Cerbera

Edge weighting is certainly an option but I don't think we'll need it here. From what I can see of the model (and I think I can see most of the curvature between sections) SDS, and the depth itself will handle a lot of those transitions, and our underlying mesh can remain quite simple, at least until we have to start adding handles holes and whatnot... I may have to spin some edges if I find that my transition curves aren't doing what I think they should, but I think we can persuade SDS to do the right thing... CBR

...and for quickly fleshing out stuff to retopologize over later, which is how I am using it right now for a client while we prototype and refine the design of a Golf Driver... in some ways we are finding that a CAD program would be quicker to make changes in, but we appreciate the true perspective 3D view as we design, and recent improvements to speed and caching of VB make it a very usable workflow, even at ridiculously low voxel sizes, and dealing with 10s of millions of polys and fully procedural setups. In that respect it gets an A* from me, even though it can't quite replicate the zen joy of actual poly-pushing... CBR

Yep, no chance of solving that without scene. CBR

They will notice when they want to UV the result and none of the loops are conducive to that. Even with ZRM there is no guarantee material breaks will be anything close to what you need, and then you have to deal with what might be described as a 'hurricane of piss' trying to transfer usable UVs to that mesh, which is possible but only with time and wizardry. People are quick to dismiss SDS and doing it properly when it's all about the client speed, but don't forget that what the client sees is only half the battle. A lot of them are going to want subdividable meshes, usable UVs, helpful selection tags, and edge flows that make sense, whether they know it or not, because it'll be you they come back to when they want changes. And when they do, you'll end up having to redo all the textures and edge flow stuff even if the VB underneath it all is fully parametric. And let's not forget that the more often you do SDS modelling, and get used to solving, patching, tweaking and expanding such that it becomes second nature, then we start to achieve speeds that really aren't that far behind bodging it with a voxels or splines. For your own benefit you would also be practicing skills that not many people have any more, which makes you valuable for the people who still need it, which is more than you think ! 😉 CBR

Ok, so the broad strokes... 1. I would start with the front flat part, and start with a few low poly discs to get round the corners nice and evenly... 2. Next step would be to join those, remove the bits we don't want, get a gloriously even perimeter, and patch the inside, thusly... Of course this shape could be described with less polygons than that, but we need to think about the density needed elsewhere, and the subsequent connection of these so far disparate patches, so I have gone a little higher than is strictly necessary out of context. 3. Next we can leave that patch, and start the handle, which needs slightly more polygon density on the right hand side, like so, or thereabouts... as this is isolated topology there is no need to match segmentation left and right sides, but left side should match the patch to the left, and right side should be a line down the centre of every 'hole'. We do not need more than that now because we will be using staged subdivision on all patches when we need it, later, to put the holes in. 4. Last in the patching department would be to make the neck, which we will do with auto-projection and poly pen in order to give us the edge flow we want whilst still maintaining a perfectly cylindrical front half that the neck demands. Eventually this will become symmetrized, so we are still only building 1 half initially. Your reprojection form can be just a cylinder (no caps), under SDS with the base mesh tweaked to follow the subtle curvature there. Here is mine before I start laying down the loops we'll actually use... ..and here is the patch I need, created over the top of that with poly pen... that needs quite a specific edge flow, which is probably the below, or something quite like it... That patch has used projection, so will be rounded correctly, but most importantly, whilst still having all the right edge flow and segmentation to join to the adjacent patches it will later connect to. 5. Now we can start moving those patches around in 3D space to get the depths right before we begin expanding, and joining them, and adding depth and detail to handle and neck etc. Hopefully that is enough to push you off in the right direction, and I have other work to do today, but will pop back later / tomorrow to add more if you need it... CBR

Lols... Well I mustn't do thread derailment, but as you asked so nicely... Looks kinda cool at night as well, where we can do proper 'mid-life-crisis' style Tron cosplay as well 🙂 I'm sort of going for the Sith Holocron look. Please don't tell anyone that machine can go at 112 kph !! If you would like to know more, that's a highly customised Begode Master, and people riding them look like this... CBR

