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Hernan Diaz Alonso or Tom Wiscombe looking like forms

meomeo91

Hi guys, I am trying to model something like Alonso's crazy architecture and design. I heard that at SCI-Arc they use a lot of Maya. Any particular tutorial or notes and tips you would like to share here will be highly appreciated ;) !! Thanks!!!

 
Apr 17, 16 7:25 am
no_form
Get crazy with the cheese whiz.
Apr 17, 16 11:53 am  · 
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curtkram

the question isn't how to model it, but how to build it.  the architecture should come first, the communication second.

Apr 17, 16 12:21 pm  · 
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meomeo91

Sorry guys I did not ask you for opinions about that kind of architecture or whatever it's just a technical question, it would be amazing if you could stay close to the topic. Thanks ;)

Apr 17, 16 12:59 pm  · 
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archanonymous

T-Splines for Rhino. As i understand it, this (with Grasshopper) is the main workflow at ZHA and UN Studio. 

I know Wiscombe uses 3DS Max - it got a lot of the Maya functionality. 

 

You can do these sorts of forms in many software programs. I find T-Splines for Rhino/ Rhino/ Grasshopper to be the best... Maya and 3DS Max are animation programs and lack the precision necessary for architecture. Blender could also do these although the interface isn't nearly as good as Rhino. 

Rhino will also let you do more technical design and ensure that the forms you create can actually be rationalized and built, although I realize this isn't as important in school.

My other problem with Maya is that the forces you can apply are abstractions of random phenomena applied in a non-critical way... it is very unintentional, even if it does give cool forms. Rhino + T-Splines requires you to figure out what you want to achieve, do the research into the mathematics, script it, truly understand it, then make the interesting form. 

Apr 17, 16 3:09 pm  · 
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meomeo91

@archanonymous Thank you!! I have used rhino + tsplines working on my thesis and I found it a very good tools combination. However, working with Tsplines made my file incredibly heavy very soon, while I saw students working on similar shapes on Maya without any problem or kind of lag

Apr 17, 16 5:21 pm  · 
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chigurh

maya sub d modeling with lite mel scripting

Apr 17, 16 5:30 pm  · 
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no_form
You're working on your thesis and don't know this already? I don't believe it. You've never asked this question until the end of your student days? Did you just learn about these guys? So your peers and professors know less than you about Wiscombe and Alonso? Or even less about 3D modeling?
Apr 18, 16 1:19 am  · 
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meomeo91

@ no_form I graduated in a very conservative school of architecture. I knew these guys, however I've never had a chance to discover more about the process behind. I am here to ask.

Apr 18, 16 3:52 am  · 
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accesskb

use any sub-d modelling software - Maya, Modo, 3dsMax etc... Tsplines is terrible.

Apr 18, 16 8:34 am  · 
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Koww

sub-d modeling is fairly obvious. can anybody actually provide any useful information about specific techniques? Also I wonder how their crits go... I imagine they take bullshit to another level.

Apr 18, 16 11:11 pm  · 
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no_form

meomeo91, that's unfortunate to hear.  must have been a frustrating experience.  the other members are giving you some good information on how those guys create their architecture.

Apr 18, 16 11:20 pm  · 
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threadkilla

Hernan Diaz Alonso uses animation tools. Could be some sort of a Maya workflow along the lines of:

make a torus / primitive (modeling)

key a path for your geometry to move along (animation)

subD + distort primitive throughout path of travel = morph (modeling + animation)

generate models along keyed path (software allows you to input time interval between model states)

you can return to any step to adjust the model (parametric), the last steps begins to approximate your geometry. You do the clean-up boolean and mesh editing work on the aggregate model.

Or just subdivide and distort your primitive's surface while deleting faces and welding mesh edges back together, if you're partial to the push/pull process.

The whole jig can be scripted. Loads of other ways to get the same effect in Rhino with or without plugins like Grasshopper. There are more ways to the woods than one, you see...

might spring a paywall up after a refresh, but this article is relevant: 
http://www.architectural-review.com/archive/interview-hernan-diaz-alonso-and-marcelo-spina/8646930.fullarticle

Hernan Diaz Alonso: "[...] when the discipline started to flirt with tools coming from movies, animation, video games and so on. Those tools were added to the architect’s repertoire, got re-adapted, then outdated. Software like Rhino came later and it became like the latest applications of a continuing speculation. CATIA too, all those options. Now, if you look at the evolving history of the shape discussion that goes from the beginning of people who were working with simple geometries to plane curves to discontinuous surfaces. Then we move into polygons, then subdivisions of polygons that we can connect. At the beginning we couldn’t connect the pieces. Now you can. Then parametrics and scripting arrives to again diversify for a moment. [...] So, my sense is, yes, digital tools have created a new plateau."

and later: "I would say that the work I produce today is heavily driven by the tools. If I were not using these tools, my work would be different."

Marcelo Spina: "I don’t agree that a concept should exist simply because the tool allows it. The architect is delivering on a set of core beliefs. The new image should belong to the a priori belief system that precedes the enabling capacity of the tools, not that follows the enabling capacity. Unfortunately the latter is often the image of contemporary work: that it’s simply derived from the new tools."

Eric Owen Moss: "You can see the variability of production options in terms of how the tool is applied. And what we are supportive of is an inventive minority and how they apply the new tools, as opposed to how they’re generally applied in architecture and engineering." etc.

They discuss the roles of tools and representation in the production of architecture, and they all discuss their preferred methods a bit.

Apr 19, 16 2:14 am  · 
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pedro11

The answer to your original question. Please click on the link below. 

https://parametric-architectur...

Nov 30, 22 12:44 pm  · 
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