6. The top of the slogre character is
adorned with a hump. Create this
by dragging a single point
upwards, as I did in Figure 4.13.
Note that if you right-click this
point, Control Vertex handles will
appear, allowing you to further
adjust the spline curve at this
point.
7. This character has a bizarre, elongated head that protrudes from the hump.
Start forming this by dragging the single end point of the sphere as I have
done in Figure 4.14.
8. To continue creating the head, you need to increase the resolution of the
sphere by increasing the amount of isocurves at the end. To do so, first click
on the last curve at the end to highlight it, click the Refine Patch tool, and
74
4.
Modeling the Slogre Character with trueSpace 6
Figure 4.11 Scale
two points at the top
to form the shoulders
and back.
Figure 4.12 Push
in the sides of the
sphere to give the
body more definition.
NOTE
Working uniformly like this is
important to symmetrical model-
ing; in this example, however, it’s not
critical because at the end you’ll just
Team-Fly
®

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operating on a single point or entire curve, just click the
Object tool (white arrow), then right-click the NURBS
object to re-enter the edit mode.Then just select the Patch
Edit tool of choice to continue modeling.
Figure 4.16
Pinch the head a bit
to further define it.
Figure 4.17
Sharpen the hump
by adjusting the con-
trol handles of a
point on top.
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11. To extend the head even further, Ctrl+click both the last isocurve and the
end point of the head and drag to stretch it. The results are shown in
Figure 4.18 (I also rotated and scaled that last curve a bit).
12. Continue refining the head using the Refine Patch tool to create new curves,
and move/rotate/scale them, as well as the end point, as I have done in
Figure 4.19.
13. Once you’re satisfied with the head, continue making small curve and point
adjustments around the body in the same manner until the body is how you
want it to be (see Figure 4.20). You don’t have to go nuts adding isocurves;
only a few make the body very smooth.
14. When finished, exit editing mode by clicking the Object tool.
15. Save this piece by clicking File, Save As, Object, and name it body.cob.
(You’ll need to recall it at the end so you can attach the other pieces.)
77
Modeling the Slogre
Figure 4.18 Pull
the end of the head

shape you desire.
Figure 4.21
Enable the 3D
Controls option for
this next exercise.
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4. Choose the Add Curve tool and create a
foot-shaped pattern, as shown in Figure
4.23; when you reach the start point of the
curve, right-click to close the shape. (The
shape of the foot doesn’t have to be
perfect; you’ll adjust it in the next step.)
79
Modeling the Slogre
Figure 4.22 Click
on the Draw Panel
tool and add a panel
to the scene.
The Draw
Panel tool
NOTE
You can switch to a top
orthogonal view above the
panel by clicking one of the
panel’s corner points.
Figure 4.23 Add a
foot-shaped pattern
to the panel using
the Add Curve tool.
Use the slogre sketch

isocurve as you did with the slogre’s body. In Figure 4.26, I created a couple
new curves and scaled them to form the foot.
8. For each time you want to extrude your shape vertically, remember to first
create an isocurve, and then pull the last curve upward. When the general
shape of the foot is done, use the Delete Row of Points tool (opposite the
Refine Patch tool) to remove unnecessary curves. Remember, the more
curves you have, the higher the number of polygons in the resultant model.
Figure 4.27 shows my slogre foot after I killed several superfluous curves.
9. When you’re satisfied with the foot, right-click the last, top curve to edit the
points along the edge. Move these points into a circular ankle shape. Then,
continue adding isocurves and extruding the ankle portion of the leg (see
Figure 4.28).
81
Modeling the Slogre
Figure 4.26 Add
new isocurves to the
foot object and move
and scale them to
shape it.
Figure 4.27
Remove unnecessary
curves using the
Delete Row of Points
tool.
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10. Continue extruding the rest of the leg, forming a calf muscle and thigh by
scaling and shifting the isocurves at those locations. If the points from the
foot made indentations along the leg at any point, simply select the individ-
ual points and reposition them. The NURBS properties of the object make
things sweet and smooth (see Figure 4.29).

Create a band by adding a 10-sided cylinder primitive to the scene and scal-
ing it down to size, as shown in Figure 4.30. (The cylinder primitive is also
located in the toolbar at the bottom of the screen.)
2. To create the pointed studs, first right-click the cylinder to enter point-edit
mode. (This is the same as NURBS mode, but without the NURBS isocurve
functionality.)
3. Using the Point Edit: Faces tool, click on a face to select it, and pull it quickly
to a tip using the Tip tool. Repeat this process for every other face (see
Figure 4.31).
4. The tips of the spikes are too long—use the Point Edit: Vertices tool to select
each tip’s point while you hold down the Ctrl key. When all points are
selected, scale them down to size (see Figure 4.32).
83
Modeling the Slogre
Figure 4.30
Start the arm off
with a 10-sided
cylinder primitive.
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5. To create the rest of the arm, select the top face of the cylinder and use the
Sweep tool to extrude it. Continue sweeping this face, scaling each time,
until you get a general shape of the arm. Remember to use the slogre sketch
as a guide—his arms are massive with huge, bulging biceps. Just like mine.
84
4.
Modeling the Slogre Character with trueSpace 6
Figure 4.31 Select
every other face of
the cylinder and
apply the Tip tool.


