Tutorial 1 -- Arches
by Will Harrison · in Artist Corner · 03/07/2005 (2:47 pm) · 23 replies
This mini tutorial covers the construction of arch type formations in Cartography Shop (CS). I used CS 4.1 for this tutorial, but I didn't use any special functions such as "carve" and "hollow" so it should doable in the demo version as well.
This screenshot, taken from the Torque Game Engine (TGE), should give you an idea of what we will build here:
1. Okay, let's begin! First step, open CS and in your "Front" viewport drag a rectangle similar to the one in the image below and press "Enter" to create a box primitive with default texturing and depth. This will be the left pillar of our arch portal.
2. Now, create another box primitive just above it. Make sure it is the same same width as the first one.
3. Take the smaller box you just made, copy/paste it four times and position them in an arrangement similar to the one below.
4. Now we are going to rotate the copied boxes to create the arch. To rotate, first select the box and then click it again so that the rotate handles appear (see below).
5. Here is the best way I find to make the rotations. First rotate the top-most piece so that it is 90 degrees vertical. Then rotate the middle piece to be about 45 degrees. Now, rotate the in-between pieces to smooth out the arch shape. Finally, after moving the pieces around a bit, you should have something like this:
6. Okay, carrying on... we now want to make these individual pieces look like one cohesive arch (or rather, half-arch) using the vertex editing mode. First, go to the menu item "Edit --> Select All". The reason we "Select All" is so that all the vertices will show at once, and we don't have to select each brush first before editing its vertices. Now click the "Select Vertex" button from the toolbar menu.
The vertex handles of all the brushes will appear now. Click and drag each vertex so that each corresponding pair share the same grid point (see below).
(Note that the vertices above are on grid points, it's just that, in this shot, the viewport is "zoomed-out", so you can't see that they actually are because the apparent grid resolution changes when you zoom out.)
7. Now, you may find you're having trouble making the arch look proper. If so, try increasing the grid/snap resolution. To do this, press "[" two or three times. Remember, you can go back to the previous grid setting by pressing "]". Continue moving the vertex handles around until you have something looking like the image below. Important note: when moving the vertices of the top-most piece, do not change its overall height. This is so that it keeps the same thickness as the pillar.
Tip: when making fine adjustments to vertices you may find it easier with the viewport set to full-screen. To do this, move your mouse over the viewport you're working in and press "F12", or right-click and select "Full-screen".
(Continued...)
This screenshot, taken from the Torque Game Engine (TGE), should give you an idea of what we will build here:
1. Okay, let's begin! First step, open CS and in your "Front" viewport drag a rectangle similar to the one in the image below and press "Enter" to create a box primitive with default texturing and depth. This will be the left pillar of our arch portal.
2. Now, create another box primitive just above it. Make sure it is the same same width as the first one.
3. Take the smaller box you just made, copy/paste it four times and position them in an arrangement similar to the one below.
4. Now we are going to rotate the copied boxes to create the arch. To rotate, first select the box and then click it again so that the rotate handles appear (see below).
5. Here is the best way I find to make the rotations. First rotate the top-most piece so that it is 90 degrees vertical. Then rotate the middle piece to be about 45 degrees. Now, rotate the in-between pieces to smooth out the arch shape. Finally, after moving the pieces around a bit, you should have something like this:
6. Okay, carrying on... we now want to make these individual pieces look like one cohesive arch (or rather, half-arch) using the vertex editing mode. First, go to the menu item "Edit --> Select All". The reason we "Select All" is so that all the vertices will show at once, and we don't have to select each brush first before editing its vertices. Now click the "Select Vertex" button from the toolbar menu.
The vertex handles of all the brushes will appear now. Click and drag each vertex so that each corresponding pair share the same grid point (see below).(Note that the vertices above are on grid points, it's just that, in this shot, the viewport is "zoomed-out", so you can't see that they actually are because the apparent grid resolution changes when you zoom out.)
7. Now, you may find you're having trouble making the arch look proper. If so, try increasing the grid/snap resolution. To do this, press "[" two or three times. Remember, you can go back to the previous grid setting by pressing "]". Continue moving the vertex handles around until you have something looking like the image below. Important note: when moving the vertices of the top-most piece, do not change its overall height. This is so that it keeps the same thickness as the pillar.
Tip: when making fine adjustments to vertices you may find it easier with the viewport set to full-screen. To do this, move your mouse over the viewport you're working in and press "F12", or right-click and select "Full-screen".
(Continued...)
Torque Owner Will Harrison