how to model a geodesic sphere?

[nitroblaster]

any ideas how to model this??? http://www.solarius.com/assets/gallery/wdw/epcot/epcot_se_2001a.jpg

thanks!

[a_w]

This may not be the quickest way, but as a start, you'll want to get the dnPolyhedron MEL script from: http://dannyngan.com/tools.htm

 

That will net you your base shape, an icosahedron. Once you have the icosahedron:

 

1. Switch to Vertex component level and select all the vertices on the icosahedron.

 

2. Edit Polygons menu > Poke Faces

- each face should get a new vertex at its center.

 

3. Edit menu > Invert Selection

- now you should have the vertices at the center of each triangle selected.

 

4. Uniformally scale the vertices to push them out from the triangle's center.

 

5. Edit Polygons menu > Normals > Soften/Harden for a faceted look.

 

 

Good Luck,

a_w

[nitroblaster]

thanks so much! I downloaded the script but how do install and use it? im really sorry ive never used script in maya

[a_w]

1. Unzip the dnPolyhedron.zip file you downloaded from Danny Ngan's site.

 

2. Copy the dnPolyhedron.mel file into Maya's scripts folder. You can typically find this folder (if you're using Windows) at the following location:

 

My Documents\maya\6.0\scripts -or- My Documents\maya\scripts

 

(if on OSX) ~/Library/Preferences/AliasWavefront/maya/scripts/

 

 

3. OPTIONAL SHELF ICON

Copy the accompanying two .bmp files into Maya's icons folder:

 

My Documents\maya\6.0\prefs\icons

 

 

Start Maya, then type dnPolyhedron in the command line and hit Enter. You should get the dnPolyhedron menu, where you can customize your icosahedron. Maya is case-sensitive, so make sure you capitalize the P, otherwise you'll get a "Cannot find procedure" error.