Modelling a Bottle Using Lathe in Swift 3Dv4 - By Conceptoo
This tutorial will teach you how to model a simple bottle in Swift3D v4. This is a beginner tutorial and you are not required to have any previous knowledge on how to use Swift3D to work your way around the tutorial. We will model our bottle in this tutorial using the Lathe Editor only.
Start a new file in Swift3D. While in the scene editor, you can use the optional panel available in the left column to set the dimensions of our project, the defaults should be 400px width and 300px height, we will keep it this way.
Click now on the tag that says "Lathe Editor" at the top. The lathe editor is a 3D modeling tool that allows you use simple paths similar to those in 2D programs which Swift3D spins around an axis of rotation to instantly create a 3D object based on that outline. This tool is essential for creating shapes based on cylindrical concepts.
Before we go ahead and model our bottle, we would have to learn about the tools available under the lathe editor:
(A) - The official name of the pen tool in Swift3D is the "Add Point Tool". These points that you add will be connected by lines that make up your shape.
(B) - The arrow is called the "Shape tool". This is used to edit and move the point created by the pen tool and could also be used to move anchor points when working with curvy lines.
(C) - The "Zoom tool" is the same old zoom tool, it zooms to let you add more detail over your work. The left mouse click zooms in and the right click zooms out.
(D) - This is the "Corner Point" button. You can create three types of points, each with different amount of control over how the line shape enters and leaves the button. A corner button gives you no control over how the line should enter or leave the button, and it usually connects points with each other using straight lines and right angles.
(E) - The "Curve Point" button makes the pen tool add curve buttons. Curve buttons give you control over the way the a line enters and leaves a point, and under this option, the way you set the line to enter the point will directly affect the way the line leaves the point.
(F) - The "Tangent Point" button. Tangent points give you the greatest amount of control over the way the line enters and leaves the point, unlike a curve point, the way a line is entered does not have a direct relation on the way the line leave the point.
(G) - The "Close Shape" button closes your shape by connecting your first point to the last one.
(H) - The "Undo" button; it undos your last action.
It is now time you try using these tools. We will draw our bottle using six points only. The first thing to notice is the green line the splits the canvas in half; this is the axis around which our shape will revolve to create our 3D object. If this does not make much sense you should just try it out to see what it does. We are only going to draw half a slice of our bottle, the rest would be created automatically. Pick the Pen tool and make sure that "Corner" is selected. Draw the shape as you see in the following diagrams, notice that the first point is five blocks above the red line and is about a third of a block away from the green line.
We will now add some smooth curves to our bottle by changing some of our 'corner points' to 'curve points'. You would have to use the arrow tool (AKA the "Shape tool"), and select the points that you would like to modify then change their property from the "Point Properties" panel, which could be displayed by going to View > Point Properties.
In the following order, select a point, convert it to a curve point, edit the curve by moving its anchors to the specified position of the following images:
Now, go back to the main scene editor by clicking on the "Scene Editor" tag above to see the full body of the bottle. You may want to zoom out a bit to view the whole bottle, you can do that by clicking on an empty spot on the scene then changing the camera length from the option panel on the left side.
We will now add details to our bottle, we will start off with a lid. Make sure that the bottle is deselected by clicking once in an empty space on the scene. Now go back to the lathe editor and draw the following shape. The diameter of the neck of our bottle was a third of a bottle, we will make the radius of the lid about a half of a block in size.
We will now have to position our lid on top of the bottle. If you can see your lid, simply drag the lid vertically while holding down "Shift" on your keyboard to place it on the neck of the bottle.
The only remaining part left is the label around the bottle. Make sure that you do not have any object selected by clicking on an empty spot on the scene before you click once more on the Lathe Editor tab to create our label. The radius of our bottle had the length of one whole block on the grid, we will make our label a tiny bit larger so that it appears on top of the bottle glass.
Go back to the main scene editor and position your label to the right position the same way you moved the lid earlier on. (Make sure to hold down the "Shift" key )
We are now ready to texture our bottle, we will now use the Materials panel at the bottom of the screen to colour our model. Using materials is easy in Swift3D, simply drag the material onto the object that you wish to colour. We have use a transparent green material for our bottle, a reflective yellow material for the lid, and a glossy dark green material for the label.
You're done! You can now render your bottle from the Preview and Export Editor tag to see your bottle. You can also play around with your bottle and try rotating it and taking shots at different angles. Make sure that you group all the objects as one to be able to move the bottle in one piece (Select All [Ctrl+A] then Group [Alt+G]).
- End of Tutorial