Meld –formerly known as Metaballs– is a modeling command that enables us to merge two or more objects (spheres or polygon meshes) into a single object with a “liquid” appearance.
We shall see how to use it and some interesting properties thereof.
Meld is a modeling command, and can be found in the Modeling Commands palette (T key).
The command toggles between Meld –to create meld objects, and Unmeld – to convert Meld objects into its constituent parts.
The Meld Command
The Unmeld command
From spheres:
A set of spheres, not melded
Same spheres, melded
We can create meld objects from spheres, as in the images above, and from polygon meshes. A simple example is below.
Two cubes, not melded
Same cubes, converted into polygon meshes and melded
Influence
We can control how much do the spheres (or other objects) attract themselves.
Object Properties of a Meld object
The thumbnails below show the sphere array with different influence values. Click to see the large image.
Polygon Mesh Melding
Melding Polygon mesh objects can be an adventure. The rendering is slower and the results can be surprising. Not for engineering, but really cool.
Cubes, converted into Polygon Mesh, not melded. The render took a few seconds
In the modeling window, Polygon mesh melds can look a bit scary, but they render well.
Melded cubes, 40-minute render
Animating meld objects
We can meld animated objects. The result is a really cool liquid-like animation.
First animate all your objects, then meld them. The resulting animation can be used in many cases.
Meld can provide hours of fun. What are you using it for?
