heyas; okay, here's another thing i want to model and i have no clue how. i want to make ram horns -- not just smooth ones, but the ridged kind. no, more ridgy than bump-mapped. i saw some really cool ones at the daz m2 contest gallery, that were made in bryce by replicating a torus. i don't have bryce, and i couldn't use that anyhow, because i need to export the mesh, of course. now i've got rhino, and i can draw a spiral curly-horn path. and i could do a one rail deal with that, but that won't give me ridges. i could array a bunch of toruses (torii? whatever) on the curve, but i can't tell rhino to also shrink them as they get near the end. i've got lightwave, and i could do the replication thing... IF i knew how far to move/size/rotate the suckers. i'm sure there's some formula... but i'm an artist, not a mathemetitian! actually... wouldn't the formula depend on moving/sizing the torus as a percentage of its current size? i don't think lightwave does that, i think it does absolute measurement movements. so, anyway.... any ideas on this one?

here's a quicky 2 rail sweep in rhino, with sometime spent on the rails and curves, it may give you what your after

my video is messing up again ,but hope you can see what you need

shot 2

Basically place the circle of different sizes then set their location in an offset circular pattern,then loft

Hey Blood, You might try the seashell tool in LW, I know it isn't exactly what you want in one fell swoop, but it might be a start. The screen shot is done with a simple disc, you could also try it with a donut. Regards- Lemurtek

hmmmm.... not quite what i had in mind, guys. that's interesting 4th, but i'd drive myself nuts trying to get the ridges to be all proportional and to curl around like that... although... hmm, i might give it a try. now the rest of yas got them smooth horns. well, i could do that! ;) i need them ridgy things. i hate that seashell tool, but you can use a torus with it? i'll have to try that one. i was also thinking of messing with spiralizer, but i don't think it'll do what i want, either. thanks for the hints, guys, and keep 'em coming if you got more! :)

the smooth horns that i showed you was mainly the way of getting the job done to get the ram style use more shapes ,and to get the ripple effect use large and small shapes alternating,I will try to give you a rendered and wireframe later tonight

have you tried importing a torus into bryce and doing it with that? if you make it out of an imported rather than a bryce torus, you should be able to export it

I know this sounds crazy but Zbrush does incredible ones. Ron

Heres, what I do in Rhino. Make your horn segment and then array along a line . Then Taper the result. Bend the whole mess a smidge in one direction and then use the bend command to twist it in a perpindicular direction. You might have to explode the objects since the bend and taper commands don't work on polysurfaces. Just join the surfaces rigt back together after you get through making your adjustments. I hope this made sense.

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"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination".

Albert Einstein