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| Figure 1.6: Box Parameters. |
First off select the first layer to model our Robots body in.
Our robots body is based on a humble cuboid. Unlike the head and neck parts though not all of the body will consist of SubPatches, the area around where the neck joins the body will be plain polygons.
To start the body off use the Box tool to create a box with the parameters shown
in figure 1.6.
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| Figure 1.7: Where to cut. |
Yup it's back to the Knife tool again for this step. We are going to make a total of four cuts using the knife tool in this step.
The first two cuts we will make cut through the box where the y position is 60mm and 300mm respectively. To do this use the Left or Right view (as we will be making the next two cuts from either of these views). To make the cuts engage the Knife tool and use the numerical Position shown in the bottom left of the screen to guide you as you draw the tool horizontally across the box..
Still in the Left or Right view we will make two vertical cuts along the plane where the z position is 60mm and -120mm respectively.
Figure 1.7 has been annotated to illustrate where the cuts should be made.
Time for a stretching exercise, first have a good stretch yourself (there doesn't that feel better), now for our Robot.
Make sure that you are in Point selection mode (Points button at the bottom of the screen or Ctrl+'g'). Select the top two sets of points in the box (16 in all) by dragging a lasso around them in a suitable viewport (with the Right mouse button or APPLE and mouse button if you use a single button Mac mouse). If all went well then modeler will show that 16 points are selected in the bottom left of the screen.
Now for that stretch I promised. Select the Stretch tool (from the
Modify tab or by pressing 'h'. Now call up the numeric requester and set
the Horizontal and Vertical factors to 80%, and the Axis to Y with the centre at
(0, 0, 0). Click apply to scale the points by 80% in the X and Z axis, centred on
the Y axis.
Deselect the eight points furthest in the -Z direction. You should now have the eight point that make up the top front area of the Robots body selected. Use the Move tool to shift them -25mm along the Z axis. Now deselect the points.
Next use the Knife tool (you should know where it is by now), to make a cut across the box where Y is 180mm.
Select the back four points on the plane you just cut (ie at Y=180mm and closest to
-Z). Now move the points by -15mm in the Z axis. Deselect the points and thats it for
this step.
From the Left or Right view select the two central polygons (really four as there are two on each side of our Robot). Now use the Smooth Shift tool to shift the areas out by 25mm (100% scale for those using the numeric requester)
Now convert it into SubPatches!.
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| Figure 1.8: Cylinder 1 Parameters. | Figure 1.9: Cylinder 2 Parameters. |
Time for the non-SubPatched part of the body, we'll add a couple of cylinders to make the neck join look better.
Select the Disc tool (from the Create tab - no keyboard shortcut),
and create two cylinders with the parameters shown in Figure 1.8 and
Figure 1.9.
Now we'll finish of by applying some very simple texturing to our Robot.
First we'll make our Robot an attractive blue front. In layer one, from the perspective
view select the two polygons that make up the front of the Robot (Using the little drop down
arrow in the top left of the viewport to select 'Wireframe Shade' will make this easier.)
Now that we have selected our robots front, we will change the surface, to do this either
select 'Surface' from the Detail tab or press 'q'. Once the Change Surface
requester has popped up, enter the name 'RobotFront' and uncheck the 'Make Default'
option. Now click 'Ok'. Our Robots front isn't blue yet but first we'll do some
tidying up of our texture naming.
First for the sake of clarity we will rename the default surface that covers the bulk
of our robot. To do this open the Surface Editor, this can be done using the button
in the top left of your screen, or by pressing Ctrl+'F3'.
Now select the texture named 'default' from the list of textures. Now click the
'Rename' button in the top right of the window. This will enable us to rename the
'default' texture as 'RobotBody'.
Right time for that blue front. Right Click on the name 'RobotBody' in the texture
list and select Copy, now carefully Right Click on the name 'RobotFront' and
select Paste. This will have copied all of the texture attributes from the one to the
other. Now with the texture 'RobotFront' selected change the colour of the texture to
Red = 92, Green = 102, Blue = 186. You can either hold and drag over the coloured numbers
until the values are correct, or click the little coloured square to their right to open the
colour editor to do this.
Hold down the Shift key and select all the layers that make up our Simple Robot to
admire your handiwork in full.
Well that's about it, save your Robot and I hope you have fun modifying, rendering or even
animating our little friend.
STEP 7: Texture.
STEP 8: That's all folks..