CGTalk - Need some tips on spline modelling!!!

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DanielIser

01-21-2004, 06:10 AM

I have 3d studio max 6 and am spline modelling a Mini Cooper at the time. This car has a lot of small curves that with a normal shader or no shader at all are almost impossible to see whether the curves look right or not. What type of texture or shader should i use to make it easier to see how the curves are formed?

falseindustry

01-26-2004, 11:11 AM

Hi Daniel.

I've been wrestling with this problem recently too. One feature I've found that can help is the use of Viewport Clipping. If you set one viewport to look down the major axis of the curve, you can sweep the near or far clipping distance to see how the curve changes with depth.

Hope that helps! If my porsche 914 comes out before you get done I'll let you know what else I figure out!

Alex

BlindXp

02-22-2004, 11:49 PM

I make a clone of my spline cage off to the side, selecting reference as the method. Then I apply surface to the cloned splines and now I can edit my original spline cage and watch it change in real time on the reference splines. is this what you had in mind?
http://bestpricedeverything.com/Eclipse/ref.jpg

JasonA

02-26-2004, 06:00 PM

Just use a shader thats shiny like phong. You'll have to do test renders from various angles, but I've found that generally any shader the produces specular highlights will let you see shape irregularities.

The clipping plane idea is a good one too though, I've never tried that.

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