Learning 3D

Primitives

The simple shapes where many models start are usually called primitives, from left to right.
Box/cube, Ball/sphere, Disk/cylinder, Cone, Capsule

They are all made of points polygons and edges.

They all have a fairly similar set of controls- to set Width, Height & Depth (XYZ) of the object and controls to set the number of segments on each axis. In fact its all pretty self explanatory, its one of those things that its quicker and easier to just do rather than have someone explain.



Lathe
This is one of the real fun tools, instant results with something verey different than what you started with.
From this
to this with one lathe- So its good for spiraly things(phone cords) but it also can be used for any thing generaly cylindrical such as bottles, glasses, torches, pencils and fruit(not so much for banannas though).
Lets make a quick wine glass



Start off by (in Lightwave) useing the pen tool to sketch out a polygon in the shape of a profile of half a wine glass. Now you want to make sure that the points of the center of the stem are on zero on the X-axis, this is where we will be latheing around and if they are not right there you will end up with a hole down the center of the glass, not exactly the most practical of designs for a glass.

And here with the default settings for the tool is a fairly simple wine glass.
Not too hard eh?
Wham, bam, wine glass mam
Almost forgot if you end up with somthing that looks strange, like it is inside out the the polygon that you startrd with has its normal faceing in the wrong direction, just press f to flip it.

Thats it for todays quick lesson, if anyone has a particular topic they would like me to have a stab at please ask.
Save now, save often

A nice easy object to start with a 6-sided die (singular of dice:sherlock: )
Firstly this is a template of an unfolded die just to show how the pips are placed on each side. Opposite sides of the die will always add up to 7.
In this tutorial I am going to model all the details such as the pips, which could also be done with textures. Any of the images can be clicked on to view a larger version. Any text that appears like this (Shift-X) is a key board shortcut for use in lightwave 3d[9], do use them if possible as it will speed up your work tremendously.





Step 1. Create a box (Shift-X) and enter the settings in the numeric panel (n).
We are just creating a 10mm box with rounded corners and making sure that each face of the cube has 6 polygons. We are going to be using these polygons to make the pips on the die. Finish creating the box by hitting enter.

Step 2. Save your object (s). I called mine Die_plain.lwo.






Step 3.
Select a single polygon it the center of one of the faces. this is going to be our face with one pip.

Now Bevel (b) this polygon 3 times with the folowing settings in the numeric panel (n). Or you can just eyeball it to close enough
Bevel 1
inset 400 um
shift 0

Bevel 2
inset 0
shift -300 um

Bevel 3
inset 200um
shift -200um

The important thing is that the first bevel only insets the polygon and that the second one only shifts it back into the model. This will give a nice sharp edge to the pip later.
Now you have to do the same for all the other polygons where you want pips. following the template pick out all the pip polygons you can bevel them all at the same time.
You should end up with something that looks like this.
Now you are probably thinking its kinda ugly with all those square pips. but its time for a little magic- called subdivision surfaces. If you are useing Lightwave make sure you have nothing selected and then press (tab)










And finaly with a bit of quick surfacing a little render of the finished product.


As always if you have any questions or comments, please ask.




And welcome to the first new member Zounas