We've got a basic loft, but this doesn't have very much finesse to it, it's not very aesthetic. What I really want to have is a really elegant taper to the thickness here and I want it to be larger at the bottom so that it won't be top-heavy. You might think that a good way to do that would be to add more circles as shapes along the path. However, that would not be an efficient way. Instead, I am going to use something called a scale deformation, which is built right into the loft.
I'll select that loft and go over to the Modify panel, and at the very bottom you will see Deformations. The only one we care about right now is the scale deformation and it's by far the most intuitive of all of them. To add that deformation, I'll click the Scale button, and now I've got a window opening up. You resize that window. What you are looking at here is a graph. On the left is the beginning of the path, and on the right is the end of the path.
The vertical dimension up and down is the scale of shapes as they travel down the path. I'll use the Zoom Region tool here just to zoom in on this area from 0 to 100%. And I'll grab this Move Control Point tool up here, grab one of these points and move it down, and you can see very clearly what it's doing. At the very beginning of the path, we've got a very small scale, a scale of in this case only about 6% or 7%, as shown by this numeric readout here.
If I want to restore it back to 100%, I can just type in 100. The dashed lines here that you see indicate the positions of shapes along the path and also of vertices along the path. What I need to do is add more control points to this red curve. To do that I can go up here to Insert Points. By default I'll get a Corner Point, but what I really want are Bezier Points. You'll notice there is a little triangle down here at the bottom of that icon that means it's a flyout.
If I hold that down, I can choose a different option. Here we go, insert Bezier Point, that's what I really want. And then when I click any where here I am creating a new Bezier Point. Let's create a couple of those. Then I'll go back to the Move Control Point tool and move these around to start shaping my model. Very cool! Let's say I wanted to sort of bubble out of the bottom here.
This is a corner point here, but what I really need then is a Bezier Corner because I want to have a handle that I can adjust. I can right-click on one of these control points and convert it, Bezier Corner, and then move that up. There we go, that's what I was trying to go for, I was trying to get this sort of larger base at the bottom. That's pretty easy, pretty straightforward stuff. You'll notice, by the way, that the handles are not of equal length. If that's a problem, then you can convert it to Corner, and then convert it back to Bezier that will equalize the lengths of the handles.
Maybe at the end I don't want it to be 100% in size and maybe I'll bring this down, and this is all nondestructive and I can go back and change this at any time. Examine that from different points of view. That's pretty good! There isn't much of that. I can zoom these out here so I can see the entire curve and I can use this hand to move around, and that's really all there is to it to creating a scale deformation to modulate the size of a shape as it travels down a loft path.
Author
Released
5/16/2012- Creating primitives
- Setting units and dimensions
- Modeling with splines
- Lofting objects
- Cloning and grouping objects
- Using the modifier stack
- Editing polygon meshes
- Working with subdivision surfaces
- Creating NURBS curves and surfaces
- Building materials
- Mapping textures
- Controlling lights and shadows
- Keyframing animations
- Rendering a sequence
Skill Level Beginner
Duration
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Introduction
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Welcome58s
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1. Getting Started
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Setting preferences2m 38s
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Using project folders3m 2s
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2. The 3ds Max Interface
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Navigating in the viewports2m 10s
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Using hotkeys3m 12s
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Transforming objects3m 42s
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Using axis constraints1m 54s
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Choosing shading modes3m 17s
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3. Modeling Basics
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Setting units5m 25s
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Understanding dependencies4m 30s
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Working with sub-objects3m 26s
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4. Modeling with Splines
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Creating shapes4m 35s
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Creating lines3m 10s
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Working with Editable Spline2m 13s
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Using different vertex types4m 34s
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5. Lofting
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Lofting a vase3m 56s
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Setting loft parameters3m 25s
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Editing a path3m 25s
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Adding a Shell modifier1m 49s
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Finishing the model3m 33s
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6. Modeling with Primitives
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Setting up the scene1m 25s
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Creating chamfer boxes3m 33s
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Cloning objects2m 35s
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Using the Array tool4m 17s
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Grouping objects1m 37s
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7. Using the Modifier Stack
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Laying out the scene2m 11s
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Working with Editable Spline4m 32s
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Applying a Sweep modifier1m 46s
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8. Polygon Modeling
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Selecting sub-objects2m 36s
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Bridging parts of a mesh2m 41s
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9. Subdivision Surface Modeling
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Using the Symmetry modifier1m 49s
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Working with TurboSmooth3m 5s
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Extruding polygons2m 8s
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Rounding out square corners3m 15s
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Choosing a transform center5m 55s
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Editing edge loops2m 34s
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Baking subdivisions5m 5s
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10. NURBS Modeling
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Understanding NURBS1m 1s
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Creating NURBS curves3m 9s
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Creating arcs and lines3m 36s
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Cloning sub-objects1m 50s
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Creating an offset curve2m 40s
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Creating a U loft surface3m 16s
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11. Modeling for Motion Graphics
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Setting up the scene2m 4s
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Creating text2m 2s
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Applying a Bevel modifier1m 14s
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Choosing bevel parameters2m 31s
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Deforming beveled objects1m 19s
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Importing Illustrator paths2m 44s
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12. Materials Basics
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Opening the Material Editor2m 29s
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13. Mapping Textures
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Applying procedural maps4m 10s
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Navigating shader trees1m 8s
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Tracking scene assets5m 48s
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Projecting UVW mapping4m 51s
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Mapping a bump channel1m 42s
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14. Camera Basics
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Working with Display layers6m 28s
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Creating a free camera2m 2s
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Using a target camera2m 18s
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Adjusting Field of View1m 30s
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Choosing an aspect ratio3m 55s
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15. Lighting Basics
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Understanding CG lighting7m 44s
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Creating a target spotlight2m 57s
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Choosing a shadow type2m 34s
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Optimizing shadow maps3m 25s
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Optimizing area shadows3m 27s
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Creating omni lights3m 53s
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Using the Light Lister1m 9s
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16. Keyframe Animation
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17. Hierarchies
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Understanding hierarchies1m 31s
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Controlling rotations6m 51s
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Locking transforms1m 28s
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Linking objects3m 13s
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Using Schematic View1m 48s
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Solving problems with scale7m 13s
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18. Controllers and Constraints
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Understanding controllers3m 22s
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Assigning a Link constraint1m 45s
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19. Rendering
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Specifying file output4m 46s
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Conclusion
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Goodbye34s
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Video: Adding a scale deformation