One for the 3D Gurus.

[Macpod]

Hi. This might be a bit of a challenge. I have a project where im trying to explore the methodologies of making weld-form steel. This involves folding layers of different steel, up to 512 folds, while applying heat with each fold.

 

Does anyone know how i can repeat this with 3ds max? Basically, i have to see how the different layers look after been folded and 'melted' repeatedly. a cut section of the resulting model should look something like this......or vaguely similar. it is an experiment after all.

 

[AJLynn]

you could use a tile map with 1x512 tiles with UVW map plane, with the gizmo aligned to the narrow width of the blade.

[Macpod]

what gizmo are refering to? I dont fully understand the above process but is it mainly to just make the object look like the knife? I deduced that from the use of tile map, which i undertsand is like applying material or 2d image.

 

What i really want to do is re-create the process of making the steel. i.e having two material and folding it and applying some kind of melt/heat command after each fold. Or atleast just fold and twist the hell out of it. I dunno if this process can be modelled with software.

[AJLynn]

Oh, I was talking about making it look like the material. The gizmo is part of the mapping scheme - for planar mapping, the gizmo is a rectangle representing the plane and the map is projected orthagonal to it, so by aligning it parallel with the thin side and giving it a map that represents the lines caused by the folds you'd be projecting the fold lines through the knife object and they'd end up on it like contour lines. The variations in the pattern would be caused by any inconsistencies you put in the blade geometry.

 

With the actual knife, there are multiple steps creating that effect - you fold the steel and pound flat, repeat 9 times (it's 512 layers, not 512 folds - fold twice more to get "more than 2000" which is commonly cited for Japanese swords) then grind - it's grinding to expose the layers of steel with surface properties that have been altered by heating, pounding and cooling that gives it the pattern, and fine inconsistencies in the grinding produce differences in the pattern.

 

To actually do that in geometry would be... very complicated. Replicating the folding is easy - it's ust a bunch of folding. I'm not sure you could replicate the grinding but if I were to try I'd want to be using a very advanced modeler along the lines of Rhino or AliasStudio, that can intersect a heck of a lot of NURBS in linear time. I'd alternate the materials of the layers (a more glossy one and a less glossy one) and render it in Maxwell.

[Ernest Burden III]

3D noise

[edub]

3D noise

 

aren't we all??

 

actually, i don't have anything meaningful to add, just thought it was an interesting topic - learned something about metal folding. Wouldn't want to model that in 3d though. Texturing seems like a more sane alternative.

 

btw, Beautiful knife. That pattern is called Damascus, if I'm not mistaken.

[Macpod]

actually. True damascus pattern is not the result of folding. Damascus lines are the result precipitation lines.

 

but anyways. ill try the folding and see what i get. Is there an actual command called folding in 3ds max?

[spok]

I don't have time to look into creating new ones, but procedural maps seem to be the way to go - like the wood map in 3ds max, you can cut a solid object and the grain runs through it.