I want to place thousands of tiny holes in an object but retain it shell thickness - any ideas?

[JD3D_CGI]

So I have an odd architectural geometry I need to be able to edit and manipulate. and placing actual holes seems like real pain.

Using an opacity map is probably not a good idea as I will lose the thickness - same for displacement.

Does anyone have any ideas for this? Ideally something render time.

[Vizioen]

You could work with a displacement map and water level.

[seandunderdale]

Can you displace and then use an offset piece of geo as a vray clipping plane to cut the displaced geo and make holes?

[JD3D_CGI]

Can you displace and then use an offset piece of geo as a vray clipping plane to cut the displaced geo and make holes?

Sorry, I don't quite understand this.

Are you saying a clipping plane object and cut through displacement? Not sure how after I have used displacement there will be thickness to the geom.

[JD3D_CGI]

You could work with a displacement map and water level.

I don't think this will allow for thickness in the geom will it?

[Vizioen]

Well its a bit hard to say without knowing what your outcome has to be. Or what the goal is, there are many cheats. For instance. A plane with a displacement mod and water level + a mirrored version underneath:




Scene file attached.

[super gnu]

i think Ashley was suggesting to make a displacement map for your holes, you will get a sharp sided "indent" for each hole. using the "water level" setting you can remove the very bottom of the indent. as long as you only see it from one side it will appear to have thickness, just no back face.


alternatively you could model a small piece with holes and shell it, then use "vraypattern" plugin to replicate that piece across a surface. -this assumes it can be some kind of tiling pattern, and not totally random.

[Vizioen]

True but example above has a back face that way, if it's necessary.

[super gnu]

True but example above has a back face that way, if it's necessary.

sent my reply before i saw yours. good idea re. duplicating the mesh.. possibly just applying the displacement to a shelled version of the geometry and adjusting displacement depth / water level until the two sides meet in the middle would be a good approach.. should hold up even on curved surfaces, to a degree..

[Vizioen]

This also works for organic shapes btw. Just use a shell to offset the other side and detach with a new displacement modifier and delete the edges.



Cool, never tried this, but it actually works pretty well .

EDIT: super gnu we seem to be cross posting haha.

[piotrus3333]

how about simple mesh VRayClipper?

[Vizioen]

That's also a possibility I think but in terms of a heavy scene if you need to create 1000s of tiny cylinders it's going to be quite heavy. I wonder what would be faster to render though.

[piotrus3333]

PFlow > mesher > VRayClipper. not that hard to create 1000s of whatever.

but if the cylinders are to be really tiny than maybe a shortcut like this:
reference the single sided mesh
quadify modifier to subdivide the mesh to polys the size of cylinder diameter
select ~75% of polys
delete mesh modifier
shell modifier
turbosmooth if needed
vray clipper

[Vizioen]

PFlow > mesher > VRayClipper. not that hard to create 1000s of whatever.

but if the cylinders are to be really tiny than maybe a shortcut like this:
reference the single sided mesh
quadify modifier to subdivide the mesh to polys the size of cylinder diameter
select ~75% of polys
delete mesh modifier
shell modifier
turbosmooth if needed
vray clipper

Sure, I would use forestpack or whatnot instead, but matter of the fact is that they need to be actual meshes in viewport for it to work with VrayClipper or not?

[JD3D_CGI]

Sure, I would use forestpack or whatnot instead, but matter of the fact is that they need to be actual meshes in viewport for it to work with VrayClipper or not?

This was my worry, can I select particle generated meshes... I haven't actually had 5 minutes to have a play with this yet!

You have been awesome comign up with solutions