12 Ways to Add a Sphere to a Project

[Rodney]

Did you know...

 

There are more than 12 different ways to add a spherical shape or model into a project in A:M?

(and there are a few more when we consider the variations on those).

 

Here are some basic approaches:

 

- Double Click on a Sphere in the Library

- Drag and Drop a Sphere from the Library to the Choreography window

- Drag and Drop from anywhere in your computers file system or desktop into A:M

- Use the Primitive Wizard

- Import a Sphere Model (via one of the many different ways possible)

- Import a Sphere Prop (STL, 3DS, OBJ, etc.)

- Borrow the Sphere from another project (copy/paste from Model to Model)

- Use the Duplicator Wizard (also very useful for creating partial sphere meshes)

- Create the sphere out of Light

- Fake the sphere via a 5 point circular patch

- Fake the sphere via standard patches

- Composite the sphere into your scene via image/bitmap

- Fake or create the sphere via Font or Adobe Illustrator wizard (bezier curves/vector graphics)

- Ask someone in the A;M forum if you can borrow their sphere for your project

 

And last but not least is number er...15... Model the sphere via the classic lathe technique.

 

I'm sure I've forgotten a couple and I haven't included any method I haven't used yet (such as creating the sphere via data in Excel).

 

Where/if there is interest we can explore each one of these methods in detail.

This isn't just about adding spheres into a project. Knowing more about these basic processes can open new avenues of approach to solving problems and improve workflow over all.

[nemyax]

How many ways are there to UV-unwrap the sphere?

[robcat2075]

How many ways are there to UV-unwrap the sphere?

the best way to map a sphere is to cylinder- or sphere-apply a decal rather than trying to unwrap the mesh to accept a planar-applied decal.

[John Bigboote]

Here are 2 files along the 'spherical' topic that you may want to grab for your library. One is a non-lathed 'hexahedronical' sphere, the other is a sphere made-up of individual cubes- great for motion-graphics usage. Any guesses how I made them?

Sphere_hexahedronical.mdl

sphere of cubes.mdl

[Rodney]

How many ways are there to UV-unwrap the sphere?

 

 

This is the wrong question to ask in that UV-unwrapping is an artificial construct to begin with, which isn't even required in some cases.

For instance, how does one unwrap a spherical light? Answer: That isn't likely going to be necessary.

The brevity of your question with your level of experience suggests to me you think you know the answer already.

I hope that I'm wrong in this and your question is simply brief, naive and genuine.

The superficial if not unfortunately self-referential answer is 'as many ways as you can UV-unwrap the sphere'.

As I'm not you and don't know your specific workflow I can't answer the question without more information.

How many ways can you currently UV-unwrap a sphere?

Knowing that answer will help in understanding if you are missing out on any known ways to unwrap spheres.

It is a easy to record your screen and show us your current (or preferred) approach to UV-unwrap a sphere.

Having that information at hand we can better answer the question.

 

The underlying answer approaches infinity based upon who is lighting or shading the sphere as most spheres in A:M are, for most part, simply modified cylinders. Given that, approaching from a view toward modified cylinders is likely to produce the best results. The primary issue then being one of diminishing size of patches as one approaches the poles of said cylinder/sphere.

 

Lest someone thinks I'm dodging the question please consider Disney's PTEX which strives to avoid UV-unwrapping altogether.

With this in mind the point of the question becomes moot. i.e. Answer: It isn't always always going to be necessary to UV-unwrap a sphere.

 

But to answer the question.

The answer from a purely user interface perspective within A:M is 'three'; spherical, cylindrical and planar (although specific workflows can augment these and approaches using other programs can augment those of A:M). Planar is the least useful of these and generally will only work best if/when the camera perspective is locked down. Planar can work quite well in these cases when decals are applied from the camera's perspective.

[robcat2075]

Any guesses how I made them?

 

For the hexa-thing did you start out by manually making the simplest possible version of that topology and then subdividing?

[Rodney]

Here are 2 files along the 'spherical' topic that you may want to grab for your library. One is a non-lathed 'hexahedronical' sphere, the other is a sphere made-up of individual cubes- great for motion-graphics usage. Any guesses how I made them?

