Lo-res knot OBJs for clothes/prop modelers - First Batch Done

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Comments

  • WilmapWilmap Posts: 2,917
    edited March 2013

    With the right textures you could turn that into a bracelet.:-)

    Post edited by Wilmap on
  • 3dcheapskate3dcheapskate Posts: 2,719
    edited March 2013

    wilmap said:
    With the right textures you could turn that into a bracelet.:-)

    :coolsmile: ...the possibilities are much broader than I first thought!


    I've decided it's time to stop pushing vertices and get down to finalizing the first batch of knots. This is what's going into it:
    - I've redone the bowline completely from scratch and I'm happy with it now.
    - I'm not happy with the shoelace bow (I'm having problems trying to tighten it up). I've decided to release it as it is (i.e.post #23) and let other people have a go!
    - I'm happy with the other basic knots (trefoil, single/dual cord thumbknots, and the two reef knots) as they are (i.e. post #22)
    - I'll also include the three stand plait (post #28) and Wendy's bracelet (post #30)

    - I'll also include a short straight section of cord. This is a simple 8-sided cylinder with six segments. One lengthwise seam and it UV-unwraps to a nice rectangle, which I've stretched to fill the complete square UV-map. I'm currently working on UV-mapping each knot to this same square. This should let you avoid any seam problems by using a seamless tileable texture. It should also allow you to splice straight sections and knots end-to-end to your heart's content in your modelling program (taking care to align the seams) and not have to worry about UV-mapping - that's the hope/plan anyway - not fully proven yet.

    - The simple texture/bump/displacement maps used for the attached image will probably be included too.

    If I get the UV-mapping completed today I might try baking AO, displacement and normal maps of the modelled knots (like in post 21) which could be used to do knots via texture mapping alone.

    P.S. I'm also thinking about doing a re-map (i.e. UV set only!) of the Ajax EasyPose tube (<= you need to be logged in at Rendo to see it</em>) freebie so that my knots can be spliced onto the ends - but that'll be later.

    ReefRender.jpg
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    Post edited by 3dcheapskate on
  • 3dcheapskate3dcheapskate Posts: 2,719
    edited December 1969

    Going well so far...

    D4Import.jpg
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  • 3dcheapskate3dcheapskate Posts: 2,719
    edited December 1969

    ...and the plaited stuff is all UV-mapped now.

    Looks like I've got time for a little baking too!

    P9plait.jpg
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  • patience55patience55 Posts: 7,006
    edited December 1969

    ...and the plaited stuff is all UV-mapped now.

    Looks like I've got time for a little baking too!

    Looks great and looking forward :-)

  • 3dcheapskate3dcheapskate Posts: 2,719
    edited March 2013

    Thanks Patience55.

    It's the start of a new day here. I got the baking completed last night - reduced size sample attached. I plan to spend a few hours today doing a tidy-up and final check, and then I'll upload this first batch of knots (to ShareCG and Renderosity Freestuff as usual). Hopefully that'll be some time later today.

    (P.S. Is anybody having problems posting? I'm definitely logged in, I write a post, post it, but sometimes I'm being told "You must be logged in to post"!?!?)

    Baked.jpg
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    Post edited by 3dcheapskate on
  • patience55patience55 Posts: 7,006
    edited December 1969

    Thanks Patience55.

    It's the start of a new day here. I got the baking completed last night - reduced size sample attached. I plan to spend a few hours today doing a tidy-up and final check, and then I'll upload this first batch of knots (to ShareCG and Renderosity Freestuff as usual). Hopefully that'll be some time later today.

    (P.S. Is anybody having problems posting? I'm definitely logged in, I write a post, post it, but sometimes I'm being told "You must be logged in to post"!?!?)

    Yes ... and the other error message has been popular too. We need to post more than a couple of words, and not the same words repeatedly [like we cannot say "thank you" on more than one post, must be a little creative therein] Using Preview may or not help.
    I'll hazard a guess that the servers are a little busy.

  • 3dcheapskate3dcheapskate Posts: 2,719
    edited March 2013

    Almost there now... looking good!

    Another test render. This time I imported the Thumbknot.obj, StraightCord.obj, and ThreeCordPlait.obj into Blender, attached them to each other by merging approriate vertices (taking care to keep the UV-mapping seams aligned), and then gave the straight cord a bit of a bend.

