CompuServe Messages

How do you draw 3-d object? Answer: very carefully. Hi Fidaus, I have just read this string and work in TS without any cad. I use the splines, and I find that it is best to work slow one component at a time. I am trying to build a 3-d self-portrait just for practice. (and because I am the only live model that I can always count on to be there when I am working) (Grin) This is not easy to do. I am having sucess by begining with making small patches a nose and I do this large then scale it done then an upper lip, a bottom lip, a front skull, a back skull, etc. Then when I have all the components I will scale them together along with textures, bumpmaps, and every trick I can think of to get the image to work. Sure it would be nice to have the $100,000.00 advantage of an institution or movie studio's equiptment but I have found that the tools that we lack make us better craftsmen al around. Like the Programmer that worked with a 1 k memory machine was foarced to write tighter code than the supercomputor programer..(who probaley didn't even bother to delete mistakes because there was no great need too.) Believe me with or without cad TS can do the job. Art is not an easy profession, but it has some rewards that no one can take away from you! I do recomend the Sams book "Virtual Reality Madness and more" It has almost a chapter or more on TS and many other related programs plus useful demos. It was this book that introduced me to TrueSpace in the first place..I found it very helpful. Say you did want to draw a horse with just TS. Remember the body is basically just a tube, the head is a conical, its leg joints basically spheres, To draw in 3-d we have to think in 3-d. Now for detail, that is smaller tubes, conicals, etc. Rather than try to point edit the mouth on the head…create the mouth as separate then "pass the mouth object" thru the cone like head to its position and scale it to fit. Eyes are simple just spheres with texturemap…but eyelids and eyelashes now theres a problem especially if you want them to move…you may need more than one type to create flowing natural movement. However the macro and deform tools come in handy for this Lighting and Fog can play a big role in creating the illusion of reality. Camera angles also can do wonders. Engineers must think in extremely exacting mathmatic terms to create reality, artists do not…artists never forget (good artists anyway) that whatever D we are working with the image is a translation and of reality onto a flat surface in our case the screen. illusion of reality is often caused not by what we see or percieve on that surface but often by the things that we do not see. Remember that the errors that an artist percieves are those of one who has studied that work for it's entire creation, keep in mind that most viewers will spend but a mere fraction of that time even if they own the artwork. And that an Artist will not tell. With these credeos in mind Go fourth and create…never forgeting that as you are creating, your perceptions of your work are being honed and changing…and from that point, you will never be the same. (smile) Ken–artist PS It just my long way of saying "I dunno?!" (grin)