OK, I made some subtle changes and improvements:

* added a 'quilted' normal pattern to the flashing lights
* some 'bumpers' onto the front--more traced spheres. (Why a flying police car
would need bumpers is a mystery, though!)
* and finally added some occupants! (My 'generic human' CSG model that I've been
working on for years.) They needed faces, so I used a photo of myself. They're
twins!

And I managed to smooth out the raised outline around the windshield, by
re-writing my eval_pigment 'image_map scanning' code to be more precise. There
are many more spheres now, and no gaps. (Part of the problem was human error--my
top-down windshield image render was made at 3000X3000 pixels, but I was
scanning it at an odd reduced rez.) I wanted to get this code working correctly,
before attempting a different technique for the outline. I think it looks pretty
good as-is, except in extreme close-up.

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Attachments:
Download 'police_car_w2.jpg' (328 KB)

Preview of image 'police_car_w2.jpg'

Better and better indeed.

Something which troubles me: why are those dials *behind* the pilots? I 
would expect them in front of them. Also, the pilots appear to be a bit 
too large in comparison with the craft.

Thomas

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On Fri, 03 May 2013 13:07:28 +0200, Kenneth <kdw### [at] gmailcom> wrote:

> And I managed to smooth out the raised outline around the windshield, by
> re-writing my eval_pigment 'image_map scanning' code to be more precise.  
> There
> are many more spheres now, and no gaps. (Part of the problem was human  
> error--my
> top-down windshield image render was made at 3000X3000 pixels, but I was
> scanning it at an odd reduced rez.) I wanted to get this code working  
> correctly,
> before attempting a different technique for the outline. I think it  
> looks pretty
> good as-is, except in extreme close-up.
>

It's very easy to convert spheres like this into blobs:
Just use "blob{" as you would to make a "union{" of spheres
Then change "sphere{SpherePos, SphereRadius etc}"
to "sphere{SpherePos, SphereRadius, BlobStrength etc}"

Start with a BlobStrength of 1. If it is too thick or thin, change it  
accordingly.


-- 
-Nekar Xenos-

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Thomas de Groot <tho### [at] degrootorg> wrote:
> Better and better indeed.
>
> Something which troubles me: why are those dials *behind* the pilots? I
> would expect them in front of them. Also, the pilots appear to be a bit
> too large in comparison with the craft.
>
> Thomas

And they appear to be naked too.  You can just tell by the way they are avoiding
each other's gaze...

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Thomas de Groot <tho### [at] degrootorg> wrote:
> Better and better indeed.
>
> Something which troubles me: why are those dials *behind* the pilots? I
> would expect them in front of them.

Hmm, good point. My 'idea' is that the pilots are supposed to be almost
completely surrounded by dials and gauges and stuff. Honestly, though, I came up
with that conception *after* I added those dials-- just to mentally justify the
addition :-O  Practically speaking, the back wall of the cockpit is the only
location where they can be visible, and it needed some kind of detail there.

> Also, the pilots appear to be a bit too large in comparison with the craft.

Yeah, that's an on-going debate I'm having with myself (which actually has
nothing to do with the police car.) There is another, more 'important' model in
my animated scene, one that also has a human occupant--and he's scaled a certain
way to match that particular model. I'm trying to match the police car occupants
to his scale--without changing the scales of the overall models themselves
(their relative sizes are just the way I want them to be.) Solution: I'll adjust
the scale when I put this police car back into the main scene, where I can see
everything at once.

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"Nekar Xenos" <nek### [at] gmailcom> wrote:

>
> It's very easy to convert spheres like this into blobs:
> Just use "blob{" as you would to make a "union{" of spheres
> Then change "sphere{SpherePos, SphereRadius etc}"
> to "sphere{SpherePos, SphereRadius, BlobStrength etc}"
>
> Start with a BlobStrength of 1. If it is too thick or thin, change it
> accordingly.
>

Hey, thanks for the example code. I'll try this out and see what happens. I'm
guessing that I don't need to 'scan/trace' my image_map and model at the
high-resolution I've been using, as blobs are joined together smoothly,
automatically filling in the intervening gaps.

BTW (and this is a bit off-topic): For your jazz-musician scene and its
neon-signs (the sphere_sweeps), did you experience any of the 'clipping'
problems that are being discussed? I didn't see any obvious problems in your
renders.

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"Kenneth" <kdw### [at] gmailcom> wrote:

>
> I do wish the arm struts could 'blend into' the body in a smoother way,
> though. (Each strut is a bicubic mesh, but the body is just a sphere
> primitive.) Or maybe I could re-build the struts AND body in sPatch, so that
> they are all one big mesh.

Well, that didn't work. sPatch is good for some things--but trying to add my
pre-made strut object to one of the app's (built-in) sphere shapes proved way
too difficult. Better to use a more sophisticated app like Sculptris or Z-Brush
for that, to rebuild the entire model. Or even Wings3D.

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"Trevor G Quayle" <Tin### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:

>
> And they appear to be naked too.  You can just tell by the way they are avoiding
> each other's gaze...

Yep, naked as the day they were born. :-P  I was wondering if anyone would
notice. I'm thinking of giving them uniforms of some sort (just a simple
pigment, probably; maybe with what look like seat belts across their chests.)

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Le 04/05/2013 01:04, Kenneth nous fit lire :
> "Trevor G Quayle" <Tin### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
> 
>>
>> And they appear to be naked too.  You can just tell by the way they are avoiding
>> each other's gaze...
> 
> Yep, naked as the day they were born. :-P  I was wondering if anyone would
> notice. I'm thinking of giving them uniforms of some sort (just a simple
> pigment, probably; maybe with what look like seat belts across their chests.)
> 
> 
> 
Glasnost of police!
If you are not a delinquent, you have nothing to fear.
Police staff is not delinquent per definition, so glasnost should apply
fully.

What do you mean you want to dress in basement of your glass house ?

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Le 04/05/2013 00:34, Kenneth nous fit lire :
> Thomas de Groot <tho### [at] degrootorg> wrote:
>> Better and better indeed.
>>
>> Something which troubles me: why are those dials *behind* the pilots? I
>> would expect them in front of them.
> 
> Hmm, good point. My 'idea' is that the pilots are supposed to be almost
> completely surrounded by dials and gauges and stuff. Honestly, though, I came up
> with that conception *after* I added those dials-- just to mentally justify the
> addition :-O  Practically speaking, the back wall of the cockpit is the only
> location where they can be visible, and it needed some kind of detail there.
> 

It make sense, as for the old airplane's cockpit, only if there is a
third guy on the back, maybe turned sideway.

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