Help with nurbs character

[anchuvi]

I am building a nurbs character and working on the head right now. The character has a short trunk for a nose modeled after an elephant.

Here is my dilemna. I started with the "clipped" sphere method (one pole mouth, one pole neck). After basic shaping I cut the head in half to make my life easier. I finished modeling the head, mirrored it, merged the two and applied the Surface Continuity Manger to the merge.

Time to add the trunk I thought....two methods.....either cut the head into pieces and zip the trunk in, using the SCM, etc. -or- the classic project, extract, skin or blend moethod..

-but-

No matter what I do I cannot properly project a curve(circle) onto the merged head. My first thought was that the SCM was causing the problems, so I cut the head and remerged it. Still won't work. Basically instead of projecting the curve as it appears, it blends the curve with other U's and V's on the object. I have tried every possibility I can think of including never using the SCM at all. Can you not project onto merge objects?

Please, any help would be welcomed with wide arms.
Cheers, Lesoleilnoir

[hypersim]

Hi, listen, Im no expert on Softimage so people may laugh at me and call me names behind my back for what Im about to say but...
In the short amount of time I have been learning softimage (4 lessons in college) we have dealt with projections. I found that when I tried to project my wing curve onto the fuselage of my aeroplane, It produced bizarre results, adding tonnes of extra points and not all on curve of the fuselages surface. I went around and deleted the extra points leaving me with the orgininal spline projected nicely. There is an easier method (are you all laughing at me?) and it basically involves turning on create modelling relation in the preferences dialog. You can then project the curve and select the orignial curve and move it about, add points, move points and this will affect the projection. Do this until the projection looks nice and then effect freeze modelling relation. This might be total rubbish and I could have wasted two minutes of your life but I thought I'd add my two pennys worth (old english saying). You've been great, I'll be here all week, be sure to tip your waitress.

Knick Knack

[fredc]

I am not quite sure what you mean by "you can't project a circle onto the head".
Could you give more description, like where the circle is initially located and where it is being projected on the head, and what commands you are using.

Not sure if this is relavent, but when things act unusual, it may be that you are in a trouble spot like the poles or a seem where U or V edges have continuity. You can move your UV parameters around. My brain is fried at the moment, up late working last night, but use Show/Edge Flags to see your UV parameters and then move them if needed with ...I can't remember the command's specific name and not near Soft at the moment, but it will probably be in surface or edit tools.

Sorry I can't help more right now.
Urp

[anchuvi]

Thanks for the input guys, I've still been unable to get it to work. Urp, the circle is being projected along the Z and hits the face where the nose would typically be, except this character has a trunk. As for the UV issue, the row comprising the neck opening is the U and the V runs vertically up the back of the head. Because it is not a closed surface I can't shift the UV placement without disfiguring the model...Unless there is a way that I am unfamiliar with.

Any more input would be greatly appreciated.

[fredc]

You are having trouble projecting a NURB circle in the middle of a NURB surface? That is very odd. Are you sure your circle is a NURB and not a B-Spline?
Urp

[anchuvi]

Yes, I am quite certain the circle is nurbs, cubic just like the head. Here are the variables that I can isolate

• In creating the head I used the Surface Continuity Manager
  • to test this I split the SCM merge, deleted the SCM and then remerged the head.

• When adding new points I used effect->subdivide instead of the add point command

  • no clue if this makes any difference

• I am retarded

  • most definately so

Remember that the circle is projecting, however the curve it creates on the head is a mixture of the circle and a new row in U.

hope that helps.

I really, really, really don't want to remodel this head......

[fredc]

I thought Effect/Subdivide only worked on polymeshes?
You words "Remember that the circle is projecting, however the curve it creates on the head is a mixture of the circle and a new row in U." Sounds like you are using the polymesh projection for curves. Are you sure your head is still a NURBS surface?

If you are using SCM it would certainly have to be a surface model. I am totally perplexed.

I'll be leaving shortly, so I won't be posting again until Monday.
Urp

[leach]

hi

pehaps it would be useful to take a screen dump of the said projected circle on the mesh and post it up here?

urp, it is possible to use the effect/subdivide command with nurbs, it basically allows you to add another row in the u or v without distoting the shape, this is only possible with nurbs (and poly of course!), it is one of the reasons why the underlying maths of nurbs (Non-Uniformed Rational B-Spline, incase anyone ever wondered what it stood for!!) is so powerfull, attempting this with b-spline would cause a change of shape as the messh attempted to interpolate through the new set of control points.

when a perfect circle is project onto a surface, you do not get a perfect circle on the surface, unless it is perfectly spherical. i just say this incase you expected a perfectly circular projection and hence assumed that the result was wrong. i'm not sure, but its just a thought.

like i said, i think it would be much easier if you posted up a picture of what is happening.

btw, im also working on a nurbs character that requires cutting and stitching and SCM..ing...and i find it the most un intuitive process...EVER. once this is finished im moving onto subD's and putting the whole horrible process behind me. i find it takes at least an hour just to add a leg or arm, and thats if everything goes right, which it never does. immagine just being able to sellect a few polys, extrude them, and Voila, a seemless leg...of sorts!! anyway, just to clarify, NURBS bad, subD's good.....rant over. sorry

leach

[fredc]

Yes, I was incorrect about the subdivison feature not working on NURBS. Since it didn't work on BS surfaces, I had incorrectly assumed it was only for polymeshes. Since I normally use edit/add point, I never bothered investigating the issue again.

Posting a screen shot of your model would help. Just curious, but could you create the head with a pole inside the trunk, instead of the mouth. This might avoid all the issues with attaching the trunk. Just a thought.

Urp

[devdoka]

Perhaps he's trying to project over the Edge Flags of the surface? This would produce the weird result.

Try this:

1) Model > Show > Edge Flags.

Do you see any red/green lines running down the middle of where you're trying to project the circle? If so, then:

2) select the surface and do a Model > Effect > Curve Controls. Shift the U/V edge flags out of the way.

If you built the head using the 'sock' method, then place the edge flags along the throat, otherwise, try putting them towards the back of the head so they don't interfere with the NURBS projection.

speye

[anchuvi]

Alright guys,

I appreciate all your responses, but it still doesn't work correctly, some sort of fluke I suppose, I am not a novice, I've been modeling nurbs for the last two years in softimage. So I know all about edge flags, what surface types work with what, etc.

Leach, A-f****n'-men, I am so sick of NURBS and the SCM, although I don't really have much experience in poly modeling, I think I'm going to invest the time to learn SubD modeling. How do you feel soft(with phoenix tools) stacks up against Maya? Becasue I don't know one lick of Maya.

Again thanks everyone, joyous modeling and blissful rendering to all!