CGTalk - getting back into the pen tool, once out of it

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benmillion

10-18-2008, 11:33 PM

i've searched the documentation for this, and have ordered the courseware so i dont have to post threads like this in the future once i receive it. *hopefully it answers this question :)

i'm doing the cartoon character tutorial, and the process is great. 1) sculpt the base mesh quickly, then 2) use the pen tool to quickly lay-down strips of polygons (quads) that are constrained to the background mesh.

the problem i'm facing is that once i leave the pen tool, and go into edges or vertices mode. the constrain to background no longer applies. so when i use the transform tool, it detaches its constraint from the background mesh.

i'd like to be able to get back into using the pen tool, after i leave it, and editi the points of the polys the way it behaves when i'm originally laying them down with the tool... but i dont want to necessarily create more points, just edit the existing vertices that adhere to the background constraint...

does that make sense?

tingham

10-19-2008, 12:25 AM

try the tweak tool "t" key. If you're losing you constraint you might be using escape instead of spacebar. Tweak works on whatever element you click on. Also set your action center to selected and axis to screen.

benmillion

10-19-2008, 05:20 PM

thanks tingham

it appears to work properly.

i'm wondering if this is the expected behavior: it feels like it behaves accordingly to the velocity at which you manipulate the vertices/ edges. i.e. if i use the tweak tool, and pull a point very slowly it appears to adhere to the background mesh, but once i track the mouse a bit faster while manipulating, it pulls it off of the constraint.

tingham

10-19-2008, 06:01 PM

I believe that there is a snapping preference. If not then that is indeed the case that the closer you are to the snap/constraint the more effective it's going to be.

If you find that you're having a lot of trouble with getting a solid snap; simply subdivide a copy of your background mesh and use that as your guide instead of the lower resolution mesh. Modo appears to calculate based on point averages; so if you take some of that workload out of the picture; you get better efficacy.

Have a great day. Happy modo'ing.

Thomas

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