Rotini Patterned Long Pasta

[srpeurifoy]

Hi everyone! First post here, new to the modelling thing.

My objective is to create a "platter" of helical strands that have been organized into bundles that resemble wires.

The problem is that my current method is extremely inefficient and looks choppy. The helical strands are composed of individual polys, kind of like DNA. So I've been painstakingly using the array tool to expand the single poly pattern into a long helical bundle by changing the parameters slightly after each array.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[ekahennequet]

Hi @srpeurifoy .

This is a method I use for Rotini-like shapes. It takes only minutes. Hopefully my steps are self-explanatory from the attached image. If you have questions, feel free to ask.

[srpeurifoy]

This is perfect! Now is there anyway that I can get them to follow a line? I'm trying to bundle a bunch of the "pastas" into a "wire."

[ekahennequet · Accepted solution]

You can use the PathDeform (WSM) found under World-Space modifiers (Not Object-Space) group.

In this example I applied PathDeform WSM to each rotini, but that might not be great for controlling numerous rotini shapes. Instead, I recommend using just few objects with multiple rotini shapes that are spaced/offset from each other. You can always edit the spacing by going back down the stack in Editable Poly and move the pieces there.

You can also make the wire/spline renderable by turning on "Enable in Renderer" and adjust its Thickness, Size, etc.

(See attached pic)

[srpeurifoy]

Thanks so much for your help!