Well this is what happens when budgets top the billion dollar mark and you got 10 years to make a thing... if I was working like that I'd want every drop perfect too ! CBR

Not that I am hugely aware of - I was more just reaching around for reasons people might not do trad modelling so much any more ! I'm certainly still doing it, and still enjoying it ! Lols - yes there may be things to hear in a month or 2... just seeing if an idea has got (orchestral) legs ! CBR

Despite all the fabulous and fast new methods Cinema offers, traditional SDS modelling will still produce the nicest and most usable result here. I can certainly help with that if you are struggling, either with general pointers and advice or step-by-step over skype if you would prefer a high-detail in-depth version... the latter can't be free alas, but is there as an option if you would like it... please pm me if so... CBR

First couple of months of the year are pretty dead 3D-wise I find, so things do go a bit quieter then. I haven't been around so much recently because of musical projects, and it's the season for electric unicycle touring so I have been out a lot more than usual. But when I have popped in I don't find many modelling questions these days to answer ! I am beginning to think that either nobody does modelling any more, or that AI / procedurals / nodes are doing it for everyone already ! CBR

What ?! I've got a wicked colour scheme going on perfect for me that only took like 3 key changes ! CBR

No I think the dual colour schemes were abandoned some time ago. But we do still have the flexibility to change nearly every aspect of the application in prefs of course...

I finally saw the movie last Friday ! Thought I'd fall asleep / be uninterested in plot despite amazing visuals, but no, Mr Cameron had my eyes locked to the screen for the entire 3 hr 20 duration !

I like to drag my Structure manager back where it used to be, as a tab next to layers. Always useful to have that around whilst modelling - it is unique in its ability to identify and find ngons, tris etc etc, which might not be identified in Mesh Checker. CBR

Shouldn't matter. Bump is independent of geo. CBR

I also have this issue, albeit rarely. I do have a 3D Connexion Space Mouse. But Cinema can take a while to fully quit even when it does clear eventually - sometimes I have to wait about 30 seconds after Cinema shutdown before, for example, I can install a new version without it noticing it is still running. CBR

Welcome to the Core 🙂 Please complete your profile so we know which platform you are running this on - makes a difference to some questions. That shouldn't take very long - on mine it is just a few seconds. It cannot be turned off as far as I know - it is to do with optimizing the Asset Browser. CBR

Yeah, the alembic will probably end up being the end stage of this, but I think you might have to bake down other components of the rig first, and I'm afraid I lack expertise here like Deck - it's not something I ever have to do either ! Hope one of our motion guys can jump in and assist... CBR

I do see what you mean. In Animation Mode clicking on a keyframe point in the path doesn't select it or move play head to that frame, it just deselects the object, and consequently hides the entire track ! However I am able to click and hold / drag points on an animation path to transform keyframes about as I am expecting. But I agree that disabling auto-tangents and selecting spline as the type does not convert a linear keyframe to a bezier one. However I can't remember if that used to work, and don't have a version old enough to test with currently installed... Could you be very precise about what functionality you are expecting here, and what exactly you could do in 23 that you can't in 2023. Perhaps a short video might be helpful ? CBR

Oh I see. Yes in that case I concur; it doesn't work en masse. CBR

I selected those objects / tags exactly as @Vizn specified above... CBR

Not in 2023 you don't - works perfectly there in one move for me... note the 3 selected object material tags below that have just had their material replaced in one hit... CBR

Unfortunately you didn't include your image bitmap, so I can't usefully test this, but do any of the Fix Texture options in the grid cloner help you at all ? CBR

You can definitely have more than 1 OM, which is very helpful for moving things about in huge hierarchies. But I have never needed, or seen a way to get 2 Material Managers. I don't think that has ever been pop out-able, even when it wasn't hot-cornered. CBR

Current State to Object ? CBR