Smoother screw cap

[Bittles]

I am trying to create a screw cap in hexagon and they come into Carrara looking angular. If I apply smoothing in Hexagon the shape distorts. How do I get the cap I created to have round curves? Currently it looks like a smoothed octagon.

Also, I need to recreate the capsule in a better way. I am wandering the best way to get the vertical grooves on the the top portion of the capsule, any ideas I of a good way to do it?

[-ash-]

Can you post a few Hex screen grabs with the wireframe showing. That way we can see how you have done the modeling.

[Piem]

you need to go to the vertex room, select the edges to crease. ( and apply smooth if needed) then it's ok.
No need to smooth in hexagon.

[jones2000u]

Hi Bittles

Here's my cheat way to do it. The capsule shape is drawn in Amapi, but with quite a high wire count (based on a circle with 40 points, I think). The screw thread on a wine bottle is quite basic - only one or two turns. Then in Carrara I made a new shading domain in the flat bit of the barrel. The vertical crimps and the dents were drawn as a flat graphic in AI, blurred a bit and then made into a NEW basic layer as a bump map. The dents are OK, but I should have made the vertical crimps a bit less blurred, because they are too roundy and soft here.

The whole object was smoothed to level 1 in Carrara with UV smoothing turned on too. It's not fantastic, but it's fine as a presentation to a client. The graphic was put on in the same way as another shading domain on the lower part of the barrel.

Hope that helps a bit!

[-ash-]

Okay - so maybe we don't need to see the wires

[Bittles]

Hi,

This is a work in progress. I ended up adding more points to the circles I used to creqqt my cap shape.That worked. I am still working on shaping a decent cap. The bump map texture sounds interesting. I will need to explore that. Thanks for your help attached is a really bad capsule. Good enough for now but I'll work on it.

[Bittles]

Hey Jones22000u ,

Thank you so much for the capsule shortcut...the bump-map trick! I was trying to create the grooves as part of the shape and it was tedious. Attached is my first draft of the revised cap. I'll need to work on it and perfect it but, as you say, good enough for presentation!

I can't tell everyone how great the help I have received here is. I have been learning bits and pieces as I go and each discovery (such as this bump trick) is so exciting! I know, call me crazy, but it's those simple little tricks that make my day!