shapes for beginners

[petokosun]

On the 1st wk of next month, i am organising a workshop and it is going to be focused on modelling shapes, pliz can any body tell me types of shapes that will be good for beginers to learn with. thz

[TheSpleen]

build an old timey robot.

lotta box shapes and discs and rods.

and they would have something of their own when finished.

 

I have no idea who made these guys, found em on a search.

[Rodney]

Hmmm..... Shapes for Beginners.

How about:

 

dots (Control Points) Demonstrate how to create a CP

lines (Splines) Draw a spline

planes (Patches) Extrude a patch

cylinders (Lathed objects) Lathe a 5 point spline

circles (Deleting splines) cose the top of the cylinder with a 5 point patch and then delete the bottom half of the cylinder

rings (multiple CP spline) create a new spline with more CPs and then lathe it into a circle

(here you can demonstrate shapes such as tiangles, pentagons, hexagons etc by use of Peaking the splines or adjusting magnitude

stars ((moving multiple CPs) explain how by grabbing every other CP in a nine CP circle and pulling it inward you can create a star shape.

torus (lathed circle) Rotate and Move the spline circle (with any number of CPs to the left and lathe it to create a donut shape)

plug (lathed L shape) Rotate the outline of an L shape to create a more complex cylinder.

etc. (Students could extrude and lathe interesting shapes for quite a while here)

 

With the torus you are now fully in 3D space. Copy that torus a couple time to demonstrate the basic idea of duplication.

 

You can now go back at the beginning and start again from scratch but this time make a square, rectangle, triangle or more complex shape. For instance lathe a square spline with cross sections set to 6 and then select and peak the outside of the final shape (the result should be a hexagonal nut ... lathe a bolt to go with it)

 

All of that can take a while but its the minimum I would try to demonstrate.

At that point the students/workshop attendees could be encouraged to explore and create their own shapes.

 

 

An excellent way to demonstrate complex shapes would be to use the Duplicator Wizard.

Robcat has a wonderfully easy one for lathing a seashell shape. It would be very difficult to model manually but can be completed in about six steps through math and automation.

 

Use the Font Wizard to show how complex letters and words can easily be shaped.

Use someone in the classes name or the name of the workshop.

Render it out with alpha channel on and save it.

(You could use it later)

 

If you have the capability of creating an .AI file. You could show how the AI Wizard can create complex shapes.

 

Show them images of everyday objects and ask them to identify the basic shapes they see in them.

Ask them: "How many basic shapes would it take to create that image"?

 

If you have time, and the image is fairly simple, show them how to build these complex objects from basic shapes (like the robots Gene suggests)

(Note: You should practice making the objects in those images before the workshop so you can make them quickly by putting a variety of shapes together)

 

I would also suggest that you might have a collection of shapes already in your Libary and show how that once a shape is created it doesn't have to be made again.

If the model is saved to the Library they'll be able to use it over and over again.