I’m modeling a skinned-foam seat that has the kind of puffy shapes that I’ve seen modeled in sneakers. I could do something in CAD, but I’m wanting to make this more organic (it’s not for tooling; just for a product render).
During a demo years ago, I saw someone use Maya to modify the geometry of some foam padded details on a shoe. What I’ve been trying doesn’t seem like the best way to do this. I suspect there’s a “control curve” being used.
Can anyone shed light on the technique? Any links?
if you saw the demo i saw then you watched someone using a mel script called “puffy”-something or other. it polygonalized a nurbs patch then pushed all the verts out along the normal except for the verts on the edge. i think.
I have to ask, how is the shoe industry dealing with 3D? Is it more like NURBs patch modeling? or are they using polys/subD’s and then using a pelting tool?
normally in the shoe ind in asia these days, uppers arent modelled. Soles are modelled normaly in Rhino or Cadkey. Speakig as an ex Cov Transport grad. I have no idea how guys cab use Rhino with NO history tree as a suitable modeller. OK it offers many benefits as far as rapid 3D modellng goes but its fairly basic. Nurbs are NOT a precise tool for any sort of modelling, butdamn its quick and efficient
I modeled a shoe in Maya some time last year using nurbs. The only way that I managed to get it to look organic and soft was to use the ‘sculpt nurbs’ tool. It lets you push and pull nurbs patches either with the mouse, or with a tablet (pressure sensitivity being extra useful). Sculpting made it easy to add wrinkles and make it look like there was some tension where the fabric would be stretched.
Other than that, I don’t think I could do anything soft without emphasizing the materials instead of the actual shape.
I tend to want to make everything “single surface”. I need to start thinking in terms of having to sometimes use more surfaces.
I’ve used the sculpt tool (btw, I came across an open source sculpting too; I’ll add to the software link list). The problem with the object I’m making is that it’s created from a combination of regular CAD-generated tooling and a relatively organic manufacturing process. So it has some rigid shapes and some areas (especially details) that are organic. Nasty mix.
Once I get a decent process down, I might document it. Although that just might push people to other solutions. This all assumes I maintain my sanity.
Nurbs are NOT a precise tool for any sort of modelling…
i dunno, i think it’s easier to be precise with nurbs than poly or subd when i’m making a car exterior. i suppose i could work with 10 million+ polygons to do a fender, but i have my doubts about the smoothness of the final tool, as well as my sanity in waiting for the screen refresh when i push 500,000 points by .8mm along the normals.
I know you are all asking how to do this in Maya… but I have never had success in Maya doing this efficiently without tons of trial and error.
Last year I switched all my modeling of very organic objects (and characters) to Zbrush. It is very easy to learn, inexpensive and pretty robust for organic geometry. (exports well to Solidworks too)
If you have time I would suggest d/ling the trial.
Well, I could probably do this with polygons/subD’s and then convert, but I’m trying like that devil to use NURBs only. If the form were more organic I’d be okay, but it has a mix of engineered/organic that’s a royal pita.
btw, see my latest addition to the free software list - competition to ZBrush is on the way.
Sort of “puffy” organic shapes that have hard trailing edges (like in sneaker-uppers and soft furniture) are well done in Alias using the Move CV Normal and/or Proportional Modification tools. You define and pin down the edges of the NURBS mesh(es) and move the CVs about to get as puffy as you like. I’m sure other softwares allow you to do something very similar. With shoes or furniture, all you need then is an unfolding software that takes your NURBS mesh(es) so you can cut 2D material to suit.
just out of curiosity, which software package(s) do you know that do nurbs unfolding for patternmaking? i’m not familiar with the players in that specialty these days.
Rhino’s become the dominant 3D software in the footwear industry. V4 has new deformation tools–the first software that can do things like cage deformation on solid NURBS models while keeping the edges together within tolerance–that are so beneficial for footwear that a household name sportswear company was using it for production in unstable pre-Beta releases.