-->


TaFWeb Software
Creating the Model Bank

Home     Previous     Next


Part 4 - Adding the Bay Windows


We now come to the bay windows at each side of the entrance. Start by using the Line tool to draw the shape of the bay in gMax's Top view:

Outline of window bay

Click the Modify tab and then click the Extrude button and set the Amount in the Parameters section to 18'-6" (5.6m.). As before, set the UVW Mapping to Box, click the Unwrap UVW button and select Select Face. Now select the front face of the window bay. Click the Edit button and unwrap the UVW as shown below:

Unwrapping the UVW mapping for the front face

In the same way, unwrap the UVW mapping for the side faces:

Unwrapping the side faces

Now comes the tricky bit - the curved roof on top of the window bay. Use the Line tool in gMax's Left view window to draw the outline of the roof:

Outline of bay window roof

Here is another view of the outline:

Perspective view of outline

Now click the Hierarchy tab in the Command Panel Hierarchy tab and click the Affect Pivot Only button. In gMax's Left window, move the pivot to the back (straight) edge of the shape:

The pivot moved to the back

Click the Affect Pivot Only button again and return to the Modify tab in the Command Panel. Click the Lathe button. In the Parameters section, set the Degrees to 180 and the Segments to 8. Now, using the Rotate tool Rotate tool, rotate the new shape 90 degrees so that it lines up properly with the window section:

Starting rotation

Roof following rotation

On gMax's main toolbar, hold down the left mouse button on the Select and Uniform Scale button until the other buttons become available:

Scale flyout

Select the second button (Select and Non-Uniform Scale). You may get a warning message - click Yes if you do. Using this tool in gMax's Top view, widen the shape you have created until it is the same width as the window bay (place the mouse pointer on the arrow labelled x to make sure that you widen it in the right direction):

The roof widened

The next bit must be done freehand and by eye. In the Command Panel, right-click the word Lathe (the one with the "+" sign beside it, not the button) and select Collapse All from the popup menu. Again you may get a warning message here - click Yes if you do. Now click the "+" sign beside the words Editable Mesh and select Vertex (simply left-clicking the words Editable Mesh has the same effect). Using the Move tool you now need to adjust individual vertices of the shape so that it fits the top of the window bay correctly. The end result should be something like this:

Final shape of roof section

Perspective view

Click the words Editable Mesh in the Command Panel to come out of Vertex mode. Because we have rotated the shape we will now have to re-align it - very odd things happen in Trainz if we forget to do this. Click the Hierarchy tab at the top of the Command Panel and then click the Affect Pivot Only button. Now click the Center to Object and Align to World buttons. Click the Affect Pivot Only button once more to de-select it and then click on the Modify tab to get back where we came from.

Now, using the Material Editor apply the main texture to the shape. Although this is a complex shape you can set the UVW Mapping to Box nonetheless. As before, click the Unwrap UVW button and then click the Edit button so that we can edit the UVW. In this case we need to do much the same as we did for the top of the main entrance. Using the Scale tool in the Edit UVWs dialog, reduce the size of the whole shape so that it will fit on the small square as shown below:

Fitting the roof shape

Close the Edit UVWs dialog, and then select both the roof shape we have just made and the window bay we made earlier (you can click the roof shape and then hold down the Ctrl key while you click the window bay, for example). Make sure that the Move tool is selected from gMax's main toolbar and then hold down the Shift key while you drag the two shapes to the right in gMax's Top view. When you let go of the left mouse button you should see the Clone Options dialog:

Clone Options dialog

Select Copy in the Clone Options dialog, and then click OK. If necessary carry out any final positioning of the shapes so that your model now looks like this:

The current state of the model

We can now go on and add the main roof.

Home     Previous     Next



TaFWeb Software
London, UK
E-mail:

This page URL: http://www.tafweb-trainz.co.uk/tutorial_bank_4.html
Last major revision: 2 October 2010 at 02:02
Site created with PageBuilder

Web page created by TaFWeb Design © 2012