SIMPLE OBJECT (?)
>>So, what I thought was going to be a simple object has me stumped.
Hi, thought I do a little tutorial <BG> I'm sure YOU don't need it, but
somebody else
might.
How to model a TV-Tube:
1. In the shaper, draw a quad, you now have a rectangle with vertices at
the corners. at each corner, insert a vertice above and below:
||
\/
. .__________. (at the top-left side vertices are inserted)
——> . |
| |
.____________.
2. Now you can turn the corner vertices into curves, adjust them to your
liking. You now have the frontal view of the tube itself.
If you want to model a complete picture tube, create a 12 vertice
circular
n-gon. Scale it only in the y-direction till it is a litle smaller than
the picture tube rectangle. Do the same in the x-direction. You should
have
a rather fat elipse now. Create another 12 vertice n-gon and leave it
circular, it will be used for the narrow "end tube" of the picture
tube.
Rotate both elipse and circle so their first vertices coincide witht
the
first vertice of the rectangle. (Make sure you display "first" and set
the
axis' to the polygons centers before you rotate)
You now have everything you need to loft a picture tube.
3. Select the rectangle as a shape and go into the lofter. Place the rectangle
on the path and center it. Go to the next vertice on the path and
repeat
the procedure. Do that again. You should now have 3 rectangles on the
path.
Scale the first one a little smaller then the second, the third a
little
smaller than the second. Move the vertices closer together, this will
be
the front of your picture tube with a round, soft, glassy border.
If you're not doing a complete picture tube go to step 4.
Otherwise, place the sqashed n-gon circle (elipses) on the next vertice
of
the path and move and scale them so they form the back "bulbous" part
of
the tube. Then place the circular n-gon a little further down the path
and another circular n-gon at the last vertice. Make sure that you
center
all shapes on the path while you're doing this. (Insert vertices on
the
path where you want to place shapes, it lets you place the shapes where
you want, not where they happen to be.)
4. Select straighten path to make sure that it is a perfect line. Set the steps
and loft. (steps and loft settings like tweeen are up to you, depends
on
just how detailed you want your mesh)
5. In the editor, create a 32 sided l-sphere big enough that your picture tube
fits into it. Do all of this in the left view port. Now move it so
it's
centered on your tube. 2-d squash it flat along the x-axis to the
point
of curvature you want on your tube. Move the squashed circle so it
just
ovelaps your front part of the picture tube and shows the curvature
extending in front of it that you want your tube to have. Double check
your
positioning in the front viewport. Make a copy of your front picture
tube
part and hide it. (You do this by shift-clicking it during a move,
without
actually moving it). Go to create and do a boolean on the the objects.
Select the front part and the squashed sphere and select intersection.
You
now have only the curved front part. If you messed up, delete the new
object and unhide you "old" front piece, you're ready to try again. Or,
better yet do a "hold" before the boolean.
6. Render and admire your fantabulous new piece of art. <G>
You're done… That was easy, now wasn't it? The whole deal should
take
no more than 15 min. Aren't you glad you bought 3D Studio? <BG>
Check out the tvtube.3ds, it has an example TV tube I did just the same way as
described above. I actually made it 2 Elements, the frontal part of the tube
(in case you only needed that) and the "tube part". If you want to just use
the front, detach it and delete the back part. Assign the 3D-cell to the red
selected front and render, you'll love it, it really looks like a glass front
(even in the corners).
I hope that helped you out, have fun with your 3D Studio,
Jack
PS: I uploaded the file as "tvtube.zip" .
PPS: Sorry for the typos, but it IS late…