creating low-res polygons

I enjoy the style of low-res polygons like this elephant for example. I was wondering if there was a way to turn, for example, a sphere/cube/cat/dog/house into a low-res version of itself. Like if this elephant used to be smooth elephant. Perhaps it would be a mesh conversion? It's basically the 3D modeling version of pixelating in photoshop.

Also this tree: Let me know if you can help! Thank you.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by David Stasiuk on November 19, 2014 at 6:45am

Also, look into Mesh Machine by Daniel Piker. It's in Kangaroo, and lets you dynamically set the target edge length for your mesh. Here are two transformations, the first making the mesh denser, the second going for the low poly:

You'll need to install both the Kangaroo and Plankton plug-ins.

Permalink Reply by Eric Lawler on November 19, 2014 at 8:03am

David, thanks for posting this. I'm sure my solution will come from it. However I must apologize but I can't recognize some of the components in there. Could you post that grasshopper file? or tell me where i can find the blue-mesh looking component, the corn-kernel looking component in the center, and the red arrow component that connects to the bottom of the blue-mesh component?

Many thanks.

Permalink Reply by David Stasiuk on November 19, 2014 at 8:18am

The red arrow component is a timer You enable it/disable it by double clicking. Using it will show how Mesh machine runs on a time basis so you can see it working...or else you can increase the Iter value to just have it execute a number of passes, and not use the timer at all. The big component is the mesh machine, and the one next to mesh machine is the plankton mesh...so you'll need to install kangaroo and plankton first, or else the definition attached won't work. Good luck!

Attachments:

MM.gh, 29 KB

Permalink Reply by Eric Lawler on November 19, 2014 at 8:51am

Great, thank you David! I had kangaroo on my system prior to this discussion, but I didn't have mesh machine in it. I'll try reinstalling kangaroo. Thanks. I really look forward to trying this out, once it works.

Permalink Reply by Rafael Vargas on November 19, 2014 at 7:03am

I was also looking into this a while ago. Basically I ended doing that part of the project where I needed low polys in Blender. Recently I started using Mesh machine (Kangaroo) with some nice results.

I will try Daniel Gonzalez' method just to play a bit. It seems interesting too.

Permalink Reply by taz on November 19, 2014 at 3:15pm

There was an undergrad class where I went to arch school where (I think) the students were learning solid modeling. One of the exercises was to create a low res poly model of their own heads for 3d printing. It's amazing the detail of individual characteristics that can be expressed with only a few polygons.

I want to find some pics...

Until then, there's this:

http://www.pinterest.com/neopostism/low-poly-faceted-anecdotal/

Permalink Reply by Eric Lawler on November 22, 2014 at 1:35pm

Thanks for that link, I'm currently an undergrad arch student and I wish we had more classes like that. Sounds like a great way to learn both computer modeling and 3D printing. That link is extreme over stimulation for me, I can't look too long without being overwhelmed by the beautiful aesthetics!

Permalink Reply by taz on February 17, 2015 at 2:09pm

More, because:

http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2015/02/low-poly-tectonics.html

Permalink Reply by Michael Pryor on November 19, 2014 at 3:47pm

reducing mesh vertices.

Permalink Reply by Eric Lawler on November 22, 2014 at 1:54pm

Thanks Michael! This is extremely simple and does just what I wanted. I've been used it combined with the voxel distortion definition you explained on your blogspot page. Thanks for that too! Looks great.