Welcome to Fractal Forums

Hi there! :beer:

so you might see I'm new here in the forum.
first of all, please apologize if any of the topics/questions are too stupid or if they have been already answered (i couldn't find it with the search engine)

I have an industrial design background (not so much in the mathematical aspect though-just basics), and I have been "playing" around with the presets on the Mandelbubl 3D (e.g. Mandbox,"Amazing box" formula from TGlad". So far so good, I manage to navigate and some how to create basic animations & renders. I have also read that is possible to "export" somehow the 3D mesh ( i think there are several steps to manage to get a .STL .OBJ file but if I'm right there are even some tutorials online or I guess even here in the forum!:)  :dink:

Question1: I would like to know if there is 'a way' to import a 3D model in the mandelbulb software so any of the preset formulas can be applied to that 3D model/mesh.
Question2: more specifically, would it be possible to create a diamond-shape fractal in Mandelbulb? Analog to the Amazing box( but instead of applying it in a cube in a diamond structure)?
e.g.: http://www.render.ru/images/uploads/Image/Tutor/max/444/13.jpg

Thanks for reading & have a nice day! :beer:

Hi.  You may find help with making meshes in this thread : http://www.fractalforums.com/tutorials/voxel-image-stack-and-then-what/  (my personal site is offline due to money problems, so the images I posted in that thread are absent, but others had much more to contribute than I did!)  (and their images and videos are still there).

Making custom shapes is a matter of tweaking parameters until they approximate the stuff you want.  Sorry, there is no way to import any type of mesh into MB3D.  And the images produced are not showing anything those of us who use 3D software would call a mesh.  The images can best be described as "point clouds" - which is why making a mesh gets very complicated, and keeping the polygon count manageable is very difficult  (most fractal obj files end up in the many millions of polygons!).

Hope that helps.

Have fun and feel free to post any other questions you may have.

Thanks for the quick reply Sockratease! ^-^

I will definitely have a look to that thread.
However, i still have a doubt, if i would like to create a shape like the diamond how would be the first steps?
would be just tweaking some parameters or would it be more to create different formulas, etc.

thanks!

Glad to help   O0

As for the diamond shape you want, I'm not sure where to begin...

Wouldn't simply rotating the camera on a cube  (Mandelbox or Menger Sponge?) give the shape of a diamond?  Or do you mean a more stylized diamond?  I could not get the link you posted to show anything other than a blank page   :sad1:  Do you have another image you can post or link to?  You may even want to consider post work to get the texture onto a unique shape.  Sadly, MB3D does not allow custom formulas, just adjusting and hybridizing the built in ones.

If I wanted a diamond shape with a fractal texture in a 3D program, I would simply do just that.  Get a 3D Model of a diamond shape I wanted and texture it with fractal images.  With careful UV Mapping and perhaps displacement mapping or Normal Mapping, it could be done much faster and with far less resources wasted on absurdly high polygon modeling.

I'm still not sure about what you wish to do though...

What 3D software are you using?  Will the model be seen from only one angle in the finished project, or will it be animated? 

Thanks again!

Sorry if i didn't explain clear enough.
My question was related more to the creation of an "external overall" shape of a Diamond in the 3D MB3D. Analog to the Amazing Box or Mandbox formula in MB3D, where you have - short of say- a Cube as a basic shape. I was wondering if it was possible to create a diamond 3D as a "basic shape" (when zoom out), but still having a fractal geometries when zooming in ( in these case you would totally loose the perception of "being inside" a diamond).

The idea was to build an animation in the actual MB3D rather than just having the UV mapping in a 3D model! ;D

Thanks!

 

dunno if I get your point, but there might be a misapprehension. A mandelbox has no cube as a basic shape, creating it out of some sort of subdivision. A mandelbox arises out of some transformations on a point in space. One of this transformations is the socalled "boxfold", I guess that's why it looks like a cube.
So to get a diamond shape fractal, you might need something like a "diamondfold". But I have no clue of creating a boxfold, so I can't help you finding a diamondfold. ;D

It should be possible to create a diamond-like shape using basic IFS formulas and a lot of manual adjustments, but that won't be easy and there might be not enough formula slots. Taurus said it well, and it's not possible to "import" shapes into M3D.

wow thanks for the answers!

exactly, i think it was a misapprehension from my side. I guess what I am looking for right now (as it's not possible to import a 3D mesh/point clouds...) is a diamond-fold fractal.

thanks bib that might be a solution, but as I'm pretty new on this I guess it would be a tough task, i will try my best. :D
Anyway, if somebody has any idea where should I start I would really appreciate it! ^-^

thanks again!

There is a polygonal pyramid... :dink: