Modelling help needed - matching ribbon model according to photo

[PIXELBOX_SRO]

Hi guys,

Need some professional insight on this as we have troubles doing this.
I have this reference image which i need to match as closely as possible in 3D, mapping included.



Do you have any tips on how to do this in MAX? Scripts? Anything?

Thanks a lot for any help.

Best Regards

[Donald2B]

What is the ultimate goal here? Do you need to fly around the object or anything like that?

[PIXELBOX_SRO]

of course....one could do this in PS.
but we need some more flexibility with these u see....changing pics on the fly etc.

[glyph]

draw a spline that follows your required path then loft a rectangle along it
mapping can then use loft settings - i.e. it will follow the twists

lots of ways to change images - one is to generate a quicktime movie (or any other type of movie) of the entire strip of pics as a basically static image (use after effects or whatever) but have the images change at required time points (the movie could be at one frame per sec to save file sizes)

you can also make the strip travel along the ribbon with the map coordinates

[Donald2B]

I also second Glyph. You can also use the Sweep modifier too. Still get all the mapping stuff and I find it is a little bit easier to use, as long as you don't need all of the advanced features of a loft.

[PIXELBOX_SRO]

thanks a lot guys, loft works wuite well although its a bit timetaking to fiddle with ...especially those curves to control the twist etc.

[glyph]

yes - using loft controls to change twist is a pain - but you should be able to do it using the control points of your spline (I think ... or maybe I'm imagining that wrong)

another way to do the whole thing is start with your spline, then create a very long box with many segments and do a path deform on it
that might be better if you want to move the ribbon along the spline path
that way you can definitely alter twist by editing spline vertices orientation

[ior=0]

Be careful with the middle twist - looks to me like there is an extra twist in there (which you can't see as it's behind the "paper") to get the images on the front surface again, or it is two bits of "paper" joined. Just something to bare in mind if your building it with splines.