| Submitted by , posted on 26 March 2004 |

Image Description, by This image depicts over a year of work: R&D, content creation, and all the other things associated with trying to make high quality application. All the models were made in a short amount of time using Neg3D Model. Originally Neg3D Model was a tool I made to make simple models, without all the time involved with the way models are created now, either with Surface Subdivision or NURBS. I had succeeded in terms of speed, but something else struck me, the quality was way higher with the couple hours I put in than any of the other modeling applications.
So now I am developing Neg3D Model full-time and trying to get everybody to use this software as an alternative to overcomplicated, expensive packages. The modified catmull-rom splines Neg3D uses are more natural to work with than any of the others I have tried, once used it hooks you. I believe that Cardinal Patch Modeling, which is what the modeling system is built on, is the future of all 3D modeling. I mean not to exaggerate, the possibilities are endless, and I intend to fully explore all directions of this system. One such possibility that I am currently experimenting with, is the calculation of the patch in a vertex shader. What you pass to the GPU are multiple LOD static patch meshes (quad and tri) totaling under a megabyte of data stored in Video RAM. Then render each patch passing only 16 control points and 4 corner normals, this allows for incredible manipulation/animation speed. If you used the patches in the game, you could potentially have an explosion send shockwaves through the whole environment, you get the idea. Also the LOD system for the meshes is awesome, for normal maps and other realtime applications. But enough ranting, go see for yourself at negdesign.com to get all the technical data, tutorials, demos, other screenshots, and lots of other information regarding Neg3D Model.
Quick Screenshot descriptions (clockwise from upper-left):
1) From the Cartoon Head Tutorial, the model was completed in only 2 hours.
2) From the latest tutorial "Sports Buggy", whole car including tires were done in about 3 hours. (unfortunately the tutorial is taking more than a week to complete ;)
3) The "Realtime Woman" model, completion time is about 3 hours.
4) Screenshot from a NPR Sketch demo I coded for the NeHe Creative Contest 2004, it isn't winning any prizes for flashiness. However, a great technical achievement, only because it uses the model from the realtime woman tutorial, exports it into Blender, uses a simple Bone Animation and the is incorporated into the demo with Cal3D to play back the animation. Head on over to negdesign.com for the full source, tools and explanation of how it was done. And see the actual demo on the NeHe Creative Contest Page.
Thank You,
David Negulici

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