We are going to draw the frame of the monitor: 4 curves and 4 skins.
Draw a NURBS Curve on the OrthoX View. (Curves -- Draw NURBS curve) |  |
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As we can see, the points of the curve are not aligned with the
grid.
Put the magnetism ON on the View OrthoX (Options -- Grid Options...),
and move each point a bit to align them ("m" key). |
Tag the start point and the end point. ("t" and select them)
They become red. |  |
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Translate them a bit along the X axis: "Alt-v" and Left Button.
We have a nice curve. |
Place it as the bottom left corner of the frame.
Use the Transformation Dialog (Transform -- Dialog). Enter 45 in
RotateX. Add 40 to the value in TranslateY, -30 in TranslateZ.
Then Apply.
You have to zoom out the OrthoX view ("p" + Left Button) |  |
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Now, we have to instantiate this curve to have 4 curves in the 4 corners
of the frame.
Instantiating them (and not duplicating them) may be useful later
because when we modify one curve, the 3 others will be modified too.
Do "Objects -- Instantiate", and transform the newly created curve.
Enter 135 in RotateX, add 60 to the value in TranslateZ.
Then Apply. |
Repeat: Instantiate the curve-2, enter 225 in RotateX, add -80 to
TranslateY. Instantiate the curve-3, enter 315 in RotateX, add -60
to TranslateY.
We have the 4 corners.
We can adjust the grid options: select "Options -- Grid options" in any
view, enter 10 in "X Steps", "Y Steps", "Z Steps", and click
"Change All". |  |
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Let's create the 4 skins: "Relations -- Skin surface", then
select curve-1 and curve-2 and press Right Button.
Repeat it for curves (2,3), (3,4) and (4,1). You can press the
"Relations" popup menu button with the Middle button to repeat
"Relations -- Skin surface".
Have a look to the Preview in the Perspective View. The Skin surfaces
may be reversed. If it is the case, select them and use
"Shapes -- Reversed". |
Now the monitor itself: create a square (Curves -- Square),
scale it ("x"). Rotate it: enter -90 in RotationY and Apply.
Then use the OrthoX view to scale it at the right size. Use
"Alt-x" and Left-Button and Middle-Button to scale it in X and Y
(in its own coordinates). You can zoom a corner for
easily adjusting it. |  |
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Repeat on the X global axis in the OrthoY view. (translate it with
"Alt-v" and Left-Button).
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Create the base curve on the X,Y plane. "Curve - Draw NURBS curve"
on the OrthoZ view. Be sure to turn off the magnetism.
Finish it by pressing the Middle Button to have a closed curve.
You can then ajdust the points with "m". |  |
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Translate this curve in Z ("Alt-v").
Be sure to be in object mode ("OBJ").
Press Space once to be in object mode. If you were in vertex mode
("VTX"), "Alt-v" would translate tagged points, that is not what we want!
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Duplicate this curve ("d") and place the new curves by translating ("v")
them, scaling them ("x"), and rotating ("c") them.
Use the OrthoY view.
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Create a skin surface with these 5 curves and our big square.
As we can see, we need to adjust the curves. The last duplicated one
is to large.
We can either:
- scale it ("x"),
- or adjust manualy every point ("m"),
- or tag some points ("t") and translate them ("v").
Do as you want! |
Now we see that the portion of the skin from the last curve to the
square has some problems.
Display the polygons of the skin (Select it,
and use "Display -- Polygons". Make it solid too ("Display -- Solid").
The fact is connecting a 14 points smooth NURBS curve with a 4 points
square is a big job for the skin algorithm. We have to help it a
bit by adjusting the last curve.
Use "m" and adjust its points. |  |
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That's better. We have translated some curves too.
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Now create a NURBS plane, rotate it by 90 degrees around X and -90
around Z. Place it at the screen position.
You can hide the main skin ("h").
Take a snapshot of the screen ("Help -- Take snapshot") and save it
("Help -- Save snapshot") in a jpg file. (Set it X size to 512, we
don't need a huge texture). |  |
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Then put an UV texture on the plane ("Textures -- Create UV").
In the Textures dialog, go on "Mapping", select "New..." and choose
the snapshot. Set Tiling U, V, W to (1,1,1). Smooth the texture
by setting "Linear/Linear" in Smoothing/Min and "Linear" in
Smoothing/Mag.
Then Apply.
We have done a very simple flat monitor in 10 minutes.
Get the model. (106528 bytes) |
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