Cineversity

Hi all

I’m fairly new to C4D and I am trying to create bevelled voxel art. This means that essentially, I want to create scenes that consist entirely of cubes, but all right angles on my objects should be rounded (both outwards and inwards). I don’t want any sharp corners, nor touching curves that look like the cross-section of a butt (sorry, can’t think of a better explanation!). The problem is that the Bevel effect really depends on the arrangement of the polygons and I can’t seem to get this right.

I first started off importing voxel-based objects from MagicaVoxel (a free Voxel editor) but the polygons in C4D end up looking messy, making the bevel unpredictable. So Instead, I am now trying to model all objects from scratch in C4D. I’ve had a go at merging cube objects together into new objects, working with extrudes and using the polygon pen. I’ve wrestled with the weld, optimise, untrianguale, stitch&sew;, meld etc. functions but I can’t work out a way of modelling polygons to lead to the desired bevel effect.

I am attaching a picture of my work in progress. On the left pink object, you can see touching curves (the “butt-cross-section”), resulting from extrudes. The side of the object that is facing us has a groove / fold, even though the face looks flat when removing the bevel. I guess there are some some internal co-planar surfaces, so the bevel treats the parts separately. The top of the object is looking nice.
On the right pink object, I’ve created several pieces and then merged them into one object, but the big 5x5 cube on the inside is being bevelled independently from the 6 pieces attached to its faces. Where the attached pieces meet, they do not bevel together and I can see touching curves again.

I am looking for a better way of quickly modelling my bevelled voxel art and any advice is greatly appreciated!
Thanks!

Hi Nyokee,

Have you checked out the Volume Modeling in R20? It sounds like the perfect solution for you.

Sharing a scene file is always better than an image, so I can take a look first hand. Especially the model on the left might accelerate the solution finding process.

Anyway, here is a scene file for you. I have put a little clay-figure through two different ways to get a Voxel Figure with Bevels, “butt-free”.

1
If you have just a larger collection of single sharp cubes: Object Manager> Object> Connect and delete.
Then use nay selection method that selects only (!) visible polygons. When all outside polygons are selected, invert the selection [U~I]
Now press delete (mouse in editor) and follow up with an Optimize [U~O]
This should be now usable for the Bevel deformer. Note that I restricted the angle, just in case.

2
Again, … a larger collection of single sharp cubes: Object Manager> Object> Connect and delete.
Place it into the Volume Builder, and the Volume Mesher as Parent on top of that.
Adjust the values based on your object scale and to your liking of course.
(The Matrix could be used directly, but not with the same result)

Scene file and screen shot
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/sQPTe6e8x157TYPeM732gvEtwo64vV31iKmPpSXifol

I hope that helps.

ENJOY

Thanks so much for the speedy and detailed reply, that’s much appreciated! It’s great to have the file too, thank you very much for that. It seems to make sense, though I still need to upgrade to R20. For the section of only visible polygons in point 1, should I be in point, edge or polygon mode, and which type of selection should I use? I can’t seem to get this step to work at the moment. Apologies if this is due to me using R19.

I’m attaching my file with my various failed attempts, currently I am testing your method 1 on the grey “cube-piles” but I can’t seem to be able to select only the outside/visible (link below, cannot attach here).

Either way, thanks again for getting back so quickly. I got a coupon to use Cineversity through my partner’s work and I’m really positively surprised!

Thanks!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/f8fcqjubyu1grh5/tree modelling try.c4d?dl=0

Hi Nyokee,
You’re very welcome. Thanks for the kind feedback

To answer your first question, in Polygon mode, otherwise you select the points of the internal polygons. The main question would be, why are there internal polygons to begin with, this is not a clean modeling. Secondly, N-gons over 90º, that disables any technique I can think of to make it work quickly. But I hope my inout helps to overcome this and you enjoy working with it.

Screen capture
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/b3OFRhihwdx9ohhLkwQ5gAJRT7zr2rAWqnV6hkJZcpB

If you get such models, perhaps check the tutorial
https://www.cineversity.com/vidplaytut/polygon_pen_part_07

If you extrude, keep the option for N-Gons and/or Caps OFF! Seriously, if any of the two options are on, you pay with a lot of clean-up work later on. Not worth it and I can’t see any advantage in it.

The two larger ones need much more work. But: with R20 it is a quick fix. Just place them in Volume (Builder and Mesher) and done.
Screen capture
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/OtrABZavQ6sAcAVBqFar4oi1Wj6jv2MX48Xl7NR7zwt

(I have used the Edu license as your file was edu. )

Cheers

Hi Dr. Sassi

Thanks so much, this is excellent! I’ve got R20 now (waiting for my authorization code) but I’ve had a go and I’m impressed with the Volume Builder and Mesher. All your tips have been really useful.

I just have one more question. I’m planning to make fairly large scenes consisting of my “cube-models”. I am attaching an “un-bevelled” example of a street that I made in Magicavoxel that represents the art style.
I might make a park with the above models as trees, add paths, small buildings and so on. In order to keep things from running too slowly, what would be the best technique for modelling my objects? I am planning to just attach cubes to each other and then use the volume builder/mesher, as this seems straightforward. I guess might end up with a high polygon count. I could probably use “current state to object” for each tree, plant etc. and then use “reduce polygon count”. Do you think that’s a good idea or is there a more straightforward / more efficient method in terms of computing power?

Thanks again!

Hi Nyokee,

Please not just images, they are nice, but kind of not supportive, if one likes to get real answers or usable solutions. Let me explain it with the material we have gone through so far. If you had shown me the images of the scene file only, how could I have answered at all with anything useable? You can’t see internal polygons, especially not evaluating how to get ride of them. (N-Gons? etc.) The only thing I can tell, it might be a little bit heavy to rely on Volume for this highly detailed scene. Slow is always relative, but: Speed is always key, I agree.

Do you need an upload link? Check your Private message here on Cineversity.

If you go with my example scene, I have shown how to produce clean geometry with MoGraph.

All the best

Hi again

Thanks for another quick reply. I completely understand where you’re coming from in terms of uploading files, rather than describing abstract ideas. The thing is that for this particular question, no file exists (yet). I guess I was trying to find out if there is a “best practice” in general for creating more complex scenes consisting of bevelled voxels before starting off in a complete wrong direction.

I understand that there’s many ways in which a problem could be tackled, so perhaps it’s better if I try different methods myself first and then ask more questions once I have the next more clearly defined “problem”!
Meanwhile, I’ll learn more about modelling and Mo-Graph.

Thanks!

Hi Nyokee,

To explore on your own is always a good idea. Always keep in mind, there is no failure, only gained experiences. On the other hand, every attempt to solve something will fill your creative library.

I hope I was able to give you some hints what to look for and that you will find your very own procedure.

I’ll be this week more often than not offline. However if anything pops up here on the forum, I will catch up next weekend.

Enjoy.