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So metaballs aren't distinct mathematical objects that you can model on their own (like a fractal or a cylinder)- rather, they're artefacts that are created whe
by GuiA 12y ago
So metaballs aren't distinct mathematical objects that you can model on their own (like a fractal or a cylinder)- rather, they're artefacts that are created when sampling in certain ways circles/spheres intersecting?
- phleet 12y agoThey don't inherently have to be sampled. Just like you can define the perimeter of a circle given constants (x_0, y_0, r): (x-x_0)^2 + (y-y_0)^2 = r^2 you can define the perimeter a metaball on a list of (x_i, y_i, r_i) as described in the post.
- jlarocco 12y agoNo. Metaballs are a thing, and marching cubes is one way of implementing them. Another approach is ray-casting.
- corysama 12y agoMetaballs are a family of implicit equations that are visually interesting and easy to set up. They all come in the form of a summation of some function of distance from a control point over a set of control points. The appearance of spheres/circles intersecting is a consequence of the popular falloff-type functions. You can think of metaballs as a bunch of glowy points. The implicit surface that is shown is all of the points where the glows add up to some target value.
- peterfirefly 12y agoBlumenthal, "Introduction to Implicit Surfaces". Possibly quite dated, though.