Q:
For a school project, i need to make a convincing hourglass. I
have created the basic model - the wood tops, the glass curve - but have
come up -hard- against a problem: i need to put sand in it! I have
created the main glass shape with two geospheres with some
taper and stretch, and then have booleaned it into one object. If someone
has any ideas on how to fill the thing with sand, i would be eternally
grateful - also it is a solid object (so far :)
A:
If it is in MAX, you could go this way:
Place a hemisphere in the upper part and map it as sand.
Place a cone-like object in the bottom part and map it with the same
material.
Create a particle system for the sand comming down. Now you can animate
the hemi-settings to make the hemisphere become smaller, and animate the
cone size to make it become larger while the particle stream comes down.
This is a very simple solution, but it might work...
Addition:
I decided to model it myself the way I described and here is what I've got:
You can also download the zipped .MAX scene