Wk9 - Part 3, drop it or not?

My main area of concern is whether the 3rd part I was originally going to do as well, the Mandelbox-inspired Maya model, should be continued... I'm concerned that I won't have enough time if I do all three parts, especially when the physical and the fly-thu are so close to being ready.

I'm gonna meet with Lucien to discuss my concerns and my status.

Break Wk1 - Physical Possible!?

So, after installing the Collada plug-in, I was able to export from Maya into the DAE format, which when zipped came down from 87MB to 19MB

I imported the model into the Shapeways website... Within 15mins, I knew that the model was viable and even had a price tag attached.  Here are my first three uploads:

10.5cm solid displaced model = $869.92

5.4cm hollow displaced model = $127.59

5cm solid constructed model = $98.48

Clearly, the volume has something to do with the cost but I found that with my 5cm model, that making it hollow, whether a cube or an identical replica within made no difference to the volume or the cost... this could be related to the 5cm size though... not sure.

The question is, should I buy it for nearly $100?

Wk7 - Physical Object Concept (Displacement)

Custom Mandelbox

Mandelbox Face

Face without Light, shadow, etc.

Displaced across cube

Displaced across Plane

Displaced over cube on each surface.

Wk6 - Inter-Particle Collision - I hate Maya!

This is really starting to shit me.  I know what I want in my head but getting Maya to do it is so frustrating...  All I want is that the particles collide with each other and on the fourth collision they freeze... is that so much to ask.  Bloody hell!  Kill me now!

Wk5 - Fly Thru for Displacement Maps

In an effort to generate nice displacement maps, I decided to do a fly-thru from the corner of a black and white mandelbox...



Textures I've played with so far:

Using the particle system, I can see that using such images will work nicely in creating some textured surfaces:

Wk4 - Will the pieces come together?

So, using the objects I've created thus far, I've attempted to see what I could construct with them as building blocks... as a proof on concept for the creation of my model/environment.  This is what I've got so far...

I'm thinking at this stage that repetition is important... who knows...

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Wk4 - Maya Learning Curve

So, I've been creating shapes for my manually created object/environment:

My idea is that this will look like it is
 taking in the mist.

The arch is featured a lot within the Mandelbox.

This animates up and down whilst spinning.

I do have a few Maya topics/questions now:

• Camera angle/focal length

• Texture of surfaces

• How to fix a shape, eg. my platform.

• Mist/Fog generation

• Mirrored surface to create infinity?

• Can you have simple animation without keyframes?

Wk2 - Maya Crash Course... Booleans are cool!

So, I had a bit of a crash course this afternoon with Kit regarding Maya and in particular Booleans.  Very nice.

The couple of shapes I've picked out for my constructed model/environment will need such ideas and using one object as a cookie-cutter, so to speak, will make it infinitely more helpful.

Here I'm trying to recreate the basics of a shape that appears in my first render:

On a side note: Kit showed me particles too but we're gonna have a followup lesson on those later.  I really shouldn't have dropped Maya after first year.  :-o

Wk2 - A reply from my new hero

So, it turns out that the reason I can't find a script to create a Mandelbox is because it can't be done.  Check out Duncan Brinsmead's response:

Hi Terrence,

You likely saw a presentation where I showed some mandelbox and mandelbulb renderings. I used a mel expression to create a mandelbrot texture but the 3d stuff was done by coding a custom texture for a Maya fluid node, which is not possible for users. However there is an excellent program for exploring the 3D mandelbox interactively here(source included):
http://www.ms.mff.cuni.cz/~kadlj3am/big/boxplorer/
Also www.fractalforums.com has lots of info on generating these structures.

I don’t think you will have much luck generating a mandelbox with a mel script… it is too much geometry. Not only is it too much geometry for a script, but too much to keep all in memory at once. The more typical way of doing it is through a volume render, which is what I did. I compiled in custom code in my local build of Maya, something users can’t do… and the fluid rendering does not have an open enough api to use for this currently. Basically as the ray is marching forward one evaluates the mandelbox  function at points to determine if they are in or out as well as what the color is. At no point are there any triangles.

At any rate I would post your questions on fractalforums.com. If anyone knows of good resources for this these folks will.

Duncan

Unfortunately, Boxplorer doesn't seem to work anymore but I still can't believe he even replied.  I'm soooo glad he did though.  Now I know for sure that it isn't possible in Maya.

But!  Doesn't mean I can't make something that is inspired by the Mandelbox...  Never give up, never surrender! :)

[AJ] Initial Concept/Plan

Using the Ptolomy map, I'll create a 3D landscape based on the terrain indicated in the map.  Then I'd take a tour of the landscape on a micro level.  As the camera passes a landmark, it should pop up like a pop-up book.  As you approach the equator, it turns to flames and you cant pass... maybe you can see through the flames the abominations.

I was thinking about presenting a similar map from our perspective, NZ coast goes on to end of map, as does New Guinea.

Due to the pop-up nature, I think Maya will be the best medium for creating such a map fly-thru.