While the visualization approaches discussed for snail-like structures so far only allow to visualize snails produced from bodies of a certain (sphere-like) geometry, here I try to introduce a method suitable for almost any geometry. Let us start with a yellow blob of a random geometry, which is surrounded (in the x-y-plane) by a belt of closely attached disks.
- Building a shell I
We can produce more of these spheres and combine them into a blob:
- Building a shell II
The yellow blob can be swept along a logarithmic spiral (and scaled accordingly) this way producing a snail-like structure.
- Building a shell III
To visualize the shell structure of such a body, the red blob-ring is swept along this path and also scaled accordingly.
- Building a shell VI
We still have to avoid overlapping structures (which is not too difficult) and we have a nice shell structure.
- Building a shell V
This principle can be used for bodies of various geometry.
Building a shell VI
As demonstrated by the artifacts in the upper part of this picture, the approach is not perfect yet. Eventually I will have to improve this.