The Sentinel

[BbB]

There you go. First create a sphere. Then go into front view and draw a freehand curve (A) using the "freeform-control point" tool. Then select your curve and apply the "curve-project" tool (1-2), selecting the entire sphere as projection surface. You obtain a nice closed curve (B), which now hugs your sphere. You can then use this curve to trim (3) the sphere, which will cut it in two along the path of the curve. To make the sentinel, I kept the two different bits (one became metal, the other plastic), shelled them independently (using the "offset-shell" tool), and applied a bevel.

[SURFiNG]

wonderfulll!!!!
What about the "eye" ? I see it's 3 times hollowed in the big sphere!!!

[BbB]

The eye proper is just a small, flattened sphere. The other bits surrounding it were all cut out of a slightly smaller sphere than the big one using booleans operators.

[SmartDen]

You guys are real sweethearts.
So here's an exploded version of the round thingy. It's basically a sphere on which I projected a rounded curve. I then used this "curved" curve as a cutting object to split the sphere into two (metal and plastic parts), which I shelled. The front hole in the black plastic bit came next (same procedure, but with a closed rectangular curve as projection). The metal pannels surrounding the lens are cut in a second, slightly smaller sphere modelled inside. All the bevelling came right at the end to avoid bad surprises (don't bevel the faces that don't show as this will really add to the geometry).

Thank you for your explanation. It is very useful! I begin really to love this NURBS modeler.

[SURFiNG]

trying to get it working!
Thank you BbB

[BbB]

Glad it's working. I like what you've done to your ball.

[filippo]

WONDERFULL MATERIAL!!