Hey all,
This is for the developers.
Ive created a technique where you can cut out doors, windows, panels, etc, 'after' you have mapped the area with a texture.....
This involves placing Vertice points in by hand, then connecting the Vertice points with Edges, but amazingly, you have 'no' distortion.
This enables you to actually make your cut lines 'on' your texture 'line art' instead of the other way around. (If you have ever created lines on your art, you know how difficult it is to align your edges onto your actual object edges).
This does not use Boolean or Shape Merge, but you end up with less Vertices this way and actually can cut the parts out faster (in the long run).
Here's how;
1. Create a very nice Spline template that is the shape of the panel to be cut out, such as a door line. Use the art to create the Spline line with, making it exactly over the artwork on the object.
2. Adjust the Spline so that you can see it over the surface of the model (not 'in' the model, but hovering over the model part).
3. Make sure the model is an Editable Poly
4. In Edge Mode, click 'Ignore Back Side'
5. Go to Edge/Divide
6. Begin placing Vertice points at all intersections of edges that the Spline pattern hovers over, making a trek along the Spline.
7. Now, if you have a curve that treks into polygon area's and you need to make that curve 'in' the polygons, do this. Convert object to a Editable Mesh
8. Go to Edge Mode/Divide
9. Begin placing Vertice points 'in' the polygon area(s). This can get radical as the placement of a Vertice 'in' the polygon area will create several Edges to other Vertice points, so you may have to create 'some', then stop, redo the cycle, then do some more, as the lines can get pretty thick if you do 'a lot' of these Vertice points in polygons.
NOTE: You must convert object to Editable Mesh for this step as Editable Poly will not allow precise placement of your Vertice's when doing Polygon/Divide in Editable Poly objects.
10. Now convert object to Editable Mesh. Go to Edge Mode/Create. Start connecting the various Vertice points, making a clean cutout of the panel alone the Spline pattern. You can hide the Spline to better see your cut line you are creating.
11. At this point, you may need to go back and create more Vertice points 'in' polygon area's. You will need to bounce back to Editable Mesh mode/object to do this.
NOTE2; In Editable Poly mode, you can delete unwanted Edges that are not used. That is why you bounce back your object to 'Save As; Editable Poly' on the final run of this cut technique. You will take out all of the unwanted rays or Edges from your Vertice placements 'inside' of Polygons.
NOTE3; You will need to repeat this for each side.
I jumped from FSDS to Gmax because I could easily cut nicely rounded windows with Boolean. Then I learned Shape Merge, using Splines to cut out doors and windows and various panels with. But with both techniques, I always had tons of excess Vertices that I needed to get rid of, (welding together precariously, taking alot of time to clean up and hopefully not distorting the object). With this technique however, you cut once, exactly, you have Vertices where you want them, and you can do this on a mapped object, prepainted, making your cuts 'on' your edge lines in the art, and no cleanup is required.....
Works awesome.
Here is an example. I have created the plane, mapped it, created art (paint scheme) with door lines. I decided to make panels animate out 'after' doing all that work. With this technique, in quick order, I can cut out these panels with zero distortion to the object UVW Mapping.
Hope that helps modellors out there.
Bill
This is for the developers.
Ive created a technique where you can cut out doors, windows, panels, etc, 'after' you have mapped the area with a texture.....
This involves placing Vertice points in by hand, then connecting the Vertice points with Edges, but amazingly, you have 'no' distortion.
This enables you to actually make your cut lines 'on' your texture 'line art' instead of the other way around. (If you have ever created lines on your art, you know how difficult it is to align your edges onto your actual object edges).
This does not use Boolean or Shape Merge, but you end up with less Vertices this way and actually can cut the parts out faster (in the long run).
Here's how;
1. Create a very nice Spline template that is the shape of the panel to be cut out, such as a door line. Use the art to create the Spline line with, making it exactly over the artwork on the object.
2. Adjust the Spline so that you can see it over the surface of the model (not 'in' the model, but hovering over the model part).
3. Make sure the model is an Editable Poly
4. In Edge Mode, click 'Ignore Back Side'
5. Go to Edge/Divide
6. Begin placing Vertice points at all intersections of edges that the Spline pattern hovers over, making a trek along the Spline.
7. Now, if you have a curve that treks into polygon area's and you need to make that curve 'in' the polygons, do this. Convert object to a Editable Mesh
8. Go to Edge Mode/Divide
9. Begin placing Vertice points 'in' the polygon area(s). This can get radical as the placement of a Vertice 'in' the polygon area will create several Edges to other Vertice points, so you may have to create 'some', then stop, redo the cycle, then do some more, as the lines can get pretty thick if you do 'a lot' of these Vertice points in polygons.
NOTE: You must convert object to Editable Mesh for this step as Editable Poly will not allow precise placement of your Vertice's when doing Polygon/Divide in Editable Poly objects.
10. Now convert object to Editable Mesh. Go to Edge Mode/Create. Start connecting the various Vertice points, making a clean cutout of the panel alone the Spline pattern. You can hide the Spline to better see your cut line you are creating.
11. At this point, you may need to go back and create more Vertice points 'in' polygon area's. You will need to bounce back to Editable Mesh mode/object to do this.
NOTE2; In Editable Poly mode, you can delete unwanted Edges that are not used. That is why you bounce back your object to 'Save As; Editable Poly' on the final run of this cut technique. You will take out all of the unwanted rays or Edges from your Vertice placements 'inside' of Polygons.
NOTE3; You will need to repeat this for each side.
I jumped from FSDS to Gmax because I could easily cut nicely rounded windows with Boolean. Then I learned Shape Merge, using Splines to cut out doors and windows and various panels with. But with both techniques, I always had tons of excess Vertices that I needed to get rid of, (welding together precariously, taking alot of time to clean up and hopefully not distorting the object). With this technique however, you cut once, exactly, you have Vertices where you want them, and you can do this on a mapped object, prepainted, making your cuts 'on' your edge lines in the art, and no cleanup is required.....
Works awesome.
Here is an example. I have created the plane, mapped it, created art (paint scheme) with door lines. I decided to make panels animate out 'after' doing all that work. With this technique, in quick order, I can cut out these panels with zero distortion to the object UVW Mapping.
Hope that helps modellors out there.
Bill
Ultimately it's just a matter of preference on how YOU want to work, and develop your own technique. I generally avoid boolean/shapemerge cuts unless they're unavoidable.
