Click here to go to emPolygonizer2.

emPolygonizer is a custom operator that allows you to create what is typically called "metaballs".
The basic technique used by this plug-in is called "polygonising a scalar field" or "marching cubes". It was invented in the mid-eighties by Lorensen and Cline.

The plug-in consists of a "DLL" file (Windows) or "so" file (Linux) for the operator (compiled C++ code for 32 bit and 64 bit versions of XSI) as well as several VB Script files.

• nulls
• curves and curve lists (points, knots or curve)
• polygon meshes (points or polygons, parameters can be driven by weight maps and vertex color maps)
• point clouds (points and strands, parameters can be driven by point size and point color)

The ZIP file containing the demo version can be downloaded here:
download emPolygonizer demo version (version 1.5).

The ZIP file containing XSI demo and tutorial scenes can be downloaded here:
download demo and tutorial scenes (version 1.5).

To take a look at the documentation:
emPolygonizer documentation (version 1.5).

To purchase the full version of emPolygonizer please click on the following link:
Order emPolygonizer for Softimage|XSI

If for some reason you have problems with the above link you can also contact me directly.

Here are some example animations that were created using emPolygonizer. They are in reverse order: the newest animations come first, the oldest last.

A point cloud with 10 particles (and strands) as well as half a polygon mesh torus are polygonized.

The scene that was used to create the above demo animations is included in the ZIP file with the demo scenes and is called "emPolygonize_Example_Strands.scn".

Here an OGL capture of the example scene "CurvesPolysParticles".

Connected to the emPolygonizer operator are a curve, a polygon mesh and a point cloud.

Here is another liquid test based on Thiago Costa's SPH demo scene "Water_102.scn". Three sets of about 3.300 particles with different colors are used.

The particle color is used by the operator to generate vertex colors for the output mesh.

An OGL capture (shaded with wireframe) at the end of the animation let's you see how the mesh looks in the view port.

The whole scene was simulated and rendered on an Intel i7. Simulating the SPH and creating the metamesh with vertex colors took less than a second per frame whereas rendering took about 15-20 seconds per frame.

Music by David M. (Période électronique - "DubVid").

The basis for this animation is one of Thiago Costa's SPH demo scenes (Water_102.scn).

Connected to the emPolygonizer operator are the point cloud as well as a null, the latter being position constrained to the dark red sphere.

The null uses a negative isofactor to produce the "sink into fluid" effect of the red sphere:

The scene for this animation is based on the demo scene "Burning Torus" of emFluid2. It contains three point clouds, a polygon mesh cylinder that slowly descends, a polygon mesh sphere that slowly ascends and a few nulls, all connected to the emPolygonizer operator. Vertex colors are generated and used for the final rendering ("car shader"). The music is stolen from my old shoot'em up "Alien Entity - the Game".

The animation starts with an OGL capture in wireframe followed by an OGL capture in hidden line, both without the emPolygonizer mesh, just to see where the particles are.
Then come two OGL captures in shaded mode, first with a low res, then with the high res emPolygonizer mesh.
Finally comes the rendering by Mental Ray.

Notice how the slowly ascending grey sphere never interferes with the "blobby mess" around it. The sphere (an ordinary polygon mesh) has a null attached to it. This null is connected to the emPolygonizer operator and has a negative isofactor (everything else has a positive isofactor), meaning that it "clears" the isofield around it.

The operator generates vertex colors for the output mesh. This has several nice advantages: 1) the particle colors of a point cloud and the vertex colors of a polygon mesh can be used to colorize the emPolygonizer mesh, 2) the colors are displayed in the 3D viewports, 3) the generated vertex colors can be used for rendering, simply by using a "vertex_rgba" shader in the Render Tree:

This was the first example animation. It is nothing special: a few nulls, a few ICE particles, a little Open GL capturing followed by a little "car shader" rendering... with some music by my brother Karsten (an extract from "Eight" of the album "First Spine").

In the si-community there are a few more OGL captures, click here to directly go to the thread.

Limitations:

-please check the chapter "Limitations and Remarks" in the documentation.
-Linux issue with XSI 7.xx: crashes when using point clouds!

Remarks:

-if you want to generate really big meshes I highly recommend the 64 bit version.
-there will be several updates of this plug-in this year, so if you have an idea for a cool feature then let me know!

Links to some tests made by other people:

Msk on Vimeo (nice tests made with emFluid2, emRenderPointCloud and emPolygonizer)
Yujaeho on Vimeo (nice tests made with emFluid2 and emPolygonizer)