Preserved Topic: Lofty

Right, i'm working on a watch and i want to make a bezel for it. I'm using 3d Studio Max 3.1
so i made an spline profile section for the bezel and then lofted it around a circle spline. The idea being to get a tirangle lofted around a circle with the slope on the outside and the straight edge inwards, which can then be edited to produce a bezel [bit which you can move around on top of diving watches]. However whenever i loft the outline section around the circle path it always ends up with the straight edge outside and the triangle on the inside, and i can't figure out how to get it back the other way, frustration.



Also anyone know any good ways to make brushed metal, i couldn't see any tut's on 3d cafe.

: : Relain : :


EDIT: failed ASCII explanation removed


[This message has been edited by Relain (edited 09-04-2001).]

[This message has been edited by Relain (edited 09-04-2001).]

Don't know about loft, what exactly you're getting and trying to get.

Brushed steal, eh? Your best bet is to make your own Diffuse map and then UVW map it to the faces/polygons/object. First, apply UVW Map to the object or just the select faces, then use Unwrap UVW on same. Unwrap UVW is available at 3D Cafe. Actually, once you get a good Diffuse map going, you should be able to modify it to make a decent Bump map or other maps.

Unwap Object Texture is another good plug-in to grab and use. You use it for making a 2D wireframe for skinning and such. Very handy. Also available at 3D Cafe.

UVW mapping and skinning is a lot of fun. Woohoo!

I think I know what you are saying, but I'm sure. I'll take a stab at it anyways.

Object > Torus. Set Sides to 3 (which gives triangle), and set Rotation to either 0 or 60. Set rest to taste and fiddle.




[This message has been edited by warjournal (edited 09-04-2001).]

Or you could try this. Create your circle and your spline that forms the profile of what you want your BEVEL (not bezel...get it?) to look like. Make sure that this profile spline isn't closed, it just happens to look like what your watch would look like if you cut a big quarter of it out. Then select your circle, and apply the bevel profile modifier to it (you should find this under the 'More Modifiers' section of the modifier area of the command panel). Then following the order of the modifier (you should now be able to see itdeown the bottom of the command panel), select your profile spline, and watch the magic happen.

A secobnd option is to create your profile spline, but not hte circle, and make sure that the ends of the spline, while not joined, are both lined up horizontally, and as far apart vertically as you want you watch to be thick.

/\____________

Bezel is the correct term for the rim that holds the watch glass in place.

It sounds like your loft is just backwards. This is very common. The thing to remember is that the shape is aligned to the path along the Z-axis of the shape. If the 'inside is outside', so to speak, then the Z-axis of the shape is going the wrong way. The easiest fix is to redraw the shape mirrored, in the same viewport you created the first one.

You could also reverse the path, so the shape would go around clockwise instead of counter-clockwise. To do this, convert the path (the circle) to an editable spline, go to the 'spline' sub-level, select the circle, and look for an option in the modifier panel to reverse it. I'm sorry I can't be more specific; I use 4.0, and I don't even have Max installed here at work.

Another option would be to just reverse the Z-axis of the shape. To do this, go to the hierarchy panel (a few tabs over from the modifier panel - looks like a box with three boxes below it, with lines from the top box to the lower ones), and select 'pivot point only' (I think that's the name of the option). Rotate the pivot point 180 degrees around the Y axis, then uncheck 'pivot point only'. This rotates the axis without rotating the object. The Z will be facing the other way, so it should follow the path in the correct direction.

A little tip for lofting: always select the path, then select loft, then choose the shape. It's possible to loft a shape and choose the path, but it causes more trouble than it's worth.

If you still have trouble, post here and I'll go through the steps with Max at home and give a step-by-step.


As far as the brushed metal goes, I usually make a brushed-looking texture in Photoshop (using monochrome noise, then wind), and apply it as a map in the Diffuse, Bump, and Specular map channels.

Cheers guys. i used a torus for one bit and managed to sort out that loft thing. I didn't realise that it depended upon the viewport / z-axis as to which way out it went. However its mostly sorted, so i just thought i'd post this. im fairly pleased with it so far, it needs to be lit up properly and i have to make a clasp for it/ textures as well.
Its taken me the last two days of my school holiday to make [mainly due to not knowing how to do stuff, and having to rebuild a few meshes as meshsmooth broke them up] still i think its pretty cool. Can't really get my head around this UV mapping stuff, back to the textbook for that.

Thanks again for your help

: : Relain : :

Ueah...sorry 'bout that Bezel thingy, didn't realise what it was you were talking about.




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