Question for you… can anyone point me in the right direction as to how one would model a chili, but not just the outside? I’ve been doing a project (mason jar WIP) and have a number of habaneros in it. I did a model which I think looks quite good (after suggestions on material and texture), but then too, I had done some quick-n-sleazy slices to make it look like one was cutting rings of peppers. Rightfully so, people called “foul!” because they were. They looked… bad.
Ok, self-flagellating confession over.
So now I am trying to figure out how to model a pepper with the internal cavity structure so that when I use the Blender Knife Tool python script and cut it, all I need to do is cap the open faces. Tried it last night and it looked less than optimal. Nicest way I can put that.
That is the sorry result above. I know the technicalities of why the physical structure is still wrong, but I’m trying to get the concept down on how to model the pepper with a wall thickness to it -AND- the classic “wrinkled” shape -AND- have it look fairly uniform and realistic.
Examples of what my current solid-body peppers look like (the aforementioned WIP post):
Any helpful modeling gurus out there with a benevolent bent and copious free time to set me straight? I’m a solid modeler (SolidWorks) and this approach to modeling still does not come naturally.
Hi there. I’m a newbie myself so this might not be the right answer, but it may help.
To model your habanero, start by dropping a few concentric circle meshes. In object mode, select them all and press CTRL-J to join them. Back to edit mode. Edit them a bit to look like a proper cross-section of your pepper. (Select two points: X to delete EDGE; F to add edge.)
Now select all vertices and switch to a side view (so that all points appear in a single line) and extrude, scale, rotate, etc. Keep doing this all the way down the length. You’ll need to close the ends of the cavities at appropriate points. Also remember to check all three views to make sure it has the right shape. Typically a chile’s cavities will all join before you reach the point.
I’ve never seen such a fat habanero. Must be extra picante! Yum!
Good suggestions… I will try this out. All of it makes perfect sense - I just generally think of things in terms of solid modeling and not in terms of meshes. The hardest part is deforming the surfaces in proper folds and having the outside surface fold and the inside surface following it perfectly.
As to fat habaneros, perhaps I am growing habaneros wrong (or right). Mine seem to be very “happy” habaneros. I talk to them, sing to them, and act out portions of “The Tempest” to them. Add to that a daily rubdown of all their leaves and a towel-dry and they seem to be happy and content, growing until the day when… ok ok, so I’m exaggerating. I don’t act out “The Tempest” for them - that would be weird. I’ll scrounge up a picture of them for you if I can find it.
Thanks for the tips, I’ll give that approach a try.
Ok, so after much weeping and gnashing of teeth (worn down to the roots by now) I came up with AN answer, but likely not THE answer. Try this on for size.
Take the outside mesh, shift-d a copy of it and scale that copy down a hair (by the wall thickness of the pepper. Take the stem region (g-key translate the vertices) of the inside copy so it is outside of the original.
Now look at the inside portion end-on. Grab a veritical slice (b-key, rectangular boudary select) and scale those points down in the vertical direction. Do the same for the horizontal. Smooth the v-notches formed by this operation. With the meshes crossing over, use MegaBool to hack the insides out of the larger one, leaving a shell with the rib structure inside the pepper. (If you don’t have the meshes crossing each other at some point, MegaBool vomits quietly and kicks out - No fault of the script, I believe it to be user error - poor usage). Now use various planes to give the Blender Knife Tool to cut with. Take each sliced ring and cap the ends - lots of remove doubles, deselection of stray vertices, pain/suffering…
Then once the rings are all capped, subsurfed, and seams creased, you end up with something more like:
Now is that the hardest freakin’ way of doing it or what? I still welcome “instant gratification” methods should someone have them.
And thanks Delta - I will take a peek at NURBS - haven’t done any skinning yet so it will be worth it to learn them if nothing else.
I’m starting to come to the conclusion that perhaps - just perhaps - some things don’t come with a reward sufficient to justify the effort. But since I am thick-headed I will continue to attempt it until the “2x4 Moment” (where reality hits you in the forehead with a large, heavy, unforgiving chunk of wood, right between the eyes).
What you do sounds difficult. Here’s how I would go about it, assuming I understand what you are trying to accomplish.
Add a cylinder in top view. Remove the two end vertices CTRL X. Scale along the z direction SZ. Select all vertices A key twice. Extrude E. Hit left mouse button to get out of grab mode. Go into scale S and scale inwards. Select the faces to make the innerwalls. Extrude. Get out of grab mode and S the innerwalls inwards. Tweak the mesh, which I haven’t done.
Extrusion is the way to go:
You also want to give the cut part a different material to make it look wetter and not waxy. Look at the documentation on this, F9 add new material and assign to selected faces.
In that case I would have started with a cylinder for the whole pepper make sure you have edge loops where you want to cut the pepper, shape the pepper, and separate the bits of the meshes where you want to cut.
re anal retentive, IMO being a perfectionist is a good way to succeed at modelling
