The Q:A Complex Brushwork Thread

[seth]

From the looks of it, the mapper just made a single windmill blade, then pasted 15 copies of it with a rotation angle of whatever 360/16 is.

That doesn't explain how it was distributed though. If it were just paste-special'd 15 times at 22.5 degrees, they would all just be rotated about the origin of the original brush.

 

[Kube]

how the shit

Individual blades are rotated and translated using CTRL+M transform tool at angles of about ~20. Make two blades across from each other, then copy+paste special.

Here's a quick (incorrectly-angled) mock-up:

That doesn't explain how it was distributed though. If it were just paste-special'd 15 times at 22.5 degrees, they would all just be rotated about the origin of the original brush.

The trick is to func_detail the first two brushes, which will center out the origin.

 

[seth]

That's gnarly. So would the spindly connectors be the same process? Gonna see if I can replicate it...

 

[killohurtz]

That doesn't explain how it was distributed though. If it were just paste-special'd 15 times at 22.5 degrees, they would all just be rotated about the origin of the original brush.

They may have used a skip brush with the blade offset from the center and deleted it afterwards. Kube's method is just as likely, though.

 

[Kube]

That's gnarly. So would the spindly connectors be the same process? Gonna see if I can replicate it...

'Spindly connectors'?

 

[seth]

'Spindly connectors'?

The metal pieces that connect each blade.

I just tried it by hiding all but 2 of each connector and fan blade on opposite sides, like this:

That yields this:

Not sure how it knows exactly how many are needed when I just said to copy that selection once, but I mean it kinda worked.

This is how it compares to the original though:

I suppose that's caused by the fan blade's initial rotation, but I'm not quite sure how to offset that. I guess it could have been arbitrarily rotated after the paste.

 

[Kube]

The metal pieces that connect each blade.

I just tried it by hiding all but 2 of each connector and fan blade on opposite sides, like this:

That yields this:

Not sure how it knows exactly how many are needed when I just said to copy that selection once, but I mean it kinda worked.

This is how it compares to the original though:

I suppose that's caused by the fan blade's initial rotation, but I'm not quite sure how to offset that. I guess it could have been arbitrarily rotated after the paste.

I was thinking those rings were just simple rings (arch tool), sized and adjusted to fit between the blades. Whatever works best, though.

If you're interested: Try setting the brush entity of the fan 'To World,' and seeing if the rings are grouped together like an arch tool brush would be.

 

[seth]

I was thinking those rings were just simple rings (arch tool), sized and adjusted to fit between the blades. Whatever works best, though.

If you're interested: Try setting the brush entity of the fan 'To World,' and seeing if the rings are grouped together like an arch tool brush would be.

They are not grouped.

 

[Kube]

They are not grouped.

No? Huh. Again, whatever works best.

The windmill looks nice: the extra effort certainly pays off.

 

[MoonFox]

I had something snarky to say... now I feel blown back at all the cool new shapes I can now make...
THATS SOO COOL!

 

[worMatty]

I would be surprised if the vertices belonging to that construction didn't travel between VMF saves and loads, leading to torn faces, invalid solids, etc.