CGTalk - Lofting basics

pentool

02-03-2006, 11:17 PM

Hi,

I'm trying to create a simple loft. I create the shape (the pointy edge), and the path (the kinda sine wave looking). You can see that in the front view, the pointy end of the shape is pointing towards the left (see image on the left). Then I select the path and use 'Get Shape' to add the shape to the path. However, the shape is always rotated so that the pointy edge will be on the bottom (see result on the right image). This is really annoying.

Now, I know that I can just rotate the shape in the final compound object, but it gets more complicated as I start to add multiple shapes to the path. In that case all of a sudden the final compound object starts to swearl all the way out to hyperspace, which is even more annoying.

I made sure that when I add multiple shapes, the individual shapes' start vertices located at the same position, and the vertices are all either clockwise or counterCW. No use. They all go haywire.

Right now I just would like to understand why does a simple 1 shape (image below) gets rotated and how can I setup the shape and the path in relation to each other so the shape will be lofted across the path using its original orientation.

Thank you for your help!

http://geocities.com/bocibocitarka/misc/loft1.gif http://geocities.com/bocibocitarka/misc/loft2.gif

Kanga

02-03-2006, 11:47 PM

Have you lined all your shapes and added them to the path sequentially? If this is a really complex form it might even pay to just straight out box model the form.

pentool

02-04-2006, 12:01 AM

well, as you can see there are only 1 shape. and even that is getting rotated.

vaXn8d

02-04-2006, 12:34 AM

This is an extremely crude solution, but it might give you the control you're looking for. Try adding an XForm modifier to each of your shapes, and rotate the XForm gizmo in the modifier. Since the shapes are instanced, it should rotate the shape on your loft as well. Like I said, this is extremely crude, but you can control rotation for all instances of that shape as well as the individual shapes through the compound object.

As for why they are rotated wrong in the first place, I think it has to do with the shapes' original xform (orientation). Rotating and resetting xform (utilities panel) might fix that?

I'd test this out instead of speculating if I wasn't rendering... hope this helps.

pentool

02-04-2006, 01:12 AM

Thanks vaXn8d, yeah I've tried to reset orientation, rotation, even made sure the pivot of both the shape and path are oriented the same way, but no avail. Of course I can rotate the shape(s) after adding it to the path, I just wondered why on earth it cannot orient it correctly right from the start and I thought I am doing something wrong.

trthing

02-04-2006, 01:59 AM

I've always had this doubt...:shrug:

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