mcjribbons2k17

mcjRibbons2K17

NOTE THIS IS A RUSH RELEASE

USE mcjRibbons2K17's "Web Help' Button to come back here

for example, i may add a PDF format manual

Also there may be bugs, which will be fixed in coming days

October 15th 2017

INTRODUCTION

This is the 2017 version of mcjRibbons which can still be found here

https://sites.google.com/site/mcasualsdazscripts/mcjribbons

I added many new features

mcjRibbons lets you create objects using 2 curves,

this process is sometimes called Extrusion

- the Profile curve is the curve defined by the positions of a series of objects you selected

- the Path curve is the trajectory followed by the selected objects as they travel during an animation created by you

HISTORY

October 15th 2017 1:14AM - Release

INSTALLATION

the Zip file is found at the bottom of this page under the name mcjRibbons.zip

unzip it in your daz content folder

typically : C:\Users\Public\Documents\My DAZ 3D Library

once installed the prop will appear in your library under

Daz Studio Format / My DAZ 3D Library / Scripts / mcasual

once installed the script will be in Studio/Scripts/mcasual

The other zip file named mcjRibbonsManual contains the

document you are presently reading, it's the manual.

note : if you rename mcjRibbons2K17.dsa to mcjRibbons2K17.ds it may work with Daz Studio v1 and v2

USE

Lets create 8 spheres and place them in circle.

The Spheres are named Sphere1, Sphere2 ... Sphere8

Helper Script: mcjPrflr

Instead of spheres, you can use Null nodes to create the profile curve.

Creating large numbers of Null nodes can be tedious, so i created the

companion script named mcjPrflr and packaged it in the same zip file

as mcjRibbons.

the UI looks like this and should be easy to figure out.

NEW in 2K17 : Create profile nodes from

complex shapes borrowed from mcjBuilderA

mcjBuilderA found elsewhere on this site is also an extrusion system.

I created more than 100 profile shapes, notably handrail shapes, frames for paintings

and some classical architecture shapes.

select a shape from the list in the upper-left corner of the shapes section

you can optionally mirror the shape

set its width. ( the units are centimeters )

the height will be automatically set for you

click on the "Create Profile Node Group" button

normally you want to exit mcjRibbons2K17 at this point

the profile nodes are all in one group, so you usually animate this node

if you select this very special parent node, and start mcjRibbons2K17

then mcjRibbons2K17 will recognize it and automatically select the profile nodes for you in the proper order

The imaginary line going from Sphere1 to Sphere8 will be called "the profile curve"

Create a null ( Null1 ) in the center of the profile curve and parent the 8 spheres to it

this way we can move the 8 spheres using Null1

We set the Animation Timeline for a 37-Frames animation

the Play Range is from frame 0 to frame 36

we create a Null ( Null2 ) and we place it 9 meters to the left of the Profile curve

then we parent Null1 to Null2

At Frame 0, we set Null2's ZRotate parameter to 1 degree

At Frame 36, we set Null2's ZRotate parameter to 360 degrees

We change Null2's ZRotate parameter back to 0 degrees ( we did that be sure a keyframe is created )

we change the Play Range to : frame 0 to frame 35

here's the result

The gray lines were added, for illustration purposes ( using the mcjTracer plugin found elsewhere on this site ).

You may notice the 8 balls speed up and slow down, this is a sometimes-unfortunate side effect of the way Daz Studio treats keyframes.

To fix this you could use my "SetInterpolation" script, and change Null2's keyframe interpolation to "Linear"

Now the balls move at a constant speed

the Path Followed by the balls from the first animation frame to the last is called "the Path Curve"

Select the 8 balls one after the other, in the correct sequence

Launch mcjRibbons

Click on the Build-Save Button and specify a filename for the obj file that will be created

example: torus001.obj

Bringing your creation in the scene

NEW in the 2K17 version

There's now 2 buttons that let you load the .obj you created a moment ago

Load Last Built object will let you load the object of your choice with the 100% scale option

Reload And Swap Object will load the last created object, if this object is already in the scene, because you created previous versions, then it will be replaced by the last version. A nice feature of this is that many of the materials are transfered to this new copy.

And here's the result ( i applied a texture to make things clearer )

Closing the Profile curve and the Path curve

Since we did not specify "Close Profile Curve" we can see a slit running along the side of the torus.

and since we did not specify "Close Path Curve" the torus misses a slice.

If we change this ...

we get a complete torus

Adding end Caps

When the Path curve is open and the Profile curve is closed

it's possible to add caps

example:

i changed the playrange to Frame 10 to 25

and i checked the two Cap checkboxes

NEW iN 2k17 : CAPS for recalcitrant ribbons!

Sometimes the old 2010 caps are not suited to profiles with concave shapes

for those cases try the new Triangulated Caps option

Here you can see that instead of just tying the end of the tube together in 1 point, 2K17 uses the ''ear clipping' method to build the caps.

Stabilization of profile UV U

The UVs of an object determine how the textures/images are "painted" on the object's surfaces

the "U" part of the UVs is the coordinate along the profile curve, the V part of the UVs is the coordinate along the path curve.

By default, mcjRibbons spreads the U values according to the lengths of the segments that form the profile curve

in the example above, the left side of the road narrows

the left image shows mcjRibbon's default handling of the UV-Us, the paved portion of the road drifted

the right image shows the UV-Us with the "Sample UV U at current frame and maintain" checkbox checked

mcjRibbons sampled the UV-Us at frame 0 of the animation and maintained them.

NOTE i'm not sure i did this properly in 2K17 ... come back to this page using the "Web Help + Update" button

Other objects created with mcjRibbons

Spiraling Staircase ( 3 objects )

Soft Sofa ( 1 object )

a skirt with tulle

a short and winding road

note that this object was converted into a subdivision surface

using Daz Studio's Edit/Convert to Subd menu

unfortunately this introduced a defect in the texture ( where the asphalted surface shrinks )

to avoid this you could perform the subdivision in a program like Blender3D