Archinect
anchor

Topological Mesh Modeling

David Morris

Is anyone interested in topological mesh modeling, or complex 3d geometry? I posted something about this on my blog but no one responded. A few of my professors have been developing a really interesting piece of software that has the ability to create some really amazing 3d models. here is an example of something I created in a very short amount of time with the software (called TopMod):

image

if that doesn't work, click here

and here is a guy from Germany's model he created using the software: click to view image

For more info, check out Ergun Akleman's web page.

side note... do many people use maya in architecture school?

 
Mar 9, 06 2:49 am
boot

thanks for the link: i checked out your professor's site. Apart from Catmull-Clark (who are now running SGI and Pixar respectively) and Doo-Sabin (both quads surfaces), is he developing a new subdivision method or has he presented his work at SIGGRAPH?

and is it really topological - true surface continuity, degree C²? I agree that making 'holes' (or what Ergun call 'handles') is tricky work in surface modelling but is your program doing something that Maya doesn't? example - Maya's subD uses the Catmull-Clark scheme, but it works with faces and edges very well.

My drawback with it is that the control points cannot be numerically controlled. In prev. releases they even had representative numbers (0,1,2..) to match their refinement level. In fact, if any bright MEL scripts that offer control or precision are available, please let me know. My interest is not in technical issues but in surface production and its continuity, re: class A surface

check out Modo - it's a new subD package from the army of clerks who made LightWave:

http://www.luxology.com/modo/

Mar 9, 06 2:29 pm  · 
 · 
David Morris

all the surfaces created are manifold, or in other words, the could basically be created by folding a piece of paper in a certain way.

The papers section of the website has a ton of publications of which most of them have been presented at SIGGRAPH during the last five to seven years.

TopMod is definitely doing things Maya cannot do. But it's still extremely limited, because it has a poorly organized codebase, and the prof in charge, vinod, will not put it on sourceforge. A friend and I in the lab here are working on convincing him, and we would eventually like to either port the code into the Maya API, an AJAX OGL webapp, or into C# or something besides c++ and FLTK.

The decision to use FLTK was a terrible one, and they are paying the price for it now.

Anyways, I have not heard of Modo, I will check it out. Have you heard of T Splines? It's a plugin for maya, And the best way to describe it is:

SubD's for NURBS. It's absolutely amazing, but I just got it last night, and I haven't messed with it much.

Mar 9, 06 3:49 pm  · 
 · 
continuumx

Hello DV,

I am very interested in the development of topMOD. I would hope that it stays open source. I am for one using Cinema4D for my modeling and to see this fantastic paradigm in spatial modeling go towards one platform in the future would mean this would be out of reach for many who are fascinated with nested forms.

Mar 22, 06 1:54 am  · 
 · 
David Morris

Awesome. I am currently in the process of convincing the professors in charge of it to make it opensource, but they are hesitant. The codebase is very disorganized and it's not supported at all. I think sourceforge could do it a lot of good, but it's going to take some time before they will let us put it out there.

I'm not quite sure why they didn't start it that way from the beginning, but we'll see what happens. In the meantime, check out this awesome post at maxwellrender.com

Mar 22, 06 1:59 am  · 
 · 
auvn
http://www.npowersoftware.com/nurbs/pnoverview.htm

don't know this is off topic or not, but really powerful modelling plugin

Mar 22, 06 2:05 am  · 
 · 
David Morris

awesome, I will check that out. those models are pretty amazing.

Mar 22, 06 3:21 am  · 
 · 
continuumx

Thanks DVmorris, this is great news. Thanks ffor bringing this forward for discussion. Is there an official forum for TopMOD at this time?

Apr 2, 06 12:18 am  · 
 · 
David Morris

no, but I am trying to work on getting them to make it opensource on sourceforge so there could be an official home for the program...

They haven't taken the offers yet, because they say the codebase is too messy. it would take forever to clean it up, and they used fltk, which if you're familiar with it at all, it sucks.

it needs to be rewritten for gtk at least, and a friend of mine in the lab here and I want to eventually turn it into an ajax web app. But those are kind of pipe dreams right now, we'll see what we can do in the near future.

Ergun loves to see people using topmod, so please send me images of stuff you create using it.

Apr 2, 06 1:44 am  · 
 · 
David Morris

i just realized i said the same exact thing in an earlier post above... sorry about that.

Apr 2, 06 1:45 am  · 
 · 
Hasselhoff

Whoa. Those are pretty slick models/renderings. I know a couple of instructors at Penn that would probably have heart attacks if you showed one of those swirls at a desk crit or final review (although then every invited critic would be like WTF). We get that a lot. The studio teachers have you go crazy making weird shapes and stuff then the invited critics (who are supposedly on the studio critic's side) come in and say things like "How do you occupy this space? How do you enter? What is it made out of? Why is this swirl a library and this one is a bathroom, but they look that same?"

May 28, 06 11:35 am  · 
 · 
jotero

thank you hasselhoff :)

>I know a couple of instructors at Penn that would probably have heart attacks if you showed one of those swirls at a desk crit or final review :)

I can understand everything well however which am "WTF"???


ciao
torolf

May 28, 06 12:13 pm  · 
 · 
bothands

WTF - what the fcuk

May 28, 06 11:20 pm  · 
 · 
archtopus

Hmm, but what good is a pretty sculpture if you don't know what it's made of or how a space can be occupied? Man cannot live on sculpture alone.

May 28, 06 11:59 pm  · 
 · 
Becker

right on. sculpture comes after you know what you are sculpting

May 29, 06 12:19 am  · 
 · 
not_here

actually, mhollenstein and archtopus... sculpture is a different art than architecture. you don't have to know what you are sculpting in order to create good sculpture. you can feel sculpture, you can be do "action sculpting" on a piece of rock and be as good a pollock or de kooning.

architecture != sculpture.

May 29, 06 2:05 pm  · 
 · 
archtopus

Well, that's part of my point. Making a building that looks like a sculpture is fine and dandy in some limited circumstances, but it's hardly relevant in everyday life. (And what really, is architecture if not the art that enlightens everyday life?) I would say that more often than not, sculpture-y buildings have a harmful effect on the surrounding neighborhood because while they may look pretty from far away, they don't have a particularly beneficial relationship with the street.

May 29, 06 6:23 pm  · 
 · 
jotero

hello all :)

Perhaps would have I mean work to show also better here to be supposed :*)


http://www.archinect.com/forum/threads.php?id=32467_0_42_0_C

sorry torolf

May 30, 06 8:30 am  · 
 · 

Block this user


Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?

Archinect


This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.

  • ×Search in: