RANDOM Metaballs and Remesh Modifier

(This post is one of those posts that I am not sure whether this will work, but apparently it does and I am again really impressed with Blender capability! Always experiment with Blender, you never know....)

To understand this post you need to be familiar with 3 things:

• Metaball Object
• Remesh Modifier
• Particles System and Instance Object

The focus of this post will be using Metaballs.

Remesh Modifier is also important to mention just because it helps in getting a nicer topology mesh.


REMESH MODIFIER IS THE NEW SHINING STAR
I just have to mention this again: From Blender version 2.62, we have this cool NEW modifier called: Remesh Modifier!

With my own word, what this modifier does is:
To magically modify you original mesh object (usually dense, with not so even topology) into a new mesh with a much better nicely evenly spaced topology.

Original object with nice efficient topology for bone/armature animation.

After you apply Remesh Modifier, you get a higher resolution object that is better for object breaking.

You can apply remesh modifier a few times to get result that is more efficient while maintaining the shape/form volume of original mesh:

Remesh Modifier applied twice.

And you probably already know, Remesh Modifier also allow you to do this "3D Voxelation effect"

LEGO like voxel bricks mesh.

Remesh Modifier works both way, sometimes you want to up-res or low-res the mesh object and the topology will accommodate to it. Keep in mind again that it is NOT the same as having "good topology" for animation (where the mesh need to have proper edge loops, and so on). New mesh topology created with Remesh Modifier is good for dynamics or simulation (particle, fracturing, etc.) because the resulting topology is more or less even in spacing.

Best to use this modifier on object with volume. Not simply flat grid plane object, it is not going to work, but you can give it a try. Try also on object with a hole, it will cover the hole and create some kind of closed volume object.

Remesh Modifier is also potentically great when you are doing Multiresolution Sculpting in Blender. So you could go sculpting in a really high density and then do Remesh to refine the shape and continue with your sculpting.

Furthermore, if you are working with 3D scanning and Point Cloud data and such, you can use Remesh Modifier to help remeshing the resulting 3D scan object into something that is more workable.

Basically for any random 3D mesh, regardless the original topology, you could create a nice even topology (quad faces) using Remesh Modifier.


METABALL IS SO METAL
Back to our main focus: METABALL.

Dealing with Metaball object is going to be processor intensive. Your CPU and GPU will be tested to the max. Few Metaballs on screen are alright and interactive, but over 1000 Metaballs, thing will started to get slow. But mind you that Blender Metaballs is pretty fast in calculating the resulting mesh.

Metaball on its own is a special object in Blender. The resulting surface on screen is not necessary what will render. Similar to Subdivision mesh, Metaball resolution can go up during render.

Change the value here and see how it affects the resulting mesh created by Metaballs.

What you may see on 3D view....

... and what you will get when rendered.

For intensive use of Metaballs, I like to work in low resolution just to see the interactivity in 3D view. If you can no longer work interactively with Metaballs, there is no point using Metaballs.

When you convert Metaballs to mesh,

Metaball converted into Mesh.

Remesh Modifier is redefining the topology of the mesh.

METABALL AND DUPLIVERT
We remember from the old post that you can easily creates duplicates of objects using Parent-Child Duplivert. This means that you can simply parent Metaball into a mesh, and activate Duplivert. This will in turn create a simple Metaball relationship.

You can of course use this method to shape some kind of dough looking 3D object, but I recommend you wait for Blender Skin Modifier (still under development) from Nicholas Bishop if you are thinking: natural 3D modeling ala ZBrush Z-Sphere. Remember: Metaball is NOT Z-Sphere, Metaball is Metaball, it has certain limitation by the way it works.

PARTICLE INSTANCE METABALLS DANCE
Because Particle Fluid is not yet (maybe soon) able to convert Particles into Mesh (you have to wait for Blender Volume Surface Polygonizer implementation), so you might want to try Metaballs as Particle Instance, which in turn will create Mesh from the Metaballs.

Working with Particles and Metaballs, you need to be very careful because it is even more processor intensive. Crash is inevitable and it is painful.

When instancing Metaballs, sometimes you need to toggle TAB while selecting the Metaballs you are instancing, to force Blender to refresh the resulting Surface created by the Metaballs.

Metaballs Capsule Instancing from a Torus creating this abstract shape that resembles Molecular object.

On top of "abstract shape" you are getting by using Metaballs from Particles, you do Remesh Modifier, get a new mesh with nicer topology. And of course on top of that you can go crazy with Material Texture Displacement and get something like below:

Some kind of  ring micro-organism?

From top of my head, probably this Metaball and Particle Instance combo is good for Biomolecular Visualization. All kind of protein and molecular data.

One cool thing about Metaballs being Particle Instance is the animate-ability (particle like), you can randomize the size of each Metaballs also. You can make Metaballs to grow a surface using Particles System.

IN CONCLUSION
This article touching Metaballs is rather short. Hopefully you can see some kind of potential use of this abstract matter called Metaballs.