The Torso -- Patching

Figure 58

The one potentially tricky patch will be the triangular patch located in the lower front of the crotch. The order in which you select the splines controls where the triangles will end up (and thus, the "flow" of the polygons in that area). For this patch, select the topmost spline last. That way the triangles will point "down," and the patch will look more aesthetically pleasing.

First, some steps to help you prep the torso for patching.

STEP 75: Load torso04.lwo into Modeler (if you did not follow the previous tutorial and just want some patching practice, you may load torso04.lwo off the CD-ROM).

STEP 76: It doesn't hurt to have the original available for reference. Type c to Copy the torso spline cage, go to a new layer and type v to paste a copy of the spline cage.

STEP 77: Enter Polygon Selection Mode. If any polygons are selected, deselect them now. In the Back View, select the ten splines on the "left" side of the Y axis (the model's "right") and type x to Cut them out. Some points may appear to have been "left behind" -- leave ‘em alone. They belong to splines on the other side of the Y axis.

STEP 78: In the Right View, select all the splines that form the "front half" of the spline cage. Type c to Copy this front half, go into a new layer and type v to paste it.

STEP 79: Return to the previous layer. Now select all the splines that form the "rear half" of the spline cage. Type c to Copy this rear half. Go into still another new layer and type v to paste it.

The point of splitting this spline cage into two separate halves is to make it less confusing to patch. This way we'll have less risk of selecting the wrong spline.

If you do not know how to Patch a spline cage and have not yet followed the spline exercises from the CD-ROM, please do so now.

STEP 80: Go to the layer containing the rear half. For safety's sake, type m to Merge Points, and then type Shift-i to Unify any duplicate polygons.

STEP 81: Patch each visible spline boundary with settings of 2-by-2 with Knots activated in both Parallel and Perpendicular. Some tips:

1. Each spline boundary must be made up of three or four splines, sharing the same points at the corners of the boundary.
2. Once you've selected your four splines, type Ctrl-f to Patch them.
3. Selecting the splines in a counterclockwise fashion makes the spline patch face towards you. Selecting the splines in a clockwise fashion makes the spline patch face away from you.
4. Remember that this is the rear half of the model. If you're Patching in the Back View, make the spline patches face away from you.
5. You can select your splines and Patch them in the Perspective View, if you wish. The advantage of Patching in the Perspective View is that you can rotate the model to whatever angle you like.
6. Hold down the Alt key to rotate the Perspective View by left-clicking in the Perspective View and dragging with the mouse pointer.
7. Don't worry if you accidentally select faces in addition to splines. All that Patch looks at are the splines you selected.

STEP 82: When you have finished Patching, deselect everything. Type w to bring up the Polygon Statistics panel (Modeler > Windows > Statistics Open/Close). Left-click on the plus sign next to the word "Faces." All of the polygons you have just created will be selected. Close the Statistics panel. Type x to Cut these polygons out of the spline cage. Go to a new empty layer and type v to Paste these polygons into the new layer. (Figure 59)

Figure 59

STEP 83: Go to the layer containing the front half of the spline cage. Again, for safety's sake, type m to Merge Points, and then type Shift-i to Unify any duplicate polygons.

STEP 84: Patch everything here with settings of 2-by-2 with Knots activated in both Parallel and Perpendicular.

STEP 85: Again, you have finished Patching, deselect everything. Type w to bring up the Polygon Statistics panel and use it to select all the Faces in this layer. Type x to Cut these polygons out of the spline cage. Go to the layer containing the Faces for the rear half of the model, and type v to Paste these polygons into that layer. (Figure 60)
 

Figure 60

Figure 61

STEP 86: Later on in this chapter, you will use Smooth Shift to "grow" the arms and legs. Before you can use Smooth Shift, however, you will need something to "shift." Polygons, specifically. Go to the layer containing the original, whole spline cage -- and its unbroken arm and leg spline circles. These spline circles are each made of four splines joined at four "corners" -- ready to patch. Patch each circle with settings of 2-by-2, with Knots activated in both Parallel and Perpendicular. (Figure 61)

STEP 87: When you have patched both circles, deselect everything. Type w to bring up the Polygon Statistics panel, select all the Faces in this layer, and type x to Cut them out of the spline cage. Go to the layer containing the Faces for the rest of the torso, and type v to Paste the arm- and leg-circle polygons into that layer.  It should look like Figure 62.
 

Figure 62

Figure 63

STEP 88: Because you used the same settings for every single edge, and the same spline cage for every single edge, the points of every single edge line up perfectly. It looks like a seamless mesh. However, it is not yet truly seamless. These patches line up with each other, but they are not connected to each other. To see proof of this, press the Tab button on your keyboard to convert these Faces into SubPatches. You will see gaps between the corners of every patch.

STEP 89: Type m to bring up the Merge Points panel. Choose "Automatic" and left-click on OK. The mesh will become seamless, and the gaps will disappear. (Figure 63)

STEP 90: It will be both faster and easier to work with polygons instead of SubPatches right now, so hit the Tab key again to turn all SubPatches back into Faces.

STEP 91: Save this object as torso05.lwo.
 
 

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