Tutorial 2

In this tutorial, we'll be looking at keyboard entry for shapes, shape modifiers and camera and lighting effects. Our goals is to create a futuristic base on a mountainous terrain, then use cameras to tour it.

Building the Futuristic Base.

1. On a blank gmax screen, select Tube from the command panel and open up the 'Keyboard Entry' rollout. Using 'Keyboard Entry' will allow you to set specific dimensions for your objects. Set inner radius to 35, outer radius to 98 and height to 2 and click 'Create'.

2. Using the Keyboard Entry rollout again, create a torus with a Major Radius of 125 and a Minor Radius of 10.

3. Now we'll create the other rings using Clones. This can be done in two ways.

(a) Select both the tube and the torus by clicking the select objects arrow at the top and dragging a selection box over both objects. Open the edit window at the top and click Clone. Click Ok on the window that pops up. Now use the select and move button to move your object up about 60 units. Use the front view and watch the Y: box at the bottom of the screen.

(b) The other way to clone objects is a bit simpler but less intuitive. Hold down shift and use the Select and Move button to clone your objects. When you move your objects, a copy will appear. Move the new objects up about 60 units again. When you have finished your Move action a dialog box will appear, just click Ok.

Your base should now look like this.

4. Last step on this page: all of the rings need to be moved up. Click the Select by Name button at the top and highlight all the ring objects. You will need to hold down the Control Key on the keyboard to select multiple objects from the list.

Now that you have all the rings selected, move them up with the Select and Move button so that the bottom one is in line with the black line in the top view.

In the next series of steps. We'll go over the Modifier Stack and Shape Effects.

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