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Creating and Modifying Splines:

Page 5

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When you click and drag, by default you are making a Bezier curve. However, you can change the drag type to Smooth or Corner. You can also change the initial type (i.e. Click - no drag) to Smooth. This done in the Creation Method Rollout in the Create Panel.

Instead of using the preset shapes in Max, you can create your own shapes and modify them. This is extremely useful for creating a variety of objects.

Create an Angular Spline:

• In The Create Panel, under Shapes, click "Line".

• Left click (and let go) in the Front viewport to create the first point of the line.

• move the cursor and click again to create the second point in the line.

• Repeat process until you are happy with your shape.

• Right click to finish line, or click your first point to close the spline.

• Delete the line by pressing delete on your keyboard.

Create a Curved Spline:

• Create the first point of a new line.

• Now, when creating the second point of the line, click and drag instead of letting go. You will notice that the line bends into a curve.

• Experiment with making lines using corners and curves.

Modifying Splines:

• Create a spline with corners and curves. Keep it simple like mine:

• Click the Modify Tab:

• Add an Edit Spline Modifier.

• Choose the Sub-Object level "Vertex". You can do this either by expanding the Edit Spline Modifier in the stack and choosing Vertex, or by clicking the Vertex icon.

• Click Select and Move:

• Click on one of the points in your line (These points are called Verticies. One point is called a Vertex. This is how I shall refer to them from now on).

• You can now drag and re-position the Vertex you have selected.

• If you select one of the Verticies on a curve, two Bezier Handles will appear with green boxes on their ends:

• If you click and drag these green boxes, you can alter the shape of the curve. 

• You can change any Vertex from a corner type to a curve type or vice versa by right clicking on it and choosing between: 

• Click Sub-Object again to come out of the Sub-Object level.

The "Sub-Object" selection level defaults to "Vertex", but you can also change it to "Segment" or "Spline". Dont Worry about "Spline", but play around with the "Segment" level if you like. This just means that you can move around the segments in between the Verticies.

If you want to go into some more detail on modifying splines, check out this tutorial.

Or read Chapters 2 and 9 in the recommended text.