| mECH |

mECH - We build a robot on the Amiga

After we`ve dropped the `Heidi`-article due to the features of T3d V3.0, I quickly had to think up something new. And as I just had a mECH designed for a game, I can give some hints how to build something like this with T3D.

That`s about the way our mECH should look afterwards.

As usual I will divide this tutorial into several parts, because it`s quite a lot for just one part.

Weapons

First one should create a cylinder: RMB -> Objects-Polygonal-Tube with the following values:
[tm1]

Select the cylinder, activate point-mode (right Amiga-T + `9`) and select the three upper circular points either in front- or right-view of the cylinder, scale (`s`) them on x-z-axis.

Repeat this with the two upper circular points. One should perhaps take care, that the second scale is at the same size as the first.
[tm2]

Now we change to polygon-mode (r-Amiga +`0`) and select the first plane with shift held down (the one, that closes the cylinder). We will now devide the plane, so that the render-engine can clearly devide it from the bordered on. This happens by pressing r-Amiga + `m`. Now, we can also give a name to the plane, e.g. `floor`.
[tm3]

Press `m` (move) next and then shift-y. We`re now in move-mode with the restriction to only shift on the Y-axis. We shift the `lid` to just above the ground of the cylinder. That looks like this:
[tm4]

Back to point-mode via r-Amiga + `9`. We select the 2. ring of points >from above and move it on the Y-axis (`m`, shift-`y`) towards the 3. circular points, until this connection is about 45°. Press `space` to deselect everything, then select the uppermost circular points (shift held down, RMB). Move it along the y-axis until it`s congruent with the Punktekreis moved before ... looks this way, then:
[tm5]

Change back to polygon-mode (r-Amiga + `0`), and select the upper two round areas as shown in the graphic, separate them just like the floor and name them e.g. `circle`.
[tm6]

So far so good.

Now is the time to get our object the correct proportions. Therefor one selects the uppermost points and `stretches` them apart along the y-axis, until the cylinder gets a suitable form.
[tm7]

What we`ve just created, is the cooling-cylinder, which surounds the barrel for about 2/3 (Or is it a shock absorber or some other absorbing-thingy? No matter. Looks good anyway).

By the way, the barrel of the gun will be created in the same way. One should perhaps try to design the thickness of the wall of the barrel more thin. It`s also possible to duplicate the cylinder via r-Amiga+`c` and r-Amiga+`v` and find the desired form thru point editing / scaling.

Next it`s the texture of the cooling-cylinder. To get the desired cooling holes , we will design a Clip-Map. Therefor I`ve designed red, filled circles with black background using PPaint (Note: Everything which is painted red will be left out/clipped in the texture). If you don`t want to create your own map, you can download mine here.

The map is loaded into Tornado via the Images-Panel (F6).

Besides we need a 2. texture-map, which ought to be `clipped` from our clip-map, then. It is not enough to just give a color (black) to the plane, it`s got to be a texture-map. For trial-means, you can download a map here: <steel.jpg>

This is loaded via the Images-Panel into the programm, then leave the panel and select the cooler; use F7 to open the material-window.

It`s now obvious, that the cooler has got three surfaces: default, floor and circle.

The textures, loaded before can be seen in the texture/../images-area, now. Next, one has to activate the clip_map first by clicking on `>>` and the texture-map afterwards.

Click on the right clip-map and change the mode `color` to `clip`. We`ll have to alter U-tile and V-tile (it multiplies the amount of the texture-elements in x and y-direction) as well as other parameters which define the surface more in detail. More about this can be seen from the following graphic.

[tm8]

We now click on `circle` with shift held down (this supresses the ugly requester) and then chose a color for the circle on the cooler. (e.g. orange-red, or whatever you like). Besides I`ve raised the polish value to about 90. The `steel`-texture is simply assigned to the `floor`.

Back to the barrel of the gun. As mentioned before, one can design it just like the cooling-cylinder. Here we`re able to create such a `circle` by separating the corresponding planes. I`ve defined the material as followed: default settings, except: RGB:41/41/41, PlasticShader, diffuse 100%, polish 15%.

Actually we`ve reached the end now. By scaling and point editing one should try to get the barrel and the cooler into a fitting relation concerning the height.

At the end some words about the next workshops: I`ll make them some more tight, as some operational sequences and short-cuts should be known, then. This time, even a rookie had the chance to follow the tutorial.

[cannon]

Have fun with trying out!

Stefan Keilwert
Jan-Henning Leenen

Mexh-Haxn (JPEG; 22K)

Mech-Clip Texture (ILBM; 12K)

Steel texture (JPEG; 11K)