 

 

Nice! The first of those reminds me of another sphere someone posted a few years ago. I think it's still in the A:M Exchange area.

 

My first quess would be that you used Excel or some similar spreadsheet like approach to create the model outside of A:M although I suspect you could also have performed some form of text-based search and replace? Do I get two guesses?

[Fuchur]

Looks to me like a smoth-algorithm of a box in another program...

The second could be done by using Sweeper.

 

See you

*Fuchur*

[Rodney]

Ha! Found it. The sphere in question (similar to Matt's first example) was created by Julian Fong:

 

 

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=23686

[Fuchur]

How many ways are there to UV-unwrap the sphere?

 

I'd say at least 4... maybe more...

- Spherical Mapping with a Decal

- Baking

- Trying it by hand with a flat mapping (would not try that)

- Using a material like a projection-map or environment-map.

 

The last one does not technically do a UV set, but I think it should be possible.

For a simple sphere, Spherical Mapping with a decal will produce the best results (in general).

 

For more complex mappings Baking can be a very powerful companion in combination with 3dPainter or 3dCoat.

 

See you

*Fuchur*

[Fuchur]

No, as I mentioned in the old thread, I'm still using the Spherize plugin from Emilio Le Roux.

 

 

Anyone knows about that?

See you

*Fuchur*

[Rodney]

 

No, as I mentioned in the old thread, I'm still using the Spherize plugin from Emilio Le Roux.

 

 

Anyone knows about that?

See you

*Fuchur*

 

Spherize was one of Emilio's paid plugins. His site has been down for years though so it can't be purchased that way.

If contacted I'm sure he could still supply it. The trial still might be downloadable via archive.org

 

Correction: Emilio's site is still active but I don't see all of his older plugins.

 

http://www.moscafilms.com.br/emilioleroux/amplugins.html

[John Bigboote]

Fucher got it... another program. Shame on me. Thought they may be useful to the 'sphere-collectors'.

[Rodney]

Attached is the spherize plugin if anyone wants to test it out.

I'm not certain if this is a full plugin, a limited version or something else...

 

 

spherize.zip

[robcat2075]

The Julian Fong Sphere is different from Matt's. Matt's does not have any triangle patches, while Julian's does. Julian's would be more correct splining however.

 

Here is something similar to Matt's made in A:M. The simplest possible all-4-point sphere is made manually, then subdivided 4x4...

 

[robcat2075]

Here is a "hexahedronical" sphere all done in A:M...

 

1- extrude out a simple 6 patch cube.

2- use Splitpatch to subdivide that. I unpeak all the center splines.

3- I scale out all the face center CPs until the centersplines are circular.

4- I scale in the original 8 corner CPs until they lie on the proper sphere radius. (eyeballed this)

5- SplitPatch twice for more density.

 

 

 

It can be done!

[John Bigboote]

That's pretty cool, Robcat... another for the ICBD Series? Why isn't sphereize included in Animation:Master anymore?

[Rodney]

Why isn't sphereize included in Animation:Master anymore?

 

 

I don't recall it being included before. I think it had to be downloaded.

This is similar to Emilio's other plugins such as SetBias which are/were must=haves in my estimation.

 

It can be done!

 

No kidding. Very nice.

I recall using Splitpatch to do something similar and definitely didn't get that nice of results.

I started from a more complex/noncontinuous state (garbage in/garbage out).

[robcat2075]

Did we ever figure out if Emilio is contactable? If he is perhaps the code for the plugins could be had for Steffen to update.

[Rodney]

Did we ever figure out if Emilio is contactable? If he is perhaps the code for the plugins could be had for Steffen to update.

 

Some folks that frequent the forum from time to time keep in contact with him.

AFAIK He can still be contacted via his site which should have the same email address that he's used for years.

He still runs his film business (same website as well).

[Rodney]

I played with the Spherize plugin a little as I had forgotten how it worked.

A few things I note:

 

It works well for altering models (in the Modeling Window)

- It's neat to be able to see those changes in realtime as the plugin's settings are altered. I had thought it was set and execute type of workflow.

It doesn't appear to work in Poses or Actions (crash to the desktop on those)

[Clipping Path Specialists]

Your basic is write and think this is the logn term project. So keep going post.