Anim8or Community

General Category => General Anim8or Forum => Topic started by: Kyle on June 06, 2010, 09:05:27 pm

Title: Tips for modeling a coiled string for this cowboy hat?
Post by: Kyle on June 06, 2010, 09:05:27 pm
I've asked this on CG-nation, but since that site seems pretty dead these days I thought I'd ask it here too.

Im working on this model of Woody, and he needs that string that's interwoven around the brim.  
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v177/gmcube/WoodysHat.jpg)

Its going to be a real pain I'd imagine...

For the two people on the planet who dont know what it looks like, heres a good shot of it.
http://disney.go.com/toystory/images/wallpapers/wp2_woody_ts3_1600x1200.jpg
Title: Re: Tips for modeling a coiled string for this cowboy hat?
Post by: siragin on June 06, 2010, 11:37:13 pm
its not as hard as you think. create two cylinders and use the twist modifier to wrap them around each other. then use a second modifier on the new object and bend it into a circle. you may have to do some tweeking to get it to fit exactly around the hat. Or you could just texture a donut prymative think its called a tourus or something. and make it look the way you want.
Title: Re: Tips for modeling a coiled string for this cowboy hat?
Post by: Kyle on June 07, 2010, 12:10:37 am
Why two cylinders? for two halves?
Title: Re: Tips for modeling a coiled string for this cowboy hat?
Post by: siragin on June 07, 2010, 12:26:58 am
or you can use the spring plug in then modifier to bend it around the hat.
Title: Re: Tips for modeling a coiled string for this cowboy hat?
Post by: Josmic8or on June 07, 2010, 01:15:29 am
Yep!The spring plugin is definitely a good idea!
Title: Re: Tips for modeling a coiled string for this cowboy hat?
Post by: Kyle on June 07, 2010, 02:42:38 am
Can anyone show me a tut or step by step guide for using the plugin, or scripts in general? Ive used it once  but I cant seem to figure out this time. its been years. the Manual inst very clear.
Title: Re: Tips for modeling a coiled string for this cowboy hat?
Post by: floyd86 on June 07, 2010, 05:03:23 am
Great to see you working on andy's room again, kyle!
You can download the spring pluging here (http://an8.the-meadow.net/Com/ASLTopic/spring.zip). Place it in your plugin folder. Go to file>configure locate the folder with your plugins in the plugin tab and make sure preload scripts is checked on ( you can also use script>run script to load scripts while working). Now close anim8or and start it again and you spring script should have made an icon between you primitives looking like a spring.
Click on the icon and create a spring > double click on the spring will give you options to edit the spring.
Title: Re: Tips for modeling a coiled string for this cowboy hat?
Post by: $imon on June 07, 2010, 05:06:24 am
Youre too fast floyd haha! took the words out of my mouth.

Your woody looks really good Kyle, maybe you can start a WIP thread on here? CG-nation has been very quiet thats why i stopped checking it, you might get a bit more input on here.
Great job though, I remember your thread and i admire your persistence :D great job
Title: Re: Tips for modeling a coiled string for this cowboy hat?
Post by: Kyle on June 07, 2010, 03:21:20 pm
Thanks floyd, I'll give that a shot.

And yeah, I guess I should migrate back here from CG-nation.  I like it there better, based on color scheme and functionality alone, but a a forum is worthless unless it has a community.
Still wish we had some of their features though, if nothing else the thumbnails before entering a thread is nice.
Title: Re: Tips for modeling a coiled string for this cowboy hat?
Post by: hihosilver on June 10, 2010, 03:47:23 am
Your modeling's going great Kyle.  Sorry I haven't responded on CG-Nation, I've been out of town.  The small userbase currently is sad, and I love both forums, but I can't show my non-anim8or work here (which is what I'm doing now!)  I do agree with you on some features such as thumbnails though.  The functionality of the site is amazing.

As for the site, I hope you can get the spring plugin working that would most likely be best.  Get it the length and thickness you want then simply go to a top view and edit the points of the spring and drag them around the hat to get it around the brim!
Title: Re: Tips for modeling a coiled string for this cowboy hat?
Post by: Kyle on June 11, 2010, 10:27:58 pm
Ok I got the plug-in to work, but the hard part is getting it to go around the shape of the hat.  I have the swirly string modified into a circle, but the hat isnt a perfect circle or even an oval, and its not a flat surface. so it seems pretty impossible from where I stand. I can kinda get the right overall shape, by tapering it with another mofidifier, but it still doesnt cut it, and there are too many points to really keep track of manually. :(
Title: Re: Tips for modeling a coiled string for this cowboy hat?
Post by: ENSONIQ5 on June 12, 2010, 02:12:00 am
Another method out of left field would be to extrude a small n-gon along a path.  Defining the path would be fiddly but it would be relatively easy to make it follow the exact shape of Woody's hat brim, compared to other methods.
Title: Re: Tips for modeling a coiled string for this cowboy hat?
Post by: Kyle on June 13, 2010, 03:49:31 pm
extrude along a path does seem to be the sanest solution. its just a matter of teaking this path  to look neat enough.  and a lot of times it just doesnt behave the way you expect.

This is all Ive managed to get so far.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v177/gmcube/lacey.jpg)

Still lots of tweaking to do as you can see, but I think I'll be able to get it done this way.
Title: Re: Tips for modeling a coiled string for this cowboy hat?
Post by: ENSONIQ5 on June 14, 2010, 01:16:30 am
The only way I have found to ensure I get the result I want with spline extrusions is to create the spline and the N-gon in "Front" view.  Creating either object in another view tends to mess up the coordinates of either object, causing extrusion through the wrong axis.  Regarding the "stitching" required for this project, if possible I would recommend using reference images, and if clear images aren't available from front/side/top views I would probably spend the time making them in 2D.  With these images creation of the spline would be essentially the same as modelling any other organic structure.
Title: Re: Tips for modeling a coiled string for this cowboy hat?
Post by: Kyle on June 14, 2010, 02:37:36 am
Well, Ive been using this hat from the toy story collection Woody doll (produced from the movie model data so its as accurate as you can get)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v177/gmcube/hat.jpg)

Though I was kinda loose with it, so it might not line up exacatly. 
Title: Re: Tips for modeling a coiled string for this cowboy hat?
Post by: siragin on June 15, 2010, 11:35:12 am
are you extruding the spring plug in alone the path or just a regular plain. If you are going to use the extrude on a path option. it will be easier to get a small flat plain and extrude it along the path of the hat. Thats usually how i model shoe strings.
Title: Re: Tips for modeling a coiled string for this cowboy hat?
Post by: Kyle on June 15, 2010, 04:53:37 pm
I wasn't aware you could extrude the plugin spring along a path. when I first tried the spring I just made a straight spring.