A few circular renders

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A few circular renders

Postby Peter Jepsen » Tue May 23, 2023 9:01 am

Hello all, thought I'd drop by to say hi and let you know I'm still here. :D

If I haven't done so already, a big welcome and compliments to Wagyx!

For your amusement I wanted to share a few renders I've done through the years, all based on spheres.
Some of these I've used as Teams avatars/icons. Feel free to use if you like them. :)

Peter

Modular Dodecahedron Sphere zoom.png


Butterfly 5 - Sphere crop.png
Butterfly 5 - Sphere crop.png (253.15 KiB) Viewed 3703 times


Geo and Maggie with US Fair towers.jpg


Glitter Zoomies 1.jpg


20221208.rev2.3 copy.jpg


White Zoom copy.jpg
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Re: A few circular renders

Postby Wagyx » Wed May 24, 2023 10:23 am

Hello Peter,

What nice renders ! Which software have you used ? I particularly like the ones with the flakes. The reflection by the sphere gives a kaleidoscopic effect like a glimpse into an extra dimension.
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Re: A few circular renders

Postby Peter Jepsen » Wed May 24, 2023 2:08 pm

Hello Wagyx.

The modelling we (Geomagworld SA) do in Autodesk Inventor where we have the pieces (rods, spheres, panels etc) set up with iMate snap points.
From there we export in STEP format which is then meshed in different formats depending on who is to work on the meshes next.
I mesh with Okino PolyTrans to FBX format which Imports straight into Blender, where i then instance all the spheres, rods etc, assign materials and set up cameras and eventual motion blur.
The actual rendering I do with the in-built Blender Cycles engine, but I am using a paid custom Cycles version called E-Cycles (optimised for faster noise-free results to save on render times)

Speaking of modelling, which software are you using for your 3D assemblies Wagyx? A custom engine that you created with inverse kinematics? I can't believe it's all done in Stella!?
I have been impressed at how fast you've recreated people's Geomag constructions in 3D, even the super complex geometry ones. Did I miss a post of yours where you mention this?

Peter

EDIT: I've added some examples. It should be said, I only create some of our renders, I can only take credit for mine. :)


Bundle Box Front.rev4.FC copy.jpg


Box.Long Side v2 copy.jpg


Box copy.jpg


Item 763.Gravity Recycled.Loops and Turns.Fronte Scatola.FC.rev5.REDUCED MODEL FOR FRONTE SCATOLA copy.jpg


779 Mechanics Challenge STRIKE Recycled.Front.FC.rev6X.copy small.jpg


GEOMAG Item 610.Model 12 5-3 Module Bridge - PCS115B38S.06 Light Blue copy.jpg
Last edited by Peter Jepsen on Thu May 25, 2023 10:34 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Added render examples
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Peter Jepsen
 
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Re: A few circular renders

Postby Wagyx » Fri May 26, 2023 7:39 pm

Hello Peter,

Thanks for sharing your modelling process.
I guess that the exploratory phases of new models is still done with real Geomag since you have a large enough supply for any construction.
Though, the construction time may become an issue with large models like the telephone booth I presume.
Lately, I have managed to construct a deltahedron that is also a continous flexahedron. Do you think that the solver from Autodesk Inventor would work it out correctly ?
For the trivia, there is a math theorem stating that the volume do not vary when the polyhedron flexes.

I did not know there was a paying version for Blender Cycles and I know very well the trouble with noisy images in path tracer.
Some AI denoising tools developed by Intel or Nvidia do a good job with that.

My modelling process relies on several tools depending on the starting point.
I use Blender to sketch coarse models from scratch, the topology would be correct and the general shape too but the edge length and face planarity are not.
Then, I use Stella to regularize the coarse model into a fine model where edges are unit length and faces are planar.
The issue is that this step sometimes fails for models that are too large, too complex (without symmetries) and is done manually.
At the end of last year, I have developed some scripts to have the inverse kinematics done in command line so I can batch multiple models at once and also combine it with generation scripts, I came up with my own algorithm which is not so good, and performs differently from Stella's in some cases. I have also recently encountered a similar algorithm made by Antiprism http://www.antiprism.com/programs/poly_form.html.
I have yet to benchmark these different algorithms against each other.
In the end, I always load the model back into Stella and save it as a .stel file and export the obj.

For models on the Geomag forum, most (but not all) are compounds of other basic shapes. In this case, I use Stella since there is a feature to add models face to face.
This method is very fast (I know the keyboard shortcuts by heart now).

As you have noticed, I was having a good run at modeling people's work for a weekend or two. I still intend to finish the other models some day, maybe soon.
I also want to do the same for models on the wiki and from people's picture galleries, basically any model I see a picture of.
The end goal is to add them to a proper database that connects to my viewer and share it with people.

Wagyx
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