3ds Max 2012 Bible - Kelly L. Murdock [178]
FIGURE 13.26
The Hinge Polygons From Edge dialog box lets you select a hinge.
By default, one of the polygon's edges will be used as the hinge about which the section rotates, but in the settings dialog box, you can click the Pick Hinge button and select an edge (which doesn't need to be attached to the polygon). Figure 13.27 shows a sphere primitive with four polygon faces that have been hinged around an edge at the sphere's center.
Extrude Along Spline
The Extrude Along Spline button can be used to extrude a selected polygon along the spline path. The settings dialog box, shown in Figure 13.28, includes a Pick Spline button that you can use to select the spline to use. You can also specify the number of segments, the Taper Amount and Curve, and a Twist value. You also have an option to Align the extrusion to the face normal or to rotate about the normal.
FIGURE 13.27
Several polygon faces in the sphere have been extruded along a hinge.
FIGURE 13.28
The Extrude Polygons Along Spline settings dialog box
Tutorial: Building an octopus
The one thing about an octopus that makes it unique is the fact that it has eight tentacles. Creating these tentacles can be easily accomplished with the Extrude Along Spline feature.
To create an octopus using the Extrude Along Spline feature, follow these steps:
1. Open the Octopus.max file from the Chap 13 directory on the CD.
This file includes the base of an octopus created from a squashed sphere primitive that has been converted to an Editable Poly. Eight splines surround the object.
2. Select the octopus object to automatically open the Modify panel. In the Selection rollout, click the Polygon subobject button (keyboard shortcut, 4) and enable the Ignore Backfacing option in the Selection rollout.
3. Right-click the Shading viewport label, and select the Edged Faces option from the pop-up menu (or press the F4 key).
This makes the polygons easier to see.
4. Click a single face object at the base of the sphere object, and click the Extrude Along Spline settings dialog box button to open the Extrude Polygons Along Spline dialog box.
5. Click the Pick Spline button, and select the spline to the side of the face. Set the Segments to 6 and the Taper Amount to –1.0, and click OK. Make sure that the Align to Face Normal option isn't selected.
6. Repeat Steps 4 and 5 for each spline surrounding the octopus.
7. In the Subdivisions Surface rollout, enable the Use NURMS Subdivision option and set the Display Iterations value to 2 to smooth the entire octopus.
Figure 13.29 shows the resulting octopus.
Cross-Reference
You can find more information on vertex colors in Chapter 32, “Painting in the Viewport Canvas and Rendering Surface Maps.” •
Polygon and Element Surface properties
For Polygon and Element subobjects, the rollouts shown in Figure 13.30 include Material IDs and Smoothing Groups options. The Material IDs option settings are used by the Multi/Sub-Object material type to apply different materials to faces or polygons within an object. By selecting a polygon subobject, you can use these option settings to apply a unique material to the selected polygon. The Select ID button selects all subobjects that have the designated Material ID, or you can select sub-objects using a material name in the drop-down list under the Select ID button.
Cross-Reference
You can find more information on the Multi/Sub-Object material type in Chapter 16, “Creating and Applying Standard Materials.” •
FIGURE 13.29
The tentacles of this octopus were created easily with the Extrude Along Spline feature.
FIGURE 13.30
The Polygon Properties rollout includes settings for Material IDs, Smoothing Groups, and Vertex Colors.
You use the Smoothing Groups option to assign a subobject to a unique smoothing group. To do this, select a subobject and click a Smoothing