Rubber sketchbook

I thought I'd share this lighter I quickly modelled in NVil last evening. Not textured yet, but already UVed in 3D Coat.
I'm very happy how fast it is to model with NVil after you customise it to fit your needs and work-flow habits. StreamLine tools, workplanes, radial menus, manipulator modes, alignment and snapping... Those are the things that rule the battlefield, some of which I missed in several other modelling programs.
Pseudo-turntable: http://youtu.be/sIykkISU6yc

Hi rubberDuck,

Looking good, and nice materials.

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If you do not mind a little criticism. On the turn-table(video) you can see that due to adding sub-d the surface around the front hole as pulled (see pic). I know it is not something major, but something to watch out for in the future with sub-d

Yeah, I was aware of it. Probably could be minimised by redoing this part with a little bit more geometry. I decided to leave it only because I owned several poorly made lighters that had this kind of flaw, so I thought that in this case I could get away with it. Aparently not.

Sorry. I hope you do not think I was being over critical, it was not my intention.

Over critical? Oh come on Steve.
This was constructive critics and I kinda' expected it coming. I tried to use as little geometry as possible, but apparently it was too little for this metal shielding to conceal the pinching. I'll redo it with some more polys.

Constructive critics is always good, so thank you for pointing this out.

Okay, I found some time to experiment with the metal shield a bit. I ended up flattening the area that was to be affected by the dent and C-shaped hole and taking it outside of NVil in order to apply a bend deformer to it to match the curvature of lighter's plastic body.
http://youtu.be/FMMVo6Ugm3Q

That looks much better, nice work. 

I ended up flattening the area that was to be affected by the dent and C-shaped hole and taking it outside of NVil in order to apply a bend deformer to it to match the curvature of lighter's plastic body.

You could do that in NVIL.   

It's possible? But how? I thought NVil doesn't have deformers. The only thing I can think of is using Soft Selection with middle edge loop selected, but that resulted in visible pinching.

One way is to use "Spline Modify"

Here quick example:-

I have create a basic (body) shape to represent the lighter body. A flat plane with an hole(to be deformed).
On the flat plane, create a 2 point spline(along the length of the plane) to represent the "Axis" for the deformation. Loop select the top edge of the body (where you are deforming to) and create an open spline (edge_selection-> Geometry menu).



Vertex_selection: select all the vertex on the plane. Enable "Spline Modify"(in visual tools or "Vertex shortcut tools".

Select the 2 point spline (the axis that is along the plane to modify), then select the path, which is the spline running around the top of the body.



Hope that explains, just ask if anything not clear.

Thanks Steve, this is very interesting. I'll give it a try now.

P.S. How many more aces does NVil have under its sleeve?

Hmm... I've ran onto some problems here. Does the length of the object that is to be deformed has to be exactly the same as the length of the deforming curve?

Okay.

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USER ERRORI had symmetry turned on.

Hi rubberDuck,

Hmm... I've ran onto some problems here. Does the length of the object that is to be deformed has to be exactly the same as the length of the deforming curve?

No, but if not the same length, then the mesh being deformed will stretch or shrink (depending on the difference between the length of the axis/path.

One thing I forgot to put forward, that is important, is that you should place the start of the "Axis" and the start of the "Path" at the same location, otherwise the deformation will take that the distance into account and can cause unexpected results.

If needed, you may need to reverse the spline direction (to get the starts the same). There is the option (with spline selected) go into vertex_selection, and you can select "Reverse order" (in visual tools or Geometry-> Spline Commands n Tools)

P.S. How many more aces does NVil have under its sleeve?

There are some interesting tools/functions. If you like the "Spline Modify", also have a look at "Slide"(If you have not already done so). For "Slide", have a spline selected and go into vertex_selection, you will see the option in the visual tools or in Geometry-> Spline Commands n Tools. There you can make the spline into a tube(pipe) or use that spline to slide along a 2nd spline(Path). There are also the other options in that(and the Spline modify) to use a spline_modify_curve to add more changes, such as "Scale". You can get some interesting results.

Hmm... I've ran onto some problems here. Does the length of the object that is to be deformed has to be exactly the same as the length of the deforming curve?

If you want to know the length of the spline, it is available in 'Scene Explorer > Object List'. It is one of the properites of the spline object.