Hello and welcome on my Animation Master tutorial about how
to create a tank part 2.
In this part we will connect the head to the
body and model the muscles.
So this is where we left at our last tutorial
section.
And what we will do at the beginning is just
to save our project.
So save it as tank tutorial 2.
Okay, so the first thing we will do is to
go to the side view, activate the wireframe modus, and
now we will have a look at what we are
going to model.
Now, the first thing I will model here is the
connection between the head and the body.
And for that I can see that this connection will
more or less be a round thing.
That means I will use the lathe command for that.
The lathe command works like this.
You just draw a line, for example, like this.
And now you activate the lace command and animation master
will go and rotate around one axis, this line.
And as you can see, we have some kind of
geometry here.
And exactly like that we will create the connection between
the head and the body.
I go to the side view with the four key
on the keypad again and I will have a look
at this.
So the first thing I will do is just go
and hide everything else that can be done by just,
for example, draw a line anywhere.
Then just select it, press the hide button or the
H key.
Now I can delete this line because it was only
there for activating the height function here.
And now I have the total freedom to just use
my add tool where I want.
And I want it to run more or less like
this.
This will be the connection between the head and the
body.
Okay, so what we have to know about the lathe
command is that it will always rotate around one axis.
And this axis will in this circumstances be the Y
axis here.
And because the Y axis is not going to the
middle of this connection here in my rotoscope, I just
have to approximate how wide this connection will be.
So let’s say it will be something like that.
Okay, I will just select one point of this selection
here or of the splint here and use the lathe
command.
As you can see, we have now some kind of
geometry here.
I will realign this geometry so that is more or
less fits what I’m looking for here.
Bringing this point a little bit down.
Now sync this a little bit up.
Doesn’t matter.
So.
But I just like it a bit cleaner here and
I will unhide everything.
Okay, so you see, I have a connection between the
head and the body.
I go to the shaded View so you can see
what I have here.
Okay, looks promising.
So go back to the side view, go back to
the wireframe mode.
And what you can see here is that we have
this connection.
Now before I go on, I will give some of
my geometry here.
A group.
That means, for example, this geometry, the head geometry here
will have one group, the body geometry will have one
group, and the connection will have one group.
For that I just select one of the points here
which are connected to the head and use a group
connect function.
The group connect function can be found by just pressing
on the slash key.
And everything that is connected to the selection you made
will be selected now.
Okay, so this is a hat.
I will go to this part here, to the groups,
and just give the untitled group that was created a
name, for example, hat.
Okay, so I can re access this part of the
geometry now easily by just clicking on this group here.
And the same will be done to the body.
Group connect, body.
And the same will be done for the connection here.
Connection.
Okay, so the next thing we have to model is
this little part of geometry here which will cover more
or less the connection part between the body and the
connection.
Okay, to do that I will do the same I
did before.
I just draw a line, then I select it and
use the hide command again.
I can now just delete this line.
And now I will just draw a line which will
be used in the lathe command to produce this kind
of geometry here, for example, something like this, okay? And
what I will do is I will use a peek
command on this.
Okay? And now I will give it some kind of
a bevel, But I will do it by hand before
I have a real geometry because it is now very
easy to add this.
And afterwards I would have to use a several plugin
again.
And it is always better to do it by hand.
So I just click on one of the points here
and I make sure that I select the splint here
which is going from this point to this point.
You can see that by this bias handler here and
now I just use the Y key.
And the Y key means that at this point, this
splint I selected, the animation master will just create a
new point in the middle between both CP’s here I
just realign the CP, for example, like this.
And I realign this CP, for example, like this.
And as you can see, this is more or less
like a beveled edge.
Okay, so I will have to realign this because the
rotation point will be at this axis here.
So to give it more or less the right size,
let’s say I will bring it to this point.
Okay, now I just use the lace command and I
will realign the new geometry I have here.
And as you can see, it is more or less
what we are looking for.
Yeah, looks promising.
Okay, so I will give this a group name, e.g.
connection, Ring, Connection, wing, body.
And I unhide everything to have a look at it.
So just use a preview renderer.
And as you can see that is very promising here.
Back to the left view by hitting the four key.
And even if it is not in the rotoscope here,
I will do the same for the head.
So I just grab this point here.
Use the group connect command by pressing the slash key.
Copy that, paste it, flip it on one of the
axis.
By right clicking on the selection and using flip Y
axis I can see that the X we are looking
for is the Y axis.
Because at this point here you can see which axis
you are using or you should use.
As you can see, Animation Master flipped the geometry on
the Y axis.
Okay, so just realign it a bit.
For example, like this.
Okay, so as you can see this connection here is
a little bit too big so that there is some
kind of a bad looking part.
And I will just rescale the connection.
Oops, rescale it to something like this.
And for that I have to rescale of course connection
here too.
So I could go to the connection and just rescale
it to something that looks better here, for example, like
this.
Okay, so if I go to the shaded view, it
looks promising.
Yes, that’s what we are looking for.
So if for example your shaded view isn’t rounded like
this here, so that you can see what is happening
here, you just have to hit the subdivision level to
increase the subdivision here.
You can decrease and increase the subdivision level by just
clicking on this point.
And that’s because your graphic card is using polygons.
And so Animation Master has to convert patches to polygons.
And so it just approximates where a polygon should be.
And you can just set how many polygons will be
set for one patch here.
And it depends on your graphic card what is the
best situation or the best setting for you.
