Some Questions...

[luminis]

Ok, Let's See:

1.) To move one object's pivot point to match another one's pivot point you can obtain numerically the position of the pivot point for object1 and assign that same position to object2.

http://www.luminis3d.com/etc/cgt/img/001.jpg

To align the pivot point with the object itself, you can use snapping tools when moving the pivot point. Go into Pivot mode, press *and hold* V for point snapping (for a Polygonal Object) or C for curve snapping (for a NURBS surface). The middle part of the pivot manipulator will change to a circle, drag (while still keeping pressed either of these keys) and you will see the pivot point moving while it snaps to either a point or a curve, depending on your surface type. When using curve snapping (C), it gets a bit tricky, as the pivot needs to be placed near one of the object's curves to start with before it can snap correctly to that curve. Let me know if you have difficulty with this, and I can help you sort it out better.

2.) There is no other easy way to mirror without scaling to -1. If it flips the normals, then flip them back correctly, using 'Edit Polygons/Normals/Reverse'

3.) To use a planar projection of an image, go to the shader attributes, and click on the map button just as you would normally (the one that looks like a checker box). When the "Create Render Node" window comes up, choose 'As Projection' and then click on 'File' to create a file texture.

http://www.luminis3d.com/etc/cgt/img/002.jpg

A Place 3D Texture node will also be created, and this is visually displaeyd in the perspective view as a rectangle which you can rescale, rotate or move depending on where and in what direction you want the file to be projected.

http://www.luminis3d.com/etc/cgt/img/003.jpg

4.) You need to delete the connection only, not the actual texture node. Go to the hypershade, select the shader that has this transparency mapped to it by clicking on its icon. In the hypershade menu bar go to 'Graph/Input Connections'. In the bottom part of the hypershade you will see the shading network will be graphed, which might look something like this picture:

http://www.luminis3d.com/etc/cgt/img/004.jpg

Notice there are two connections from the file node to the shader, one is for color and one is for transparency, you can identify which is which by hovering or clicking on each connection line. To get rid of only the transparency, click on the connection line that corresponds to transparency and press the Delete key. This should leave behind only the color connection.

5.) I'm not sure how Wings3D and Max handle this, but I think I know what you mean. It will take me a few minutes to prepare an explanation for how to do this, so I will post it in a while below this post.

[luminis]

5.) Ok, here's an image explaining the process.

http://www.luminis3d.com/etc/cgt/img/005.jpg

I hope this helped in some way, let me know if you have any more questions about this, or if you need me to explain better any part.

[wrend]

woah! with the great responses of luminis, people should almost feel obliged to sign up for his training!!

as additions:
1. do all this in a push button manner w d.bialluch's pivot tool box (www.lightstorm3d.com), it'll do all (ahh, most) of the aligns you might imagine (including your bbox L, R). p.s. - you can curv snap to poly edges, and you can pnt snap to nurbal EPs.

5. again, mr Bialluch, CPS, will automat these tasks for you. he is not adding extra functionality, just bundlling it all nice an' push button pretty. i made a similar, lighter, version for subd. both the methods presented to you will not have total mirroring of the construct, but it only takes a little bit of jigging to get it sorted.

[ilasolomon]

wow, William, thank you very very much, you are the man, I got my answers :beer: :thumbsup: (just saw your site, you are a natural born teacher!)
wrend, thank you for your respond man, I think those tools (scripts) will help much :)
I like this Forum!
Ila

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