Hello everybody: I'm trying to make a corn-vegetable-kind-of object using AnythingGrooves. The displacement map is based on the black and white shader from the back. I'm not entirely pleased with the tip/cap of the objects. One is a cylinder and the other is a spline object. Do you think I'm in the right direction? any comments or suggestions on how you would attack this thing? Carrara is getting pretty slow with both objects, should I convert them to mesh when I finish tweaking it? Thanks

velarde,

I think that you are on the right track, here are some suggestions. When you really look at corn, the kernels don't push out very far and it's very thin lines between the kernels. Here is a quick rendition using Shader Ops to stretch out the Cellular function. A painted texture would probably be better, because you could make it patterned like corn and thin out the lines even more, but this was quick. The Grooves settings were samples 256x256, Quad Split = Smart Sampling, Smooth Angle = 60, and High = 0.05in.

Good luck,
Eric Winemiller
Digital Carvers Guild
Freeware and commercial 3D extensions
http://digitalcarversguild.com

Here's another technique using Anything Grows. Spline object for the core, and kernels for tip objects. To clean it up, you could use the Tip Scale shader to make the kernels near the tip smaller.

Eric Winemiller
Digital Carvers Guild
Freeware and commercial 3D extensions
http://digitalcarversguild.com

Attached Link: http://www.velarde.com

Thanks Eric: I knew I could count on you. I'll give it a try with the AnythingGrooves. I'll probably buy anything grows. i just need one paying job to justify it and i'm all set. Keep up the good work with the extensions! P.D. I think your ShaderOps is the most misunderstood (ugly duckling) of your bunch. I've never understanded exactly what it does... (the name doesn't help I guess) : ) anyway... Let's see more entries in the Wheels Contest! c'mon