Hello,
I have a cube that consists of 343 subcubes (7 x 7 x 7 cubes), lets call it BigCube.(see attachment A0.jpg).
The subcubes I need to get inner cubes for a jelly soft body. The BigCube has sharp edges and corners. But I want to have smooth edges and corners like subsurfacing a single cube and click ‘Set smooth’. (see attachment A2.jpg)
Subsurfacing the BigCube and ‘Set smooth’ does not work here, because each of the 343 subcubes gets subsurfaced and smoothed since subsurfacing works only on the whole body. (See attachment A1.jpg.)
So how to get the edges and corners rounded again, and keep the faces planar even I have no single cube but a set of 343 subcubes?
Thanks for any help!
Exactly why you do you need a whole bunch of cubes to make a cube?
If you really need all those cubes and they’re the same object you probably should round the edges manually using proportional editing (O-key)
could you show a couple editmode views so i can figure out what you mean? i might be able to help you then.
Hello Coalth,
first many thanks for trying to help me!
here a few steps, hope now I make it more clear
(Version 2.43RC1)
- I switched to top view (NUM7), created a simple cube in an empty scene, resized it to 50%selected all vertices by AKEY (see A1.jpg),
- In Edit Mode, under Mesh Tools, I set the Steps to 1 and clicked ‘Extrude dup’ to create a 2nd cube next to the first one. (see A2.jpg)
- I switched to front view (NUM1), deselected all vertices (AKEY) and selected all vertices again (AKEY), then I clicked again ‘Extrude dup’ . Now I have 4 cubes, I switched to side view (NUM3), (see A3.jpg)
- I pressed two times AKEY to deselect current vertices and select all. I clicked ‘Extrude dup’ to have now a cube of 8 subcubes.
- I switched to object mode (TAB) and pressed ‘Centre Ne’ under the Mesh tab’, and rotated the 3D view to see the whole cube in 3D (see A4.jpg)
- I switched to ‘Edit mode’ (TAB) and selected all veritices by AKEY, and pressed two times ‘Subdivide’ under ‘Mesh tools 1’ (see A5.jpg)
- In ‘Edit mode’ under Modfiers tab, I clicked ‘Add modifier’ and choosed Subsurf (see A6.jpg)
After the 7th step (see A6.jpg) you can already see that all single subcubes gets subfurfaced.
But I need only the master cube subsurfaced, yellow cube on right side.
(the 2nd yellow cube I did just out of one single cube, subdivided two times and subsurfaced it)
I want my cube, that consist of 8 subcubes look like the yellow cube. But I need the 8 subcubes inside for my Soft Body effect, to simulate a filled cube, not a hollow one.
Hope I made it more clear now, thanks for further help!
Attachments
Hello Cyborg Dragon,
thanks for reply. I need the subcubes to simulate the behaviour of a filled cube instead of a hollow one, under Soft Body.
Hi,
Perhaps if you remove all the faces inside the big cube but leave the edges?
Hello rawpigeon,
thanks for reply, but I need as many vertices from the subcubes to make the soft body behaviour correct.
If I remove the vertices the cube behaves as a hollow one instead of a filled one.
Assuming you want the edges to be rounded when the softbody simulation is finished, have you tried subdividing the mesh to add more control points or applying subsurf?
It’s fairly tedious but it’s possible. You turn off subsurf, and set everything solid first. Then Hand bevel the corners.
[In top view, select the corner vertices of Big Cube
scale in by small, set amounts in x and y (s, x, 0.98 then s, y, 0.98)
Then switch to side view, re select the side view corner vertices
scale in by small, set amounts in y and z
Then switch to front view, re select the front view corner vertices
scale in by small, set amounts in x and z]
Then, in face select mode, carefully select just the faces that were affected by the hand beveling operation, and do set smooth on just those.
It looks like hell on screen, because of all the artifacting created by the interior faces, but it renders ok.
This is a nine by nine interior partitioned cube. I made it by taking a cube, duplicating it twice, moving the duplicates along an axis until the side vertices lined up, then removed doubles with a fairly large limit. Then I took the row of three cubes, switched views, and duplicated and moved it twice, then removed doubles. I kept this up until I had a nine by nine. It didn’t really take long at all. Geometric growth and all… It probably would have worked better if I’d used the control key to step the movement instead of doing it by eye.
hello,
as in my ‘Editmode views’ post, attachment A6.jpg you see already a subdividing and subsurfing. But thats exactly my problem. Becuase of the main cube consists of 4 subcubes the inner edges of the subcubes are subsurfaced as well, which I don’t want!
