Assigning Named groups to faces

[AndyDavis]

I'm trying to work my way through some texturing and I'm getting stuck on two things.

 

As a basic excercise, I'm trying to make an animated Photo Cube. To start, I am simply using the Hash Cube primitive and I am going to assign some named groups that I can use for both the frame and the picture faces. The Hash Cube is not just 8 CPs, it is 6 major faces with a nice bevel at the corners. The patches that make up the bevel are the 'frame'

 

The first thing that I have encountered is that it is really easy to accidently distort the model when you're spinning it around and trying to select all of the faces. Is there any way to lock the geometry, but still allow the creation of named groups?

 

The second thing that is giving me heartburn is that it doesn't really appear that I am assigining patches/faces to a group. A:M appears to infer the patches from the CPs that are part of the group. This works most of the time, but does not work for what I am trying to do. The 'frame' of the photo cube includes every CP in the model. If I assign a color to the frame, it really should go everywhere but the 6 major faces. Unfortunately, it goes everywhere.

 

Is there a way around that? Can I arrainge the order of the groups so that the face groups are on top of the frame group?

 

Bonus puzzlement: When trying to create the faces, I accidentally created two groups that had the same CPs. When I deleted the extra group, the contents of the correct group were also cleared. Is this a bug or am I off in the weeds?

 

Andy

[AndyDavis]

Can I arrainge the order of the groups so that the face groups are on top of the frame group?

 

OK, did the simplest thing and lo and behold, it worked. Just drag the groups up and down to create the order.

[KenH]

For the different colored group, just swap the order of the groups and it will over-ride the other group with the frame color. Also, if you really need to....you can lock cps by using the lock icon in the toolset to the right.

 

I don't understand the bonus puzzlement.

[Fuchur]

For the different colored group, just swap the order of the groups and it will over-ride the other group with the frame color. Also, if you really need to....you can lock cps by using the lock icon in the toolset to the right.

 

I don't understand the bonus puzzlement.

 

Deleting Groups and Deleting Groups and Content is easy: If you select a group and than click in the modelling-window on the group/selection (for example) the selected CPs will be deleted... if you just click on a group in the ProjectWorkSpace, only the group is deleted...

 

A:M is ALWAYS getting the Patches from the CPs... You can use the Patch-Select-Tool but in the end, it wont select the patches itself but the CPs of the Splines which are declaring it.

The solution: Just create one group for every site and one for the frame. You will have 7 groups but it will work...

 

You should use the Num-Pad instead of the Turn-tool to select the CPs for such an easy object. You cant lock something and still select it. That would be against the whole idea of locking...

*Fuchur*

[heyvern]

I am a bit confused about the "accidental distortion" when spinning. Aren't you using bones to spin? You aren't trying to select points to spin the cube are you?

 

Groups can be tricky buggers. Sometimes you have to add more splines or points to a group than seems necessary. Sometimes it is literally IMPOSSIBLE to create a "single" group for one surface "property" like the frame. For instance the frame "group" must also include the splines from each edge of just the "photo group". Also you have an issue with the fact that the photo square group is only a single patch.

 

Imagine a checker board grid. You want every other patch to be a color. You can't do this properly with just two groups. It won't work with only two groups because selecting "every other" patch just selects the whole darn grid!!!! You end up with two groups with all the patch selected. You would have to have several different groups spaced apart so they don't share the exact same points.

 

I don't know if the model you are using would cause this issue but I think it might since the frame group encompasses the whole model. You would need several different frame groups for it to work since the "face" groups where the "photos" would go have only one patch.

 

Another problem may be happening when deleting and creating and changing groups like this. The display will not always update immediately. Sometimes you have to save the file or refresh the view to see the changes. I find I have to switch back and forth in the preview (shaded to wire and back) to see any changes to groups when I remove them or add points etc.

 

Hope this helps. Ask me for more specifics or wait for someone who is better at explaining it than me.

 

-vern

[AndyDavis]

Thanks to all for the replies.

 

The accidental distortion was caused because I was trying to spin my point of view so I could select the backside faces.