    I exported the resulting OBJ and imported two copies of it into Poser 6. Applied two different textures and rendered ('Final' quality, 'Smooth Polys', 'Use Displacement'). No texture mismatch visible at the points where I joined the three objects, so UV-mapping to a square was a good move.

    I'm so pleased with the result that I think I'll include the MT5 files for both textures in the upload. And to be fair to those who model for DAZ Studio users I'll do DS shader preset versions too.

    (P.S. Darn it! Got the same 'only accessible to logged on users' message again.... Glad it's not just me though - paranoia was beginning to set in! ;o) )

    PoserMats.jpg
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    Post edited by 3dcheapskate on
  • WilmapWilmap Posts: 2,917
    edited December 1969

    Really great knots. Thanks.:-)

  • 3dcheapskate3dcheapskate Posts: 2,719
    edited March 2013

    First batch done!

    Available at ShareCG and Renderosity.

    A couple more images (same as on ShareCG) in post #44 below.

    Promo.jpg
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    Post edited by 3dcheapskate on
  • patience55patience55 Posts: 7,006
    edited December 1969

    Thank you :-) [and adding more words so many this will post ...]

  • ssweetessweete Posts: 115
    edited December 1969

    these are great!!
    how about some celtic ones?

  • 3dcheapskate3dcheapskate Posts: 2,719
    edited March 2013

    Known Issues With Batch 1

    I'm going to leave it a week or two before starting on a second batch to allow a bit of time for some feedback. Feedback will let me iron out problems from the first batch, so please, if you notice anything wrong let me know - posting in this thread is probably best.

    I've already spotted a few issues:

    1) The lengthwise seam on each cord, which was only used for UV-mapping, isn't recorded in the OBJ file. So my advice to 'ensure the seams line up' if you connect the open end of one cord to the open end of another is impossible to follow! (That one's mentioned in the readme)

    2) The two reef knots use exactly the same mesh, so how come there's such a big difference in the number of faces? I've messed something up there (I'm not on my own laptop so I can't check) - probably duplicate vertices?

    3) The bowline uses far more segments than any of the other knots, so when textured the spiraling cords appear much less tightly packed.

    4) I think it was a mistake including loops as part of the knot mesh - i.e. the two loops in the shoelace bow mesh, and the single loop in the bowline mesh. If you want bigger loops you have to cut the existing loops, and even if you use a few StraightCord.obj segments as the basis for the bit you're inserting you'll get a seam mismatch at the edge loop you cut.

    5) There are some minor mismatches along the lengthwise seams of some of the knots where I forgot to do one my UV-mapping steps.


    Preliminary List For Batch 2

    Plans for what to include in the second batch are quite flexible at present, but a preliminary list is this:

    - New textures based on 8 identical strands spiraling around the cord so that the position of the lengthwise seams becomes irrelevant (to fix issue 1 above)
    - Corrected reef knot (to fix issue 2 above)
    - Shoelace bow and bowline meshes without the loops (to fix issues 3 and 4 above)
    - Fixed UV-maps for the knots with lengthwise seam mismatches (to fix issue 5 above)
    - Some longer linking segments (basically just several StraightCord.obj linked together ) both straight and curved sections.
    - Some more variations of Turks Head Knots.
    - Some Celtic Knots (good suggestion ssweete. By the way, the guy who did KnotTyer3D (mentioned in post #4, with feedback in subsequent posts) also did a ,Celtic Knots program. I haven't tried it out, but my guess is that it'll produce medium/high poly count loose knots like KnotTyer3D. A quick Google shows many other free Celtic knot making programs - has anybody tried any of them?)

    Post edited by 3dcheapskate on
  • 3dcheapskate3dcheapskate Posts: 2,719
    edited December 1969

    By the way, here's a screenshot of all OBJs from batch 1 loaded into DS4.5 (annotated with each knot's face count), and a render of ReefKnotA.obj in DS4.5

    118065.jpg
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    118064.jpg
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  •  

    English Bob said:

    Cool. I couldn't get Gordian Knot to run for me at all...

     

    I had a few unsuccessful attempts to use it in the past - download, install it (or was it a standalone? It's on my old laptop so I can't recall), run it - nothing happens, no window, nothing.
    A couple of months ago I downloaded it again, and for a change read the instructions too! So this time I also installed the DirectX End User Runtime from the Microsoft site as instructed here, bottom of the page - and that did the trick for me.

