Modeling Helix chair

[jamisonlb]

I have a client wanting a spiral/helix shaped chair in their waiting room image and im having trouble modeling it.

The chair has pads that fallow the curve of the wood but are all different sizes.

Ive drawn a helix and used lofting of a couple shapes to get the general shape of the chair but the front lip of the chair is rounded and curved and im not sure how to achieve.

Also im at a loss for how to get the pads to fallow it and change sizes.

Could i model this thing flat and then do a helix deformation on it? Or how to round out the lip of the wood without deforming the vertices? any help would be great.

cheers

[Jose Negrete]

check out this vid.

 

[Ismael]

Judging by the first image here http://hungarian-success-stories.com/2012/09/26/hug-chair-by-gabriella-asztalos-3/

all the pads appear to be the same size.

 

I would love to render that chair if only I could model it.

[Scott Schroeder]

Create it flat and low poly first. Move the verts at the ends to create the rounded shapes. Create the pads. Turbosmooth as needed. Then use an FFD to get the hourglass shape, then use a bend modifier to wrap the surface. Once you have it bent you can either modify the previous FFD or add a new one in to pull the ends apart to get the loop the loop look.

 

You could also try using a path deform with the helix shape and deforming your main chair geometry, but I was getting some weird twisting when I ran a quick test.

[Ismael]

Tried somewhat Scott's suggestion and got this far. I don't seem to be able to correctly separate the seating areas.

[Ismael]

Better results after re-reading the instructions:

 

[Jose Negrete]

looks good. wonder if jamison was able to do it.

[Ismael]

I had to try and sit someone on it:

 

[jamisonlb]

thanks a lot guys. I have gotten pulled off this project onto a few others and havnt had any time to mess with it. Will hopefully be giving it a good shot in the next few weeks. I'll let you know how it goes. thanks again.