Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Engage Thrusters
1. Make sure that the 3D Cursor is located at the origin of the 3D World; in case it isn't,
go to View → Align View → Center Cursor and View All .
2. Then add a Meta Plane ( Add → Metaball → Meta Plane ), select it, switch to Edit
Mode , select it by clicking on the green circle in its center, and scale it by a factor
of 5 locking the Z Axis ( S , Shift + Z , then type "5").
3. Duplicate it ( Metaball → Duplicate ) and move it upwards by 6 units.
4. Then start working freely by adding metaballs and giving them different scales, and
posiioning them to create a connecion between the upper meta plane and the
lower one. Around 15 metaballs should be enough to play with unil the shape of
the whole object resembles the one that we could expect of a storm cloud. The only
important thing now is to give it a general shape, since fine tweaking will be added
next.
5. Now, switch to Object Mode and convert the metaball object to a mesh ( Object →
Convert → Mesh from Curve/Meta/Surf/Text ).
6. Next, go to the Modiiers tab in the Properties Editor and add a Decimate modifier,
set its Ratio to 0.1 and click on Apply . Now we have a low resoluion mesh that
resembles the shape of our clouds.
If the decimate modifier shows a message complaining about the mesh being
"Non-manifold", the soluion is to switch to Edit Mode , enable Vertex
Selection Mode , deselect all verices, press the Space bar and type
"Manifold", then click on the entry that says "Select Non Manifold". The next
thing to do is locate the verices that are now selected and delete them. This
should fix the problem in case it occurs.
 
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