Lathing on Flying Saucers 101

Creating more sophisticated shapes

1. NAME your OBJECTS Use SETTINGS | OBJECT and name your saucer "Saucer". (Name any objects you create in your Flying Saucer file from now on) 2. CREATE a NEW OBJECT Use OBJECT | NEW to create a blank screen for your ROCKET (multiple objects can be stored in the same AN8 file - just keep them named appropriately!) 3. From the SIDE view, DRAW a PATH Choose the SIDE view (Key-4) Set the OPTIONS | GRID | SNAP to GRID option to ENABLE Use a CURVED PATH tool and draw as follows o Starting left side right on the Z-Axis, click and drag to draw the "nose" of the rocket o Continue dragging the little red square to establish the next points; try to draw the rough outline shown here using just six points

This curved path is called a "SPLINE" 4. REFINE the SPLINE Perfect the End Points o Click on an end point and you can move it so it lands PRECISELY on the Z-Axis Make some corners o Choose a point like the tip of the tail and double click it o The "Knot Editor" lets you make it a CORNER rather than smooth point - Click OK o Make all the other points corner points EXCEPT the one on the "back" to give your object a more classic rocket like profile Tighten the curve o Click on the curved point on the back of the rocket spline, and adjust the green "handles" to shorten the curve. Less curve can reduce the polycount

5. BUILD - LATHE Use BUILD | LATHE and select the Z-Axis Both the START and END should be closed Click OK o If it looks like a mess, you probably didn't draw your rocket from the SIDE view. You can adapt by hitting UNDO Try the LATHE command again, this time set the axis for the one that DOESN'T appear in the legend in the lower left of the screen 5. APPLY MATERIALS o You can colour individual faces of the rocket to give it a distinct appearance in POINT EDIT mode BE SURE to NAME your materials appropriately, or they can be lost when you add the rocket to the saucer.

HAVING PROBLEMS SELECTING FACES? If you have problems selecting faces after lathing, your model may have been lathed INSIDE OUT. Choose the WIREFRAME view - can you see the faces being selected now? Are they yellow on the INSIDE? "FLIP the NORMALS" to turn your object right-way out. o Go back to OBJECT EDIT mode o Select the object

o Use EDIT - FLIP NORMALS 6. COPY to the SAUCER COPY the rocket object, and PASTE it into the Saucer Object window MOVE and SCALE the rocket to fit properly Is the rocket facing the wrong way?

ROTATE , Using only the RIGHT mousebutton when you rotate an object - it rotates it more intuitively on only ONE axis on your screen.

7. POSITION and MIRROR Select the rocket and use BUILD | MIRROR (X-Axis Mirror) to create a symmetrical duplicate on the other side of the saucer.

Take a picture - it'll last longer! To turn your scene into a convincing image, you have to RENDER the image. You'll be asking your computer to use MINDNUMBING mathematics to simulate realistic lighting and shading. Depending on the complexity of your models and the options you've chosen, this process could take anywhere from mere seconds, to HOURS. Fortunately, your simple flying saucers should only take a second or two. Be sure to select a CAMERA VIEW (ie. hit the "1" button on the keypad) before you render, otherwise you get a picture of the "studio" instead of your subject. Use RENDER - RENDER IMAGE

The dialogue that appears gives you a few options RESOLUTION HEIGHT and WIDTH in pixels can be set to 800x600 for most simple renders. This is your intended image RESOLUTION; it determines how many PIXELS will go into making your image and effects: How BIG the image will be on screen or when printed How BIG the filesize is How much DETAIL the image will capture How LONG the render will take

The next BIG decision to make is whether to use the ANTIALIASED checkbox.
ALIASED vs ANTIALIASED

Aliased - lots of jaggies VERY fast renders

ANTI-Aliased - smooth! 5x Longer to render

Try rendering your image ALIASED (no checkbox), and then ANTIALIASED. You should see the difference immediately. Rough Draft - ALIASED ALIASED is jaggy, but VERY fast to render. It's a great way to test out your scene to confirm that the background works well, and that lighting is where you want it. Think of it as a "rough draft" of your work. Final Draft - ANTI-ALIASED ANTIALIASED takes MUCH more time to render, but appears very SMOOTH. It's provides the "FINAL COPY" of a graphic project. SAVING AN IMAGE

On the left side of the RENDERING screen is a SAVE button. 1. Click SAVE 2. Click JPG 3. Click the "three dots" beside the FILE dialogue 4. Choose a location and create a filename on your H: drive. Hit enter. 5. When you return to this dialogue, hit OK again

Remember, it isn't saved until you've gone through the full SAVE routing and clicked OK When you've finished, just hit close. JPG vs BMP A JPG is an ideal format it's small but realistic IF you use a good quality setting like 90 A BMP is the ultimate quality, but it's file size is massive, and few people can tell the difference between a good jpg and a bmp

PRINTING
To send it to a professional printer to create a photograph or poster, You need to SAVE your JPG in the correct ASPECT RATIO, FILE FORMAT and RESOLUTION

In SCENE mode

1. Use SETTINGS - MOVIE IMAGE 1. Set the ASPECT RATIO to 17 x 11 (for a widescreen 2. Set the IMAGE SIZE to 3400 wide and 2200 tall
3. Click OK 2. Adjust the location of your camera and objects to give you the "perfect picture" - be SURE to FILL THE FRAME so your object features prominently in the green "viewfinder" area 3. Use RENDER - RENDER IMAGE aspect ratio)

ASPECT RATIO is the ratio of HEIGHT to WIDTH ie 4x6 and 5x7 are standard aspect ratios for photographs FILE FORMAT is the precise type of file that you've created JPG is an adequate standard for printing these days RESOLUTION is the number of required PIXELS for every linear inch of desired output (DPI) 300 DPI is standard for Photos 200 DPI is more practical for larger Posters 75 DPI is adequate for Screen Display