * <br></br>                      Scale(1 + .5 * sin(2 * 2 * pi * 5 * ((t/5) ** 2) / 1.25)) * <br></br>                      Trans(-3 * inch, 0, 0) * tx
        pb = shape >> tx
        if pa:
                pl << pb.bridge(pa)
        pa = pb
pl.weld()
loadPL(pl)

Nice work Ted!