[eladbari]

Hey, guys!
So, ive been trying to model these Speech bubbles inside C4D.
I made a shape with the pen tool in Photoshop\illustrator, and Imported it into C4D. Put a little extrude nurves..all that good stuff.
But, i cant seem to reach the Final shape i want.

heres the scene file:
http://rapidshare.co...oons-1.c4d.html

currently, the bubbles are just big blocks, but i need them to look like this:
http://www.leblogdec...e-bookshelf.jpg

so i need to make this big chunk scooped off, so theyll look like a shelf.
Can Anyone help me pull this off?
Id REALLY appreciate any help!
p.s-tried to follow this cool tutorial [by the Talented Leah Reader :]
http://www.vimeo.com/5603482
tried to pull off what she did there with the Bucket, but it doesnt work :\

[monstro]

 Hey..

There's multiple ways to go about it, here's a quick one:

Grab one of your spline shapes and duplicate. Scale it down by like .1 (or however thick you'd like it to be). Select both splines at the same time (CTRL + Click), right-click and choose CONNECT + DELETE (or go to FUNCTIONS>CONNECT + DELETE), and you'll end up with one shape consisting of both previous splines. Place this in an Extrude Nurbs and you're good to go




Edit: Here's an example using your file--

http://drop.io/SpeechBalloons

This post has been edited by monstro: 09 February 2010 - 01:49 AM

[munkart]

Other option is to use a Sweep Nurbs with a rectangle spline and your spline. :-)

[eladbari]

wow! thanks to both of you guys, monstro & munkart, for your quick reply! much appreciated
i must say monstro's idea came off a little better, i guess only because this is a spline i made in illustrator, and when i try Munkart's method, i get lots of artifacts and all. something is not perfect with the path, i guess.. :\

But, anyways, guys..i must say this is just 90% of what i wanted. heh.. :]
what i Really wanted is the same shape you guys were aiming at [=that hollow speech bubble], BUT, i need that far side of the bubble to be blocked!
i need it to be a kind of a box, and not a 100% hollow.therefore, i guess it maybe means-using a complete different method?
ok..i just sketched what im looking for as a final model:
http://i178.photobuc...C4D-wannabe.jpg

thats what i meant by 'not hollow' +plus, i wanna paint only the inside with 1 color, while the outside will be white. so..i will also appreciate
a short explanation of how you can pull it off :]

waiting for your revelations...
Thanks alot,Guys!

[edrhine]

If you need to create something like your illustraion, I would take the bubble you have and use inside a boole object. If you use the same spline method above with an editable verion of your though bubble. (ie. scale down a copy, position right and boole) you should have the result you want. As for texturing... just put one main material on the object (like the white in your drawing) and the select the polys you want with the "green texture" and drag the second material onto it in the viewport and you should be fine

[monstro]

edrhine, on 09 February 2010 - 04:20 AM, said:

If you need to create something like your illustraion, I would take the bubble you have and use inside a boole object.  If you use the same spline method above with an editable verion of your though bubble. (ie. scale down a copy, position right and boole) you should have the result you want.  As for texturing... just put one main material on the object (like the white in your drawing) and the select the polys you want with the "green texture" and drag the second material onto it in the viewport and you should be fine

Yeah, that makes sense. Keep the full speech bubble and use a smaller copy to boolean ("cut") the shape out at the depth you want.


Another way would be to use the cutout speech bubble I set as an example, make it editable, CONNECT + DELETE the base shape + the two caps. Then select the back face (when you do the connect + delete, you should have two selection sets, one of them being that back face) and delete it. Then you can use the Close Polygon Hole tool to fill that whole back face. Seems like a longer way to do it, but I usually tend to stay away from boolean operations personally


Edit: http://drop.io/speechballoons2

This post has been edited by monstro: 09 February 2010 - 04:54 AM

[eladbari]

Hey, Guys!
Thanx again for your kind help
ok, so i tried this Boolian tool, which delivered really nicely, i think, as you can see in the new Scene File [monstro-decided to use ur cool little website
http://drop.io/speech_baloons_3

i just drew another spline shape > extruded it > made a fillet-cap in the back > and added the Boolian thingy.
i only have 2 problems now:

1.i wish i could somehow curve those outer boundaries of the bubble. u know? just like i used the "Fillet Cap" on the cutting shape-to make the inside rounder, i wish i could round off those outer tips of the hollow space. they are very sharp, and will render yucky :$

2.i Still cannot manage to color the inside of the bubble. i just cannot select the inside polygons, even when making the Boolian object-editable.. :\ im sure theres a way...
(Update: i just found a way to do it without the polygon thingy-just apply a material to the "cutting shape" inside the boolian, and it colors it nicely! still..i admit, this whole logic in C4D of polygons and selections is something i need to figure out :$ ).

Thanks ALOT, you guys!

This post has been edited by eladbari: 09 February 2010 - 12:08 PM

[monstro]

Cool, I just found out about that site a few days ago myself!

You can either A) add a fillet cap to your "start" and then move the boolean back into the solid object up until the front cap reaches the front face of the solid object so that it actually bevels your edge (just make sure to reduce the extrude in Z so that you aren't cutting a hole into that back) or you could always up the subdivisions, make editable, and manually tweak the front loops to create a bevel.

[eladbari]

ok..so ill try to make this quick.
heres an image with the issues ive found:
http://drop.io/speech_bubble_episode2

1. those edges i need to bevel.
there is a problem with your offered solution, monstro..since making a Front bevel, and then moving it back, causes the problem in
image #2 [=the bubble gets blocked, of course], +Plus, making a front bevel will not work, since the direction of that bevel will be inwards and not outwards.

that manual tweaking sounds better, but i have NO idea how to do so :\

2.Damn! Those harsh shadows, in figure #3!
is there No way to get rid of them? [i guess it happens because of the rough splines creating that whole shape, huh? :\

tnx :]

[monstro]

Hey man--

Select one of your boolean groups and in the object properties tick "create single object" and "hide new edges" (just for cleanness sake ). Then hit C (to make it editable). You'll end up with one poly inside of a group. Go into "edge mode" (on the left hand sidebar or TOOLS > EDGES). Then SELECTION > LOOP SELECTION and select that front facing loop you want to bevel. Then goto STRUCTURE > BEVEL. Then you can adjust the settings (subdivs, falloff, etc) through the tools panel or adjust it dynamically with your mouse.

Hope that helps....

EDIT: Your shadows might look bad because of how the balloon shape was created. Since you used a boolean to cut out the shape, you don't have a very clean topology, which might be affecting the shadows. I think you also mentioned that your object was disappearing, I've noticed that weird things sometimes happen when dealing with boolean functions (which is why I mentioned that I stay away from them). Sometimes starting over, or restarting c4d/your computer might help.

This post has been edited by monstro: 10 February 2010 - 03:46 AM