Hi 3D Enthusiasts! Truespace is truly a great piece of software underated by many, who, I think have never used it. That is why they call it a niche in the world of 3D. I think differently. I have started to use version 7.6 since it got distributed free, thanks to all who are doing this service to 3D artists wanting to working with this great software.
Adjusting the background settings of the 4 Viewports:
Now shift to the 4 view and set the ground settings to none as you observe in the following figure. It is better to set the ground to none so that it becomes easy for us to model the object without any obstruction to the view as in the following figure:
Create a Plane for the Reference Image:
Create a plane that we would be using for projecting our reference image. Observe the tool in the figure and create the plane in the side view as you see in the following figure:
Loading the Reference Image:
Now to sweep the tail. Select the appropriate faces behind the legs ans sweep them to for the tail as shown below:
Contact me with your queries at vivekchahaman@sify.com
Here follows a small tutorial on Modeling a Penguin and this tutorial will demonstrate how well the software does in terms of polygonal and subdivision surfaces modeling. The following picture shows you the default layout of Truespace 7.6:
The Default Viewport of Truespace 7.6
Adjusting the background settings of the 4 Viewports:
Now shift to the 4 view and set the ground settings to none as you observe in the following figure. It is better to set the ground to none so that it becomes easy for us to model the object without any obstruction to the view as in the following figure:
Create a Plane for the Reference Image:
Create a plane that we would be using for projecting our reference image. Observe the tool in the figure and create the plane in the side view as you see in the following figure:
Loading the Reference Image:
Shifting to the model view assign the Caligari icon image as texture to your plane. This will give an option to place this image and browse to the directory and selecting the penguin profile image load it. The profile image for this tutorial is from http://askville.amazon.com. If it appears weird, rotate it to an upright position in the side viewport by assigning planar mapping to the plane. This is what you observe in the following two figures:
Sweeping the Faces of the Editable Cube:
Create a cube in the center of the body of the penguin picture you observe in the background .Right clicking the cube makes it editable and a dialogue box pops up asking you whether you want to convert it to an editable mesh. Say yes and the dialogue box closes converting the box into an editable mesh. Now change to face selection mode and start to sweep the face to form the upper part of the body of the penguin. Keep scaling down as you go upwards creating the upper part of the body, the neck, the face and ultimately the beak. Also loop select the edges and keep adjusting the loops to get the shape of the body of the penguin. Do the same for the lower part of the body sweeping the lower face downwards. Once you have roughly chalked out the basic shape of the penguin, we have to start with the next operation. Observe the figures below to learn how the sweeping operations were carried out.
Mirroring the Geometry:
Go on extruding to get the full body of the penguin in the right shape observing very closely the profile picture that you have in the background. Add subdivision surfaces once for a smooth look. Quad divide smooth once for more faces to work on. Once you are satisfied, make a rectangular selection of all the faces on the left part of the model and delete them. Mirror the other half that is left. Now you could easily carry out all the operations symmetrically, meaning if you model on one side the other side naturally gets mirrored.A look at the following figures shows you how the one half of the model was deleted and mirrored so that we could start working symmetrically:
The Feet and the Tail:
Now for the feet . Select the face in the lower end of the body of the penguin. The mirrored face also gets selected. Start to sweep the face to form the legs. When you are finished with extruding the legs, select the face in front and cut two times to create three faces on each feet. Sweep the toes from these three faces. The following three figures show you the process of sweeping the faces to form the legs and the feet of the penguin.
Wings for Our Tux:
Select the appropriate face to form the wings after viewing the model from the side viewport. Scale down the face and rotate it downwards. Now start to sweep the face shaping it as you go down to form the wings of the penguin. This is what you observe in the following figures:
The Eyesockets ,the Eyes and the beak :
Select the face that conforms to the position of the eyes as you observe in the reference image. Start to bevel it. Do one more bevel and start tweaking it , moving points and edges to shape the eyes sockets.once you are satisfied with the result create the eyeballs by making a sphere and scaling it down to fit the eye socket on one side. Copy and paste the same sphere on the other side to make the other eyeball. Partition the beak by selecting the edges that form the beak, beveling them and sweeping them inwards. The following figures show you the process:
A Preview of Our Work:
Now we look at our penguin that we have modeled so far. Make quick renders and save them. Below are two renders of our model without textures being applied to them:
Good bye for now! I shall return with the texturing tutorial some time later! Wish you luck with your modeling!