sweeping the hand
on the other side of
the cuff.
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11. With the new bevels in place, the fingers can be pulled out of them.
However, the faces are too square for my standards—use the Add Vertex tool
to add four new vertices to the edges of each face, and move each new vertex
away from the center to round it out. When you’re finished with each face,
create the fingers by using the Sweep tool on each (see Figure 4.39).
86
4.
Modeling the Slogre Character with trueSpace 6
Figure 4.36 Form
the palm of the hand
by manipulating a
small set of faces.
Figure 4.37 Start
the fingers by creat-
ing new edges at the
end of the palm.
Figure 4.38 Bevel
the new faces so you
can add the fingers.
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12. Continue sweeping the faces of each finger, scaling them as you get closer to
the tip. In Figure 4.40, I also moved the faces away from each other so that
from a short distance, a player can discern each individual finger.
13. To form the long, slashing nails that embellish your behemoth, add a small
edge at the tip of each finger, effectively creating a triangular face, and use
the Tip tool to pull that out. Then, grab the tip and pull it out further—the

to handle this one is to create only half of it since this beast is basically symmetrical.
If you were to union the legs and arms to both sides of the object and then opti-
mize it in 3D Studio Max, however, the mesh would be smooth but the polygons
would be a jumbled mess—that is, the optimization process in Max would make
the mesh uneven throughout the character’s body. Instead, let’s union one arm
and one leg to the body, slice the sucker in half, and let Max take care of the rest,
since its suite of optimization tools is far more advanced.
88
4.
Modeling the Slogre Character with trueSpace 6
Figure 4.41 Form
the nails by adding
small edges to the
fingertips and tipping
them.
Figure 4.42
Create the thumb
using the same steps
as you did with the
other fingers.
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To load into one scene the three separate body components that you created in
previous sections, start a new scene and choose File, Load, Object to load each
component individually. (If you like, you can load my components instead of the
ones you created by choosing the arm.cob, leg.cob, and body.cob files from the
Chapter 4 Data section on the CD-ROM.) Once these components are loaded, the
scene should consist of two NURBS objects (the body and leg) and a regular poly-
hedron object (the arm). Your job is to align the ends of the appendages to the
body and Boolean Union them together. First, however, you need to resize the
body parts and adjust the NURBS resolution.

5. Make sure the arm and leg objects extend fully into the body of the slogre,
or you’ll get holes in the final mesh. To do so, rotate around the body and
zoom in close to be sure they’re all the way in. (If you have your rendering
environment set to Solid mode you can see the mesh move in and out of one
another much more easily.)
6. When you’re satisfied that the appendages are, indeed, all the way in, save
your scene, and use the Object Union tool to fuse the three body parts
together.
90
4.
Modeling the Slogre Character with trueSpace 6
Figure 4.44 Use
the Convert Patch to
Polyhedron tool to
turn the NURBS
object into an ordi-
nary mesh.
Figure 4.45
Convert the NURBS
leg, and scale and
position it— and the
arm— on the body.
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7. If the union operation was successful, you should have one solid, goofy-
looking mesh with a single arm and leg sticking out of it; the next step is to
split the slogre’s body in half. To begin, create a cube primitive in the scene
and scale it so it’s much bigger than the slogre itself.
8. Position the cube so it intersects the half of the body that has no arm or leg
(see Figure 4.47). Be sure that the edge of the cube is as close as possible to
the middle seam of the body.

the Boolean operation, there’s a solid face there. For you to be able to fuse
a copy of the finished side of the slogre to the other side, the slogre mesh
needs to be a hollow object. To make it so, select the Point Edit: Delete
Face tool and click once on the abovementioned flat area to remove it (see
Figure 4.49). As soon as you delete the face, right-click to deselect the Delete
Face tool.
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4.
Modeling the Slogre Character with trueSpace 6
Figure 4.47 Add a
cube primitive to the
scene, scale it, and
position it so it covers
the entire half of the
slogre’s mesh.
Figure 4.48
Subtract the cube
object from the slo-
gre, and cap the hole
on the foot using the
Add Face tool.
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Export the Mesh
You’re finished with your half-shell slogre mesh and are ready to save it as an STL
file and bring it over to Max for completion and U-V mapping, just as you did with
the RF-9 plasma gun. To do so, choose File, Save As, Object; from the Save As Type
list, select Stereolithography (*.STL). To finalize the slogre mesh and continue
mapping, move on to Chapter 6.
Summary
In this chapter you learned how to create a character mesh object using new and