Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
2. Select the torus shape you've created, and name it
Ring
(if you haven't already done
so) in the Channel Box.
3. While the torus shape is still selected in the top view, press the spacebar to display
the four-panel layout. Place the mouse cursor in the persp view, and press the space-
bar to maximize the Perspective window.
4. Press the F key to focus the perspective display on the ring and on Saturn. Pressing F
centers and zooms in the panel on just the selected object(s).
5. Press 5 to get into Shaded mode, and, with the torus selected, press 3 to increase the
resolution display for the ring. Display resolutions are achieved by pressing the 1, 2,
or 3 key and are further explained in the next chap-
ter. Pressing 3 gives you the smoothest view of the
torus in the view panels. That's a good thing.
6. From the Tool box, select the Scale tool, and scale
the torus down to 0 or close to 0 in the
Y
-axis (the
torus's height, in this case) to f flatten it.
You'll notice that the ring is too fat and is cutting
into the planet. You need to edit the attributes of the
ring to increase the inside radius of the donut shape
and create a gap between the planet and the ring.
7. Press Ctrl+A (Ctrl+A will also work on a Mac) to
toggle the Attribute Editor if it's not on, and then
click the makeNurbTorus1 tab to select its creation
node. (See Figure 2.10.)
8. Increase the Radius attribute to about 1.5, and
decrease the Height Ratio attribute to about 0.25 to
get the desired effect.
Now all your planets are complete, and you can move
on to the moons.
Figure 2.10
Changing the creation
attributes of the NURBS
torus in the Attribute
Editor
Changing the original attributes or parameters of an object, as you've just done with Saturn's
ring, is often referred to as
parametric modeling
.
Saving Your Work
Save your work, unless you like to live on the edge. Saving frequently is a critical habit
to develop. Power failures and other unforeseen circumstances (such as your pet jump-
ing onto your keyboard) may not happen often, but they do happen, and usually at the
wrong time. (As mentioned in the sidebar “Saving Multiple Versions of Your Work and
