Where art modelling and engineering embrace
New 3D modelling software developed for the games and creative arts industries is showing great potential for modelling fluids more easily than conventional CFD. This is particularly true when modelling disaster scenarios, while industrial designers are also embracing the benefits – especially the automotive sector.
Autodesk 3ds Max, Maya and Mudbox are all familiar names in games development, and the creation of advertisements and films. Now they are becoming progressively useful for industrial product design and even engineering modelling. This is because they are intended to be used readily by artists – and so not too difficult to work with – while including physical world-based models, so the creations they help to produce are realistic.
Mudbox is a clay modelling package, in which shapes are created by sculpting.
“The idea is to get off the ground very quickly,” Autodesk’s Nick Jovic.
It is recommended that users employ a Wacom tablet and pen, so they can, for example, create ridges of varying height, according to how hard the user presses the pen. It is also possible to use stamps and stencils to lay on textures and add colours by painting.
