Meta-Primitives


Meta-Primitives - Introduction

The quality of Meta-Primitives seems to be an issue, even at high-res. I've always assumed that it's a legacy feature, but please don't quote me on that. Results are heavily dependent on the 'Metaball Render Resolution' in the Object Properties panel (Layout). So you'll need to push this to get the best results and look at clever surfacing techniques to hide the imperfections.

But having said this, they are a lot of fun to play with, especially if you like that T3 liquid metal effect. But I'd also recommend taking a look at 'Blending Modes' with 'Surface Hypervoxels' as a possible alternative.

Meta-Primitives do also work with animated displacement maps, check my Quicktime example below.

View Quicktime

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Meta-Primitives - A Quick Overview

  • Meta Primitives are visible in any render style, other than the 'Wireframe', 'Color Wireframe' and 'Hidden Line' modes.
  • You can surface Meta-Primitives, but can only assign one surface per Layer.
  • Meta-Primitives interact with each other, like goo in a lava-lamp, but only on the same Layer.
  • Metafaces can only be produced by 'CONVERTING' a standard 3 or 4 point Poly or Curve with the 'Make Metafaces' tool.
  • You can use Morph Targets, Bones and Displacement Maps.
  • If you intend to animate Meta-Primitives using something like Morph Mixer, be sure you set the 'Subdivision Order' to 'After Motion' in the Object Properties Panel, or it won't work.
  • You can also set the 'Metaball Resolution' in the Object Properties but if your system overloads, it will automatically revert to the default. "Who's bright idea was that?"

Create > Polygons > Metaballs
Create > Polygons > Metaedges
Construct > Convert > Make Metafaces

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