CompuServe Thread

Thanks for your reply. I now remember why I stopped using 3DS!:D It's amazing what you have to go through sometimes just to make a simple object. Anyway, I'll try your suggestion, and see if I can come up with something useful. Thanks again for your reply.

Thanks for your reply. I'll check out the files to see what's there.

>>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…

Going OK, Kouros… -Alan

Thanks. I'll try that one out. I suppose one of the problems with modeling in 3DS is the fact that you have different ways of doing the same thing, and the simplest approach isn't always apparent, especially with low time on the software as I have. Thanks to all of you for your help.