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Lecture 2: Modelling Primitives

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The Create Menu defaults to Standard Primitives, which are the most basic building blocks of modelling. The Standard Primitives are:

So, lets begin:

• Click on the Box button,(I might as well mention now, If I talk about clicking the mouse, I mean the left mouse button unless I say otherwise!). The button will turn green and stay depressed. When you move the cursor over the views, it should turn into a cross. 

• Left click and hold in the Front View, and drag the cursor diagonally in any direction. This will create the front face of your box. 

• When you are happy with the front face, let go of the mouse button, and move the mouse up or down to specify the depth of your box. You will notice you need to look at it in the Top or Left views to gauge this.

• Finally, click again to complete the box.

So, using this click and drag principle explained, try creating a few different Primitives.

You will notice that different shapes have slightly different procedures. A Sphere for example, only requires one stage of creation (unlike the Box, which requires two). Some Primitives, like the Cone and Tube, have 3 stages of creation. 

e.g. To create a Tube you need to define:

a: the diameter

b: the thickness

c: the height

The best way to learn all this is through trial and error, so just play around for a while. 

If the viewports get cluttered, click Zoom Extents All (you should know where this is from the chapter on Views you just read!), or just zoom in and out.

Alternatively, just delete shapes as you go by selecting them with the Select Tool and pressing Delete on the keyboard.

Remember:

Rolling the jog wheel within a selected view will zoom in and out, whilst holding down the jog wheel and moving the mouse will pan the view. This makes things SO much easier.

Parametric Modelling:

The next thing we need to learn is how to change the basic parameters of Primitive objects. All Primitive objects are Parametric. This means they are defined by a set of basic parameters which can be adjusted quickly and easily, even after the creation process. A Box, for example, is defined by its height, width and depth, and each of these parameters can be easily altered at any stage.

You will notice when you first click on the Box button, that a parameters rollout opens below it:

You will also see that these parameters update automatically as you click and drag to create the Box. Once you have created an object in the viewport, you can adjust its parameters manually using this menu. This applies to all the Primitive objects. However, once you move on to create another object, if you wish to go back to the previous objects parameters, you will have to look for them in the Modify Menu: 

Segments:

The amount of segments you specify affects the complexity of the grid, which for shapes with curved surfaces, affects the smoothness of the surface. Try creating a sphere and adjusting the amount of segments to see what happens.

When You have finished creating your shape, give it a name. You do this by clicking in the Name field in the Name and Colour rollout in the Create Menu:

Simply type a name and press Enter to confirm it.

Naming your objects is very important when creating complex scenes or hierarchies (discussed in a later lecture). It is also very useful when using the Select by Name Tool (discussed in Lecture 2). 

You can also change the display colour of your object by clicking on the colour swatch next to the name field and choosing a colour. 

To see the final output of your scene, click Quick Render, which is the little teapot in the top right corner of the screen:

A window will appear and your scene will render inside the window from top to bottom. The time it takes to do this depends on the complexity of the scene and your processing power. Once you have finished admiring your lovely finished piece, just close the window.