I only want rounded edges for the outer cube!
Hello,
if I do that I have too few vertices to simalate a full jelly block, it behaves like a hollow one!
Hello Orinoco,
thanks for your reply, looks not bad for me but I cannot rebuilt what you wrote.
Especially I do not achieve any additional faces after the hand beveling you wrote :-(.
What I did:
- I created my BigCube out of 8 subcubes by starting with one cube, set steps under ‘Mesh Tools’ to 1 and went to top view (NUM7) and pressed ‘Extrude Dup’ --> Two sub cubes
- I deselected all vertices, selected all vertices again (AKEY), went to front view (NUM1) and pressed ‘Extrude Dup’ --> 4 subcubes
- I deselected all vertices, selected all vertices again (AKEY), went to side view (NUM3) and pressed ‘Extrude Dup’ --> 8 subcubes
- Now I have my BigCube out of 8 subcubes (see A1.jpg), I further selected all vertices and pressed ‘Rem doub’ under mesh tools.
- Now I try to follow your steps, but got first problem in selecting the 4 corner vertices in top view, because if I use RMB or the BKEY then I get cannot select the 4 vertices of the top face but sometimes the underlaying vertices. So to select only the vertices of the top face I switched to 3D view and selected them there. But what I achive using the s,x, and 0.98 is not a bevelling. It just moves the outer corner vetices closer to the middle. The vertices in the middle of the edges keep on their origin position, so I cannot see any beveling. (see A2.jpg)
(I used a bigger size value of 0.9 to make it visible in A2.jpg)
May you can explain the beveling steps more detailed with a screenshot, that would be very helpful to me!
In your posted image the corners themselve look not very smooth, it look more than a beveled corner/edge instead of y rounded one, is it possible to get it better?
Thanks for further support.
Attachments
Tedious, again, but this will work.
Make a lattice, the same size as the cube.
Parent the cube to the lattice (lattice deform).
Now, reshape the lattice to a smooth shape. Use proportional editing, but even then it’ll be quite annoying.
While doing this, take the resolution up for the lattice, you’ll probably need to subdivide the cube as well.
Hello IanC,
thanks for reply. I tested a littlebit your suggestion, but even with proportional editing it is very tedious to shape the cube. A rough shaping is possible, but to give a cube rounded edges and corners only by a lattice is too complicated. I cannot add or remove vertices to achieve a better shape of the lattice, so the corners of the cube won’t be smoothed.
Furthermore I cannot use the ‘Set smooth’ button to make edges/corners really smooth, if I do it gives incorrect result, lots of black areas, not to use anyway!
So it seems to be really complicated to simulate a filled jelly cube with rounded edges.
Any further idea?
Sorry, I wasn’t really clear on what I meant by select the corner vertices. I meant the vertices all the way down the join between the two sides, not just the vertex where three sides come together. :o Here’s some screenshots working with a two by two cube.
selecting the “top” corners
A technique AndyD showed me is to use Scale, Shift+Axis-You-Don’t-want-to-scale-on
to easily scale on the other two axes (ie: s, Shift z, 0.95 to scale inward on x and y to 95%)
Once you’ve scaled in, the corner and the edge aren’t lined up anymore. Select them both.
The big cube with everything scaled in
and the render.
Hope this makes more sense.
Hahaha, how did I not realise this?
sigh
Crease the subsurf.
Step 1. Create a cube.
- put on subsurf.
- Select all vertices except 1.
- Shift-e, crease them.
This is your corner one.
Step 2. Copy the cube. - Crease edges required to get the BigCube edges.
Step 3. Putting it all together. - Copy and place these cubes everywhere you need.
- Add the filler ones.
- Join.
Should take about 5 minutes.
Hello IanC,
thanks for reply, a great idea! I tested already and it seems to be the best way.
But setting ‘Set smooth’ causes black artefacts as well, (even if normals point in same direction). I avoided this by setting the subsurf level during render up to 4, then it is smooth enough.
Thanks a lot!
No worries. The setsmooth problem just comes when you have a large angle change between two faces. It’s hard to smooth a 90 degree bend. Because of this, use “autosmooth”, it’ll show up when rendering.
only select those faces you want subsurfed, and then apply the modifier. In other words, only subsurf that portion of the mesh (the outside frame) that you want to. the rest will stay as they are.
only select those faces you want subsurfed, and then apply the modifier. In other words, only subsurf that portion of the mesh (the outside frame) that you want to. the rest will stay as they are.
Subsurf works on the whole object. It doesn’t matter what you have selected when you add the modifier (and you cannot apply it in editmode).