help me figure this out

Oniram

hey everyone. not too sure if this is the right place to post this, but ive spent the good majority of my night going through trial and error on ways to create this pattern.



for the life of me i can not get it. i think im being a bit too technical with it, trying to match up exact angles n what not as opposed to just getting the shape down.

(using 3ds max btw). any help is appreciated.

arrangemonk

in reality you have only stones about the same size
witht he ability to break them

meh
try following this:

Mark Dygert

Create a few straight bricks use the bend modifier?
Create a few bricks arrange the verts by hand?
Trace the bricks out with a closed spline, convert it to edit poly and bevel or extrude?

cw

Eyoop, also look for the bigger tesselating shapes, then you can start by making one base, and tiling it, then add the variation afterwards.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5440025/tesselate.jpg

Good luck!

Oniram

thanks for the quick responses.

@arrangemonk: ive done something like that, where i started with all the same size and then gone in and split some edges to vary the different sizes, tho i am trying to keep it somewhat uniform.

@Mark: i did the bend method, but it starts to become an issue towards the bottom. in theory, bending straight bricks should keep somewhat the same angle of bend so long as they are toward the outer part of the bend, but as it gets lower, im getting some that bend over 360 in order to get the bottom bricks. its a bit finicky but ive basically been using booleans (i hate it!) to cut the shapes. so far tho, bend seems to be the way im going.

@cw: i sort of did that, but in a different way. instead of outlining the shapes from an image, i used a few cylinders to get the tiling correct.

here was a quick explanation example i did just to express what i have done (dont have the actual file on me).

ill keep trying with this, hopefully a variation of methods will eventually turn out right.

Michael Knubben

Oniram: if bend isn't working out for you, sweep on a spline might offer you more control. It also doesn't deform the stones like bend, which is what you want if you're going for the result in the last picture posted by Arrangemonk.

Oniram

thx mightypea. wish i wouldve seen that before. XD figured it out with the bend tho. it was a bit of a hassle but i guess it works out in the end.