Ali Torabi » nurbs

Dynamic Shading device

admin — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 13:05:43 +0000

In this video I’m using PARA to create a light sensitive shading structure in form of dome that responds to the location of sun which it also follows the daylight system in 3ds max. I use surface controller to populate the surface with the custom made panel. Each triangular panel has three blades folding among the outer edge. Panels are designed to block the direct sun light while they allow the indirect light to penetrate the surface of the dome.

This is an example of using Magnet controller to derive the values based on orientation of the objects according to the magnet node. The angle of the panel is set to the angle between the Z axis of the object (the panels have been transformed to the surface using a surface controller on transform property) and the line that connects the sun node to that object. It’s very important that sun node must be far enough from the objects in array so the sun rays become approximately parallel.
A new function of PARA 2.2 has been incorporated in this video to create the resulted animation. This new utility allows user to select the desired controller/property and creates a series of key frame within given time frame. The use of utility is very simple and straight forward and does not require further explanation.
Watch the back scene in 6 min, although this video is not a tutorial, I hope that you can learn something!

Voronoi Tessellation

admin — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 08:15:34 +0000

let me introduce my Voronoi Chair (I) !,

You may think that I have used some special program or script. But this is simply result of combining a few modifiers on top of a NURBS geometry in 3ds MAX.

Here is the Voronoi tessellation diagram using 3ds max modifiers. this approach is fully parametric and you can control the final result in any aspect. Just go through the stack and make your setting.

Note: To keep the interactivity with geometry you need to use EditPoly modifier in animate mode!

Rotating panels along the surface

admin — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 11:46:48 +0000

Level: Advanced
In This Video:

Use curve controller to change U & V offsets of a surface controller.

Using preview mode to handle large number of items in the array.

surfaceController takes following arguments:
surface:surface name –Name of object in 3ds Max
feedback:transform/position/rotation –function returns transform matrix, position in point3 value and rotation in EulerAngles value
uOffset:offset value –Increase or decrease offset in U direction
vOffset:offset value –Increase or decrease offset in V direction
normalOffset:offset value –increase or decrease the normal offset
mode:1 or 2 — set the controller in relative mode (2) or absolute mode (1)
order: 1 to 9 — choose the order of rotation (items in drop down menu) works only when feedback is set to rotation
data: 1 or 2 — use uv-mapping information (2) or NURBS evaluation functions (1)
uv:1 or 2 — choose the uv direction.
surfaceID: index number — identify the surface index when works with nurbs object or choose
the UV mapping channel when working with mapping information

Combine controllers inside your script

admin — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 11:01:40 +0000

Level: Advanced
In This Video:

Use curve controller to pass offset value to the surface controller.

Set the dim argument to apply the curve controller on a certain direction.

Undulating brick wall

admin — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 10:09:06 +0000

Level: Advanced
In This Video:

Use surface controller function inside your script.

set Feedback argument to rotation when you need to rotate objects according to the surface.

Push items in every other row by increasing index1 value.