Seamless seam

Support Modeling
1

I was wondering, how would you model a perfect sphere which at some time ‘opens’ a door in its surface and something (e.g. a robotic arm) comes out.

In the first part, the sphere would have to be perfectly round, you can just take a UV-sphere with smooth (& subsurf)

However, when you want to have, say, 4 faces ‘opening’, they will have to be ‘cut loose’ from the sphere itself… Which results in a seam in the sphere, even before it’s being ‘opened’.

I hope this doesn’t sound too abstract. If it does, please say, and I’ll make a few pics to illustrate my wish.

How would you do this? Thanks!

2

You might try using a sphere with high vertices count and smooth shading. Do not use subsurf modifier. The seem will be much less visible. But maybe your animation concept allows you to mask minor defects? For example, you might show back side of the sphere with no doors and then rotate it and show how the door is opening… Or just arrange a scene so as sphere wouldn’t attract attention unless the right moment…

3

Maybe have 2 models, one a complete sphere and another a sphere with the door, and just edit it when the door opens?

4

Here is a rather odd solution…

I have 2 spheres, one with the door set to transparency, the other with the main part set transparent…

Attachments

trick.blend (88.4 KB)

1.jpg800×600 36.3 KB

10.jpg800×600 38.2 KB

5

Thanks to you all :slight_smile: I just hope the transp won’t increase the render time that much, but I’ll definitely check it out!

And of course thanks for the ‘hiding’ tip too :slight_smile: Only, I wanted it to be very visible, for the cool effect :stuck_out_tongue: Will remember it for future stuff though :slight_smile: