One-man coding powerhouse Marius Silaghi has released a new 3ds Max script enabling users to manipulate rows of edges as if they were Bezier curves, increasing the speed and accuracy of inorganic modelling.
According to Silaghi, Smooth Edges means users should “never again be forced to move vertices one be one”.
Like many immediately intuitive things, it’s a lot easier to show than describe, so check out the video above. Smooth Edges costs just €20 (around $30).
Visit the Smooth Edges webpage
Tags: 3ds max, curves, edges, Marius Silaghi, modelling, poly pushing, script, Smooth Edges, splines
Tom said:
I may be wrong, but there’s a FEW problems in this implementation. I only get to define how many points are on the deforming line, not where those are distributed along the line. So if I’m trying to transform points from an exact starting point on the line, I can only add more points to the deformer line in order to approximate a method of placement… still, a very interesting idea. Will be interested to see how it develops. There’s also some interface issues (like if I go to Adjust Edges, and haven’t pressed Apply, then I change to poly mode, then press Adjust Edges again – it goes pling! and I’m forced to close the script). Lastly, when a deformer edge is applied to an edge loop, the loop’s vertices may auto-shift out of their initial position. An example would be: after scaling up a radial loop in a cylindrical form, when selecting a vertical loop crossing this and pressing Adjust Edges, the radial loop will kink, even if a high segment value has been set.
1:57 am on Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Tom said:
Oops, I didn’t notice I can delete and right click>refine to remove and add points on the deformer line. But still, the other points still hold.
2:01 am on Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Marius Silaghi said:
Tom I will try to fix the issues in the next updates. Currently I released 1.01 which has an option to keep the original vertex distribution.
9:36 am on Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Mike said:
Tom, stop whining. It looks awesome.
9:42 am on Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Bill said:
Why not just use patches?
5:09 pm on Saturday, December 10, 2011