    Hello

    I made the same experience with GordianKnot ... just the other way round. wink

    I had it working on a System several years ago and wanted to get it work on my new Lapop now but it crashes everytime I start it. Ifollwed the instructions and the EnvChecker (http://www.eurus.dti.ne.jp/masasi/DOWNLOAD/gordian/EnvChecker.zip) says its all fine ... but obviously it isn´t  frown. Has anyone GordianKnot running in Win7 x64?

    THX a lot...

  • 3dcheapskate3dcheapskate Posts: 2,719
    edited March 2016

     

    English Bob said:

    Cool. I couldn't get Gordian Knot to run for me at all...

     

    I had a few unsuccessful attempts to use it in the past - download, install it (or was it a standalone? It's on my old laptop so I can't recall), run it - nothing happens, no window, nothing.
    A couple of months ago I downloaded it again, and for a change read the instructions too! So this time I also installed the DirectX End User Runtime from the Microsoft site as instructed here, bottom of the page - and that did the trick for me.

    Hello

    I made the same experience with GordianKnot ... just the other way round. wink

    I had it working on a System several years ago and wanted to get it work on my new Lapop now but it crashes everytime I start it. Ifollwed the instructions and the EnvChecker (http://www.eurus.dti.ne.jp/masasi/DOWNLOAD/gordian/EnvChecker.zip) says its all fine ... but obviously it isn´t  frown. Has anyone GordianKnot running in Win7 x64?

    THX a lot...

    Only just spotted your post. Just tried it, same problem as you with Gordian Knot in Win7 x64 - crashes every time I start it . Also tried with default XP compatibility settings - same problem.

    Post edited by 3dcheapskate on
  • Eustace ScrubbEustace Scrubb Posts: 2,698

    You could look for a program called KnotTyer3D, written several years ago by one Steve Abbot:  the last Wayback capture of his page is dated '09 or so.

    http://web.archive.org/web/20081230033302/http://www.abbott.demon.co.uk/knottyer3d.html

    I just tried my copy on Windows 8.1, successfully.

  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634

    awesome work thank you so much for sharing these

  • MilosGulanMilosGulan Posts: 1,955
    edited March 2016

    This looks great. Thank You.

    Post edited by MilosGulan on
  • IvyIvy Posts: 7,165
    edited March 2016

    First batch available at ShareCG and Renderosity. I've removed all my freebies from Renderosity.

    Upload was announced in post #40, so check the lead-up to that post for more background.

     

    For one of my ongoing projects I ended up mesh-modeling a simple dual-cord thumb-knot (since I've been unable to find any freebie unrestricted use OBJ knots). The attached image is a Poser 6 render of this 208-face model from various angles (with smooth polys, displacement, cable shader, etc applied) - I was gobsmacked that something so simple could look so effective!

    Now as anybody who's tried knows, modelling knots can be a right PITA, so a bunch of freebie, unrestricted use pre-made OBJs that can be imported into whatever you're modeling seems a good idea. If there's enough interest I'll try doing a few more knots (anybody else with a masochistic streak is welcome to join in!)
    ;-)

    More info about the one I've already done on my blog here - Ideas - a knotty problem. I didn't think it was really worth uploading as a freebie on its own, but if I can add a few more, maybe some cable ends (eye-loop type things) too?

    (Alternatively, if somebody knows where there's a bunch of free, unrestricted use, lo-res polygon mesh knots please point me at them!)

    Thanks to amy_aimei for sparking the thought with her bow-knot freebie at ShareCG...

    Thanks Pete.. Knots are always helpful to add details to a nautical scene. .. BTW I pulled all my poses and ani blocks freebies out of rendo as well because of their new policy that does not allow off site linking anymore to freebies or supporting web sites. I thought it was kind of dumb of them to go that route actually.  but what do I know? . it seem like I know nothing anymore. today everything seems dazed and confused.   up is down, night is day, cats sleeping with dogs. products that are in  bundles But are exempt from MM sale. , no off site linking to freebies sites.  3d websites merging with other 3d web sites.  the whole world going mad...Ha Ha.

    Post edited by Ivy on
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