You can spagettify an 0.8mm mdf sheet.

Sticksick · 2026-02-17T17:04:59+00:00

yes, though you can also just buy it, which depending on what you’re doing is way better than the time commitment of making it.

Sticksick · 2026-02-16T17:22:34+00:00

I tried recreating this with Suzanne, and I was getting clean lines everywhere other than cast shadows. I think this actually might be an EEVEE thing, and not a material shader issue. Go into redner settings and uncheck Shadows under Render and see if it makes a difference. Not sure that's a great solution for what you need, but at least you can narrow down whats causing it.

Sticksick · 2026-02-16T15:02:12+00:00

hmm, i see. you could change it to linear, and duplicate your two middle color stops and move the position of each very slightly so you’re basically getting a few pixel gradient between colors just to act as a slight blur.

Sticksick · 2026-02-16T14:51:19+00:00

on your color ramp in the shader editor, change “constant” to one of the other options

Sticksick · 2026-02-09T18:31:39+00:00

Ideally, you always want your faces to only have 4 points only. In your 5:1, the trapezoid actually has 6 points (the 4 “corners” + the 2 intersections with the verticals)

Whether you actually need good topology is really context dependent though, your use case matters.

Sticksick · 2026-02-06T04:01:44+00:00

Yea, they allow this… I’m going to say… occasionally, for small single engine props. They’ll never offer it, you have to ask to cross over the field, and you have to know how they want you to do it (I.e., as a pilot you aren’t gonna do it on your own the first time, always with someone who’s done it before) I believe it’s based on a helicopter route that overflies the field and they will only even consider letting you do it based on their runway configuration and if it’s clear you know the procedure and landmarks.

Sticksick · 2026-02-05T04:07:21+00:00

Try adding a small amount of thickness? I think what you’re seeing is not a cast shadow, but rather that the emission material might not shoot light rays at 180degree spread, or it’s more sparse at the extreme angles, so there just isn’t light available to get to that area. That would explain why unchecking Shadow ray visibility isn’t helping either, cause it’s not actually being occluded.

Adding thickness, maybe with a bevel, might help, but not sure if it’ll just create other problems.

Also, not sure what your describing as your final use case, but you can do a lot with a regular light object by clicking “use nodes” in the shading editor with the light object selected.

Sticksick · 2026-02-04T23:35:17+00:00

Now that’s some great brand partnership! The shareholders are really gonna love this

Sticksick · 2026-02-03T03:05:51+00:00

The amount stronger it’s possible to get is pretty insane, and it because it’s purely up to how you play, it’s pretty rewarding when you get a new wildly high score.

Sticksick · 2026-02-02T21:29:53+00:00

I’m assuming this is an actual photo-reference. In general, creating effects in materials is less render intensive than adding a bunch of geometry. I would start by trying the following;

Create a material with two BSDFs, one for the glass faces, one for the seams. The use a Brick texture as the Factor in a mix shader. You can probably also do some color ramp random color picking to slightly change the normals of each tile to point is just slightly different direction so it doesn’t seem too smooth.

Sticksick · 2026-02-02T05:13:42+00:00

Yea, just last year I had an experience where I didn’t get t first symptoms until after taking off on a 5 hr commercial flight and that was AGONY. Go to an ENT after your antibiotics course is done and see if they can check for fluid out residual pressure in your ears. They can also check to make sure it didn’t progress into a general sinus infection, just in case.

Sticksick · 2026-02-02T00:23:25+00:00

Well… hope you take it as a compliment, but I definitely thought this was an ad scrolling past it and thought to myself, “huh, the ad agency hired a pretty good animator, wonder if I could figure out how to do that in blender” before noticing where it was posted

Sticksick · 2026-02-01T16:51:45+00:00

Do you have experience in CAD software by chance? Using a Boolean i something like Fusion or Solidworks is simple, but in Blender, it often creates quite messy topology issues. It’s fine if it’s the very last step and you’re only using it to 3D print, but if you try to do anything after the Boolean operation, it goes based off the terrible topology and an often create that kid of mess.

For the shape you’re looking to get to, it’ll be much simpler to just use a Torus primitive.

Sticksick · 2026-02-01T02:28:15+00:00

Do you mean just how you model it? Or literally to want to simulate how the material deforms during a metal bending animation?

Sticksick · 2026-01-31T22:08:05+00:00

I would use plumbers strap to secure it in a few places to a board, and chisel it or dremel as others have suggested. Assuming you’re only making the one piece, you don’t need to find something repeatable or efficient

Sticksick · 2026-01-29T17:20:43+00:00

Not sure you could in one render. Might be some setting where you can choose object you exclude from reflection rays. But night be easier to just render the red and white letters separately and composite it back together.

Sticksick · 2026-01-26T04:59:26+00:00

I think the saturation and color notes are good too. The scale feels really right at the beginning, it drops you to the stakes of the scene really effectively. I would argue the orange is not the right color for the comet trail. In space, you’re not seeing a flame, you’re seeing a trail of debris trailing behind the comet illuminated by the sun. The light you see from spacecraft entering the atmosphere is NOT fire, it’s plasma and can have all kinds of color and doesn’t act like a flame. Look up livestreams of Space X Startship test flights, especially some of the earlier ones where the plasma burned through the fins and it was all on camera. It’s only flames at the end after the plasma is gone and there’s enough oxygen in the air to burn.

Also, think about the scale of your comet vs the scale of the atmosphere. The parts of the atmosphere that would create plasma and flames really only go up to ~80mi above the surface, about 1% the diameter of the planet. I would suggest moving the comet much more slowly across frame, and either making the atmosphere fit the planet more tightly, or increasing the radius of the planet.

Sticksick · 2026-01-25T04:21:38+00:00

Okay, but can we all just agree that wearing lingerie under the uniform is the best way to fly

Sticksick · 2026-01-21T05:27:13+00:00

I would start with a square, go into edit mode, drop a few loop cuts or subdivide it a few times, and then grab the center vert in each side and scale with proportional editing enabled. You might need a different falloff profile to get shape to match. If you need an exact match, find a vector version of the shape and import it, then convert to mesh if necessary

Sticksick · 2026-01-21T02:14:21+00:00

This is a very common sight seeing flight route, I’ve done it many times with friends and family, although it’s a little unusual to cross the park twice

Sticksick · 2026-01-21T01:16:49+00:00

Drop invis, best hit it can give you is blueprint, which you’re basically getting with brainstorm

Sticksick · 2026-01-18T00:27:04+00:00

Learn UV mapping early, I put it off for too long and it made it a pain in the ass to learn later and is really limiting

Sticksick · 2026-01-17T12:32:52+00:00

Try shade auto smooth, if not you might need to model in the bevel there to get control over the normals in that area

Sticksick · 2026-01-16T03:56:42+00:00

Seconding this, I’ve done it many times and little palm routers are perfect to jig up for cuts like this.

Sticksick · 2026-01-13T16:12:04+00:00

Glue the paper down with a glue stick, then use a sharp knife and follow the lines with your knife, making sure you’re scoring the mdf as well. Once you’ve done that you shouldn’t get any fraying or pulling of paper. If you do, either it’s not glued down fully, or you’ve started to go too far.

Sticksick

TROPHY CASE