[Solved] Flatten a sphere to a grid

[ckeddf]

Maybe somebody has an idea for this - I’m constantly running into a wall: Basically, I need a sphere to merge smoothly with a grid. Overall the physics should be like underwater or zero gravity. But: I need consistent topology for both sphere and grid (yellow x in the sketch).
First, I tried metaballs: This produces the overall effect, however I didn’t manage to get reproducible point ids after the convert meta node. In other words, the topology is changing on a frame by frame basis. Is there any way to work around that?
Next, I tried vellum cloth and grains. Vellum cloth does not seem to be really suitable for this kind of effect. The first two phases work fine, but I can't get the objects to flow into each other. I tried welding the contact points and used blend shapes. Might FLIP be the way to go?

I'd be extremely grateful for any pointers, I have hit too many dead ends. I hope somebody with more experience can suggest an approach on how to tackle this.

Edited March 29, 2020 by ckeddf

[Atom]

Here's a recent link on this topic.

 

Edited March 26, 2020 by Atom

[ckeddf]

17 hours ago, Atom said:

 

Here's a recent link on this topic.

 

Thank you very much. That is an interesting technique. However, it is not quite what I'm looking for: I have two objects that need to be merged, instead of one object that changes shape. Clearly my convoluted explanation is to blame here, my apologies. I have changed the thread title to - hopefully - better reflect my problem.

[Noobini]

excuse me while i channel Stephen Hawking for a sec:

The Singularity at the bottom will make your proposal an impossibility. Therefore, you must create your own event horizon by clipping the singularity to facilitate the opening of a wormhole

Allow me to demonstrate, please scrub timeline and you'll see my theory in action

The remaining task now is to simply merge with a grid. Which for an intellectual giant like me considers a task for the plebs.

Good day, Cheerio.

 

vu_SphereUnfolds.hipnc

[Noobini]

hello again laddies,

I highly recommend traveling thru wormholes...from the bottom end !!!

 

 

vu_SphereUnfolds_toGrid.hipnc

[Noobini]

I must confess I'm partial to a wobbly but...wormhole

 

[ckeddf]

Thank you very much for your input, much appreciated. I'm reworking my setup to incorporate this approach. My goal is to visualize vesicle fusion at the synaptic membrane, so Hawking is not too far off.

This is an early test without transmembrane proteins:

 

[Noobini]

24 minutes ago, ckeddf said:

Thank you very much for your input, much appreciated. I'm reworking my setup to incorporate this approach. My goal is to visualize vesicle fusion at the synaptic membrane, so Hawking is not too far off.

This is an early test without transmembrane proteins:

 

COVID19 related...or zit related ?

[ckeddf]

22 hours ago, Noobini said:

 

COVID19 related...or zit related ?

Zit Sim VR? This is a visualization of a chemical synapse. I'm looking into adapting it to show SARS-CoV2 cell entry, but it takes time to get on top of the research.

[Noobini]

21 minutes ago, ckeddf said:

Zit Sim VR? This is a visualization of a chemical synapse. I'm looking into adapting it to show SARS-CoV2 cell entry, but it takes time to get on top of the research.

goodluck with the project and definitely show it off in here if you can.