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A
Place to Rest Your Cup…
 The
next thing we need is a place to rest our cup. Let's make a
slab of wood that just floats in the air (why model legs we'll
never see anyway?).
- Make
sure your wine glass is saved, and choose "New Object" --
this will not close the existing object, but will open up
another (blank) workspace. Notice the drop-down in the upper
right hand corner of the screen that had the current object's
name on it will change to show which of the objects is being
edited. That is, it will have gone from saying "Wineglass_02"
to saying "Untitled".
- Choose
the "Objects / Box" ("Shift-X") tool, (zoom in or out
as needed to make sure the grid is set to 20mm so you can
see what you are doing). Create a box like the one shown here,
positioned like this one is -- with its top level with the
"0" of the "y" axis 9i.e. level with the grid).
- Press
"q", and name the surfaces of this object "table_wood_sides",
- Now we'll
give the top polygon a different surface name from the rest
f the slab. Select only the top polygon:
Hint:
In "Polygon" mode (click the "polygon" button at the bottom
of the screen), drag with your right mouse button in the fashion
shown in the left half of the example. When you are done you
should see one polygon normal showing up, as in the image
to the right. You should have one polygon selected -- see
the readout in the lower left of the M<odeler screen to
see how many polygons are selected; it should read "Sel 1".
Another
Hint: Yes, you could have made this selection by simply clicking
your left mouse button once in the perspective view. The
method used in the previous diagram is good to know about
thought, for future consideration only.
- Press
"q" to rename the selected polygon's surface. Call
this one "table_wood_top". Yes we could get away with simpler
surface names, but the longer, more descriptive names I'm
using will be helpful when we have this object in the more
complex scene we are putting together out of all these pieces.
- Save
this object as "Table_01".
- Let's
add a simple bevel to the top polygon of the slab: choose
"Polygon / bevel" (b), and then click and drag with
your left mouse button in any view-port except the "Top" view.
Note:
The (b) Bevel tool works as follows:
Hold
your LMB down, and drag your mouse up and down to scale
the selected polygons around their normals, drag your mouse
side to side to extrude it in or out.
Up
and down to scale, (Inset)
Side
to side to extrude, (Shift)
You should
have something similar to what is shown in the left part of
the diagram.
- As always,
we can fine tune our creation with the numeric panel. If you
have just finished the bevel operation (and haven't done anything
else), pressing "n" will open the "numeric" requester,
where we can change the "Inset" and "Shift" values numerically.
The "Inset" value is the scaling amount (which we have
been controlling by the up and down motion of your mouse when
you do this in the view-port). The "Shift" value is
the distance the polygon is extruded (which is controlled
by the side to side movement of your mouse when working in
the view-port). When you are done, you should have something
similar to the image shown to the right above -- mine was
an Inset and Shift of 1mm each; those numbers will work for
you, assuming you set your zoom in step 2 above.
Note:
The newly created polygons (the four sloped polygons we
just created) will automatically have the surface name of
the polygon that made them -- so since we made them with the
"top" polygon, they will be called "table_wood_top", just
as it is.
- In the
interests of keeping our lives nice and tidy, lets move our
table down 1mm so that the top of it is still on the "0" in
the "y" axis. This is just a good habit -- and in this case,
it will ensure that our wineglass rests nicely on top of the
table -- not inside it.
- "Deselect
all" by clicking in the menu where there is no button (i.e.
on the grey background between the buttons) (Keyshort
= ?)
- Press
"t" to activate the move tool, and the "n" to activate the
numeric tool.
- Choose
"Actions / Activate" in the drop down menu within the numeric
panel, and set "y = -1mm". Leave the other values alone,
and hit "Apply"
- Close
the numeric requester.
- Save
that out (Table_02, if you wish).
The rest
of this project requires Layout. Make sure both objects are
saved, and Launch Layout.
 Render,
Surface, and Light!
When you
come back, launch Layout, Load both objects (see the image
below -- objects are added through the "Add / Add Object /
Load Object" menu, which is in the main part of the menu screen
(Actions) -- (the Keyshort "+" opens the object load
dialog).
 Set
your camera to show something like what is seen here. Remember
to keyframe the camera so it will stay where you put it --
the easy way to make a keyframe is to press <Enter>
Enter> after you move something.
We'll
texture and light this in a later session. For now,:
- Save
the Scene "File / Save Scene As" (S) as "WineGlass_01"
- Save
the Objects by selecting "Save / Save All Objects"*
*The "Save
All Objects" feature in LW Layout is very important! All texture
information is stored in the object files, NOT in the scene
files. Always, Always, Always, choose "Save All Objects" when
you are about to close Layout (unless you want to trash
your textures…). Next, we'll texture
the wine glass.
c.
tonyg 2000
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