Lofting

[the white witch]

Hi guys,

 

Can anyone point me in the direction of a decent max lofting tutorial [or explain if you can]. I understand that the if get shape is used as a method of lofting, the pivot point of the shape attaches itself to the first point of the path but getting the orientation of the shape to work along the path is a nightmare... The help file says the "the path tangent is aligned with the shape's local Z axis."....but I can"t figure it out... any help would be appreciated.

 

Thanks.

NA

[dande]

Ted Boardman did a tutorial see link below

 

http://www.cgarchitect.com/news/viewframe/ted-boardmans-july-column-lofting-iii

[the white witch]

Thanks Dande, I had read Ted's articles 1 to 3 on lofting...3 doesn't touch the subject of orientation. 1 does that mildly but not in-depth per se... Maybe 2 does, but for some reason, I can't find it on the cgarchitect network anymore...any help, any one?

[Fran]

Hi Nnamdi,

 

If you select one of your shape splines, note the direction of the z-axis. The shape will be lofted along that path in that direction. I did a tutorial about lofting flatware a couple of years ago. Maybe this illustration will be helpful:

 

[Ismael]

http://www.cgarchitect.com/news/viewframe/ted-boardmans-july-column-lofting-iii

 

Top right and bottom left.