3ds Max 2012 Bible - Kelly L. Murdock [158]
Show Selected Segments
The Show Selected Segs option causes any selected segments to continue to be highlighted in Vertex subobject mode as well as Segment subobject mode. This feature helps you keep track of the segments that you are working on when moving vertices.
Tutorial: Making a ninja star
If you're involved with fighting games, either creating or playing them, then chances are good that when you look at the Star primitive, you think, “Wow, this is perfect for creating a ninja star weapon.” If not, then just pretend.
To create a ninja star using splines, follow these steps:
1. Right-click any of the Snap toggle buttons on the main toolbar, and select Grid Points in the Grid and Snap Settings dialog box. Then click the Snap toggle button (or press the S key) on the main toolbar to enable grid snapping.
2. Select the Create⇒Shapes⇒Circle menu command, and drag from the center grid point in the Top viewport to create a circle.
3. Select the Create⇒Shapes⇒Star menu command, and drag again from the center of the Top viewport to center align the star with the circle. Make the star shape about three times the size of the circle, and set the number of Points to 10.
4. With the star shape selected, right-click in the Top viewport and select Convert To⇒Editable Spline. In the Modify panel, click the Attach button, and click the circle shape. Then click the Vertex icon in the Selection rollout (or press 1) to enter Vertex subobject mode.
5. Click the Create Line button in the Geometry rollout; then click the circle's top vertex and bottom vertex, then right-click to end the line, and right-click again to exit Create Line mode.
6. Select the top vertex of the line that you just created (be careful not to select the circle's top vertex; you can use the Cycle button to find the correct vertex). Right-click the vertex, and select the Bézier vertex type from the quadmenu. Then drag its lower handle until it is on top of the circle's left vertex. Repeat this step for the bottom vertex, and drag its handle to the circle's right vertex to create a yin-yang symbol in the center of the ninja star.
7. While holding down the Ctrl key, click on all the inner vertices of the star shape. Click the Chamfer button, and change the value until the chamfer looks like that in Figure 12.27, and click the Chamfer key again to deselect it.
Figure 12.27 shows the resulting ninja star.
FIGURE 12.27
The completed ninja star, ready for action (or extruding)
Editing segments
To edit a segment, click the Segment subobject in the Modifier Stack or select the segment icon from the Selection rollout to enter segment subobject mode. Clicking again on either exits this mode. Segments are the lines or edges that run between two vertices. Many of the editing options work in the same way as when you're editing Vertex subobjects. You can select multiple segments by holding down the Ctrl key while clicking the segments, or you can hold down the Alt key to remove selected segments from the selection set. You can also copy segments when they're being transformed by holding down the Shift key. The cloned segments break away from the original spline, but are still a part of the Editable Spline object.
You can change segments from straight lines to curves by right-clicking the segment and selecting Line or Curve from the pop-up quadmenu. Line segments created with the Corner type vertex option cannot be changed to Curves, but lines created with Smooth and Bézier type vertex options can be switched back and forth.
Several Geometry rollout buttons work on more than one subobject type.
Connect Copy
When you create a copy of a segment by moving a segment with the Shift key held down, you can enable the Connect Copy option to make segments that join the copied segment with its original. For example, if you have a single straight horizontal line segment, dragging it upward