So if your graphic card is a better one, you
can set this to a quite high number so that
everything looks very smooth and very rounded here.
Or if your graphic card can’t keep with the scene
anymore, you just have to decrease the subdivision level.
Ok, so we have the connection and the next thing
we will have to model are the muzzles here.
Ok, so I go to the wireframe mod and as
you can see, the muzzles will have an equal transition
between the head and the muzzles as our, for example,
the body head with a connection here.
So I will just grab this point, use a group
command, copy it, paste it, bring it up, for example
to there.
And now I just rotate it 490 degrees.
Okay.
And rescale it.
Good.
Now I just grab this point, bring it back and
it looks okay.
And as you can see, I think I will use
a little bit smaller muscles here because as you can
see there is again a part which won’t look very
good here.
Okay, so what I want is that my transition here
will be at the size that it will suit into
this plane here or this patch.
So I will just do that.
Yes, and I will just use it like that.
That’s okay for me.
So the next thing are the muzzles.
And one of the muzzles here is more or less
just another lace command.
So I will draw a line, for example, like that.
Okay, just grab this point, use the group connect, hide
everything else.
And now I will just peak this points again.
Okay, realign it a bit.
Okay, so the next thing is we have to create
a bevel here again like we did before.
So just grab one of the points, use the Y
key and use it again.
Now just bring your points where you want them.
For example, like this.
Okay, I will do the same here and the same
at this part.
You don’t have to do that of course, but I
think it will just look a bit better in the
end.
At this edge it doesn’t make sense to bevel and
it doesn’t make sense to bevel the edges at this
place because these places won’t be very visible.
So okay, grab one of these points, bring it into
the head here.
And now I just grab all the points and bring
it to our Y axis again, align it and use
the lace command again.
Okay, rotate it.
Oops.
One up, two up.
And as you can see I will just bring it
approximately where I want it.
And what I see is that it is a little
bit too big here.
So I scale a little bit down, bring it in
here again, realign these points, something like that, for example.
Realign these points.
Okay, so the next thing I will do is just
to grab these points and use a lock command.
So the first thing I do is to unhide everything.
And now I use the lock command.
The lock command means that everything I have selected is
still selectable but everything that wasn’t selected is not selectable.
That means, for example, at this circumstances where I just
made some difference to my rotoscope here, I just have
to have some kind of reference to just align this
muzzle in the right way.
And because of that I can use a lock command.
And I don’t have to worry about something that, for
example, I could just select more points than I wanted
or something like that.
Okay, so go to the front view by pressing the
2 key on my keypad and realign my points of
the muzzle here where I want them.
Okay, so the same I have to do with this
kind of connection here.
So bring it here.
Okay, maybe I will just go a little bit far
to the edge here.
Okay, so use a group connect again.
And I think it is more or less okay, like
this.
Okay, so grab these points, use the group command again,
Copy and paste it.
Bring it to the other side approximately at the same
spot, just mirrored.
Okay, so as you can see, we have some kind
of muscles here.
So the last thing we will do in this section
is to create these holes here in the muzzle.
And for that there are several things you could do.
One would, for example, be to model it.
But I won’t do that.
I will use a Boolean cutter.
A boolean cutter means that I can specify some kind
of geometry and tell this geometry to be always subtracted
from others geometry.
And that is done by using a bone and some
kind of geometry.
So the first thing I will do is to draw
this geometry, for example, like this.
I will realign the bias handler here, for example, like
this.
Looks okay to me.
Maybe a little bit too much.
Yes, I think that is okay.
And now I use a lace command here.
Grab my points, bring it to the right spot.
Just rotate it, for example, like this.
Bring it again to the right spot.
Rescale it a little bit, for example, like this.
Okay, looks good.
Little bit bigger.
Okay, so I just have to bring it in the
right direction here.
Now I will just copy this and bring it down.
Look again from the side view, go to the front
view again.
Grab the other points here.
Use the groove, connect, copy, paste, realign it.
Then just rotate it.
Okay, looks promising.
I will save.
So go back to the side view, Grab all the
points of this geometry here.
Use a group connect again.
And now just copy it to the other side to
my other muzzle, for example, like this.
Okay, so the next thing we have to do is
to tell animation master that this geometry here shouldn’t be
rendered.
Because if I render now, you can see it is
just some kind of geometry which is rendered.
Actually it doesn’t look very bad, but it is just
not what we are wanted or what we want here.
So the next thing we will do is to use
the bones modus.
The bones modus is normally used to rig a model.
But at this point we are not at rigging but
at more or less modelling.
And what we have to do is just to add
a new bone, for example to this spot here.
Okay, go to the side view, bring it more or
less to the right spot here.
And now I have to assign these points of this
geometry here to my bone.
And in this circumstances we can just drag a rectangle
around it and it should work.
Okay, so have a look at your tank model here
in the pvs.
As you can see there is a bone which was
created here.
So rename it to Boolean for example.
Then go to the properties and at this part you
can see Boolean cutter.
And I want it to be a Boolean cutter, so
click it on.
Okay, back to the modeling section.
And if I now render, there are my holes and
that’s everything I wanted.
So just save your project now to for example tank
tutorial 3 and we are through this section of the
tutorial.
But one last thing I will give you on the
way is as you can see in real time views,
the Boolean cutters won’t be rendered.
You have to render one of the final or the
preview renderings to see what the Boolean cutter does.
Ok, so see you later in the next tutorial section.