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Old 6th February 2005, 12:54 PM   #1
Hawk
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Default Smooth tube with lines and seperations?

How does one obtain the tubes as shown on the cover of this book. (At the upper r.h. of the image going upward).
http://www.tomah.com/Delliott/sci-fi.gif
What I am after is a smooth curving tube, with lines and seperations, simalar to the ones shown. Meaning a tube with equally spaced lines some being darkened solid and some as line only, just like the image shown. :?:
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Old 6th February 2005, 01:41 PM   #2
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depends on whether you actually want articulated sections, with real contour, or if you're going for visual effect.

A lot of that could be done with a good texture on top of a "smooth" articulated cylinder. But if you MUST have segments with actual space between them that are of a different diameter than the segments...you're in for a bit of work, I'm afraid.

In that case, I'd suggest creating one each of the larger and smaller segments and clone/paste these to create the others, welding vertices at the seams. You'll have to do some vertice manipulation to get curves and things.
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Old 6th February 2005, 01:55 PM   #3
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Perhaps use the replicator to produce a long tube from a simple section and then use subdivision to give it a nice shape.

e.g.:



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Old 6th February 2005, 02:25 PM   #4
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To answer your questions:

What I want is a constant section (In diameter) but curving and smooth in in its transistions.

The curving tube is of a constant section, just like a garden hose.

Question can a well made texture wrap completely around such a tube in AC3D?

I intend to try Andy's suggestion but not sure how to use "replicatior" well enough to produce good results (See that reply) . Thanks

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stiglr
depends on whether you actually want articulated sections, with real contour, or if you're going for visual effect.

A lot of that could be done with a good texture on top of a "smooth" articulated cylinder. But if you MUST have segments with actual space between them that are of a different diameter than the segments...you're in for a bit of work, I'm afraid.

In that case, I'd suggest creating one each of the larger and smaller segments and clone/paste these to create the others, welding vertices at the seams. You'll have to do some vertice manipulation to get curves and things.
:
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Old 6th February 2005, 02:28 PM   #5
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Thanks Andy.
Could you steer me to an instruction or give a brief explanation on how I would use the replicator to create a constant curved tube with lines on it.
Thanks.

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Originally Posted by Andy Colebourne
Perhaps use the replicator to produce a long tube from a simple section and then use subdivision to give it a nice shape.

e.g.:



Andy
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Old 6th February 2005, 03:34 PM   #6
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If you want it textured, you'll probably be best creating a straight tube, texturing it and then bending it.

extrude a rectangle (set multiple sections), texture the tube and then set the subdivision level and move the vertices to bend it.

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Old 6th February 2005, 04:09 PM   #7
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Seems to me if you're following Andy's method of creating the tube with the replicator, all the segments will have identical widths. so, create a texture that has identical segment widths and with the TCE, all you have to do is be sure each row of vertices aligns with each segment of your texture and it should look uniform, no matter how the column/tentacle is bent.
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Old 6th February 2005, 07:32 PM   #8
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Thanks. all good ideas.

Question how does one bend the vertices with control, meaning so the tube appears smooth (Not disjoined) or struggling with a large number of vertices.

.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Andy Colebourne
If you want it textured, you'll probably be best creating a straight tube, texturing it and then bending it.

extrude a rectangle (set multiple sections), texture the tube and then set the subdivision level and move the vertices to bend it.

Andy
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Old 6th February 2005, 11:56 PM   #9
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My best guess would be to select only complete rows of vertices across the cylinder, and rotate them to create bends.
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Old 7th February 2005, 06:04 AM   #10
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Thanks all...I'll give your suggestions a try and let you know the results
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